Monday, December 28, 2009

Still More Pictures and Clips

Alex and Inna at the airport just prior to our leaving. She gave him a scarf and hat (he's not wearing the hat) as a departing gift. She was a great facilitator.

At the airport.


The view from our last apartment in Kiev.


Walking home from church in Kiev.
Clips just prior to leaving the orphanage for the last time.






Clip of Independence Square at night.

More Pictures

Eating at out favorite restaurant in Kiev. I'll bet we ate here at least ten times. It was the best deal in town.

The day we took Alex from the orphanage. The quarantine was back in force. I'm surprised they let us in to take Alex. Notice several of the kids have face masks on that they've pulled down for the picture.
Everyone's looking very somber here. The boy at the far right could not control his emotions. We felt so bad for him.
Alex and one of his teachers.
Watching us get into the taxi to leave for the last time.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Last Post from Ukraine!!!!!!

I am so happy to say this is our last post from Ukraine. We're blogging from McDonald's, our office away from home. WiFi in every McDonald's here. Everything is on schedule. We're going to get Alex's visa in about an hour and eating dinner tonight with Marie and Brian, our friends from Arizona. They adopted Vladik and are one day behind us in the process. They are hoping to fly out tomorrow afternoon. We can't wait to get home to our children and extended family for Christmas and introduce you all to Alex! The weather here is so much warmer today, almost like a warm, balmy day comparatively speaking!!

Our flight from Chicago arrives at 8:10 on United Airlines, Flight 6449. Thanks for the support and love of all our friends and family. We are signing off.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

From Here at Home

Hello to all from home sweet home. This is Marissa! I have just come in from shoveling our driveway and am now thawing my fingers as I type. Quinn is at Patrick's house having a sleepover, aka: nonstop video game playing with a small break for sleeping. Gage is with Emily watching a football game with her family. Zack is in Arizona for Christmas break which leaves me lonesome at home.
Nothing much new around here except that we are all itching for Mom and Dad and Alex to come back home! The stockings are hung, the shopping is done, and the presents are wrapped. Now we just need some more people to fill up the house. This Christmas will be more fun for myself than anybody else I believe. Since I already know what everybody is getting for Christmas I get to watch my five children (Mom, Dad, Gage, Quinn, and Alex) open everything Christmas morning! I can't wait.
I spoke with Eric early this morning. He was waiting to leave on his plane back to Guam. He will stay tonight in L.A. and then tomorrow on another plane to Hawaii then Guam. I know he is excited to be back in Guam for the lovely warm weather. In about a month he will ship off to Iraq for six months. Me and Gage and Quinn often talk about how we wish Eric were at home. The holidays are the very worst time to be lacking family members in the home.
I have three job interviews tomorrow! More than I have had in ages so things are looking a bit brighter these days for my desperate job search.
We are all getting along great here! Only a day and a half more. Merry Christmas everybody! Marissa signing off.

The Day We Took Alex from the Orphanage

I wanted to write about last Thursday, the day we took Alex from the orphanage permanently. It's one of those days that will be etched into my memory forever. Michael and I had gone to the director's office first to pay our "donation," where we were joined by Alex. The three of us walked to Alex's classroom so he could collect his "things," and say good-bye to his classmates.

As we entered the classroom, the teacher was at the front of the room and class was underway. Things abruptly stopped, and all eyes were on us. The teacher asked Alex when he was leaving, and he said right now. There was a flurry of activity as the children rushed to help Alex get his stuff. (Everything he owned could fit in a shoebox.) Alex has lived in the orphanage since 2003, when he was six years old. Many of these children have spent 24 hours a day together for years. I noticed his friend Seruja starting to get teary-eyed and then very emotional. He was embarrassed and went and stood at the back of the room. Then his friend Ruslan also started to cry. It was a very sad scene. Michael and I both had tears in our eyes. Alex did not cry and seemed surprised others were crying. We took pictures and went outside to the taxi. The children were all gathered waving good-bye out the window. I snapped pictures.

