Q&A #13

Most of the questions people have asked have been answered in subsequent posts. I apologize if I missed anything. Here are a few that I don't think have been answered.

Are there any spots on her hands? If so, it could be impetigo, which I would predict very common in her living conditions.
Nope, nothing on her hands, only her face, as far as we can tell... we still haven't seen her belly or back or anything. Thankfully the cream (whatever it was) has cleared up her face A LOT! :)

Why does this have to take so long?! Has to be frustrating! Frank can take this much time off?
Fortunately, he had a lot of leave stored up, he may go a few days in the hole, but with his deployment coming up next year, he'll make that back up and his command is fine with that :).

That's awesome! Hey, why haven't you been allowed to see her in a week?
It was because of the quarantine due to the H1N1 virus there... it was finally lifted yesterday :).

She's so stinkin' smart! She must have been in a wonderful baby home! I love all the developmental toys they have for the kids. It warms my heart how well she was taken care of.
Actually all those toys are things Frank brought to her. He brings them with him every time he goes to visit and then takes them when he leaves. When he takes Kellsey out for GOOD, he will donate them to her baby home.

Whistle while you play!

I didn't get to visit Kellsey yesterday for Thanksgiving but I had a good day enjoying the day with with another family that adopting here in Kiev and we had a real Thanksgiving dinner at the Radisson Hotel in the city. The dinner was a fundraiser that raised money to buy incubators for premature babies in poor rural areas in Ukraine. It's a great cause and we got to enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner. Anyway today I got to visit Kellsey along with Andy and Ellen Stumbo who were visiting their daughter Nina. We were all in the same room and the girls had a good time playing with different toys, coloring and playing with play-do. While Kellsey was playing with some stacking blocks I started whistling to her and she just stared at my lips like how are you doing that? She was totally amused by it so I kept doing it. I had to take a video of her attempting to whistle and it turned out really cute. I feel like Kellsey is totally comfortable with me and that she looks forward to seeing me now more and more every day. I'm excited to almost be done and I can't wait to take her out of there and bring her home!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A good visit.

I had a good visit with Kellsey today she was in a very spunky mood and full of energy which is always fun because you never know what's she gonna do next! I took some video of her and you can really see her personality really come out in it. She has her own mind and her own way of doing things and she loves organized chaos just like the rest of the Special Ks! Ha! She also has no problem expressing disapproval if she doesn't like something as you'll see in the video. I love seeing how her mind works and I'm so excited because I know she's going to fit in so well with the rest of the kids. I don't think I'll get to see her tomorrow but I'm shooting for friday, for now we just wait for Kellseys tax code to come so we can continue the rest of the paperwork process. Oh one last thing I apologize if the video is a little shaky it's hard to video tape and play with Kellsey all at the same time. :)

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Kellsey's Birth Certificate!!

Today we obtained Kellsey's new birth certificate! It only took one hour isn't that crazy? Oleg our facilitator was kind enough to inform me that he will be going today to the city in which we attended court to file for Kellseys tax code which is necessary to obtain her Visa. I'm hoping the processing won't take longer than 5 days but we'll see. Tomorrow I'm hoping they will allow me to visit Kellsey since I haven't seen her in about a week. In the mean time I've been keeping busy exploring the city and taking lots of pictures of the different historical sites in the city. I think I'm doing pretty well so far. I'll post pictures later on.

Winners of the Restaurant Gift Cards!

So, I am doing major catch up blogging lately! I have SO much to catch up on... this video was obviously done the night before we left for Ukraine... so ignore the whole "we're leaving on a plane tomorrow" comment! LOL I'm just a slacker! haha

Congrats to the two winners... and one of you I've talked to A LOT lately so don't be mad at me for not telling you that you won! haha I wanted it to be a surprise! LOL If both you will email me and let me know which restaurant you want your gift card to and give me your mailing address, my friends Tina and Brian will get your gift cards out soon!

Thanks again to Tina and Brian for hosting this giveaway and to everyone who donated!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Adoption Update

The waiting game... it's so fun, isn't it?! As of today, our 10 day wait is officially over! YAY!!! SO, what now? Frank is now on a paper chase! He will be getting Kellsey's birth certificate, passport & visa and they are also waiting on a tax code which prayerfully will come in QUICKLY as they can't leave the country without it. They need to go to the bank and draw out Kellsey's money which he will then donate to her baby home. We don't know how long these things will take... it just depends on how fast the U.S. Embassy gets it done... and well, it's a government office... enough said.

