My trip

I had a great trip to Ukraine over my Christmas break. I got to spend Christmas with Joe and his family, then headed out for Ukraine on the 26th. With the 7 hour time difference, I got to Kiev around 10:00 am on the 27th, then had to wait a few hours before flying down to the region where the orphanage is. Shelby was at the airport to meet me, and we took a taxi to her friends' apartment where we stayed for the week (they are home in the US right now and were kind enough to let us crash at their place). After we dropped my luggage off at the apartment, we went out to the orphanage. I had been awake for over 30 hours at that point, but couldn't wait to see Vacya and the other kids. Shelby, of course, was just dying to see her boys too. Because I was suffering from sleep deprivation, I don't really remember much about that first visit. Vacya was probably in his bed in punishment (he spends a lot of time there).

Apparently he gets up at night and messes around or bothers the other kids, then the other kids tell on him and he gets in trouble. Considering the kids (10-14 years old mind you) have to go to bed at 8pm, aren't allowed to get up until 8am, and have to take a 2 hour nap everyday, it's not too suprising to me that a very active 11 year old has trouble staying in his bed all night. There is no adult supervision in the room overnight, so I guess it's just too tempting for him to get up and play around.

On Friday, we spent most of the day a the orphanage. We bought a Christmas tree for the room and took some crafts for the kids to make to decorate the tree.

On Saturday, the orphanage had a celebration for New Years and several of the kids from our class got to perform in skits and dances. This video is one of Shelby's boys (the rabbit).

Vacya, unfortunately, was in punishment again and did not get to go to the celebration. It was very hard to see him crying and not be able to do anything about it. He was allowed to get up for the afternoon, though, and do some of the activities and crafts that Shelby and I had brought that day.

On Sunday, Shelby and I went to church, then were back out at the orphanage for the rest of the day. Finally, Vacya was not in punishment when we got there and I was able to spend lots of time with him. We do surprisingly well communicating, considering he speaks no English, just Russian. Between the little Russian that I know and Vacya's animated gestures, I could usually figure out in general what he was trying to tell me. If not, Shelby was there to translate.

On Monday we took Christmas cookies for the kids to frost and decorate. They made enough to share with a few of the other classes. We also watched Polar Express (in Russian) and took stuff for hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows (a special treat-you can't get marshmallows in Ukraine). We had grand plans to show the movie to all of the younger kids with a projector and let them all eat cookies and drink hot chocolate, but that didn't work out. Only our class watched the movie, in their room on the tv. We think that all the kids in the orphanage were served the hot chocolate with their snacks, though, and at least a few of the other classes got cookies.

Shelby worked really hard learning a Christmas carol in Russian so that she could teach it to the kids. They loved it!

New Years morning is when Ukrainians and Russians usually open gifts like we do at Christmas, so that is when Shelby and I took the gifts for the kids. They had a great time and loved their gifts. Vacya was hilarious that morning. We got there before the kids were up and put some presents under the tree. Vacya was so excited that he couldn't even get dressed or make his bed. He was just dancing around and going over the tree to look at the presents.

Several months ago we had asked the kids for their wish list and Vacya said he wanted a "little man." Nobody could figure out what he meant by that, so I just guessed and got him a little action figure from Pirates of the Carribean. Some of the other boys had gotten them before as birthday gifts, so I though maybe that's what he had in mind. I also took army figures and cowboys and indians just in case that's what he was thinking. Once I got to the orphanage, Vacya started asking me about Spiderman, and I realized that that is what he was wanting. So of course Shelby and I had to make a trip to the toy store to find a Spiderman toy before New Years morning. It was definately worth it. He was so excited and just loved it.

Wednesday was my last day at the orphanage and it was tough to leave without being able to bring Vacya with me. Hopefully the next 3 months will pass quickly and then he'll be coming home!

Meeting with facilitator

On my trip to Ukraine over Christmas break, I was able to meet with Sasha, our adoption facilitator and ask a few questions about the adoption. Because Ukraine does not allow the pre-selection of orphans, I have been worried that we might not be able to adopt Vacya specifically. However, Sasha said that because we requested Vacya and we have been approved, there is no reason to think that we won't be able to get Vacya. I'm sure I'll still worry about it until everything is finalized and Vacya is actually on the plane home with us, but it was reassuring to hear. I was also concerned about the age requirements in the Ukrainian adoption law, which state that both parents have to be at least 15 years older that the adoptive child. Although I am more than 15 years older than Vacya, Joe is only about 14 1/2 years older than him. Sasha said that this will not be a problem. Finally, I asked about how long we will be in Ukraine for the adoption; we had heard that it could be 6 - 8 weeks or longer. Sasha said that generally the families that he works with are only in the country for about a month. We'll still be prepared to stay longer, but it would be great if we could have everything finished and return home in just 4 weeks.