We are in Paris eating lunch in the airport. The day is overcast. We leave in 2 hours for New York for a night and then leave for SLC the next morning. We feel at peace with our trip and all that has happened. We are anxious to get home and see our children knowing that we will bring Inna home shortly. We have been very blessed that even with uncertainty, our timing worked out. We finished all our paperwork with one day to spare. We enjoyed the day in Kiev. It was very nice to be on our time with no appointments or places to be.

I will return with my oldest, Kaitlin, on October 25th and we will begin the last part of the process. We plan to return to SLC on November 6th!! That will be a huge celebration!!!!

Like many who travel through this experience, our hearts are torn with love for those children without parents. If anyone is considering adoption, we would love to tell you about some amazing children!!! We feel the orphanage in Kriyvoi Rog is one of the best in all of Ukraine. Yes, we are biased, but the children have created an amazing loving and nurturing environment with the help of their teachers and leaders. So, if your interested, we will point you in their direction. :)

We will post again at the end of October...... Hugs and love to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers!!

Very cool day today in Kiev!! We hung out with a couple of missionaries and watched them talk with different people on the street. It was wonderful to see them interact and share the gospel. We went with them on an appointment to meet one of their investigators too. What great young men!

We rode the subway, saw multiple cathedral's, had dinner at TGIFridays (very ukrainian - lol). It was nice to have a day with all our work completed. Court was last Tuesday, Oct. 12th and it all went well. Our judge was so kind and it was a very memorable and happy experience. We took the overnight train that night back to Kiev and started getting Brad's work done at the US Embassy and the power of attorney notarized for when I return.

Everything we do here is a humbling experience. At the Embassy we met 2 more adopting families. One family was adopting 2 down syndrome children ages (1 & 3) and the other was adopting a 4 yr old girl with spina bifida. Brad and I are so amazed at the kindness of these families.

Yesterday we taught the girls how to play fish. We wrote the numbers and J, Q, K, A on a piece of paper and they had to point to the one they were asking for so we could figure out who was asking for what cards. It took a while for them to learn that they could not ask for a card they did not hold in their hands. We finished the game with collecting the books. That was when the fun really began. Inna tried to write down the books at first, but the girls would not let her. It was a cute interchange. The last time we played the books became very scrambled after having the turns go around the table twice, but Brad finally won.

Today we are back at McDonald's..... The day is filled with bright blue skies and a cold brisk wind. I am going to go buy mittens and a scarf. Maybe even a fleece sweatshirt too.

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Today we have been invited to speak at an English class at the local technical University. I pulled some pictures of Utah off the web and put together a 30+ slide show of our beautiful state. It should be fun. This morning was a McDonald's wifi day. Brad actually ate a big mac and fries for breakfast. At least he choose orange juice. I had a muffin and juice, but I must confess I stole a few fries. There is only one outlet and a few of us McDonald computer junkies were trying to all get to that table with the outlet. We did not make it first, but after an hour the young girl let me plug in. It sounds like we would get a lot accomplished but it still runs slow.

Yesterday we spent the day with Inna and the group going over the pictures in my computer. They are all 13-14 years old girls in the group so they are all hot on Matt. Every picture, there were the points, "There's Matt!! (giggles and ahhs)" Bradley and Tanner get the "they are so cute" replies. I was surprised how long they sat looking at the pictures. Today we brought chocolates and hard candy. They were not as popular as the McDonald's Cherry Pies from yesterday.

Today it is raining and chilly! We do not know how to turn on the heat, but we found out that the radiant heat has to be turned on by the city. So everyone in Krivyi Rig is waiting for heat!!! It has just turned cold while we have been here, so it will be interesting to see how long the city officials will wait to turn on the heat. They say sometimes it is held until the end of November. Brrrr. The other side is that once the heat starts in a building, you cannot turn it off per unit so everyone pays.