Alex's stuff consisted of a few notebooks containing current schoolwork and the pictures we had given him of his trip to Utah. There were no pictures of him as a baby or little kid, no records of any kind. We have a copy of his father's death certificate and a copy of his mother's termination of parental rights decree. It's as if he didn't exist before now.

Sunday, Dec. 20

It snowed all day today, and the locals were panicked by all the snow. It just piled up, and the city was unprepared with snowplows and salt. People were out trying to clear six inches of snow with babushka brooms. We found out from the missionaries where church was held and couldn't believe the coincidence. Our apt. was two blocks away from the building. The three of us walked to church in the snow. We had a choice of the Russian-speaking meetings or the International English-speaking meetings. We opted for Russian so Alex could endure three hours of church. Elder Thorpe from Bountiful kindly translated for Michael and me. The meetings were great, the members were friendly, and the spirit was strong. It gave us a real lift to be there.

Monday, Dec. 21

Inna got Alex's passport today, nothing short of a miracle. We are told it's unheard of to get a passport in one day, but she did it.

Tuesday, Dec. 22

Today we went to get Alex's medical and were taken in front of others already there. I don't know how she did it. Then we went to U.S. Embassy to apply for Alex's visa. We pick it up tomorrow at two p.m. We fly out Thursday at 5:30 a.m. and arrive in SLC 8:10 p.m., Flight 6449 from Chicago.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Alex is Ours

Oh, my goodness. Friday, December 18, was our court date, and it ranks right up there with one of the most stressful days of our lives. Things have to happen for us boom, boom, boom, in order to get home on Christmas Eve. Court was supposed to start at 11:00 a.m. At 12:30 we were still sitting in the hall stressing out waiting to be called into the courtroom. Finally the court clerk came and told us they were still waiting for the prosecutor to show up. About five or ten minutes later, she showed up, and we started. The judge was a woman, and she was very methodical and thorough. The proceedings lasted until 2:30. I didn't think they would ever quit asking us questions. Finally she (and the two jurors) took a break to make a decision, and when they came back, they gave us everything we asked for, including ten-day waiver!!!! The judge told us to come back in one hour for the paperwork. When we came back everybody was gone home except for the clerk. She handed Inna the papers, and Inna started "sewing" them together, which the clerk had failed to do because she didn't know how. Halfway through the sewing, Inna noticed several errors in our birth dates etc., and she had to hunt down the judge and jurors to come back in to sign corrected documents. It was stressful; Inna was stressed as well. She said, "Now I remember why I used to smoke." The process of correcting the documents took about an hour; we hopped in the taxi and raced to Alex's birth town to get his new birth certificate. Inna called and begged them to wait for us. We arrived five minutes to 5:00 p.m. Whew! We got the birth certificate and waited for a bus, boarded the bus at 11:00 p.m., arrived in Kiev at 6:00 a.m., slept three hours, went to the notary's office on Saturday, St. Nick day. Alex is with us. We're sitting in McDonald's blogging. It is bursting at the seams in here; people are waiting for our table. Monday is the passport; Tuesday is the US Embassy, Wednesday we pick up the visa, and Thursday 5:30 a.m. we board plane for home, arriving in the evening of Christmas Eve. We expect no one to greet us and don't want anyone to feel guilty about it. It's Christmas Eve, and everyone should be with their families. I'll post more on Monday if we can get to McDonald's.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Update

Our facilitator is now telling us that we will not likely be home before the 24th. That sort of news will prompt us to take sleeping pills tonight. Oh, well. Better before Christmas than after.

Thursday, December 16

Not much to write about except the freaky cold weather! It's negative 16 degrees C. in Kiev today, which is 2 degrees F. We went outside to get some breakfast, and the cold begins to hurt your hands and face instantly. (My brother summited Mt. Everest this spring; he'll probably tell me this is no big deal.) But it's cold, and your nose hairs freeze as soon as you take a breath! We wanted to walk a bit today and take some pictures of Kiev, but we're stuck in our apartment. Michael's drifted off to sleep. It's about two in the afternoon here. The good news is we found three English-speaking channels on T.V., which is a lot more than zero English channels in Sumy for eleven days. And we have WiFi in our apartment, so I shouldn't be complaining, right?

