Homecoming!

I so apologize to you, our faithful readers, who have been emailing, phoning, and personally asking for an update to our blog. Yes! we are home. We have been home for 13 days. I will catch you all up on what has happened since we've been back, starting with this post, about our arrival in Sioux Falls.

I wrote this post a week ago - I never got it completed then, so I will post it now. I'm sorry - but it's better late than never!

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Well where did this week go. The last time I posted, on Sat. evening, we had just landed in Chicago, where we stayed overnight.

Sunday morning (Feb. 15), early morning, the kids woke up at 2:30 am, awake for the day. They graciously let me sleep until 5:30, when they tickled me awake. On our body clocks, 2:30 was really 10:30 am, which was very late for them, since they always got up at 7:30 while we were in Odessa.

We enjoyed the American breakfast buffet at the hotel. Even Valya found things she likes. She is very picky, not quick to try new things.

On the way to the elevators I noticed the exercise room, so we stopped in there. The kids loved it, especially Valya. She spent an hour on all of the various machines. She is very physical.

We took the hotel shuttle for O'Hare to catch our 1:00 flight to Sioux Falls. On the way to the terminal we saw Air Force One parked there. President Obama was in Chicago over the Valentine's weekend for something. It was fun to show the kids the president's airplane. Our flight was quick - we actually arrived in Sioux Falls 20 min. early. I was concerned about that because I knew that we had a crowd of people that would be there to greet us and I didn't want to get there before them! I made sure we were the last ones off the plane and we walked slowly out of the concourse to give them more time.

Nancy and Mark greeted us at the top of the escalator. She had asked everyone else to wait below so that we could have a little private time together first. We had all been together only once before, on Dec. 27, when we had taken Sergey from his orphanage in Odessa up to Andreyevo to let Valya and Sergey meet for the first time. After hugs and kisses, it was down the escalator to greet our friends and family. I didn't count but I would guess there were about 30 who came to meet us. What a great time we had. Thanks so much to everyone for coming to meet us. It was unforgettable.

And so we end this phase of our adoptions. Now, we are a new forever family embarking on a new adventure!

US Population: 305,818,710 + 2

After about 19 hours of traveling, we have arrived at our hotel in Chicago. Our two flights today went very smoothly and on-time.

Valentina and Sergey officially became US Citizens when their immigration paperwork from the US Embassy in Kiev was processed at the Port of Entry at the airport. They actually have dual citizenship. At the age of 18, under Ukrainian law, they may formally renounce their Ukrainian citizenship. But until then, they are both Ukrainian and American citizens. The US Embassy in Kiev sent home with us some helpful information that explains all of this. We would have to be careful taking Sergey over there after he turns 16 because they could conscript him into the military.

Our day started at Borispil airport, which is a city about 15 mi. east of Kiev. It is a beautiful drive to Borispil as it is birch forest almost the entire way.

After we got checked in and got our boarding passes, we headed upstairs to the international departures lobby. At the east end of a very large room, there is a collection of booths called Passport Control. It is here that they check your passports, and in the case of adoptions, check the adoption papers.

I've read bad stories about this area on other blogs, so I quick scanned the booths and picked one with a young woman. When we walked up to the kiosk, the lady was wearing an army green military type dress uniform, complete with shoulder placards with some bronze stars on it. That looked very normal. But later when she got up to do something, she was wearing a short short tight miniskirt of the same uniform material, black nylons, and knee-high glossy black leather boots. I mean this is an official uniform. It's very odd to see. Anyway I picked a woman, supposing that she wouldn't be as intimidating as the other guys.

Our facilitor had reminded us to be sure that we brought one of the original 16 signed court decrees granting the kids to us. Yep, she asked to see that along with the passports. Taking about 10 min., she read all 4 pages of the decree, then asked the children, "Do you want to leave?" In unison they both replied "Da". I guess that is the last safeguard the Ukrainian government has in place to protect the children. I wondered what would have happened had either of them said No. We got the approval to pass through to the gate and we were off for Frankfurt, Germany.

