andre keeps dancing around chanting YAN-O_KOVICH! lol the other day he said I am andrey yanokovich! and he also will walk around with a spoon or something and slap it on his palm while he struts around showing us he is in charge. this kid is a riot. he also mentioned the other night that he needs to find a wife(mind you he is SIX!)

nothing new. just played in the fontain.

dima took the girls out this afternoon so Cody and I took the boys and let them play in the fountain. then it rained and Andre jumped in every pudddle along the way home and I pointed out the ones he missed. he was a very happy camper. alas they are finaly quiet. they get so wild at bedtime! they really ae good kidds. they skyped with papa and the others and loved seeing them. Andre kept saying JONATHON! JONATHON! (his middle name, which may become what he is known as) Andre is very tiny indeed, his 3t clothes fit just right. he is 6. another ethan for sure. good thing I know about clothing skinny boys. Ben is only in a 4 or 5 and he is 6 too. It has been fun dressing the girls alike. they like that. I love it. Maia has matching outfits to theirs at home so I will be seeing triple when I get home.

update

Sprung the kids on Friday. they are with me in SunnyK. in a hot little apartment with lousy air no laundry and nonworking internet. this is hijacked internet that I am posting on. Andre is so dang cute. But he shuns me most of the time. Jaeger is this big strapping boy who whines and cries like a baby when he doesnt get what he wants. Natasha and Diana are very helpful and mostly well behaved. a little sisterly bickering but not much more. Diana likes to hit though when she is mad. and there is no tp to be found which sucks. but otherwise we are all fine. they loved the zoo yesterday. shower lessons have begun. they are doing ok with that. well better go before the kids tear down the house. and natasha wants me to shower so she can braid my hair.

still blasted hot but moving forward

We are in ptown. We have received birth certificates for each child. And all tax codes are changed. tomorrow we can take the children and have passport photos made and apply for passport. Will take the children back to Kiev until passports are finished. They can spend some time with Dima this weekend hopefully. If we apply tomorrow we should be able to go back for them on maybe tues or weds. I am going to request the apartment John just vacated as I am not planning to spend much time there. The chairs pull out in to bed. I know it has internet.

So the last couple of days….we have spent in the car or waiting,…in the car. We traveled to Dasha’s city and then on to the place of birth of Diana and that was VERY FAR away. It was a gorgous ride. And we stopped at a little side of the road middle of nowhere place to eat and it was SO QUIET! Absolute silence except for the occasional passing car and us talking. It was all woods all around. A little dog camped out at our table looking for handouts and making us feel welcome. Our driver gave her some bread and she turned her nose up at it waiting for the good stuff. She did like my Tilapia. While we were there in Diana’s home city we had to change her tax code as hers was issued there the others were issued in ptown. We had to pay the expedite fee in every city. It was a lot of money! Much more than anyone expected.

Then on to Andre’s place of birth which was smallish town and we got there late as it was so long driving all over the country to Diana’s place of birth and it seems to take a very long time to change the name on a birth certificate. In Andre’s town the girl was new and was a nervous wreck to do it right. It took forever. We ended up staying over night in that city. There was but one hotel choice. It was not very nice. In fact there was a strip joint next door. Hotel Ptown looks positively palatial after that. Not even a shower curtain in that place! And you had to turn in the remote for tv when you go out. And I am certain there were roaches as it was NOT clean. And they gave us a little “plug in” to catch insects. There were TWO choices for eating. One was having a “gypsy gathering” of some type we were told so we went to the other. Flies flies flies. But the borcht wasn’t too bad. Except for the mayo….I thought they put sour cream in borcht? We were not able to get Andre’s birth certificate until midday today Thursday. Then on to Ptown. Another very long windy ride. I have nearly finished my second book this week and Cody finished his. He will have to reread one he already read since he doesn’t have another. I have one more in reserve but tomorrow we will pick up the children and I don’t think I will have much time for reading.

We went to the orphanage and found Natasha the attorney. She is such a beautiful young woman. She gave us everything we needed to change the tax code. Normally they do not do this at the tax office past one oclock. It was WELL past. About 330 or more. Our driver who says he is not david copperfield went in there and convinced them it MUST BE DONE NOW. And they did it. In a matter of minutes. Took way longer at Diana’s place of birth to change just HER tax code than it did here in Ptown for THREE of them.


We checked into the Ptown Hilton after that. Seriously compared to last nights place, the room we got here for the same cost is incredible! Huge huge huge! We have stayed in APARTMENTS smaller than this! My only complaint is there is no AC in the bedroom. Oh well.( We didn’t even HAVE AC in that little dive we stayed in last night. It was so blasted hot in there and we were not supposed to leave the window open at night because of insects. About 1 I said either I open the window or I cant guarantee I can behave civilly. A nice breeze cooled things considerably and we slept well for a few hours until it was time to get up. We had Fornetti for breakfast/ it was this pastry with a tiny bit of meat like hot dog inside and mustard. wasn’t BAD but not something I would choose to eat often. When Americans think Pastry we think SWEET! Fruit! Yum! This was not sweet and not fruit and therefore a little disappointing as it wasn’t what I was looking forward to. But we ate it and chalked it up as another adventure. )

I digress. We went to see the kids and they are so wonderful. Diana told me she will take her name Diana Claire and I hugged her and told her she was a love and a good girl. Dasha had been there yesterday and said that they are excited and also worried and nervous and sad to leave. All sounds perfectly normal to me! Andre veritably JUMPED into my arms and spent much of our short time there IN MY LAP or in my arms. And he was full of kisses. he also was very proud of his new name and says Jonathon very clearly which is surprising since he is missing most his teeth! But he wanted to go in that car! And NOW!! Jaeger didn’t even say hello until I tracked him down and hugged and kissed him. He was busy with a remote control car. He was a bit of stinker while I was there wanting to grab my hat. We went out tonight to the store and bought each boy a NYC hat. Both red. I hope he will love that. He wanted a new hat. We got some very cute sun hats for the girls as well and some yogurt for breakfast.
We went to Stairy Drar for dinner. Was a little more than we have been paying but since I stayed in a dive for my birthday I figured what the heck. for THREE of us it cost about 25 dollars us. Here I had heard good things about this place and Eric and I walked past it every single day here not knowing it was there. EVERY DAY! Twice a day! Our waiter was extremely shy! I think waiting tables is probably not the best job for him!