Our apartment is very livable. We are about a block from Independence Square. We even have a washer, but we can't understand the words and pictures on the buttons. We attempted to do a load yesterday, and three hours later the washer was still running! We found this apartment by ourselves. It is $50/night and much nicer than the ones our facilitators have found. I will be happy to share the phone number of the man we've been renting them through if other families would like it. We just tell him our budget is $50/night, and that is what we pay. I'm sure the tourist industry in Kiev in December is low.

DS called us yesterday from Sumy. They are through court but somehow are being held up again because there is a quarantine back on again in Sumy. I'm not sure how that would affect their 10-day wait. Also M and B called us from Dopro. Their court date is Monday. They are hoping to have the ten days waived.

Well, Michael is awake, and we are considering putting on multiple layers of clothing and going for a walk. Our friend Tania loaned us a whole bunch of English DVD's while in Sumy, but there's not much to do here.

Inna told us Alex's orphanage will not let any clothing leave with Alex, so yesterday we had to buy some clothing for him. We never dreamed we would be taking Alex home on this trip so brought no clothing for him. It's too bad. He has lots of clothes at home. We tried to find some American-looking jeans but couldn't. The only underwear we could find was the European style briefs that look like a girl's bikini, but I guess that's what he's used to anyway.

This may be the last time I can blog. We are leaving very early Thursday morning for Kirovograd. Not sure if we're going by train or bus. Probably train. Then we'll have to take a private car the rest of the way to the tiny village of Rivne. Igor and Natasha will house and feed us again. Natasha told Inna she's going to cook duck for us. Court is 11 a.m. Friday; then we're headed north to Alex's birth town to do the birth certificate paperwork. I can't remember the name of the town, but Inna has already called them, and they have the papers underway. I'm sure it will be a race to get it done. Then we have to do passport stuff, US Embassy stuff, medical stuff. Inna tells us she has friends in high places and not to worry, but I'm still worried whether it can all happen as quickly as we need it to.

We heard on T.V. today on the BBC channel that British Airways personnel will be striking December 22 through the beginning of January. It will affect a million people trying to travel for the holidays, and those people will all be looking for alternate flights. Oh, please, no. When I bought our round-trip tickets, I guessed our return date as December 22. Inna is guessing December 23, so that means a change of tickets, and of course we will have to purchase a one-way ticket for Alex. I have e-mailed Golden Rule Travel to ask about the situation, but of course they are probably just getting to work right now.

Well, if I can blog again, I will, but I don't know. Possibly when we get back to Kiev. See you all soon.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

More of Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sunday, Dec. 10-13

I have decided to blog the events at Sumy the last few days. I have struggled a bit with whether I should, but I have decided to be honest. It is not meant to discourage other families.

Last Wed., we went to the orphanage at the usual time after classes were over, 3:00 p.m. The plan was to get permission to take Rita to visit her grandma. Rita had expressed that wish. When we stepped out of the cab, Vlad (the cute boy hosted in Utah) told us Rita's mother was upstairs in Rita's room with her. Angela (mother) had not visited in six months. Somehow she was there this day at precisely our usual visiting time. We braced ourselves and took Inna with us to go upstairs. We knew all relatives were encouraging adoption, except Angela. We had asked Rita about this; Rita told us she (Rita) was very serious about our adopting her and would not be deterred by Angela.

When we entered the room, Angela appeared hostile. She had a big frown on her face. We introduced ourselves and sat on Rita's bed and talked to Inna and Rita while Angela watched us. After a while, Angela stormed out. Rita followed her in tears. They stood in the hall and hugged and cried, hugged and cried. Then they walked outside. Inna, Michael, and I waited for a long time. When Rita returned she was sobbing. We felt nothing but sympathy for her. Inna asked her, "Do you want a mom and dad every day, or do you want a mom that visits you twice a year? Do you understand why you're not with Angela? It's because she was always drunk, didn't take care of you, and the judge took you away from her."