While we were waiting at Borispil, we ran into Jim Vanderburg. He was also leaving Ukraine, with his three new daughters. Turns out we were on the same flight out, and our connecting gates in Frankfurt were even near each other. Valya, of course, hit it off immediately with his girls, and they all became friends in a short time.

In Frankfurt, Jim and I spent quite a bit of time visiting about our adoptions, and the girls goofed around like girls do. When it was time for our flights to board, we said goodbyes and traded email addresses and phone numbers so that the girls can keep in touch.

As we were boarding the flight to Chicago in Frankfurt, I was suprised, but glad, that the gate agent requested to see the US Embassy packets for the kids. Yet another safeguard in the system to protect the children.

Our flight to Chicago was 9 hours, which went pretty fast, in retrospect. United gives every seat a video screen with 15 channels or so of programming, plus a dozen music channels. Valya was unusually cuddly with me, which I really enjoyed.

The kids have been great. I've never had one discipline problem in the last two weeks. Everyone was tired today, but they hung in there and never whined or complained once.

When we got to the hotel, we all showered right away, then they both fell asleep watching Sponge Bob. They are both breathing deeply in slumber. Before Sergey fell asleep he commented to me that he couldn't believe that he was in America. I know this is a dream come true for him. What a joy and blessing they are.

Tomorrow, we can sleep in and relax before we catch our 1:00 flight to Sioux Falls. We are looking forward to being reunited with Nancy and Mark as a complete family of 5 again, something we have only been able to do once before, on Dec. 27th last year.


Here are some pictures from a great day.


Jim, Miranda, Karina, and Jessica Vanderburg and us together at about 4:30 AM at Borispil, waiting for our flight to Frankfurt.



Jessica and Valya talk about music.



Last moments on Ukrainian soil, on the way to a new life in America.



Hanging with Sergey as we wait for our flight to Chicago.



Valya saying goodbye to her new friends Miranda and Jessica in Frankfurt.

Thank You

It is 3:00 AM in Kiev, we are waiting for our driver.

After looking at the comments from our new friends on my previous post, I realized that I forgot to say Thank You! for all of the nice comments you all have left for us these last 2 1/2 months. They truly are a blessing when you are so far from home. Even though I don't make comments on your comments, please know that Nancy and I read every one and looked forward to seeing them in our email every morning.

God bless you all.

Our driver is here, it is time to go.

-- Alan

A New Day

We are on the train, 10 min. from Kiev, early in the morning.

My shirt looks like I slept in it, my hair looks like I just got up, and out our window there is a New Day dawning.

Our Trip to Kiev

Today, Friday, is Day 4 of the 10-day waiting period. Yesterday, I stayed at the apartment. I was intending to go visit Sergey, but my sleep schedule is not quite synced up with Ukraine and I was quite fatigued. Sleeping since Sunday has been a challenge, also, partly because of our trip to Kiev this week.

Last Monday night, the day of our court hearing, Valya was able to stay with us. We had a nice evening together. Even though we can't talk, it's amazing how well we can get by. At bedtime, I read Goodnight Moon to her. That was fun searching for the Mishka on every page. We actually read it twice to help her learn the English words. Our apartment has a king-size bed upstairs, so we put Valya in it, and Nancy joined her later. I had to sleep on the couch. We don't have extra bedding, so we figured it was better that I sleep without a blanket rather than Valya! I was wondering if she had ever slept in such a large bed before. Her bunkbed at the orphanasge is small.

Tuesday morning, we needed to go see the official that will be supplying Sergey's new birth certificate. She wanted to see Nancy in person and compare her with the passport copy we have in our dossier. The three of us, our facilitator, and her husband drove down to a government office. We went down a long hallway, turned a corner and sat down on a bench to wait. As I was sitting there, I noticed this lady with a little girl that looked familiar. It turns out that she was Louise Puderbaugh, who was there to get the birth certificate for their new daughter Mattea. It was funny, I didn't recognize Lou, but I recognized Mattea from their blog! We eventually went in to see the lady, and Nancy was obviously the same person, so she was satisfied and now I will be able to apply for Sergey's new birth certificate without her after this 10-day waiting period ends. By the way, we also brought some US immigration papers along that Nancy signed and notarized back home so that I will be able to complete the immigration process at the US Embassy in Kiev without her.