So tomorrow we bust the kids out of there. If we get everything done here in Ptown, like signing papers, and applying for passport dossier or something of the like, and changing the kids bank accounts over the to the orphanage We will go to Dasha’s city for passport photos. Then back to Kiev where we hope to see Dima. Tomorrow is Friday so if we don’t get to the passport stuff tomorrow we cant until Monday. So I am hoping all gets done. Maybe “david copperfield” can work his magic.

well I thought we were going to go bright and early. but I guess we now have to wait for the tax codes to be sent from Ptown to where we are in Ccity. which must mean that we can work on that from here? or from Kiev? anywyas we will still go on to get Diana and Andre's (hopefully!! remember Andre's place of birth didnt think they wanted to work today.) birth certificates just not leaving as early as we thought. I skyped with Eric and Chrysta. the internet is a really wonderful thing. it was getting late for them so we had to say gooddbye. and I thought I had to be ready in half hour. turns out I dont. But I am still hoping that waiting for the tax codes means good things. wrap this up in a hurry and get on home!

I miss the kids there. I miss the kids here. soon we will all be together and they will drive each other crazy and I will say gosh, I should have had goldfish instead lol. I adore my kids. every one of them. but admit it! even parenting ONE sometimes is a challenge. some days are good some days are bad. I know that will be the way. but to be home all together will be incredible. Ill take the honeymoon period! just get us home together!

Chrysta, tell the kids Mama loves them. that I miss them every minute. that I think of them in everything I do. and that I cant wait for them to meet their new brothers and sisters! and I love YOU for doing SO MUCH to help out! you are a real peach!

Mom I miss our calls every day. and I have only been gone a couple days!

we saw horse and cart on 4 lane highway. we see many interesting things here.

I am tired so maybe I will dress and pack and lie down to wait for the call to go.

ps its hot here

how hot is it?

I took a shower and used up all the cold water.

hahahahaha

seriously I took a 20 min shower in all cold water. it was starting to feel warm when I was done.

crazy. crazy.

left home sunday afternoon. Got to airport in plenty of time for our flight. when I attempted to check in I was told my itinerary had been changed. WHA? yes, your flight has been delayed 2 hours and you will miss your connections so we rescheduled you on the flight that leaves in half an hour. along with 50 billion other people. so hurry through security. thankfully Cody and I didnt carry on much. and we had on slip on shoes. so we got there in plenty of time for our next connection. until we were told that ......you got it! this flight is delayed two hours! you will definitely miss your connection! so instead of getting in at 430 you wont get in until 1030 and you will have to sit in Munich for so many hours that when you get there your flight wont even be on the schedule board. so we got to munich and waited. at the gate that was listed on our ticket. at one hour before boarding the flight STILL wasnt o nthe boards. and the gate we were at said London. I finally went to customer service. oh sorry your gate changed. so we moved. it said london there too but shortly after they left our plane arrived and we were FINALLY on our way. of course when we got here our driver was a little upset that we didnt call him. I dont know how I could call. my cell phone doesnt work internationally, or in Germany. THEIR phone that they let me use doesnt work in Germany.

so we got here and we fell into an apartment(with internet) and I thought I would fire off a quick letter home. no such luck. the net didnt work. and there isnt any air conditioning. and its about 150 in the shade these days.

After a fitful and HOT short nights sleep we jumped in our drivers car to head for region capital to get birth certs. (keeping in theme with the rest of my kids, none of them was born in the same place so we have to go to each place for birth certs. ps isnt that amazing? 12 kids and not a single one was born in the same place as another!) one city decided that it just isnt enough to have a court decree they want a notarised letter requesting they do it. seriously. this is the same city we worked with 9 months ago! and they also charged TWELVE times as much as SunnyK. they justified it saying that they have 7 days to do it. if we want it today the cost is 650 Grn. plus it was 200 for the notary! and then it took them ALL DAY to do it. we left SunnyK at 7 to get here at 9 and we didnt get it until almost 530! meanwhile we drove on to the Gplace(where they speak belarussian) where another kid was born. in a matter of two or three hours(including waiting for the lady to show up, and going across the street to the bank to pay for it, and waiting while they did it all) we had birth certificate in our hands. So today Natasha and Jaeger are Enbergs on paper. their birth certificates say we are their parents. tomorrow on to get Diana and Andre's. their cities are almost to Russia! but the city Andre is from says no they dont want to work with us tomorrow. go figure. wait and see on that.

we are staying in the city tht took forever. Your city Dasha. we got some dinner and it took an ENTIRE HOUR for it to arrive at our table. there was not another soul in the place. I think they had to go to MN for the chicken. We had been joking earlier in the day that my luck is whenever we want something, like referrals, paperwork, birth certs, flights, its always NO! so for dinner we laughed that it was just my luck, dinner? NO!

so tomorrow its back on the road. hope to be in SunnyK tomorrow eve and see John and Liesel. but for now, sleep. in this hotel with no air conditioning. and wifi only in the lobby(unless you are technologically advanced and can figure how to use it from your room.....like us lol)