Kiev, June 1-5

I forgot to include these with the last post--these are taken in the Frankfurt airport

Teresa and Kevin relaxing and having a spot of tea in our Kiev apartment

Here I was wishing I'd brought a book and here is a whole huge bookcase in our apt full of volumes--unfortunately nary a one in English

Here's the area right inside the door where we hang our sweatshirts, passports, key, purse and put our shoes

The 'living room' for Steven's group at the orphanage

Here are Teresa and Kevin in the coat room where we sometimes had our visits

Here is the little cubby door with Steven's last name on it

And here is little Mister Steven--over 5 months since we saw him last

This handsome young man would often try to get in on some attention and lovin' during our visits

Here we are all 'spiffed up' for court on Wednesday, June 3

Kevin the Master Chef

The view out our kitchen window--this is a very busy street down below that goes between two VERY busy streets

*****************************************************************************************

Well, as I'm sure you guessed my time ran out before I was finished with that post.

We did sail through customs with no difficulty whatsoever and were very happy to see Alexey again who drove us to our apartment. Driving in at 10:40 pm does not give one a very good idea of the neighborhood--it looked kind of scummy and smelled horrid in the very dark hallway and stairway. Since the elevator does not work, our joke is that the last person who rode the elevator died in there and no one has removed the body. But the room actually looked better than the advertisement photos--separate bedroom, couch that folds into a king-size bed, separate kitchen, tiny room that houses only the toilet, and a separate room for the sink and tub/shower. There was indeed a computer sitting on the table in the living room but alas, even with all of Kevin's expertise, he could not get it working. The problem literally was trying to fit the mouses square connector into a round port. They did get the DVD player working so Teresa could watch some of her Cosby shows.

Tuesday we got to see Steven. I was unsure how he would react to us after being gone for 5 months. I would say he partially remembered us. (Apparently the director of the orphanage was under the assumption our family had been refused for adoption in court some while ago) We rolled and bounced a ball back and forth, tickled him, kissed him. I had to laugh when he shook his fist and said "nyet. Papa." when any other little boy tried to get in on the attention. However, though he seemed very proud to have a Papa, he didn't seem to want to get too close to Kevin--I think partially cuz Kevin was trying to make him mind. Teresa thought he was very cute and funny. After we'd been playing awhile in the coat room, a lady came in and we were whisked out to see the doctor. Of course they were trying to explain what was going on but we were pretty clueless and thought they were going to give us a shot. We had glass thermometers inserted and then our throats inspected. I was breathing a prayer cuz Teresa had just been complaining that morning of a sore throat. Well, she passed with no problem but the doctor kept showing me the reading on my thermometer. I didn't know what the normal Celsius temp was supposed to be but apparently mine was elevated. I felt perfectly fine so I'm guessing maybe just a little dehydrated. Anyway, Kevin scurried out to get Alexey so he could find out what the problem was. Apparently there is quite a scare here about swine flu and since the Dr. knows we are from the US she was concerned we might be spreading disease to all the kiddos under her care. So our directions now are that we must check in at the Dr.'s office before we can visit Steven.

Our final court was supposed to be on Wednesday at 3:00 pm then was moved to 4:00 pm. In attendance were the judge--a very pretty blonde woman who looks like she's in her 30's, the prosecutor with short, very blond hair; the inspector who seemed very glad to see us again; the orphanage psychologist (Nastya says usually the orph lawyer attends but this orph has no lawyer because they have no adoptions); and 2 jurors, a man and a lady--just normal folks, I guess. Nastya was there to interpret. Well, all we got done was going through the list of all the interested parties and then the judge said the file was missing a pertinent paper from the SDA. This paper was placed in our file with our original judge and apparently she has not wanted to release it. So court was recessed for 30 minutes to see if it could be located. Yes, the paper was found but the original judge was not in the building to sign a paper releasing it. So court was continued to Friday. Another missing paper was a letter explaining that the I-171H is indeed the official form that gives permission for an orphan to enter the US. Nastya and Alexey have tried and tried and tried and tried to get these papers to no avail.

Thursday we went to a notary so Kevin could give his permission for Steven's passport. We then stopped at an Internet cafe that was open and had available, working computers so I could write our last little ditty. Then over to the embassy so Kevin could sign his part of the paperwork there. I knew no pictures were allowed inside so I took a picture of the embassy sign outside and got in trouble--but I didn't lose my camera and I must admit I'm glad I have the picture (I'm controlling myself and not posting it on the Internet) However, we didn't get anywhere with the embassy. Apparently before they have opened in the afternoon at 2:00 pm (after lunch break) but now only open 9:00-1:00.

Friday we had to get up at 5:30 to be ready for Alexey and Nastya to pick us up at 7:30. Court was scheduled for 9:00 and traffic has been horrendous. Well, it was definitely past 9:00 when we got started. The judge went through our whole dossier page by page (not reading it but stating what each thing was) plus all the letters between SDA and court and embassy and whoever/whatever else pertained to the case. She read through our whole petition to the court. She noted that orphanage, inspector, prosecution have no objection to the adoption, etc. Then she went to her decision room. At this point the prosecutor stopped in front of Kevin and gave him such a sweet ------ I can't think of the word and I know I'm almost out of time--anyway she wished us much joy and that our children would only bring us joy and that sort of thing. It made me teary-eyed. Then she left as did the jurors.