After this errand, we headed back to our apartment, where we said goodbye to Valentina Grace for now. Our facilitator and her husband were driving home to Kiev to wait out the waiting period, so they took Valya home since Andreyevo is on the road to Kiev. I say home but not for much longer.

There were so many reasons that we wanted to have court last December. Chief among them was that when we returned home for the Ukrainian holidays, Nancy wouldn't have to come back. Well as you know, that did not happen. So, last Sunday, we returned to Odessa for court on Monday. Then, it was back to America for Nancy. Can you imagine flying to Ukraine for a 1 or 2 hour hearing, then flying right back to America? That is what Nancy did. This was a very expensive 2nd trip that we had hoped to avoid.

The plane tickets that we bought last November were for flights out of Kiev. So Nancy needed to get up there for the flight to America. She didn't want to go alone, so I accompanied her there. The problem is that the flight was for 5:25 AM! So we flew up there Tuesday afternoon and stayed overnight in a hotel. I realized when we were going through Security in Odessa that I had forgotten my cell phone back at the apartment. So no phone on this trip. I wasn't too concerned about it because I figured that there really wasn't anything specific that we would need the phone for and it would only be one day and I'd be back again. BUT...

We spent Tues. afternoon and early evening sightseeing around Independence Square. We looked and looked for TGI Fridays but we never did find it. I was also hoping that the big Christmas tree would be lit up. While it is indeed still there, it is no longer lit at night. Independence Square is beautiful at night. The street that runs through there, Khreschatik, is a lively hotspot. There is a seasonal skating rink set up in the Square and the bystanders would hoop and holler whenever someone fell down. They had dance club music booming over loudspeakers at the rink which could be heard all over the Square. You can't tell from the pictures outside, but there is a ton of shopping that you can do underground. It has to be seen to be believed. I think all of the plaza you can see is just a roof over huge underground shopping. Above ground, Khreschatik Street is lined with restaurants and stores.

Our facilitator, Dima, told us that to make a 5:30 AM flight at Borispil airport, we would need to leave by 3:00. We went to bed at 8:00 PM and watched part of Obama's inauguration live. There was an English-speaking BBC channel on the telly (that's British for TV!) so we were able to watch and listen. Other channels had the English audio turned down with Russian overdubbing. We got a 2:15 AM wakeup call (!) and our driver was at the hotel at 3:00 to get us. Since we weren't at the hotel to get the breakfast that is included in our charge, they had a "boxed" lunch ready to take with us. At 3:00 AM in the car we had a breakfast of ham and pickle sandwiches, and vegetables of cucumber, tomato, and bell pepper. They also provided 2 hard boiled eggs. Except they weren't. They were wrapped in tin foil and I took one of them and cracked it against my knee. That is when we learned that they were raw eggs. Why would they do that?!! Do people actually eat raw eggs for breakfast here? Well, I had a mess on my pant leg to clean up. Ick. As it turns out that would be an omen for the way the rest of the day would go.

Nancy's flight was to depart from the international terminal, Terminal B, and mine was to leave out of the domestic one, Terminal A. My flight wasn't until 10:45 a.m. so I hung out with her for a while until it was time for her to check in. While we were waiting, we ran into an American man who was from Mitchell, Nebraska. We thought it was funny because we are from Mitchell, South Dakota. We got to talking about why we were there. We found out that he was there to meet a Ukrainian woman to date and hopefully marry. He searched on the internet for outfits that set up foreigners with Ukrainian wives and had visited with a couple of women. It sounded like one was going to work out for him. As a side note, we were visiting with the owner of the suites where we are staying, and he said he gets a lot of single American men that stay there. He said that the ratio of women to men in Odessa is about 4:1, so Odessa is a popular place to come.