Well, I can see this story will be very lengthy, so I'm going to be more brief. When we returned on Thursday to visit, things had changed. Rita was cold, some of the friends were cold, and Rita called her mom as soon as we arrived while we stood in the hall. Finally cute Lena invited us to sit on her bed (not in Rita's room). When Rita came in, she had Vlad and Yura with her. We had not met Yura before. He was an older kid. Vlad told us that Yura is Rita's defender. We wondered what she needed a defender for. The conversation over the next hour was alarming. Vlad translated for us even though Rita has some English. (By the way, we asked Rita questions all week and got virtually no answers, ever.) Rita started off with, "I do not want to become Mormon, I am Christian; I have a boyfriend; if a boy and girl love each other, they should be together; I don't want to go to America until the new year because I want to spend Christmas here," etc., etc.

To make sure Rita was clear on what was expected, we returned Friday with a translator. Inna had gone back to Kiev very ill, so we took Tania. We had met her at church, and she has been the translator for many other families from Utah. Very cute girl, very pro adoption, and a translator by profession. We then proceeded to have a very nonthreatening conversation with Rita. We told her we needed her to be very honest with us. We told Rita we wouldn't dream of forcing her to belong to our church but that if she is Christian, then she will have no problem living Christian values in our home. We reviewed the values including morality, honesty, no dating until 16, no smoking, drinking, etc. etc. etc. We then asked if she was willing to live those "Christian" values. She would not answer. We asked if she needed time to think about it. She nodded. Tania then arranged for Rita to call her the next day with her answer. Tania also spoke to Rita from her own heart, telling her she should not miss this opportunity, that she would regret it the rest of her life. Rita told Tania (out of our presence) that she has had four other families want to adopt her, all of whom she turned down. Tania was amazed. She asked her why she turned them down. Rita had no answer. We then asked Rita if there was anything we could clarify or any questions. Rita asked this question: "Is it okay if I call you Michael and Lori and not Mom and Dad?"

So we waited 48 hours and never heard from Rita. We talked to Tania Sunday at church; she had not heard from Rita. We went to the orphanage Sunday afternoon with a letter for Rita to tell her good-bye.

On Monday, Inna, the inspector, the director, and others who care about Rita met with her (without us). They asked her why she is doing this. She had no answers. Inna said she never spoke more than "da" and "nyet." They met with her for a very long time, individually and together. Rita basically shut down.

We are now back in Kiev, and we have nothing but sympathy for this 14-year-old girl. I think her mother has played so many mind games with her, she is totally confused. We will always remember her and pray for her.

We are in good spirits. Don't be sad for us, only for Rita. We are focusing on Alex and our court date Friday and getting home to our family.

This is the neighborhood we lived in for 11 days while in Sumy. Many people have huge garden plots and live off their garden all year.

Michael waiting at the bus stop.

Trash is a real problem.

This is the cute Tania that helped us talk to Rita. She can speak four languages and is learning a fifth.


The elders in our ward. They taught us which bus to catch, where to shop, and how to buy lunch for $1 at Bleenoks. (Yummy burrito loaded with chicken, potatoes, cheese, etc.)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Thursday and Friday, December 10 and 11

We saw the Sopers on Wednesday and gave them our cell phone number. She didn't know hers. She said she'd call, but we haven't heard from them or seen them. Their court is supposed to be today. We hope all goes well for them.

We are still just hanging out in Sumy and trying to find things to do to make the time pass faster. It snowed today, but people are out and about as usual. It's bitterly cold. Michael and I have run out of movies to watch. We didn't pack enough movies. We didn't know we'd have so much time on our hands. How I wish I could blink myself home during the day so I could get ready for Christmas. My children will have a strange Christmas, but maybe having us home will be enough? We think we'll be home the evening of December 23, but we're not sure. Hopefully we'll have Alex with us. We are positive Rita will be here in Sumy.

I'll blog more tomorrow about the happenings in the orphanage. It's time to head there now. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. So many of you e-mail us to let us know you are praying and thinking of us. It really lifts our spirits.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Tues, Wed, Thurs, December 8, 9, and 10

Michael and I are here without our facilitator. She has gone back to Kiev. We figured out how to take the bus to town and are sitting in McDonald's because they have WiFi here. We have been here so long, I'm surprised they haven't kicked us out.

