Off we go again!!!

Ok..so I know I am a bad blogger. Heck, I even missed days while we were in UA and I had nothing else to do. Well, since we have been home, I have worked at least 12 hours a day, and sometimes 16 hours and I am tired, too tired to try to type something interesting up when there isn't really anything interesting going on here. But anyway, I booked tickets for me and Cody to leave Saturday at 1200 and we should arrive in Ukraine on Sunday at 415 pm. Hopefully, we will go straight to the train station and get to Sevastapol by Monday morning/afternoon and get the paperchase started. I am super excited for Cody to be going with me and I think it will be important for him to experience and see where the boys come from. Plus it will be cool for me and him to get to spend a whole week or so together. I can't wait to see how he does with the food. He is a very particular eater (and a very big eater). He has about 10 different foods that he loves and he eats over and over and over again. He will either change his weary ways or loose some weight while we are there...hehehe!

Anyway, I have been super busy at home, but can't seem to make any progress or get anything done that needs to be done. I have decided that I will not go to bed tonight until the boys room is sleep ready. Their sheets and blankets will be downy soft and their clothes will be all organized and ready to go! I promise this to myself! (It is so much harder than you think)

Now, for how I feel without having Cole and Caden here with me. I hadn't put a lot of thought in it before I had to do it. Leaving them there, knowing that they were not getting the love and things they needed, has tore a hole in me. It would be the exact same as leaving Danielle and Cody somewhere for a month that I knew was a bad situation. I miss them. Sean cleaned out our backpacks and suitcases and I saw there little pack of animal crackers on my dresser and I almost burst into tears. I hope and pray that they are ok and I promise that once I get my hands on them, I will never leave them again. I can't wait to get the home and get theirs lives started here. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and please pray that we get the QUICK passports. The office in Sevastapol will either have the red (fast-1 hour processing) or the blue (slow-4-10 days processing) passports and we won't know until we get there which one they have. PLEASE PLEASE have the red passports available so that we can get the heck out of dodge!

Will try really hard to keep everyone updated! I will leave you with two reasons why we are doing this......Caden thought Cole was getting more yogurt than him!

Stephanie

More Pictures!

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pics that I promised. I will do the rest later!

We made it home safe and sound....17 hours on the train, 3 flights for 22 hours straight (including lay over time) and we are home! Thank GOD!! Very uneventful travel so I will leave you with the pictures.

Stephanie

Court Results!!!!!

Court has came and went and it was a great success. We arrived at the courthouse at 845 am and were led to a small hall to sit on a bench outside of a room. Some papers were exchanged from our facilitator and the lady in the office and then we were told to wait back on the back. I was so nervous that I ate a whole pack of tic tacs sitting there.

We were then called into the "court room", which was just an office. There was the judge, a transcriptionist, two jurors, the inspector, the facilitator and us. The judge was a pretty woman, about 40 years old, with typical Ukrainian clothing. We immediately started and the first question that was asked to us by the judge was "Do you trust us?" My gut was screaming, uhhh..."No, not really" but my mouth said "yes". Ok...I am 6000 miles away from home, in a small, dark room with complete strangers dressed like strippers, with more money strapped on my body that most of them make in a year's time, and NOW I am starting to get really nervous. I look over at Sean and think "Well, I know he can physically get us out of here if things go south, but what would we do once we got out of the building?" I don't have time to stay nervous because things are proceeding and the judge is talking a hundred miles an hour and Angelina is semi-whispering to us about what she is saying. We had to stand and introduce ourselves (which by the way-is your full name, date of birth, address and occupation). We showed our passports and sat back down. We were then asked if we had our own children and if they were healthy. We said yes and then we were asked a few questions about whether we were aware that these boys were not healthy. Again yes. We were asked what their life would be like, including where they would sleep, etc. Answered and moved on. One of the jurors had a question. She asked "Are the boys going to live in the same house as you or are they going to live in a separate building?" Uhhmmmm....No, they will live in our house and stay with us. Ok. Everyone was happy. Sean finished up the interviews with his one answer. They asked how we were familiar with people with DS and he said that he was raised with his Uncle Mac from the time he was little until the time Mac died and that Mac was his best friend. I heard the bell for the KO. That summed it up and we could have been finished right there, but the inspector wanted to speak. She was very nice and said that she could tell immediately that we would be good parents to the boys because of how we first interacted with them on our first meeting. She said that most kids like ours would be scared and not let us touch them, etc. (plus the fact that they were sleepy and had been awoken from their naps to meet us) but that they came to us and sat on our laps and interacted with us. Then the judge looked at the calendar and said we could come and pick up our decree on September 20 and take them home. Court lasted about 10 minutes and it was over. We thanked them and left.

Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes. They worked!!! We are now packing up and getting back on the train at 5 pm to go back to Kiev. We will arrive in Kiev at 11 am tomorrow morning. I am not sure what we have to do about the power of attorney at the US Embassy because Angelina thinks it is closed for 9/11, but we will see. Will update as soon as possible.

Stephanie

The Final Countdown!

