We Finally have Internet

We'll have you missed us?

It's been three long days since we last talked to anyone as we had no internet connection. I went out yesterday and purchased a wireless internet stick and we made some quick skype calls (quality was very poor) to our family/friends that were online to let them know what was going on - it took me a while to get the settings right and by the end of the night, the call quality was much better.

We have been in Kiev for the last three days waiting for word as to when Janine's passport will be ready. We are expecting it Tuesday and then will go the to the embassy on Wednesday. Tomorrow, we will attempt to book a flight back home for Thursday.

Janine's understanding of English is improving everyday. She is speaking better and has about 10 words in her vocabulary. She is sleeping through the night and is eating everything we put in front of her. Her walking has improved beyond her 5 steps but she is still exploring around the apartment. She knows her eyes, mouth, nose, cheeks, hair but has trouble with ear. She can blow kisses and is just starting to kiss our cheeks upon command. She loves to hug!

Not much has been done since we have arrived. Weather has been gloomy with some flurries every now and then. Temperature -7 to -10C. We usually get out once a day but we are limiting the time as Janine has a cold. Our apartment is close to the train station but too far away for the kids to walk back to the main square. We did manage to find a large supermarket yesterday so we are all set now for the last few days of our stay in Ukraine.

Today we ventured out to the play park that was beside our old apartment before we left for Kremenchuk. We found out very quickly that Janine did not get outside in her early life as she was scared of anything we attempted to put her on or near including a swing, stone statue, park bench, etc. We will have to work on this very quickly when we get back as she will be spending a lot of time outside; walking Nathan to school every day, playing in the backyard, cottage life, etc. We figure that since she was not walking, she was not taken outside to play in the baby house.

Overall, she seems quite content and very happy to be with us. She is adjusting very well to her new settings.

One Step Away from Comming Home

It seems that I am falling behind in my posts. This time, our internet was down for over a day.

So we arrived in Kremenchuk Sunday morning at 8:30am. Nathan was more tollerable on the train ride this time as he slept most of the trip - what a relief!

We only saw Janine for her afternoon play session. She was not too impressed with us. It was like getting the cold shoulder for leaving her behind for the last few days. I think it was because we did not bring her any treats for the last few days. It took a while, but she did warm up especially when the treats came out. She is now saying please (not that you can understand it but she is attempting) and her thank you is more noticeable. Her walking has taken a bit of set back since we have not been around to assist her. She was only managing 2 steps today but she was taking more risks which was encouraging to see.

On Monday, we had our two visits. She was in vintage form that day. Very excited to see us - the most we have seen so far. The please and thank you are improving. Walking is still stuck at two steps but she is getting very courageous in taking steps without us around. She is very proud when she can stand up on her own with support from a near by object, get her balance and then take a step or two. Her face lights up and she smiles. Then she drops and she is back up climbing like nothing ever happened and tries again. I don't see any fear in her.

Today, we spent the enitre day driving and signing papers. First we drove to her home town (of which I don't have the spelling right now) to get a new birth certificate. Then we drove to the capital of the region to register the birth certificate and get a new identification number from the police station. Then it was off to another government building to apply for the passport. Then it was back to Kremenchuk to visit the baby house to get them to sign some papers, pick up Janine to have her photo taken for the passport, back to the notary to sign more papers/petition, and then to the local police station to take the photo and sign more papers which Misha will take back to capital of the region so no time is wasted having the locals do the paper work delivery. This will save us a couple of days waiting for the passport.

If all goes well, we should be on a plane and back in Toronto by the end of the week.

Tomorrow, we will be on the road again for the last time with Janine in tow back to Kiev where we will wait until the passport is ready. Once we have the passport, then we are off to the Canadian Embassy where we ask for her immigration papers and a visa that will allow her entry into Canada.

Not bad in a days work - much faster and easier then in 2008 - the only difference is we have to wait for the passport - in 2008 we had it the next day. Oh well, at least the end is near and we will be back in our own beds in no time and Janine will be in her new bed.