When it was time for Nancy to check in, we said our goodbye and I headed out of there over to Terminal A to wait for my flight. I was killing time, and here comes Nancy rushing in with her suitcase to tell me that her ticket is no good. Lufthansa couldn't find it in their computer. She couldn't call me because I, um, didn't have my phone. So we quick scrambled back to Terminal B again where we had to spend a lot of time at the ticket window to get it straightened out. Luckily, I found a paper in my collection that had our original ticket numbers from November. Odd that they couldn't find them based on our names. Our return flights were originally scheduled for Dec. 24 2008, which we did not do because we weren't ready to go. A couple of weeks ago I paid our travel agent $250 to change the ticket to this new date, but Lufthansa had no record of that at all. I didn't have my phone so I could not call him. So I forked out another $200, not $250, to change it on the spot and Nancy was able to get on, with only a few minutes to spare. I'll have to contact our travel agent and try to get a refund or else dispute it on my credit card. What fun.

After solving that crisis, I returned back to Terminal A to continue waiting and I heard a jet roar outside and I knew that she was on her way. Then it was my turn. As I was waiting I fell asleep because in reality we didn't get much sleep the night before. I woke up when I heard over the loudspeaker that the plane to Odessa was boarding. I had missed the 1/2 they give you before that to get checked in. In Ukraine, you can't just check in whenever, you have to wait for when they are checking in your specific flight. It is on a screen at the counter and they announce it. When they say the plane is boarding, what they mean is that there is a tram at the door waiting to shuttle you out to the tarmac where your plane is sitting. If you miss the tram, then you miss your flight. I quick grabbed my backpack and raced over to the counter to get my boarding pass. Thankfully, I had no luggage so that made it quicker. Then through Security and over to the gate. There was no line in Security as everyone else on my flight had already been through. Also, their Security is nothing like in America. You don't have to take your shoes off, don't have to take your laptop computer out, and you can take bottled water or soda in with you. They also don't pull people aside to do more detailed screening. I made the tram on time and thought things would be smooth from this point on. Was I wrong.

We departed on time for a 1 hr. 10 min. flight. I had been reading and dozing and wasn't paying all that much attention really, but one time I was looking out the window and noted that the sun was behind us. I thought that was strange. Going south out of Kiev to Odessa, the sun should have been in front of us in winter. It was also going on 12:30 PM and we should have been into Odessa at 12:00. Must have been a strong headwind I thought. Then when we landed, it wasn't Odessa at all but Kiev again! Apparently the stewardess had announced that the weather in Odessa was bad so we were returning to Kiev. I guess my Russian wasn't good enough to catch that. That's sarcasm because I don't know any Russian.

They gave us a voucher as we left the plane that would get us another flight. But as I said before, you can't just check in anytime, you have to wait for that flight's turn to come up at the counter. I was thinking, great, there's going to be all of these people, plus the other people already booked on that flight and there's not going to be enough seats. The next flight was 3:30 PM and it turned out that that one was canceled as well. There was only one more flight scheduled for the day at 8:50 PM. If that one wasn't going, then I would be sleeping in the terminal overnight. I was really wishing I had my phone so that I could call Dima to see if I could take the train or go back to the hotel, or something. I had been at the airport since 3:30 AM and was not looking forward to staying overnight. Also, my cell phone provides internet for my computer and I could have gotten more information about the conditions in Odessa. Guess I shouldn't have forgotten my phone.

From talking to another American that was stranded, I found out that the problem was heavy fog in Odessa. The propeller planes that were used on the earlier flights were not able to land in fog. Well it turns out that the last flight of the day is always a 737 jet and it has no trouble at all with the fog, plus it seats 120 people. So there was room for everyone that missed their flights that day. I was so happy to be on that plane. When we arrived in Odessa it was very foggy. I hadn't seen that kind of fog there before during our other 4 weeks there. I got to the apartment about 10:15 PM after a long, stressful day, made worse by not having a phone along.