We are at some Canadian evangelical missionaries home. As sponsor bought them a unit to use as a ministry home and they service 3 orphanages and run a youth group for college students. They invited us to spend the day with them and use their internet connection. It beats eating french fries at McDonald's to keep a table.

Yesterday we took cherry McDonald pies to the girls in Inna's group. They thought they were cool. They had almost finished the puzzle we had bought a few days earlier. They really need warm clothing. I am glad we brought Inna a new coat. She was also in flip flops so we bought her a pair of good winter shoes. I want to buy shoes for every girl, but a pair of shoes was $75. Food is cheap but shoes are not!! One of our helpers said that in Kiev they have started offering credit like a mortgage on a pair of shoes. Sounds unbelievable.

My stomach is not doing well today. I had milk for the first time this morning in weeks. The milk is more creamy and rich. It tasted good with Cheerios, but my stomach did not like it.

We miss our children. Life is boring without them. Love Ya, MOM

To we toured the city with Nadia. Everywhere we went we saw couples who were just married going around the town taking pictures. One of the famous picture spots was at the boat dock. The gazebo and natural foilage was beautiful. The bridge across the water had locks attached all over the iron work. It is a tradition to write your name and date on the lock, close it on your wedding day and throw the key over into the water symbolizing a union that is to bring lasting happiness.

We took Inna to the Circus. The tigers, jugglers, acrobats were great! Unfortunately we bought tickets in the second row, and then we were ripe for the picking to be in the show. Mom got to jump rope and twirl a hula hoop around her neck. Dad had to wiggle his hips, play the bucket drum and hug another man doing a double hula trick. The pictures are very funny and I was very glad I only had to hula hoop and jump rope.

Sat. Oct 2

Saturday, October 1st, 2010

We are finally back online!! Hooray for McDonald's Wifi. We are sitting in a swivel chairs, on classic Mickey D table tops typing away happily. The joy of finally sending an outbox full of outdated emails is exhilarating!!! Since we last wrote, we have received our permission from the SDA to visit the orphanage and we are taking our paperwork to the local magistrate. We took an overnight train to Krivyi Rih. Our compartment housed 4 beds and we filled three: Me, Brad and our facilitator. The train was actually nicer than our train from Paris to Rome, but train noise is train noise and sleep is hard to come by. In Krivyi Rih, we were able to see Inna and her living space. The girls in her group are very kind and they are all close to each other. 14 beds are in the group room. They have a dance room and an art room. We saw lots of Inna's paintings. We have enjoyed getting to know them. Yesterday, we bought a puzzle and built it together in her group area. We also saw a dance and song performance they did for their teacher's. Friday was a holiday to honor and award teachers. We ate cake and watched them cheer each other with champagne. We were the only one's not drinking, but we smiled and participated by eating CAKE! It was delicious!

The city is bigger than we expected! Lots of pizza places, restaurants, and sport centers with skating and movies, etc. Our facilitator taught us how to make Borscht and I taught her how to make salsa. Bread is made fresh every day and their butter is like pure cream. It makes a great combination and is very hard to resist. When we are alone it is very difficult to communicate because very few people speak English. We had to buy postcards that had 5 different languages on the back, with one being English, in order to figure out what we were looking at in Kiev. So far, we have not found any Kriyvi Rih postcards, but Nadia was our tour guide today. Nadia is an English teacher at the University and she took us to a city museum and an art museum today. We learned about the mining history and Russian culture. Ukraine means edge and is the country that edges all the others. The also call Ukraine - Little Russia. We saw various Ukrainian embroidery pieces, military clothes, medals, and awards.

Since it is Saturday, many weddings took place today. Wherever we went, decorated cars, photographers and brides and grooms surrounded us. On one famous city bridge, couples put a lock on the iron work and through the key into the water to symbolize a long life together. The locks have the wedding date and names of the couple. There were also men selling doves to the wedding couples to release as a symbol of peace and happiness. We saw one bride and groom release their birds together and we watched them fly away.