What a Reunion!

Let's review the last few days to get everyone back up to speed including myself as I am loosing track what day it is.

We said our goodbyes to Janine Wednesday morning after she gave another outstanding performance in walking again - 5 steps without assistance. The day was such a beauty that we had Misha drive us to McDonald's and walk back - about a 1.5 hour walk.

We were preparing the last few things before Misha came to pick us up for our trip to Oleksandria as we could not get a ticket for the train in Kremenchuk when Rodica from CARC (our adoption agency) saying we had an issue with our immigration paperwork. This was serious as without it, the province could not issue the Letter of No Objection #2 that basically said they were in agreement with our agency and adoption practicioner in allowing us to adopt Janine. Without this letter, the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine would not issue a visa to Janine that would allow her to leave Ukraine and enter Canada. The province was missing documentation that we had a file opened with Immigration Canada for an unnamed child that we were going to adopt. My fear was that our immigration file was closed since I opened this file in March 2008 in preparation of our first adoption when we were open to adopting siblings so we needed two files. Since that never happened, I used the opened file for this trip. I had called before we left to confirm that the file was still open and active.

So my first call was to Lynne (my sister in law who has been our resource at home while we are here) to place a call to Immigration Canada - they have no number that can be used outside of Canada. She called the number while I am using Skype and puts her phone on speaker phone and holds it up to the mic on the computer - you just gotta love technology. We wait 10 long minutes (this was at 5:45pm and Misha was picking us up at 6:30) before we get to speak to an operator. I explain the situation and she does the usual security checks. Then she goes on to say that she cannot proceed any further because they do not allow 3rd party phone calls. Lynne could only participate if I designated her as representative. This could only be done by completing more paperwork that would take 10 days to process if I faxed it in. After pleading my case, she refused to provide any more assistance. So we hung up and tried again hoping we would not get the same operator. While this was happening, I was trying to purchase phone time on Skype and declining calls from Martha's mom and my boss at work that needed emergency assistance on an important matter. This time I failed to mention that Lynne was on the other line. But after 30 minutes of talking, I was no further other than to confirm that the file was still open and active.

With that, I had Lynne call the province to see what exactly they needed or what was missing from Immigration Canada. The problem this time was everyone was away from their desk for lunch so we left a message for them to call Lynne. The time was now 7pm and we had to catch a train by 8:46pm with an hour drive still left to complete. So you can just imagine me sitting in the front seat trying with the laptop open and calling Lynne to see if she heard anything. As we got further out of Kremenchuk, the cell signal dropped to the point is was non existant. We arrived at the train station at 8:20pm. Quickly, I powered up the laptop and called Lynne but the signal was poor but I caught enough words to know what documentation they were looking for. Luckily, I had scanned every single document, letter, receipt, etc that I received, sent, filed, completed etc. for this adoption and placed it on the laptop and an usb stick for backup because you just don't know when you need another copy or have to refer back to something. I found the file and sent it away counting the MB as they transferred. While this was going on, they announced on the loud speaker that the train was approaching and we should head out to the platform to wait.

Again, laptop in my arms trying to Skype Lynne to see if she received the document I sent (I had copied her as a back up just in case Rodica did not receive it). But I didn't have enough time to complete the call as the train had stopped and they don't give you much time to board before it leaves again. In our cabin (car), I tried again, reached Lynne, confirmed she had received it before we lost the signal again. And that was it as I never got the signal again until we arrived in Lviv. In the end, everything worked out (including my boss's emergency) but it was very nerv racking and stressfull moment for me and I am sure Martha will have more grey hairs to pull from my scalp.