More later.

On Our Way to Ukraine

Billy and Scheri and . . . feeding coins from our money jar into the sorting machine at the bank

Teresa sporting her passport pouch

Joy at the Boise airport. James met some very special people at the airport as well with whom we ate lunch prior to going our separate ways: James with them for a couple weeks and Kevin, Teresa and Joy on to Ukraine

Kevin--probably paying the bill for lunch

Awaiting our flight to San Francisco

Teresa and Kevin ON BOARD

Kevin and Teresa in the San Francisco airport

Looking down toward our gate area--we ended up spending a long time down there while our flight continued to be delayed

Kevin waiting patiently for our flight to be called--note the San Francisco sweat-shirt

Unbeknownst to Kevin, Teresa arrayed him in her sunglasses

Our flight was cancelled due to bird strike. ALL of us are outside the terminal awaiting shuttles to the Hyatt
Thank God our court appointment was no longer scheduled for June 1

From this vantage point we can actually see what the outside of the airport looks like

Fancy-Schmancy dining area at the Hyatt. Of course it is closed since it is now very early a.m.

Here are our passports and our meal vouchers

Lovely view of San Francisco Bay out our Hotel window

Eating breakfast--only $2 out-of-pocket

There was even a live jazz band--very pleasant, easy-to-listen-to music

Suddenly got a call to return to the airport right away for flight to Amsterdam; awaiting shuttle

I thought it was cool that the guy transporting us to the airport (to adopt Steven) was named Steven

Back inside the San Francisco airport

Kevin trying to get us tickets to anywhere. The flight to Amsterdam was over-booked. Now we are heading to London.

Poor Teresa has been such a good sport but she is fighting tears here. I am trying to use this Internet access to let the people in Kiev know of our newest new schedule

I asked Teresa and Kevin to make faces in front of this wall of masks

A unique saxophone display

On a bus to another part of the airport--in London???

Teresa and Kevin trying to finish their drinks prior to going through security

Calzones in London

***************************************************************************************

Oh boy, has this ever been a trip! Thank you for all of your prayers and your patience. We are supposed to have Internet in our apartment--well, we did have a computer, keyboard, etc but the mouse did not make connection with anything. After trying a different mouse and an adaptor, the people from the apartment have taken the computer out of the apt for repairs. It was supposed to be done yesterday. :) Anyway, it has been killing me not to be able to let everyone know we are fine.

Our adventure began on Saturday. Our good friend Carol from church took Billy, Scheri and Caleb to the Western Days celebration over in Twin Falls. I spoke with various babysitters trying to give everyone the needed info about schedules, medications, permissions and medical info in case of emergency, temporary guardianship, etc. The problem was that though my suitcase was full of stuff and surrounded by stuff, no actual clothing had yet been put into it!! And the rest of the problem was that we needed to be on our way by noon! OK, so clothes did appear in the suitcase (thanks Mom) but I neglected to re-read the very good packing list I had made and forgot a few important items such as jacket, Bible, Febreze, toothbrush--and no books to read.

We got to the Boise airport about 2:20 where we met up with the family that is keeping James for a week or two. We ate a yummy chicken strips and onion rings dinner (fish and chips for Kevin), talked with Pauline and Andrew (who are taking care of our van), and proceeded through our first of MANY security checks for the day.

The real fun began when we got to San Francisco. We didn't eat anywhere because we knew two meals would be served on the long Lufthansa flight to Munich. So we nibbled on the trail mix in my carry-on, walked around, sat around. I was FREEZING so we all ended up buying hoodie sweatshirts for which I have thanked God many times. We found out our 9:00 pm flight was delayed due to a bird strike to the engine. Then delayed some more. Then delayed some more. We weren't really complaining though because I'd much rather have this problem dealt with on land than on sea . . . if you know what I mean. Finally, the captain came out and said the investigation into the safety of the plane was going to take at least 2 more hours, and most everyone had missed their connecting flights anyway so the airlines was putting us up at the Hyatt Hotel. We just needed to go get our baggage and proceed to the hotel shuttle area. You can well imagine just how many people were standing out there waiting for that shuttle. We were on the very last load. I was very proud of Teresa for being such a good sport and not whining out there. I think it was about 2:30 am by the time we were settled in our room (a little late for dinner) Thankfully we had jerky, granola bars, trail mix to munch on. We were told our flight would be leaving 9:00 pm on Sunday.

Sunday morning we had a yummy breakfast for only $2 out-of-pocket and planned to go check out the Bay which was just down from our window, visit a little store to grab some things I'd forgotten, just kind of mosey around. Instead we got a phone call saying we were booked on KLM to Amsterdam and needed to head to the airport basically now. So we threw everything back in our suitcases and headed out the door.

Stood in the long line at KLM desk only to find out that though we were booked for the flight, no tickets had been issued and the gate was closing in 15 minutes. Kevin hurried to deal with tickets while Teresa and I watched the ticket desk close. Instead we got tickets on British Airways to London!!!

That flight went well--we had the individual TV screens which kept Teresa busy. I must have slept quite a bit because the flight seemed to go fairly quickly.

We made it to London, got some British pounds and postcards, ate calzones, got our boarding passes all straightened out to go on to Munich and Kiev where we arrived at 10:40 pm. We sailed through