After he does all THAT he can go get Kellsey from the orphanage and walk her out those doors FOREVER! :) He will have to take her to get a medical clearance to be able to leave the country. When he has all the paperwork in hand and she is medically cleared, then we can arrange for them to fly home!! We're hoping 10 days from now? Maybe?

Just be in prayer that everything continues to go as smoothly as it has been!!! We can't WAIT to get them home!!!

PS. Frank's internet is down in the apartment. They're working on fixing it. Hopefully he'll be back SOON with more pics and stuff! :)

Colors, Colors.

I wasn't able to visit Kellsey on Saturday like I had hoped but I did get go see here Monday morning and we had a blast. Yesterday I decided that I would get something new for Kellsey to play with, I found a coloring book, crayons, stacking blocks and a little baby for her to hold.

When I got to the orphanage, she was dressed really cute and she was curious about what I had in the bright pink bag that I got from the toy store. I decided that I would show her one toy at a time, so first I gave her the baby. She looked at it and then made the motion like, "um... yeah that's not mine, here take it back!" I attempted to give it back to her but she just wasn't interested (bummer).

I then pulled out the coloring book and crayons. Kellsey's little face lit up and she knew exactly what she wanted to do with the crayons and she went to town coloring! Like any other little toddler, she wanted to scribble through every page possible as fast as possible, (he he) she had a blast!

Next she played with the blocks for quite awhile and she really seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of that, just video, so I'll get that video up as soon as I can. For now I will post the pictures of her coloring. Oh and one more thing, Kellsey's little face is looking a lot better! I had picked up some medicine the orphanage director had suggested and it seems to be doing the trick. It's not completely cleared up, but it's looking much much better as you can see in the pictures.

Thank you all for your prayers and suggestions we really do appreciate you guys reading and following us in this journey. So far it has been a great learning experience for us and a blessing beyond words.

So Cute!!

What's on the next page?

Just Smile! :)

Am I cool or what?

Visiting Kellsey...

Yesterday was the first time I got to go visit Kellsey since Renee left. It was a very rainy drab day and I was anxious to go see her again. The driver was running late because the traffic was pretty bad once he picked me up getting to Vorzel just seemed to take forever. Once we got there orphanage I went inside and I was greeted by the workers and told to wait for Kellsey to be brought to me. Once the brought her she was so funny because she walked in the room and immediately walked over to me and sat next to me it was so cute but she had a look on her face like Ok? what do you have for me today to entertain me. Ha ha She's so stinkin cute! We played for a while and she layed on my lap and let me hold her and hug her, it didn't take long for me to tickle her and it all became a game for her. I had her cracking up the loudest I've heard her laugh yet so we had a great time. Unfortunately our time was cut short because of the medical inspections they are having at the orphanages so needless to say I was disappointed. Before I left Kellsey did something cute and I figure she must have been starving because she had no hesitation to give me a hug and just wave goodbye!!

Things are pretty drab and boring without Renee here but I guess its part of the process of being the parent being left behind to finish out the rest of the process. I thank God that our court date was so quick and she was able to go home so quickly to be home with the kids. we are very blessed and I can't wait to be home with the whole family together for Christmas! For now I just hang out in the apartment and hope time goes by fast. I will be doing some more sight seeing sometime next week I'm sure but for now I just wait until I can go see Kellsey again which I'm hoping will be on saturday.

Heres a few pictures I took of her her poor little face is broken out but I did buy her some medicine will hopefully clear it up...

Clean with a wipe I just don't see the obsession with this! lol

Oh Hey! I've never seen a camera in my face before! Ha Ha

Cheese!!

Q&A #12

Do you have to come home for the 10 days? (obviously you have kids back at home that need you too) Could you stay for the 10 days? Those flights must be expensive, not to mention exhausting.
Originally Frank was going to come home for the 10 days because he didn't have enough leave to stay. Now that we have a sooner court date, he will be staying, which will be much easier on everyone! :)

She is one of you already, i love the pictures. Are you calling her Kellsey or her Ukrainian name?
Right now we're going back and forth... the only way we can get her attention is to call her "Vika". We'll transition completely soon, I'm sure she'll catch on! :)

