LAST DAY IN UKRAINE-TRIP #1

Today is our last day in Ukraine. We are headed back home and have an overnight in the highly overpriced city of London. We were able to have breakfast with Karen and Maxim and take some last minute photos of downtown Kiev. The return trip is bittersweet-on the one hand it's a good feeling to be able to be going home to see our kids Elyse, Alex, and Addie. On the other hand it's disappointing that we are not coming home with Ruslan, Yuri and Alina.

We enjoyed breakfast at a cafe with Maxim and Karen.

We took a few pictures downtown Kiev this morning.
Karen & Monique

Zenon posing in his new flag!



I did however want to share with you (our faithful relatives, friends and fans) a little taste of Ukrainian culture/idiosyncrasies.

We thought we would give you a window into some of the daily living on our trip here to Ukraine. Lest any of you think that this was a "vacation".


We experienced some very good food here. But discovered that the price in the menu for food doesn't mean the total price for the entree, but the price per gram, they weigh food from restaurants! The other thing we noticed right away is that the food items are cooked one item at a time. This means the first person to get their food will most likely be done with their meal by the time the last person gets their food. We discovered at most restaurants that the food is not prepared to be served to all parties at the same time! So, when your meal came, you just began to eat or it would be cold by the time the last meal was served! Unfortunately, we have had fairly constant "nausea"--and think we've both lost at least ten to fifteen pounds! So, if any of you are interested in a sure-fire way to lose some weight--come to Ukraine!

We became very aware of needing to use the WC(toilet). We made sure we went before we ventured out. This was a quickly learned lesson because there was a fee to use the public restrooms (not that it was expensive)! We agreed that gas-station bathrooms ranked higher than these--UGH! Monique had never used the bathroom without a seat before!

An "electric bus"
We had the privilege of "living among the natives" by riding public transportation, renting apartments instead of hotels, etc... You quickly adapt to "the smell". Not that its a pleasant smell, more like I have to vomit smell. The worse news is that as time went along, I could tell that even my body started to produce this same type of "odor". When you ride public transportation during rush hour, personal space consists of the person next to you rubbing all over you. Forget about air flow, windows are not always open, so you are able to enjoy a warm stench. OK, enough about bad BO.

Personal Space and Waiting In Line. We in America have come to expect our "own personal space". This consists of approximately about 18 inches of air space between you and the next person. This isn't so here. When waiting in line for anything, we expect to go one at a time. When some people come into a location requiring a wait, they might look to see if a line exists, but many of them immediately walked right up to the head of the line (what we would call "cutting" or "line jumping")and began taking care of their own business. The next thing which was a little uncomfortable while being in line is that as one person is speaking across the desk/through the window, the next person in line is shoving to the desk/window as well --any many times begins to talk right over the person taking care of business. We decided that in order to "keep your place in line" you must practically hover right on top of the next person in order to keep your spot or someone might just cut you without a second glance!

Cabbage for sale At the markets, all kinds of foods are purchased. Cabbage is a staple here. We have never seen so much cabbage in our lives, let alone truckloads of it for sale.

We hope that you were able to get a feel of some of the culture here!

Judge Decrees us Parents!

This morning at 11:30 we had our court case. Monique, Valery, Ruslan, Yuri, Alina, Natalia, and Tatiana were there. The judge asked us some questions about our family and if our desire to adopt these children. He also asked the same question that has been asked of us every step of the way "Why do you want to adopt three children when you already have three children?" We told him that we have thought about this for many years and prayed about it. We knew that our family was not complete and wanted to adopt children from Ukraine because of my heritage.
After more questions, he then asked us if we still desire to adopt these children and, of course, we said YES! He asked each of the children one by one if they wanted to be adopted by us, and they all said YES! He had some questions for Natalia as well as Tatiana. After checking documents, verifying information, the judge then read the decree naming each child individually and pronouncing us the proud parents of Ruslan, Yuri, and Alina HORB!!!

Then it was off to a celebratory lunch! After lunch we went to get their passport pictures taken. It didn't seem like a big deal, but when we went into the store to get the pictures made, the man began yelling at us! He told us that we didn't need as many pictures as asked for. We needed the photos for passports and paperwork at the US Embassy. We thought it made more sense to get all the photos at once. He did agree to take the pictures and was angry while he did it. What is wrong with these people?

The next steps in the process involve getting the court decree, birth certificates, and passports. Ten days from today, July 7th, all the court documents will be ready to be picked up. Our attorney Valery will begin the next steps of the process for us. After the passports are applied for it can take up to three weeks for them to be done. We have decided to come home on Monday and then we will come back to pick up the children when the passports are done. This means we will be home anywhere from three to four weeks. Then we will return to Ukraine and bring our children home!