As we were leaving the church another wedding party arrived to have the blessings of the priest. The couples have to be married first by the local magistrate and then go to the church.

Monday, September 27^th, 2010

DAY TWO - SDA APPOINTMENT

Today we took an early morning 2-mile walk in the brisk air. Many people were already up and off to work. A line of buses set up at the sidewalk to pick up passengers. Although, it seemed like everyone wanted to get on the same bus. Some bus lines were empty and others swollen with people. Women were on the curb selling milk, and other foods. We saw a few young girls with backpacks off to school as well.

Our morning passed slowly as we waited to be taken to our appointment with the SDA at noon. We waited in a stairwell for about 15 min. until we were taken into a small office. We met with a kind woman who asked a few questions and then congratulated us and said we could travel to Krivyi Rig to visit Inna. It was a quick meeting. They had Inna’s file with a few pictures of Inna. One was when she was 8 years old. It was very cute face shot. She was wearing a grey sweatshirt with a pageboy haircut. The other was more recent and very formal. The paperwork is being completed today and we can pick it up tomorrow afternoon before we take the overnight train to Krivyi Rig.

Following our appointment, we took some pictures by the St. Andrew’s Church that was next door to the Ministry Offices. The church was built in the 1750’s. Along the cobblestone road to the side of the church were numerous street vendors. We enjoyed seeing their Ukrainian souvenirs, dolls, linens and things. Many of the shops had a replica of an old club with spikes. It is considered a Ukrainian symbol of power. We thought of getting one for Tanner, but paused when we thought of how the spikes might feel on Bradley and Matthew’s back. J It would be an interesting Ukrainian Lego sword with much greater consequences. (LOL- Kaitlin and Josh!!)

Our driver returned us to the apartment to change clothes and then took us to the 3 story, “Dream Mall”. It was a high-end fashion center with high-end price tags. We saw everything from camping tents and Nike shoes to stiletto heals and leather jackets. We ate at the food court on the third floor and then had some chocolate, strawberry and caramel gelato as we left. We walked home and crashed. Did you know that Brad snores, a lot!! I have had fun teasing him. We are still adjusting to the time change.

We talked to Sister Robinson (a sister missionary in Kiev) and we will be attending a temple session tomorrow morning. Afterwards we may hang out with a member of the church that we met on Sunday. Oxsana speaks very good English and we would like to learn more about the people and culture of the Ukraine. I hope it works out!

Tonight we are going to cook the last of our Ukrainian dumplings and enjoy some grape juice. We may go walking again too! We send hugs and kisses to Tanner, Bradley, Matthew and Kaitlin (plus Josh). We miss you all!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Day One in the Ukraine

Today we slept in and Brad made me breakfast, poached eggs on toast with grape juice and fruit! It was delicious!! We took a walk and explored the nearby church, open market spaces and people watched. The church seemed to be a branch of one of the Russian Orthodox Sects. It was being beautifully restored. It is interesting that nothing is landscaped. There are weeds and dirt everywhere with patches of flowers and manicured fences.

At the church, all the women covered their hair with wraps. One interesting lady was leaving and she turned and crossed herself, proceeded to the exit and turned and crossed and bowed again then turned and took off her wrap and climbed into her Lexus and drove off. Needless to say, Lexus’ are not common faire so she caught our attention. There were many families around the church. One older woman was placing good smelling pots out on a table. It looked as if she would be selling dinner to the exiting parishioners. There were a number of strollers, but most people had only one child. We could hear the chanting hymn like voices coming from the sanctuary, but we did not go inside.

When we arrived back to our apartment we had time to take a 15 minute nap before our driver, Sergei arrived to take us to the Temple and then downtown. Our driver understands more English than he speaks. He bought his van about 10 years ago and has been driving for others since. He is a very nice person.