Yay! So since you didn't think court was going to be like til the 20th or something, you would have had to be in country all that time? Yikes! So yeah, you are saving lots of money then!! But after all is said and done, it still won't be til early Dec that he comes home? Ahh. Hurry hurry peeps! LOL. You will have a very merry xmas, that is for sure! How fun! Can I come? LOL
Yes, we would have, and we were praying HARD for a faster court date! Right, because Frank will need to finish the process AFTER the 10 day wait, so it still will be the very beginning of December, most likely, when they come home. We WILL have a very Merry Christmas!! You can absolutely come! Bring the kids, Nika and Kellsey will have a blast together! LOL

Renee, Since she is officially yours when does Frank get to take her to the apartment?
After the 10 day wait and after he gets a bunch of the paperwork done... whenever Nadia and Oleg tell him to basically. She's not going to want to sit around in government offices forever with him! SOON though!

so did you have the bday party???
NO! I'm hoping THEY did, but they wouldn't let us do it while we were there. We brought pastries and juice boxes like they told us to and then they said it would ruin their lunch... SO hopefully they sang to her and gave the kids the treats after lunch!

Where was court, Kyiv or Irpen?
You were right, it was in Irpen... the courthouse was so tiny! LOL I was so confused when we got there, I asked, "Is this REALLY court?!" haha

Introducing...

Kellsey Jean Victoria Garcia
Daughter to Frank and Renee Garcia
Sister to Kassidy, Kameron, Kennedy & Keeghan Garcia

Court went fine today. The judge asked us a lot of questions about why we want to adopt Kellsey and if there are good programs for her where we live. She asked what our hopes are for her future and why we chose her over a boy. She really asked Frank more questions than she did to me... maybe because I started crying! LOL We showed her our photo album and she said we look like a very happy family and she was very happy for Kellsey. Then the director of Kellsey's baby home gave a run down of her medical history again, the judge asked if we had any questions, if we were SURE we wanted to adopt her, (and of course we said yes) and then she said "Congratulations, she is your daughter!" and that was that!

We went to the Embassy to sign some papers so I can fly home tomorrow and we got to stop in and visit with Kellsey for a few minutes. She was very happy today. Her little cheeks are SO broken out. Hopefully we can get them cleared up! I'm glad I got to see her before I left! Please pray that all continues to go smoothly for Frank as he finishes up here! He'll be updating the adoption blog, which is now public! :)

Court Date!!!

We got our court date today! We will go to court on Tuesday, November 10th at 9:30am! This is when Kellsey will officially forever become a Garcia! YES! This is way, WAY, WAY faster than we expected (which is awesome!) so plans are changing a bit.

First, the 10 day wait will not be waived. No such luck there. No worries though. So originally the plan was for BOTH of us to fly home after court and for Frank to fly back after the 10 day wait to finish up and bring Kellsey home. Because court is happening SO much faster than we originally thought, our plans have been revised.

I will fly home on Wednesday, November 11th, by myself. Frank will stay here. He has enough leave to do this now. This will not only save us the cost of his second plane ticket, but it will allow him to continue to visit Kellsey as much as possible. After the 10 day wait, he will get all the other stuff done required to bring her home. This consists of her medical, passport, birth certificate, visa and a bunch of other stuff. At some point he will be able to get her out of the baby home forever and bring her back to the apartment here. We're not sure yet when that is. If all continues to go smoothly, Frank and Kellsey should fly home together the beginning of December sometime.

We are praising God for how smoothly everything has gone here. As most of you know, our process up until this point has been stressful and frustrating and has had a lot of bumps. We know that a lot of people have been praying us through this, and we are SO thankful for that! We miss our children A LOT and I'm excited and anxious to get back home to them and prepare for Kellsey's arrival! I'm happy that we're not BOTH leaving her here... so she won't forget us! :)

Frank will continue to update the adoption blog which WILL go back public the day after court. I don't foresee any problems, and I've gotten the official OK to do so.

SO that's the latest, I'm excited and nervous and thankful and overwhelmed and REALLY happy. Oh and it's supposed to start getting warmer here for the weekend! We plan to spend our weekend exploring the area and taking lots of pictures! Flat Stanley hasn't been out much (he's not dressed warm enough! haha) and there's SO much we've been told we HAVE to see... so it's now or never! We can go visit Kellsey again on Monday. :)

2nd Visit With Kellsey

Today's visit with Kellsey went really well. We were put into a different room this time... some sort of office. They brought her in, she got upset for one second, I pulled out a gummy bear, and all was right with the world! LOL They left us alone after that and we had 2 hours on our own.