Here's some pictures from Tuesday and Wednesday.


Nancy and Valya on our 4th floor balcony, on the way to do more paperwork. We had a nice evening together.



On the way to the Odessa airport. Traffic is crazy in downtown Odessa. Our driver was complaining about the car in front of us, "Come on, get going I could drive a truck through there."



We stayed at the Khreschatik Hotel, which is on Khreschatik Street, right next to Independence Square. Behind Nancy is European Square, which is a block north of Independence Square.



This was the view from our room. If you pay extra, you can get a street-side room. We didn't, and got this instead. The gold dome in the distance is St. Sophia Cathedral.



In the southeast side of Independence Square, dominated by the Berehynia Monument. There used to be a monument to the communist Vladimir Lenin there.




There is an ice skating rink set up in Independence Square. You'd better be a good skater, because if you fall down, the bystanders will yell and hoot. We saw this. The club music was booming all over the square from this spot. Policemen were hanging out at the Berehynia Monument keeping an eye on things. At the entrance to the rink, there are some ice sculptures.





A couple of panoramas of Independence Square, looking northwest, and the national Christmas tree. The tree is spectaular at night, too bad we missed it. In the distance, in the building just to the left of center, is the famous McDonald's.




Murals around the base of the Christmas tree. The imagery is a lot different than we see in America.




These hucksters were a bunch of characters. I wanted Nancy to take a picture of me in front of this statue with a lute player. These guys grabbed the camera and offered to take a picture of us. Pretty soon they were all in the picture, and this guy was taking picture after picture. Finally, enough. Now for the pitch. They said they wanted 10 grivna for every picture. As if I would pay that. If I had known how to say "get lost" in Russian I sure would have. Of course, they acted all upset demanding the money. I gave them a 10 just for their chutzpah. 10 grivna is about $1.20. And I kept all of the pictures.



If you want to really see the crowds, you need to head underground. The place is bustling. You may note the, uh, handicapped access here on the stairs. Can you imagine taking your wheelchair down this ramp? Neither can I, nor anyone else, apparently, because you don't see any wheelchairs down there.



This fellow is a regular fixture in Independence Square. In warm weather, you'll find him outside somewhere, but this evening he was below. I've seen his picture on a lot of blogs. I bought a CD from him for 20 grivna, about $2.50. I can't make anything out of the writing on the case as it is written in cyrillic script rather than block letters, and they are different. His name is Osman Kindrachuk, and he plays a bandura.



Independence Square and Khreschatik Street at night.





Saying goodbye to Nancy as she headed back to America. On my own now. I already miss her.



Flying to Odessa. I thought. Something is wrong here. If we're going south, why is the sun behind us? Turns out I got a nice air tour of Ukraine because I ended up where I started 2 hrs. later. On approach to Kiev, the last thing I wanted to see.



The boarding pass I thought I'd never see. Maybe I'll get to Odessa yet. It was very foggy in Odessa but the 737 had no trouble at all.

In Odessa

We are in Odessa now. Our trip out here was uneventful. That's the way we like it! We were a little worried in Chicago, though. We were an hour late on departure because of some maintenance thing on the airplane. We only had a 1 hour layover in Warsaw for the Odessa connection. But somehow the pilots made up an hour on the way over because we only arrived 10 min. late.

We are staying in the Odessa Executive Suites in an apartment. It is owned and run by an American who understands how Americans like things.

We leave for court in an hour. Nancy and I were wondering if the kids are excited. We haven't see them in 3 weeks. The first time we'll see them now is in court. Kind of strange.

On Our Way to Odessa

We're in Chicago, ready to board our flight to Warsaw and Odessa. No more internet in the airports from this point on. Nancy was talking to Laura. Hi Laura! Tell Mark we love him and to behave.

Our Apartment in Kiev

We are in Odessa now, but here's a post I wrote a couple of days ago about our apartment in Kiev. I want to get it posted before it becomes too old.