Here is a recap of the last few days.

Tuesday. What did we do? The days all run together now. Each day we go to visit Rita at 3:00 p.m. until about 4:45, when she goes to a "homework" class. It's hard to think of things to do with her because of the language barrier, and we're not allowed to leave the premises the way we did at Dnipro. We play games with her and her friends. She has darling friends: Marina, Lena, Iryna, Tania, and Natasha are probably her best friends. The weather here is so cold. No snow, but I wear three layers on my legs, and it's still cold. Well, we are almost in Russia. In the movies, Russia always seems so cold. Now I know why. Our new apartment is fine. It's a long ways from everything, but the taxi isn't too expensive. No washer or dryer (of course). We hand wash a few things every day and hang them all over the place. It takes two or three days for jeans to dry. Our facilitator is still trying to consolidate our two adoptions into one case. We personally don't think it will work. My ankle gets a little better every day. We actually took a pretty lengthy walk today. We haven't seen the sun since November 25th. Every day is gray and cold. Black at 4:00 p.m. We had to decide on Sasha's name today. His first name is Oleksandr, so we Americanized it into Alex. We gave him three choices for a middle name. He chose Jeffrey. So his name is: Alex Jeffrey Lawrence. Cute, huh? He's so cute on the phone. He has a sort of husky, deep voice. It makes me laugh.

Wednesday. We got really good news and really bad news today. Inna literally begged the judge in Rivne (where Alex is) to schedule a court date, which is set for December 18, a week from Friday. The judge agreed to waive our ten-day waiting period after court!!!!! It will be a huge rush to do the birth certificate, passport, etc., before everything closes on the 22nd. We are not trying to get our hopes too high. A million things can go wrong. Now for the bad news. The ornery judge here in Sumy was so irritated by another case, that he almost refused to speak to Inna. She asked him, "Why are you taking it out on me? I have nothing to do with that case?" He finally said, "Come back next Wednesday, and we'll talk about a future court date." So it appears to us there is no possible way to get to court before everything closes down. The ultimate disaster is that in January, we'll be back home with Alex. There is no way we can leave him there in SLC to come back to Sumy for Rita's court and 10-day wait etc. unless we can do a one-parent adoption. Also we cannot afford to have Michael miss any more work. By the time we get home, his practice will have been closed for thirty days. We simply don't know what's going to happen. Please keep us in your prayers. We are stuck here until next Wednesday before anything more can happen.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Pictures and clips, Sumy

I'll have to add captions later. Our taxi is here. The clips wouldn't download of the Sumy kids, just still pictures. I'll add clips later.






































































































































































































































December 6 & 7 2009

We spent the last couple days at the orphanage for about three hours a day. Most of the time we are in Rita's room with all her friends, Irina, Marina, Natasha, Tanyia, Anna, Andrei and Lena. They are delightful kids. We do English class, play twister, read, play UNO, etc. They appear to like being with us and all congregate in Rita's room when we come.

Yesterday we went to the local LDS branch for meetings. It was great with lots of English speakers in addition to the six missionairies and Bro & Sis Reed, from the CES. They are a Senior Couple from Southern Calif. Very great people. The Elders (4) are great: Elder Howard from Provo; Elder Mueller from Redmond, Washington; Elder Rader from Reno, Nevada; and Elder ??? from Texas. The sisters are natives so we did not spend any time with them.

After church we went to the orphanage and broke our fast eating with Rita in the lunch room. She, like the other kids, ate about two bites of their dinner and then dumped the balance in a large bucket wasting over 90% of what was prepared. We then headed back to Rita's room for games and goofing off. We left about dark (3:45 pm). Yes it gets dark VERY early here. So far we have seen the sun only one for a couple hours in the 15 days we've been here.

Friday December 4, 2009

We awakened in better spirits today. We discovered we had access to about a quart every three minutes of warm, brown water from the kitchen sink. We carried some water in a mixing bowl to the tub for a quick spit bath. Gross! I put on several pairs of socks on my right foot to help with the swelling. I could bear weight so that means no broken bones...hopefully. I hobbled all day but I managed.