We blew some bubbles, which she thought was pretty fun. After awhile she tried to blow them on her own, it was so funny! We're going to have to work on that, she had the idea down though! We sang the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" complete with hand motions... over and over... and over. LOL She has the hand motions down perfect though! We looked at the photo album with the family pictures again. She wanted to know everyone's names and she studied my lips REALLY closely as I was saying them all. By the end she was saying something that sounds very close to "Keeghan".

We did get lots of smiles today and even some laughs. We figured out she likes to be tickled... I think. We're not sure she's ever BEEN tickled before. At first she wasn't too sure, but then she started laughing and then when Frank stopped tickling her she grabbed his hand and put it back to her neck to do it again. We're finding ways to get past our communication barrier :).

Towards the end, Frank pulled out my iPhone and Kellsey discovered the wonderful world of Spongebob *groan*. LOL It wasn't a movie, just an app, but she had a LOT of fun with it. NO doubt she'll fit in well with our crew! haha We have it on video which I'll get posted soon.

Kellsey seemed to be a little croupy today, so I'm hoping she's not getting sick, especially that she's not getting the flu! She was happy though and seemed very content to be with us. At noon they came to get her for lunch. We gave her a hug goodbye and she happily ran down the hall to eat. We're excited to see her again tomorrow!!!

Here are some pictures from today!

Looking at pictures of her brothers and sisters

Waving at daddy... look at that smile! :)

Kellsey & Daddy... what's she doing here?!

One more with mommy...

Cuddle time with dad...

More FUN pictures tomorrow, promise! I'll get the video uploaded too! :)

Q&A #11

Did you get that pink-chocolate shred?
NO! They were ALL out!!! I tried everywhere! I did get the other stuff though with the caramel!! Can't wait to try it! :) I will look for the pink-chocolate shred when we go back through on the way home :).

Just wondering (and you have probably already said this and I missed it) but are y'all just visiting or are you bringing Kellsey back with you?
Just visiting and doing court and all that. She will be OURS before we leave this time. It's going to be SO hard to leave her! We will come home for 10 days while they do everything they need to do here, then Frank will come back for another 2 weeks and do her passport/visa/medical stuff and he will bring her home. :)

Is the epidemic that is going around there the same as our "swine flu" here? You all are in our prayers that you stay well, Kellsey stays well and everything goes smoothly!
Yes, thankfully that's "all" it is!! :)

Just to let you know: be careful on the"sidewalks" drivers tend to use them as an extention of the road....and a parking spot.
HA! I have noticed this and find it quite funny! And man they DON'T stop... if you're in the way, you either move fast or get hit! LOL Nadya says there are 2 types of pedestrians here... fast ones and dead ones. LOL

My boyfriend walked in the room, looked at the screen and said "I know your addicted to the computer, but WHY ON EARTH are you looking at someones bathroom and their TOILET??" lol!!
ROFL, the sadder part is, I POSTED it for you to look at!!! haha But sometimes pictures really DO speak a thousand words! :)

It's fun exploring, eh? LOL. I used to let Kyle do the talking. LOL. And then they'd look at him like he had 4 heads. LOL. And was that a TGIFriday? There actually was one in the Moscow airport that we ate at when we were on our way home! So funny!
YEP That was a Fridays!!! They even speak English in there! It's GREAT! LOL

By the way, the t-shirt they have on her is perfect!
I thought so too!!!

Who won the gift card giveaway?
GOOD question! I actually did the video with Kennedy before we left home but couldn't get it to upload! I will work on that soon and get it up! :)

Renee, are you posting the same thing on the family blog as here? If so, why the private blog. No worries if you can't answer this until a later time, I'm just curious that's all.
I addressed this right here thanks to your question. :)

can you tell us which town you are in?
We are in Kiev, the capital. :) I'm actually really glad! SO much to see and do here!

You know I wonder if she was drawn to Keeghan, because they look so much alike?
My heart skipped when you said 800 children in the buildings. What! Do all these children have down syndrome?
No they do not all have Down syndrome, or even special needs. There are many typical children here as well. Kellsey is in with mostly typical kids, from what I understand (even THEY know inclusion works! haha). I am hoping to meet some of her friends soon!!

Yeah, there is NO GETTING THE OTHER LITTLE GIRL you hear me! LOL
We are coming! They know that, right?
So the fact that they have her file ready hopefully means that they should be ready for us!
LOL Yes, they are ready for you... they just thought WE were YOU! haha

How long are you and Frank going to be there this time?
Any chance the judge will just let you bring Kellsey home with all of the H1N1 stuff going on?
Hopefully not TOO much longer... I should know in a couple days when we find out our court date. We'll leave the day after court. I'm REALLY hoping the H1N1 stuff we'll work in our favor! haha We're going to TRY!