The train ride would last 15 hours. It was smoothing sailing until Nathan woke up. You can imagine how a very active 4 year old would be in a cabin no bigger than 15SF and no room to move. It was a very long 3 hours after that. We arrived in Lviv at 11:45am just as scheduled and no sooner did we get out of the train station did we meet our landlord from 2 years ago who had saved us an apartment and would be our taxi driver that morning. We found out that he was the proud father of a baby girl since we last spoke to him and she would be 1 this month.

Nothing much has changed in Lviv. Yes there are some new buildings and some new establishments but the main things are still the same like we left two years ago. It seems like we are home again (we spent over 5 weeks in this town 2 years ago). We quickly place our bags in the apartment and were back out on the street trying to get to Nathan's baby house by 2pm as that was the planned reunion with the staff at the baby house and his church mother.

We arrived at the baby house and found our way inside through the back door to the director's office. We could hear talking inside so we waited. Outside her office, we found the wall with photographs of children that had been at the baby house who have since left or are currently there. To the left of the main board, we found another board that had three of Nathan's photos on it with a sign above saying "Circle of Family". Nathan was all excited to see this.

We knocked on the door, entered and waited for the Director and Daria (a caregiver that had brought Nathan to Kiev to have his immigration medical) to either recognize Nathan or us. It took a while before they realized who the grown up boy wearing glasses and talking English was. And then everything clicked. The director pulled our our letter and photos that we send just after Christmas saying we would visit her when we had an opportunity and to pick up his Christening chain that she said she had in a previous letter. After looking at him for a few minutes and reading the letter to the other staff members in the room, she quickly made a call. Shortly, three more people entered the room, one being the doctor we first met when we went to the baby house the first time to visit Nathan.

From there we headed out to see his old stomping grounds to visit his caregivers but they were no where to be found as they had moved to another building that was under renovation when we were there 2 years ago. To our disappointment, only one caregiver was there that we knew. The other had either moved on or were working on a different day. As for Nathan's church mother, she had called to say that she would not be able to make it so we planned to meet Friday morning in front of the Opera House at 10am. Nathan did not recognize anyone at the baby house and I didn't think he even remember the building but he did understand why we were back as he asked everyone he saw "do you remember me".

Friday morning we woke up to a light snow fall and a temperature of -3C. As we walked up to the Opera House, I was looking to see if I could spot Nathan's church mother - Natalia - so we could watch how his reaction would be. We even had him walk ahead to see if he would spot her first but she was no where to be found as she was running late. Natalia had invited a friend who spoke English to be our translator. And when Natalia did arrive, you could see from the smile and excitement on Nathan's face that he did remember her as he ran into her open arms and gave her a big hug and kiss.

We too were excited to see her as she provided such care and comfort for Nathan during his 2 years as the baby house. She also provided us with pictures from when he first walked, 1st birthday, christening, etc that we never expected to get. We talked for a while outside and took many pictures before heading to a Ukrainian restaurant where we shared stories from 2 years ago, brought her up to date on his current going on's, and why we were back in Ukraine. This went on for over 2 hours and Nathan was just soaking it all in. We found out that Natalia is getting married next year and we have been invited to the wedding - this should be interested as I ask work for more time off next year! She even told us the story how not too long ago she dreamed that one day she would meet Nathan again and see him all grown up to be a handsome young man.

We said our goodbyes and hoped to talk to one another again via email and then went on our separate ways again. We did some shopping before heading back to the apartment for the night.

Both Martha and I said that this day was so enjoyable for all of us and will be one of the highlights of our 2nd mission to Ukraine. Although Nathan did not realize the importance of this day today, we hope he will when he is older and I hope he will have fond memories as you just don't know if our paths will be able to cross again.

I lost the fight!

Kremenchuk is still in a cold spell with the sun shining bright.

Monday's big events were the following:

Janine started to give both Martha and I hugs. We did have to put her arms around us but she would lay her head to rest on our shoulders. During the morning play session there was another family in the room with their child - not sure of the reason of why there were there but Janine would not leave my arms to play. She stuck to me like glue and watched their every moves. Once they left the room, she returned to normal and started playing with Nathan.