Well, it is 9 pm on Tuesday night here in UA. We have court in 12 hours. This is the final countdown. Sean and I went out for dinner and just got home. While waiting for our food, I said, "What if the judge said no and we couldn't get the boys?" Sean looked like he had seen a ghost...he said "Can they do that? Have they done that?" I said, "This is UA; they can do anything they want and I don't know if they have done that before or not." Then, I got to thinking about it....what if they wouldn't let us come home with the boys? My heart broke and I said a quick prayer to plead with God to let things go well at court and let it be quick and easy. Still very scared of the court process.

Since the list was a hit, here are some quick tidbits about the boys....

Caden......

sucks like he has something in his mouth all the time, but refuses to suck a pacifier or bottle or sippy cup.

says "Momma" and tries to get to me anyway he can (crawl, scoot, fall toward me).

LOVES to eat yogurt (strawberry favorite so far).

can pee on the potty.

can take 8 steps sideways holding on to the monkey bars/metal thingy in the playground.

can do 12 crunches/sit ups.

can go from a lying down position to a sitting up position on first try (couldn't do this at all when we got here).

He can hum/sing a song with you.

He is very, very, very ticklish and laughs with his whole body.

He likes to dance.

He can army crawl (but we are not suppose to put him on the ground, but I might have accidently let him and happen to video it at the same time-promise to download video and pics as soon as we get home).

Now, for the big boy...Cole likes...

everything..anything...he doesn't care what you do as long as you are doing it with him.

He runs to us when we go pick him up from his groupa and clearly hugs and KISSES (sometimes with a little tongue action) us when he sees us.

LOVES to swing. They are taken outside almost everyday, and play NEXT to the swing, but we have never seen a child actually in the swing.

loves to eat, so far anything that I have brought from bananas to pudding to yogurt to cookies, crackers...he doesn't care.

Can feed himself with a spoon and holds his own drink, etc.

Will give you five and a thumbs up on request.

Doesn't cry when he gets hurt:::(((

Can say "Poppa" and looks for Sean constantly.

Loves for Sean to throw him up in the air.

Loves for me to hold him very tightly and squeeze on him. Will sit on my lap forever and just let me hold him (as long as I do it firmly).

Has the biggest "outie" belly button in the world.

Is very ticklish.

Is so capable of learning if just given the chance.

Leaving the orphange was much harder to do today than I thought it would be. There have been several incidents that I haven't blogged about that have happened there. Everyday the boys have a new cut, scrape, black eye, something and I don't know how that it is happening. I hope it is just from them being kids and falling down, etc. One incident was when I picked up Cole and he was on the potty, but did not use it. It was horrible. I will blog about it later...after we get them home.

I just pray that God takes care of them and that they will be safe until I come back for them. I will go home this Friday and stay home for about 2 weeks and I am coming back by myself to pick them up. That is kind of scary, but hopefully it will be a very quick trip. Please pray for us as we prepare for the most serious part of our journey-court and picking up!

Stephanie

Not sure what day it is anymore....

I just want to say to people that are coming over here....bring books, movies, something to do. You can only walk around the city so many times.

Here are some fun Ukraine facts:

For all of you Joe Dirt fans, do not dismay...the mullet and rat tail are alive and well.

Underwear IS an option.

Actually, full clothing IS an option.

Don't worry about laundry....it is overrated!

You CAN drink a beer at 8am while you are walking to work.

Michael Jackson's legacy will carry on for many years, especially his pants.

You can eat pizza, pizza, pizza if you want.

They do NOT sell Skoal (or any type of chewing tobacco) in UA.

If it drops below 80 degrees, you better get your winter coat out.

Borscht (sp) doesn't look good at all, but very, very tasty.

Cokes and drinks are served warm or room temperature.

There is no such thing as free refills.

ANTEKA (with green writing)are pharmacies.

Cars have the right of way no matter what-whether you are on a crosswalk, sidewalk, doesn't matter...

They make high heel shoes for little girls (sexy high heel shoes).

Don't be upset if your husband's purse is bigger than yours.

There is no age limit for sheer clothing.

You can only drink 1/2 cup of coffee at a time, apparently.

Watch the Groundhog Dog before you come.

Stephanie

Ladies and Gentlemen....We have a court date!!!

Thanks Goodness that we have had a productive day (and it is only 730am at home). We got up, went to see the boys, went to the court house and we finally got a court date!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We go to court on Wednesday, September 8th at 9am and then we can immediately go back to Kiev that day, sign some papers at the US Embassy for Sean to give me power of attorney to complete the adoption by myself and then we can go home on Friday. Praise God! I was so nervous waiting in the car for my translator to come out of the court house, then she got in the car, looking all sad, and said that the judge wanted to take 3 weeks to look at our dossier and paperwork. I was speechless! All I could think of was "at least I am going home now", but then she said she was kidding and told me the real court date! I could have killed her.

I feel so much better knowing we have a planned day that we are leaving and getting out of here. I have to say, though, that this trip could have been so much worse. The weather is fabulous, the apartment is nice, and we haven't had any "real" problems. Yeah, the food is not all that great, but all in all, it has been a nice trip (just a little long for my taste). Having said that, I dread that dang train ride back to Kiev. Definitely going for 1st class and definitely taking all the medicine I can fit in my stomach!

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes and thanks for leaving comments. That really helps when you are stranded on the other side of the world!

Stephanie

Day 17

Still the same as the previous days...no news. I just called our translator to see if she has heard anything about court. She says that she will call back at 5pm to see if we have a date, but as of right now...no date.