She is adorable. Do you spend the entire time in this room? That must be hard.
We did last time, but I don't know what we'll do today or tomorrow... I'll let you know!

BUT I have to ask, was that a HARD CANDY that they gave her? Please tell me it was a gummy candy cause it looked HUGE and scared me to death that she would choke on it. You know me and choking!!!!
It was gummy candy :). I know, it looked like a jolly rancher! I thought it was too when she pulled it out, but Kellsey bit right into it and chewed it up. Nadya called it a "jelly candy". I would have been a little panicked too!

She's so pretty! Will you guys speak some Russian to her when you all get home?
Well... being that we know NOTHING lol... probably not. We've been told to submerse into English anyway, that she would pick it up faster that way.

Video Clips of Kellsey

Hopefully there will be lots more of these to come... especially since she thinks the video camera is the coolest thing EVER! LOL Nadya called us earlier and they said we can stay for TWO hours tomorrow! YAY!!!!

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The rest of our Tuesday!

OK I wanted to pick up where the last post left off... I hope I'm not boring you all, but it is a good record for me to look back on AND I know Kassidy and Kameron are reading this (hi guys!) so it's helping them to know what we're up to, too! :)

After we left from seeing Kellsey, (which was SO hard, by the way) we had to get her paperwork from the office of the orphanage. One set of paperwork needed copies and another set wasn't ready yet, so after waiting for awhile at the office, we drove around the little town and got some tea (hot tea!) and a candy bar. It was 1:00 by this time and we were starving! Then we drove BACK to the orphanage to see if the papers were ready... after waiting for awhile, they said they weren't. Turns out the director thought we were there for a different little girl, one that my friend is adopting, and had HER paperwork ready! HA! They asked if we were SURE we didn't want this other girl and I said, "No... her mom might be a little mad!" LOL I love that they think the kids are all interchangeable there.

Anyway, we left without that paperwork... it was something to do with her medical forms. We got the rest though. Then we drove back and dropped the social worker off and found a place to make copies and headed back to town to a notary office (and here I thought we were done notarizing things! LOL). We waited there for about an hour while Nadya ran all over the place getting stuff ready, and then we signed on all the lines, officially named Kellsey, applied for her passport (I think... it was something to do with her passport...) and a bunch of other stuff. In the meantime, Oleg ditched us! haha He went off to get something ELSE done for us. He earns his money, let me tell you!

Nadya called a cab for the 3 of us and got us back to our apartment and then she took off. Tomorrow she and Oleg are going back to the orphanage to pick up the paperwork that wasn't ready and get that taken care of. It was a LONG day! We got back here, laid down for a few minutes and then went to dinner with one of the other Reece's Rainbow families here in the city. It was a lot of fun! She has her 2 children with her, so it was fun getting to talk to them and hang out for a bit. They are hitting all kinds of bumps and snags in their adoption process so please be praying for them! I'd link you to their blog, but I don't have permission, so I can't yet, but God knows who they are :).

So what next?! We are allowed to go visit Kellsey 2-3 times a week for 1 hour each visit. We are going back on Thursday and then again on Friday for her birthday :). They said we could bring cookies and juice boxes for her birthday and throw her a little party! I'm SO excited!!! We'll go shopping for that stuff tomorrow. We are also going to try to find her a book or something that lights up and/or makes music. She's definitely into toys that DO things! It won't be anything too big though, because I doubt it will stay with her... but that's ok! Hopefully lots of kids will get use out of whatever we get!

We should also know in the next couple days when court is. Oleg said he thinks it could be as soon as the end of next week! That would be fabulous!!! Please be praying for that! (Have I mentioned it's COLD here?!) :) At some point we need to go to the embassy or the consulate or somewhere and do something... (that was so helpful, wasn't it?! LOL) before we leave. I'm just going to let Nadya and Oleg tell us when to be where and we'll be waiting! LOL

Tomorrow we are laying LOW! I will work on getting the video posted that I have and we're going to go shop a bit for her birthday and just try to stay WARM. Warm is good! Watch for the video tomorrow! :) I am off to bed... it's really late here and Frank is already snoring away next to me. Hope you all are having a good evening! :)

Meeting Kellsey

Today was another whirlwind day!! Oleg, our facilitator, picked us up at 8:00. We went to pick up Nadya (translator) and a social worker and Inspector then headed to Kellsey's baby home. Once we were there we sat around for awhile while they got paperwork ready, and then we went to her home...