At the Temple, a meetinghouse was next door. It was 1:30pm and Relief Society and Priesthood Meetings were in session. We met a lady named Oxsana who spoke great English. Oxsana married a Slovakian man, who had joined the church due to singing and traveling as a child. Oxsana introduced us to the missionaries. Elder Jensen was from Kaysville and Elder Obering was from Cedar City. (Our boys will be interested to know that Elder Obering is hoping to play quarterback for BYU when he returns from Kiev).

Both the missionaries were very positive about their experience in Kiev. They said, “it’s difficult to figure out how it works because everything looks old and run down around the city, but the buses are on time and everything falls together and works.” They said if you send a 100 grevnas up to the front of the bus from the back, the exact change is returned every time. Wow! That is a complement to the integrity and honesty of the Ukrainian people!! We were able to get the session times for Tuesday and hope to be able to return to the Temple before we catch the evening train to Krivyi Rig.

Downtown was a party. Lots of people, lots of festive street vendors and lots of Police! It seemed there had been a concert the night before or even earlier that morning. The nearby stadium was filled with Soccer (football) fans. We saw polka dancers celebrating Oktoberfest and a talented Scottish bagpiper. We bought some gelato just off the main square and the lady spoke English to us. Brad remarked, “I guess we are pretty obvious!” We had lunch at an Irish Pub called O’Brien’s (shh, secretly – our driver told us they had English menu’s) J We were not very adventurous with soup, burgers and fries. Our waitress had spent last summer in San Francisco and spoke English well. We enjoyed visiting.

The day was beautiful, the sun was warm and I even got a little sunburned. I feed pigeons crusts of bread from my hand and I picked up some Russian pamphlets/advertisements I thought Matt might enjoy trying to decipher. It was a great day. We returned around 5:30 pm and fell asleep. We have connected our computers to the Internet, and we can get email, but our emails are not going out. Tomorrow we will try to solve that problem. Our appointment with the State Department of Adoptions is at 1:00 pm and then we will have some time with Sasha.

Arriving in Kiev

Saturday, September 25^th, 2010

We arrived in Kiev at 8:45 Saturday morning. We walked through the passport inspection area without much more than a grunt from the agent. As we approached the baggage area there were many men waiting to help for a fee. We surely looked bewildered and a man loaded our luggage said something about $30 and took us through customs at the front of the line and then waited for his money. Our person had not yet arrived and no one spoke English. We gave him $10 and said that was all we had! He was not happy that it was in US dollars, but $10 dollars is about $80 grevnas. Well more than $30 grevnas.... oh, well....

We called the US contact wondering what should be our next step, but then our Ukrainian contact arrived with our driver. We were glad to see a familiar face!! We were quite out of place in a land where we could not understand anyone. We loaded up the luggage and headed to the bank and a phone retailer. We exchanged currencies and picked up a Sims card and a modem for the computers. The phone is working great, but we have not had any luck getting the computers to interface with the Internet.

When we arrived at the apartment the landlord couple was there to show us around and to tell us definitively to take off our shoes!! Our apartment is in the middle of other apartment homes, all 10 stories tall with creamy yellow exteriors with varying degrees of grey concrete showing through. Every window has a different look from the shape of the window encasing to the and window coverings. The stairwells are cement, the hallways are cement, and the elevator can squeeze 4 people (at most) per trip. We are staying on the 8^th floor in room 204. The exterior makes one ask if the building is either under renovation or demolition. The interior is very nice and clean.

At the grocery store we bought some dark chocolate, bread, salami and cheese, plums and other fruit. We got some juice, yogurt and eggs for breakfast. Of course, we also purchased some bottled water too. Last night we cooked some meat dumplings for dinner. It was all very good. We walked about a mile past a McDonald’s and a beautiful church. Amazingly, we were able to find our way home. I say, amazingly because it is really true, almost every high rise looks the same. Brad jokingly said, “I can tell that one is ours because it has a unique creamy yellow color with a certain pattern of cement lines and dirt spots.”

We slept well last night and we were both so exhausted that neither of us had trouble sleeping. Jet lag was nothing since we had had so many late nights before we left. Sleep was a gift!!