We arrived at the orphanage about mid morning and went into the director's office. He was not there because he was at a funeral for a teacher whose 25 year old daughter had just died of what they called a fever or pneumonia. We talked for a minute or two and then Rita came in. It was a nice reunion. We hugged and took a couple of pictures. We went to class with her. It was games class. They played chess, checkers, etc. During class, the funeral procession passed by outside the classroom window. We all stopped and observed. About six men carried the coffin shoulder high and a four member band played a sad funeral-type song.

We were called to go to the Notary for more documents and spent the afternoon changing apartments and shopping for groceries. Now about the kids at Sumy.

We contacted many of your children. We photographed and got some footage that we will post when we can. We saw Pasha, Lena; Marina; Vlad; Natasha & Yuri; Anna & Andrei.

We are alone in the apartment the next three nights with no internet. We found this cafe today (12/7/09) to make this post.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Thursday, December 3

We're at an internet cafe. Here are the entries from my journal.

Thursday, December 3

Today was spent waiting for our referral to Sumy. K told us to be at the SDA at 4:15 p.m. Michael and I, unfortunately, are on different sleeping schedules. Try as I might, I crash about six or seven p.m. and awaken at two a.m. Michael gets to sleep about midnight and awakens at seven a.m. So two a.m. to seven a.m. is a very lonely time for me. This morning I blogged Wednesday's happenings and answered e-mails. Thank goodness for friends and family back home who are keeping us sane. I now have Phoenix friends following my blog who hosted in Sasha's group and of course my SLC friends, many of whom have already traveled the road we're on now.

Every morning Michael and I read scriptures and then exercise to a recorded workout that we play on a tiny cassette player. Then we get ready for the day and set out on foot to see what we can see in Kiev.

Our current apartment is GREAT but has no stove, so we can't really cook. It has been recently remodeled and is very modern and clean with a flat screen TV. For $50 a night, we are happy. We soon discovered, however, to just leave the TV off! In search for an English channel, we ran into hardcore porn. Whoa!

This morning we ate breakfast at a nice little cafe about two blocks from the apartment. We ordered pizza! It wasn't very good, though. The sauce tasted a little like mayonnaise, but we were starving and managed to eat the whole thing.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to see the Kiev LDS Temple. Our driver had a hard time finding it. At one point he stopped at a small church with a picture of Jesus on the front door. We said, "No, big church." He said, "Christian church," pointing to the building. I suppose he thought we would be happy with any Christian church? As we found our way back to the "beltway" again, we started to see a very large building in the distance; soon we could make out the figure of
Angel Moroni atop the spire. Michael and I both wanted to leap from our seats. We pointed for the driver and said, "There, there." He said, "Oh, big, big church." He went in that direction, and soon we pulled into the nearby parking lot. We could not walk onto the grounds; it's still a construction zone. Scaffolding was all around the building and no landscaping was in, but rows and rows of trees, bushes, etc. were lined up waiting to be planted. As we walked into the beautiful chapel through the parking lot, there was the familiar picture of Christ at the Second Coming. For a few moments I felt like I was home again. It all looked exactly like an LDS chapel in the Salt Lake Valley. We were greeted by Sister Larsen, a cute sister missionary from SLC, who has been in Ukraine for four months. Her companion was from Armenia. I would imagine this is a hard mission in this cold, dark, post USSR country. These people need the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ so badly.

K called us early afternoon to report we would be leaving Kiev about eight p.m. to head for Sumy! This was a surprise. They had found a 15-passenger van/bus leaving from the train station. This would give us all of Friday in Sumy to move the process along.

Typical checkout time from an apartment is one p.m. As we needed an apt. until 7:15 p.m., we had to pay for an extra night. We really couldn't wander Kiev or sit on the curb for six hours with four pieces of luggage, two being very large.

We walked to the SDA at four p.m., where a sizable group of other adoptive couples were waiting. We chatted with a couple from Ohio. It is always so nice to talk to other Americans and console one another on the difficulty of the process. They are adopting a 2-year-old boy from Dniproprotrosk. He has a cleft palate, and they have only seen pictures of him. They said they'd been there ten days and were headed out on the train to meet him.