This is where Kellsey lives right now. There are about 20 children in her home... about 800 in all the buildings combined.

We went into the office of the doctor. She was a very pleasant woman, and seemed very happy to have us there. She told us a little more about Kellsey... some that we already knew...

Kellsey was born on November 6, 2006 and weighed 5 lbs, 9.5 oz. She was born at 37 weeks gestation. Her mother was 29 years old. Kellsey was actually the 4th pregnancy and the second live birth for her mother. She had 2 miscarriages. I'm not sure if Kellsey has a brother or sister or how old they are. Kellsey's mother was in good health. She gave up all rights to Kellsey at the hospital and left her there when she learned she had Down syndrome. At the age of 1 month Kellsey was moved to the baby home and has been there ever since.

She was born with a 2 holes in her heart, one of which has since closed. The other is a minor murmur which should not require any surgical intervention. Her adenoids are enlarged. She has been sick 3 times in her life with the flu at the ages of 3, 6 and 9 months. She was hospitalized one time for bronchitis. She is otherwise very healthy.

Kellsey is very social and curious. She likes to know what is going on around her at all times. She has a high capability to learn. She follows directions well and speaks a lot. She knows the names of all her caretakers and friends. She LOVES candy and oranges, but the citrus fruit causes a reaction if she eats too much. She is potty trained, brushes her own teeth, plays appropriately with toys, and is very loving.

With that they said they would bring her in... they warned us that she was not familiar with the doctor's office (and it was too cold to go outside) so she might feel uncomfortable at first. She cried for a second when she walked in the door, but I was SO happy to hear her cry. She was scared... it was appropriate for her to cry! I've heard of so many kids who DON'T cry because they think no one will come anyway.

Nadya offered her candy and she stopped crying and came in and sat down. The doctor talked to her a little bit and then we showed her pictures of Kassidy, Kameron, Kennedy and Keeghan. She loved that. She looked at them over and over. My mom, Frank and I were in the pictures too, but she was more drawn to the kids, especially Keeghan. We told her they were her brothers & sisters & grandma and mama and papa.

After she was done with her candy, the doctor gave her a baby wipe to clean her hands. She wiped her hands and face and then cleaned mine and Frank's hands, it was so sweet. It became a little game. We would put our hands down and she'd grab them back up and flip them over so she could clean them more.

We played with some toys with her and the doctor got her to sing a song, it was so cute... no clue what it was! Frank pulled out the video camera and recorded her and then played it back to her... she was in AWE! He then became the coolest guy on the planet! LOL She wanted him to do it over and over so she could see "Vika".

She finally let him pick her up and then not long after I got to hold her. Ahhh it felt SO good to have her in my arms!! I gave her a kiss on her cheek and she said, "thanks" (in her language! LOL). We took some pictures with the regular camera, which she took from me and held up to her ear like, "WHY isn't this thing talking to me?!" She thought it should talk like the video camera did! Smart cookie, I tell ya! :) She liked looking at herself on there too though!

Then it was time for us to say goodbye. She gave me a hug and then Frank picked her up and she gave him a hug and wouldn't let him go. I think she's going to be a daddy's girl already!!! The doctor promised her we would be back, so she finally let go and waved bye and walked out. Man I hated to leave her there!!!

OK this is long enough and I know you all are waiting on pictures so I will get this posted and then tell you about the rest of our day later. LOTS more to tell!!!

The 3 of us...

With "mama"

With "papa".. she was still trying to figure everything out.

Playing with toys...



Our sweet girl!!! I can't wait to get her HOME!!!!

Why the double posts

OK so, so far, everything that has happened has been good and easy and able to be shared in public which is why, for the most part, updates have been posted on both blogs. Sorry for the double posts (especially for the few of you getting stuff via email). I'm doing this for 2 reasons... 1: I want everyone who's NOT part of this blog to be able to see as much as possible, and 2: I want everything HERE so the time line is smooth. So later I can go back and read about this adoption process and not have to bounce back and forth between blogs. I hope that makes sense. I hope to continue to be able to post on both blogs... BUT if there's something I can ONLY post here, I will just post a thing on our family blog letting you know so you know to check in over here. As we get closer to our court date, this may very well happen more often. For now, I have to get ready to go meet my daughter! :) That will be on both blogs for sure! Thanks for bearing with me!