In the afternoon session, Nathan picked up some battle scars. He got involved in a hockey fight like they did in the NHL the other night with Janine and he got the worse of it. One sucker punch by Janine and he was out like a light.

The reality is that Nathan was getting out of the pool of balls and some how slipped, tripped or stumbled and went head first into the bench leaving a gash above his right eye. Instantly it bubbled like a balloon and I had to run outside to get some snow to control the swelling. The rest of the session (one hour) was spent with one kid covering his eye with snow wrapped in a pillow case (this is what we have been using for our picnic blanket) the other kid playing with the stuffed animal. Luckily no skin was broken and the swelling stopped. I can just imagine me calling for an ambulance like I called for a fire truck two years ago when our instant hot water heater caught fire in our apartment -  although the there was a hospital just next to the baby house but I not sure what type.

Tueday's big events were:

Nathan right back at his nonsense like nothing happened the night before - they seem to forget quickly don't they. Janine right behind him every step of the way. And I mean every step of the way as she took her first steps with no assistance - 4 of them in a row. And we didn't even have to bate her with food. She stood and balanced herself for a while and Martha asked her to walk with her arms way open motioning her to "come to mama". She then took a step and fell into Martha's arms. She was so proud that she wanted to try again. So up she went and she was down just as quick. She quickly crawled to Martha and wanted to try again. This went on for about 1/2 hour and she then made two steps, then three steps, and finally four steps when she finally had enough.

As some of you know, Nathan was adopted from Lviv in 2008. When planing this mission, we said that if we had the opportunity, we would return back to Lviv to visit his baby house, his caregivers and his Church parents if they were available. So after some help from Misha and Natasha, we will be riding the train tomorrow to Lviv and return back to Kremenchuk on Sunday. Janine will not be making the trip with us but will be in good hands with her caregivers.

Pictures to come later.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Well, winter has finally come to Kremenchuk since our arrival. We hit -11C with a wind that made it feel like -20C. We had a snowfall overnight as well, so I had to actually shovel snow. Nathan on the other hand just jumped in and made snow angels.

Janine doesn't seem to be a morning person - like her mom. We find her to be very sluggish or possibly tired at times. She does get a spark of energy every now and then, just trying to keep up with her bigger brother - which will be impossible no matter how hard she tries. We are into a routine now. Watch the two of them do their thing for about an hour, feed the little playmates some snacks, and then work with Janine on saying words or pointing to her eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair - when she is paying attention and not watching Nathan, she is very good at it.

We walked to our favourite drinking hole for lunch where Nathan enjoyed another beer. If he keeps this up, he will have more beer in a month than I have had my whole life! Then it was off to the grocery store to stock up on food, birthday cake and ice cream.

Janine had more pep in her in the afternoon session and was ready to work her legs into action. She was also very talkactive shouting out sounds to Nathan. Martha had her starting to say Dada. The rest was just like normal - watch the two of them play together.

After arriving back to the house and having a quick bite to eat, Martha pulled out the birthday cake to celebrate my birthday. We then made a skype call to my brother which whom I share the same birthday (he is 4 years older) before putting Nathan to bed for the night.

A Gift from God

The sun was shining bright today and the weather was -3C. No snow fell overnight.

We missed our morning play session as we had paperwork to complete at the courts in preparation for our court date.

The court was a small building with narrow hallways. We met our advocator (lawyer) and an official of the city office that had given us permission to visit Karyna at the baby house when we first arrived in Kremenchuk. After signing some petitions and requests, we were wisked back to the house.

From there we went to the pub for lunch. Nathan had his first beer. Well that's what he called apple juice in a beer glass. After lunch we did some grocery shopping and then headed off to the baby house for our afternoon play session.

We introduced Karyna to a sippy cup. She did not know what to do at first. She put it in her mouth but made no action. Luckily, Nathan had his so she watch and listened and in no time, she was sucking away enjoying some water.