After our SDA referral, which took about two minutes, we ate borscht at the same cafe and headed back to pack up. A taxi delivered us to the train station, where we met up with Inna. A man yelled at me and said I scratched his van when I opened my car door. There was no visible scratch or dent of any kind. He rubbed it for a full minute with his handkerchief and made a big scene over nothing.

It was a four or five-hour drive to Sumy in the dark. We couldn't see any of the countryside. We arrived about one a.m. A taxi delivered the three of us to a dark, very run-down apartment building. A word here about the sidewalks and pavement: they are full of holes, broken cement, and unlevel and unsafe walking conditions, and it's dark with no lights. At night it is very dangerous to walk outside. As we pulled our luggage to the door of the apt. building, I stepped in a dipped portion of the sidewalk, sprained my ankle, and hit the ground. To make a long story short, as we lay in bed that night, Michael and I started questioning our sanity. Our linen was dirty; the blanket smelled like urine. We covered the pillows with our own towels. Worst of all, we discovered there was no running water in the bathroom. Inna's room did not have a light bulb in it.

In the middle of the night, when things always look the bleakest, I woke Michael up to ask for a priesthood blessing. My ankle was hurting so bad I started wondering if I had broken or cracked a bone. I was able to sleep after that. Thank heavens for the priesthood and Heavenly Father's tender mercies. So I'm counting my blessings.
1. My husband who is with me on this journey. I can't imagine doing this alone.
2. My four children at home, whom I can't wait to see again.
3. Our parents and extended family, which our two children in Ukraine have not had the blessing of.
4. The gospel.
5. My beautiful home in Taylorsville.
6. The wonderful state of Utah.
7. The great country of USA.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Wednesday, December 2, Day 9

We had a terrible night's sleep, especially Michael. It's hard worrying about your children halfway around the world. We spoke with Marissa last night, who was in tears. I'm blogging about it because I'm asking for help from anyone who might have some inside pull with IHC (Intermountain Health Care). Marissa was accepted into the respiratory therapy program through Weber State in conjunction with IHC. It was very competitive to get accepted into the program, and she was chosen over many others and has worked like a DOG to fulfill all the requirements. The program begins in January. One of the requirements before beginning the program is to be employed with IHC. Marissa has been trying to get employed with IHC for four months. She has applied for many, many jobs and has only received two interviews. In both interviews, it was obvious to her that the interviewer had already chosen someone else to fill the position before Marissa ever stepped foot into the interview. She has spoken to Weber State about the problem, and they said, "Good luck to you. If IHC doesn't hire you before the end of December, your position in the program will be filled by someone else."

How unfair is that? Does anyone out there work for IHC or know someone at IHC that could put a very good word in for my daughter or give her some advice?

Well, on to Ukraine happenings. We had our second SDA appointment Wednesday, but the referral won't come until Thursday at 4:00 p.m. By that time, it will be too late to catch the train, too late to catch the bus etc. So we could take the bus at 7:00 a.m. Friday and arrive at 1:30 p.m., too late for our facilitator to accomplish much on a Friday afternoon. Unless we can find another mode of transportation (we refuse to go with a reckless driver), we will probably be in Kiev until Sunday. What a disappointment and a big waste of time. It's frustrating waiting for things to happen.

It looks like some of our Phoenix friends who hosted this summer will be arriving in Kiev soon, about the time we're leaving Kiev. Too bad. It would have been great to share an apartment and expenses like we did with the Bensons.

Yesterday morning we called the management company of our apartment to negotiate two more nights at $50. They refused and said, "Pay the $90 or get out." They also said we would have to pay $90 for the second night, even though I had negotiated for $50. When they came to collect, we only gave them the $50 and said, "We had an agreement." The man called the company, and finally the person who I negotiated with admitted that he had agreed to the $50. So we stuck to our guns, and everything worked out.

We found another apartment on the internet, negotiated for two more nights at $50, packed up, hailed a cab, and we're in a very modern, but small, apartment near the SDA. We're becoming so independent. If your bull-headed like me, you can find cheaper places to live.