Our biggest frustration today was trying to get a notary to sign a power of attorney for our facilitator. We went to several offices today and were told the following reasons why our papers could NOT be notarized: 1. Done working for the day (it was 3:30pm and the office was open until 5:30pm) 2. Come back tomorrow at 10am (didn't say if she would do it, just come back) 3. I've never seen that document done before, so it's Impossible! I've never seen it so it can't be done!(Our attorney had examples of the needed document, and said yes it can be done. He's done it several times before.) 4. Your American Passport will not work for identification (Are you Kidding Me?!?!?) 5. You need an Ukrainian identification card (I am an American Citizen-and don't even live here). 6. Have your power of attorney done and apostilled in America-then send it to us. 7. Why do you need Power of Attorney? Adopted kids in Ukraine don't need passports--I've done this for 30 years. (WHAT??? In the Free World, Everyone Needs a Passport to Travel!! --except I suppose if you are coming in small boats from Cuba or sneaking in to America from Mexico.)

We arrived back at YWAM and Monique called one of the missionaries here. He called back to say that he found someone who will be able to do our notary papers in the morning. YEAH!

After the court hearing, we all went out for a celebratory lunch!











Alina and Monique

Alex & Addie at Spring Hill Camps

Addie and Alex went to camp this week. Here are a few photos of them at camp. I hope that you are having a GREAT time!! We miss you!


Addie with her counselors.

Addie with Destiny Carlisle (in front of her) and her cabin mates.

Alex with Evan Duey (to the left of Alex) and cabin mates.


Alex doing his impression of the Incredible Hulk!

Court Date?

Today we went to the courthouse to meet with the judge who is assigned to our case. We were told on Friday that we could get our court date scheduled with him today. We decided that we would walk to the courthouse. It was nice and sunny. About 2pm when we were getting ready to leave, dark clouds rolled in and it began to hail, and pour! So, we tried to call a taxi, and were unable to get one, due to them being busy. Zenon called Natalia, and she and her driver said they would come pick us up. Zenon saw the white van and told me to go get in it while he grabbed his backpack. So, off I went, jumped into the van and the man began talking to me and I just sat there smiling. Zenon came to the van, said something to the driver and realized that I had jumped into the wrong van! Out I went, and we laughed so hard we sat on the porch crying.

We finally arrived at the courthouse to wait, yes, wait. We waited only to discover that our case had NOT been taken up to the judges office, they had not received our papers. Zenon and Natalia tracked them down, and then they were taken up to the office. Now we must wait until tomorrow and hopefully he will have read our case and be willing to schedule the court date for Thursday or Friday. Natalia will call in the morning and we are hoping that we can go tomorrow and get what we need. We cannot come home until we go in front of the judge.

We walked downtown and got something to eat at an outdoor cafe. Suddenly, yes, suddenly, the skies darkened again and a very scary thunderstorm began. We continued to eat and watch it rain like cray. The scariest part was when about 1/2 block away at the park, which I could see, and lighting bolt came down and I screamed, Zenon grabbed me, and the light from the lightening bolt was so bright! We waited until the rain slowed a bit then called a taxi to take us back. Then we just relaxed this evening.

Weekend Fun

This weekend we were able to spend time with the kids. On Saturday we took them to a city park which overlooks a large lake. They enjoyed playing at the playground and eating ice cream. We walked through the downtown area and enjoyed the sunshine.

Fun at the park!

Downtown Ternopil

We discovered the only Chinese restaurant in Ternopol and had dinner here Saturday night. The food was good!

Sunday afternoon we brought Ruslan, Yuri, and Alina back to where we are staying. They watched the Russian version of Chronicles of Narnia and Zenon made dinner for all of us. It was nice to "hang out" without trying to find an activity. We enjoyed being together and talked about what it is like at home in Indiana.

Ternopil, Ukraine

Ternopil is a region in western Ukraine. This city has western European feel to it. I've added a link to the right which has some great photographs of the city we are in. Enjoy!

Good Day!

Today we left the apartment we have been staying at to move to the local YWAM training facility. This facility is brand new and have been gracious enough to allow us to stay here until we leave Terinopol. It is also nice because it is very clean, has laundry facilities, and wireless internet! Here is a view looking up to the balcony on the 3rd floor of our previous domain.

This morning we were able to meet with the head judge of this region. We submitted the paperwork for our adoption, and requested a court date next week. He immediately said that he has many pressing matters to attend to, and would not be able to give us a date until sometime in July. Valery continued to ask him if we would consider sooner, then I began to speak to him in Ukrainian. He soon began to warm up after hearing about my Ukrainian roots (and then wanted to know what kind of plant I was), and proceeded to fit us into the courts' schedule next Thursday or Friday. We will be able to confirm this on Monday.

Today our documents were submitted to the SDA in Kiev (YEAH!), and will be returned to Valery on Wednesday afternoon. Please pray that this happens. What this means is that we should be able to come home next weekend.

The fun part of the day began when we picked up Ruslan, Yuri, and Alena and took them bowling for the first time. After that, we went out to the Flamingo Restaurant and had a pizza dinner. I enjoyed teaching them how to bowl, and we all had a very good time.

Enjoy these bowling photos:
Alena with her bowling ball!


Yuri is excited about his score!

Checking out the bowling balls.

Yuri's sprained ankle doesn't keep him from bowling!

Elyse and Emma having fun at camp! How cool is technology? We found this picture of Elyse off the internet on Spring Hill Camps website out of Indiana!