Nothing new to report on her progress at this time. She is babling more but again, we have that language barrier. She is responding to her new name at times.
With Martha's permission, I am now able to post some pictures and reveal her new name:

Janine Florence Karyna Indovina.

Martha had the name picked from over 2 years ago when we first came to Ukraine. Janine in Hebrew is "A Gift from God". Florence is Martha's mom's name and has been in her family for many generations. And just like Nathan, we kept her birth name as her middle name. I just hope we don't have the same issues we did with Nathan's name on her birth certificate and passport - not enough space to type in the full name.

Enjoy the photos.

Anyone have a spare Tire?

Note: there are two posts today.

It was another sunny day today (Wednesday) in Kremenchuk so we decided to walk home from our morning visit and explore more of the city in hope of find a restaurant with English menus.

The morning play session with Karyna started off poorly as Nathan lost a tire on the bike he has been riding around for the last week. The rubber tire had split apart! How are we going to explain this to the caregivers? I guess we have a little shopping to do for either a new bike or try and find a replacement tire. That was pretty much the only excitment during the two hour visit.

During our drive to the Loblaw's Supercentre like grocery store last week, we saw what appeared to be a bowling alley and a restaurant beside it with the word Pizza - a good place to start. After walking for about 45 minutes we arrived at the bowling alley. Walking to the side, we found a menu plastered on the window and to our surprise it had English subtitles. The pub was below the bowling alley and empty until we arrived. The menu had many selections and the prices were very reasonable - we had greek salad, pizza, two pops and orange juice for $12 CAD. We will be spending a lot of time here until we leave for Canada.

During the afternoon play session, we tried some new foods for Karyna - cheese and yogurt. So far we know she likes cookies, bread, crackers, banana, and yogurt. She dislikes cheese, apple, and cucumber. She tries new food by licking it. If is has a taste she likes, then it goes in her mouth otherwise, she drops it to the floor. If you give it to her again, she turns her head to the side. If you continue to force it on her, she puts her hands up pushing the food away. Martha will have her hands full when we return. Nathan on the other hand was not fusy with food.

She picked up the word Hi this afternoon and loves to look in the mirror - what girl doesn't!

P.S. - we had another addition to the family on Monday as my sister Joanne gave birth to a baby boy. Congratulations Joanne, Mike, and older brother Graeme who wanted a sister!

Enjoy the photos of Kremenchuk.

Karyna Tries to Escape!

We all slept in Tuesday morning recovering from our long drive yesterday.

With the morning off and the sun finally shining through the clouds, the temperature rose to a Florida like day of 9C, we ventured off exploring Kremenchuk.

Our first stop would be the local market that was close to the first apartment that we stayed in when we arrived here. It wasn't as large as what we found in Liev, but it provided us with some items we needed to bring Karyna home to Canada.

We then visited the small bread kiosk to load up on some fresh buns before heading back home. This is when we made a wrong turn and ended up minutes away from the baby house. To our surprise, Nathan did not complain the whole trip so if the weather is nice again tomorrow, we will attempt to walk to the baby house. Nathan did have another episode with his glasses. As we were walking home, the lens in his glasses popped out. Nathan reacted quickly enought to catch it and let us know before we lost any other critical parts.

Back at the house, Nathan finally returned to doing some school work as I caught up with emails. It wasn't long before we had to leave for our 4pm visit.

Karyna was very excited to see us this afternoon. She ran as quickly as she could away from the caregivers to us - at least that is what she wanted to do. She still needs assistance walking as she is unstable on her own.

I found out very quickly in the playroom that she doesn't like to be surprised by new objects when I pulled out my video camera for the first time. The minute she saw I was recording her, she began to cry and looked for comfort from Martha. I will try again another day.