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We have our internet connection set up through our cell phone, so now we are able to communicate with the outside world. Dima provided us with a plug converter so we are able to charge up our computers and camera. It feels good to be connected again. In this picture you can see the cell phone plugged into the laptop. It is still able to make and receive calls while online.



We have been in Kiev now for 48 hours. It is an adjustment for us not just in the sense that we are in a different country, but also that we are in a big city. Our apartment is in the heart of Kiev, just about a 15 minute walk to many landmarks you often see in blogs. It is costing us $110 per night to be here. The landlord lady requires us to pay in dollars. There is a parallel economy in Ukraine that deals in dollars. Inflation is at 40%. We only exchange more dollars into ghrivna that we need for a few days. When we leave, it will be impossible to get dollars back. Traveler's cheques take a week to exchange and is a difficult process. Best not to bring them to Ukraine.

Here are some pictures of life in our apartment.

This is the building. There is a small courtyard in front of it. Occasionally there will be someone sitting on that bench. But not us. It is very cold here. You weather weanies from warm climates who will be coming here for your SDA appointments in the winter will need to be sure to bring warm clothes. We South Dakotans have good clothes for this weather. Our apartment is the one where you see the enclosed porch on the lower right.



The double doors have a combination lock to get in.



Once you get inside the outer doors, there is a staircase to our floor.



This is inside the apartment looking at the entrance to come in. Note the CCTV for security to its right. The apartment has loud yellow-green paint, except for our bedroom, which has loud pink paint.



The door lock uses an interesting skeleton key. Curious that it has a Texas key chain. When we leave, we take the key out of the inside of the door and lock it from the outside. Anyone inside is locked in because we only have one key. We did that once to Mark because he was sleeping late and Nancy and I needed to run an errand.



This is our kitchen. It is mostly outfitted with dishes, pans, utensils, etc. I say mostly, because if you were really going to be here for any length of time and use it, you’d have to pick up a few things, such as a can opener, matches for the stove, a sharp knife, pasta strainer, spices, etc.



The kitchen doesn't have an oven, but it does have a microwave. I picked up a frozen pizza at the market. I couldn't read the box but the picture looked like it had some meat on it. It turned out to only be cheese and tomato chunks. It was a pathetic looking thing, and didn't taste much better.



The bathtub and sink are in a different room from the commode. The showers have been nice and warm, though the water is hard.



The commode is in its own little throne room. I call it the echo chamber. Any noises generated will echo and reverberate endlessly until they can be heard everywhere in the apartment. I think people outside can hear, too. There is a thing on top of the tank that you have to pull up to flush.



This is the hallway that leads to the TV room and the bedroom.



This is the TV room that has a couch that unfolds into a bed, like some huge Transformer toy.



This is our bedroom.



As I mentioned in my last post, only one of our three suitcases arrived with us. Mark and I have been in these same clothes since Wed. We were able to wash a few things in the sink and leave them for drying overnight. The apartment has a drying rack for us to use. We can use a hair dryer to help things along.



There is a washing machine, but it has no dryer. We had a similar unit in our London flat, but it also had a drying function. Here is a picture of the control panel on it, and a closeup of the instructions. I’m not sure what all the little icons stand for. We didn't dare use it.




Here are a couple of pictures from outside. A signboard on the building’s wall and the dumpster. I think trash day must be coming soon.



We got our old expired dossier from Oleg to keep as a souvenir. Here we are looking it over. We are also delivering our 2nd dossier from Kiev to Odessa, along with the referrals. In that dossier, besides each individual document being sewn to its own Ukrainian translation, the complete dossier is sewn together into one bundle.



We brought a scanner along. Here, we are scanning our referral papers for souvenirs.



Friday night we watched a movie and ate snacks while waiting for our luggage to arrive. It finally came at 9:15, three days after we arrived in Kiev. The apartment has a VCR but no DVD player. Even if it did, there's a good chance it wouldn't play American DVD's, as a DVD is coded for a certain part of the world and DVD players from other parts won't play them.