Monday Night Update...

Well, the rest of our day was somewhat uneventful... we went to lunch and got pizza (I'm pretty sure it was Papa John's) that was really good. Frank also got a traditional soup here called Borsch (I'm SURE I botched that spelling!). He really liked it.

This afternoon we went back to the SDA and stood out in the cold for a LONG time waiting for Kellsey's referral. We finally got it, and we got our dossier back... didn't think we'd ever see that again!! This means we can see Kellsey tomorrow!

We came back here and Frank went shopping for a hat and found these burrito type things for dinner. They were... interesting! LOL We watched a movie, and now we're getting ready for bed.

Oleg, our facilitator, will be here at 8am to pick us up. We will first go to see the social worker (aka inspector) to get another clearance to see Kellsey and then we get to go to her baby home! To say we're excited is an understatement!!!

If you can please be praying, they are talking about closing down the orphanage to visitors as well as closing down the grocery stores (not sure if this would include restaurants) due to the H1N1 running rampant here. Of course we want so badly to spend as much time as possible with Kellsey, and we also need access to food and water. Everyone is really freaking out here over the virus, kind of like the U.S. was earlier this year. We'll know more tomorrow about what is being shut down and when.

OK that's all for now... tomorrow... PICTURES!!! :)

SDA Appointment

This morning we had our SDA appointment... we went into a room with Nadya, our translator, and another woman who works at the SDA. She first asked us how we heard about Kellsey and we told her that we had friends who were here before us who met her and told us about her. She then explained to us that Kellsey was a "difficult" child (meaning she has Down syndrome) and asked us why we would want to adopt her, specifically. We told her about having Kennedy at home and already knowing about Down syndrome and that we felt we can provide Kellsey with a loving, stable home and a good life. This made her smile at the thought of Kellsey having a big sister "like her". She asked how old Kennedy was and how she was doing.

Then she told us that Kellsey was born in the hospital on November 6, 2006. She had no brothers and sisters and her mother abandoned her there when they told her she had Down syndrome and gave up her rights to Kellsey shortly after. There was no mention of Kellsey's father. We do not know how old Kellsey's mother was or if she is the one who named her. I would guess not, though.

She said that Kellsey was born with a hole in her heart (which we knew) and enlarged adenoids, which is pretty typical. We'll get these things checked out thoroughly when we get home with her. Otherwise, no other health problems were noted.

She showed us the sweetest newborn picture of Kellsey which we can have if we can give them a more recent picture of her to keep on file. We're working on that. Oh she was SO beautiful!!!

We showed the SDA worker a recent picture of Kellsey on my phone and she asked to see a picture of Kennedy and asked us to send her a picture of the 2 girls together after we got home :). We said of course we would!

Later today we are going back to the SDA (I'm pretty sure) to pick up her referral. We can't go to see Kellsey until tomorrow morning. (DARN!) Something to look forward to though!!!

Frank and I are off to find lunch. I can't believe it, but it's even COLDER here today! Snow flurries are falling and everything! BRRR! I'll update again later!

Ukranian Rules of the Road! LOL

We're sleeping right now (it's 3am here), but you're not, so here's some humor for you. Frank has a "Kyiv in your pocket guide" with all kinds of handy tips... and this was in it. Can you imagine if this was in America?! We were seriously rolling!!

Driving in Kyiv

Most Westerners will find driving Kyiv's main thoroughfares relatively easy. The problems kick in when you drive anywhere outside these well-surfaced and signposted routes. The condition of most roads in Ukraine is wretched, especially after the winter thaw.

Another problem is the decrepit traffic lights. They are not all that bright and sometimes it is difficult to tell which light is actually lit and which just has the sun shining on it to make it appear lit. Road markings, especially the all important center line, often go missing. In this case, you should do what the locals do and decide for yourself where the line is! (WHAT?!) Just make sure that other drivers understand your intentions. (Uhh yeah, I think that would be a good idea! LOL)

The following is a short list of unofficial rules of the road:
If you're running late during peak, feel free to drive on sidewalks, cut through the park, or drive in the opposite lanes, against the flow of traffic. (Because THAT'S safe!)

If you're car overheats, just leave it in the lane where it stalled and come back later after the traffic jam you just caused dies down. (And pray no one behind you is mad enough to shoot you! Do people have road rage here?! If not, they should!)