During this play session, we had her saying bye, bye and momma. Her please is getting better but still no muttering of the word or any sign of saying thank you. She just waits for her piece of banana, cookie, or bread and then quickly puts it into her mouth. She was giving things a little easier today but still not sharing to the disappointment of Nathan. If she has a toy, there is no way she will share with Nathan and if Nathan tries to pull it away, then she either cries or lets out a shriek which we assume is her way of saying NO.

When it was time to go, Karyna refused to go back to her group for the first time. We had expected this to happen at some point, and were very pleased to see it. She actually turned away and walked in the other direction as we approached the group room. It did not take much to convince her to go back as it was dinner time. We said our bye byes and exchanged some blown kisses.

Here are some photos of the baby house grounds and the room we play in with Karyna.

We are still alive if you are wondering!

Sorry for not posting since we left for Kremenchuk on Wednesday morning. Our internet time has been limited between visiting the child twice a day for 4 hours in total and digesting all the information we have been provided.

The drive was about 3-1/2 hours of farmland and a two lane highway that was full of pot holes. Toronto has no complaints when compared to what we went through. Vitaly was driving in the wrong lane to avoid most of them when he could. The highway even had turnabouts.

Kremenchuk is a very industrial city. Most of the apartment buildings we have seen date back at least 60 years and are in need of upgrades. The is no comparision to what you see in Kiev or what has been done in renovating the apartments. We have not ventured too far from the apartment we stayed in for the last three days but have found the McDonald's and various little shops to buy groceries. We did find the local market but did not have time to venture through it yet.

On Saturday we moved out of the apartment and into a town house which is better suited for us.

I know you are all wondering about the child that we were proposed. Her name is Karyna (not her final name) and she is 2-1/2 years of age. She has white blonde hair with beautiful blue eyes - a sweet heart that will give me all kinds of trouble with boy friends when she grows up. No pictures at this time until after our court date.

Nathan and Karyna are getting along great. She always has her eyes on him watching his every move. She is mimicing both the good and the bad habits.

After three days of visits, she is signing please waiting for us to give her a cookie or a piece of banana. We have only had one temper tantrum when we refused to give her any more treats - boy she has a good set of lungs on her. And when she cries, Nathan joins in. I can just imagine what the caregivers are saying in the baby house.

We are playing with Karyna in a separate room away from the other children in her group - which we believe is 12 children. She is already saying mama and papa. She is a very quiet and content girl but I am sure by the time we leave Ukraine, Nathan will have her going.

Today (Monday) was another travel day back to Kiev to complete the immigration medical check - needed in order for Karyna to be accepted in Canada - which she passed. She was much better in the car than Nathan - only cried once. Nathan on the other hand, was all about, asking if we were there yet, screaming, playing loudly with Karyna, etc.

The next step on our mission is waiting for a court date to officially adopt Karyna into our family. We may have to wait up to 1-1/2 weeks for the court date. After our hearing in the courts, assuming we are made the legal parents of Karyna, we have to wait another 10 working days before it is official to allow any one to protest the courts decision. After that, we scramble for a few days complete other paperwork in Kremenchuk before returning to Kiev to completing immigration paperwork.

Once that is done, time permitting, we plan to take a one day trip back to Liev to visit Nathan's baby house.

I will post some pictures tomorrow of the baby house and Kremenchuk.

We are packing our bags for a road trip!

Yes, that is right. We had a very good day yesterday at the SDA. Although our appointment was delayed by over an hour we were shown one proposal and we have accepted it. So we will be traveling on Wednesday to visit the child and get more information.

The orphanage is 350km east of Kiev, approximately a 5 hour train ride. We will be traveling by car. Unfortunately I don't have the proper spelling of the town the baby house is located in but we have been told it is a large town and that many Canadians have adopted children from this babyhouse. We are all very happy and excited to be moving forward.

Talk to you in a couple of days. Joe.

Photos of our new friends (Facilitators) in Kiev - Lesya, Irina, Vitali.