I don't know what we'll do today. Maybe take a taxi to see the Kiev Temple. We really appreciate your comments on the blog. It's nice to know people are thinking of us. Some have told us they are blocked from making comments. If that's the case, just drop us an e-mail at lawrence6320@comcast.net. We'd love to hear from you.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, Day 8

I spent part of the morning Googling "Kiev apartments." After we got off the train last night in Kiev, Konstantin brought us to a $90-a-night apartment that really is NO nicer than some of the $50-a-night apartments we've stayed in. He said it was the cheapest he could find. I found several on the Internet and called and discovered that people are ready and willing to negotiate, so I called the management company of our apartment and said we were checking out; come and collect your $90. They asked how much we were willing to pay. We said we had found one for $50. They said, "Okay. You can stay where you are for $50." Michael said, "Good job, Lori." I figure during the swine flu scare, there must be tons of vacant apartments; why not save some money? Isn't this already costing a fortune?

We spent the other part of the morning buying more minutes for our cell phone and buying a flash drive, going to an Internet cafe, downloading Firefox on the flash drive, and then installing it on our computer. All this was done in a foreign country by two computer idiots (us). We gave ourselves a pat on the back. The reason we did this is because our Internet Explorer quit working the minute we arrived in Ukraine, and we have not been able to put pictures on our blog. We've been able to access the internet and post via Team Viewer, but we couldn't post pictures. So then suddenly after we got all this done, the Internet Explorer magically started working again. Oh, brother. Computers are mind boggling to me. Michael can sit here in Kiev and access his computer at work as if he were sitting in his office in Taylorsville. He and his secretary are both on the computer simultaneously and communicating with each other. So our previous posts have actually been posted from Michael's office computer in Taylorsville!

We waited all afternoon for our second SDA appointment. We even walked to the SDA and hung out in the cold rain for two hours. Konstantin told the SDA that "The family is nearby and can come in a moment's notice." But it did not happen. Boo. They are requiring more paperwork, some sort of application asking them to do something, so we'll be going to the notary again tomorrow (Wednesday) and then the SDA at 3:00 p.m.

After that we ate dinner for a total of $7 at "our restaurant." They probably recognize us now. Jen, it's the one where the two cute Ukrainian boys gave you a taste off their plate. Our apartment is about a half block from there.

We keep hoping we see the cute Mormon Elders or Sisters so we could buy them lunch, but no luck. We also want to take a taxi today to see the Kiev Temple that's being built.

It's so awful to be away from our family during the holidays. Marissa put up our Christmas lights outside a couple days ago. Gage and Emily were assigned to put up and decorate the tree. Sometimes I find the holidays to be a drudgery, but I'm sure wishing I were home now.

Pictures at Last

These pictures are in no particular order. Sasha wanted to take this one of us lying on our bed at Igor and Natasha's house.
I finally had to negotiate one of these toilets. I had managed to avoid them up until this trip. You have to stand and squat. And they smell bad. Yuck.

An outside market. The meat doesn't look too appetizing.


Sasha at his desk.

School mates.

Sasha's bedroom held eighteen beds.

More friends.

Private lunch served to me and Michael at the orphanage.

Dima was hosted in Phoenix.

Natasha and Victor were also in Phoenix.

Natasha

This was interesting. These very cute siblings were dropped off by their mother about mid morning. The director introduced them, and they were told where to put their few belongings. They looked scared to death. This is how many of the children at these orphanages end up there. Perhaps their dad died or left the mom and she brings them here telling them it is only for a short time. The sad reality is many moms never come back for them and others come for occasional visits telling them (month after month, year after year) that it won't be long before she can get them out. Eventually so many of these adorable children end up living at these orphanages until they age out at age 16. It was heartbreaking to see this process beginning for these two kids.

Sasha and a friend.

Some of the boys in Sasha's class. They had all just had their hair cut (or shaved). They wear suit jackets as school uniforms. The girls wore vests.

Inna

Natasha and Igor, whom we stayed with in Rivne.

The outside of their apartment building.

Sasha writing his formal letter. The inspector is on the left; the director in the middle.

First seeing Sasha.