If you're driving on the highway and you miss your exit, pull over into the right lane, turn your hazard lights on and proceed in reverse until you get back to the exit you wanted. Don't worry about the cars speeding towards you. They are likely to get out of your way. (The real question is, HOW likely?!)

Wearing your seat belt can be very irritating and can even cause injury. To disable that annoying seat belt alarm, try stuffing a small piece of cardboard into the buckling mechanism. (I can think of a few people at home who will try this now! *ahem*)

So, anyone up for a Sunday drive?! LOL

Our first full day...

Today was a nice day... we had to move apartments at noon... I liked our first apartment better. This one has no microwave, which hopefully we can fix tomorrow, and it's much smaller... but we'll survive! It also has no shower, just a bath tub. We asked about a shower and the manager lady was very confused! haha We have a stove, which we need to light with a match. We have a refrigerator and a little bar with stools to eat at... here let me just take some pictures! LOL

Toilet and washing machine... it's VERY small, I can't imagine washing clothes for 6 people in this! LOL
Sink and part of our bath tub...

Kitchen...

Our messy bed... it's actually made. There's no real blanket, but the sheet thing that's on it is thick, and our apartment is warm.

The bar... and Frank on his computer. He's not online though, since I am. We only have one Internet connection in here, so we have to share. This could cause marital problems. LOL Only kidding!

Several people have asked about our water. We can't drink the water here, or brush our teeth with it, due to parasites and other stuff in it. We'd get VERY sick. So we had to wait to get bottled water. When we moved to this new apartment we actually didn't have ANY running water for several hours, but they finally got it fixed.

After an afternoon nap, we went out shopping and went to dinner here:


Flat Stanley went with us too :).


We found an underground mall after dinner and got hopelessly lost when we came back out! LOL We wandered around for about an hour, finally asked for directions, the best we could, and eventually found our way back. We were JUST about to call our translator and ask her to help us, but we figured it out. Actually, FRANK figured it out. I had NO idea where we were! haha We bought Kellsey a teddy bear to take to her tomorrow or Tuesday, whenever we get to see her, and we found her a cute tiger that sings a lullaby in her language. The lady at the store promised us she would know it. We may save that for her for Christmas though.

Some observations from today:

Cars like to park (and drive) on the sidewalk. LOL

Our TV has the Hallmark channel! YAY!

It is REALLY nice to hear someone speak English! :)

People who work in the stores are either going to try REALLY hard to help you and understand you, or they're going to completely ignore you when they figure out you're American.

The exchange rate for money is different everywhere. This boggles my mind!

You can still get sticker shock even when shopping with grivna! There are some expensive stores here! We saw a scarf that cost over $100! (The ones we bought cost $6.25)

EVERYONE here smokes. We're very much in the minority. Frank said we should take up smoking to fit in. NOT!

I guess that's about it for now! SO excited for our SDA appointment tomorrow!!! We're hoping to call the kids on Skype before we go to bed. My mom said they are being GREAT so far! :) OK until later!

Morning!!

It's COLD here. Really cold! Frank and I got up and out early this morning. We were starving! We intended to go out last night and exchange money, go to a store for water, and get dinner, but at 5:00 we laid down to close our eyes for "a minute" and woke up at 10:00! HA!

SO we woke up at different times in the middle of the night and got online for a bit and then went back to sleep, and woke up this morning STARVING and unable to brush our teeth. EWW, I know!

Being Sunday almost everything is closed right now. We did find a place to exchange some money though and found a little cafe type place for breakfast (thanks Lyndi for directions!). I have NO idea what it was that we ate, but it was pretty good. We bought bottles of water and now we are hanging out in our apartment (with clean teeth and fresh breath! haha)

We have to go to a different apartment at noon today. Ours that we had reserved wasn't ready for us yesterday so we are staying in a different building right now. After we move, we will go out and explore a bit, and maybe buy some scarves. REALLY, it's COLD! We walked by a lot of shops with really cute kids clothes in them, so I want to go back there once they're open!

We can't wait for our SDA appointment tomorrow! Hopefully we will find out more about Kellsey, maybe some info about her birth parents and hopefully some medical history. We'll see!

Well, it's 2:00 AM in Tennessee which means you all are asleep... it's 10:00 AM here. I just heard church bells in the background :). We're going to miss going to church today! I hope all you from Grace have a great morning! We miss you guys! We'll catch the sermon online tonight sometime.

I guess I will sign off and try to get some emails answered! I'll blog again tonight...