Funny story & Dr.Yuri

Today was a cold and rainy day in Kiev. We all bundled up and made our way to the internet cafe in the post office near Independence Square. As I was checking our emails and updating the blog with the three of us jammed in this little stall-like size computer station Andrew suddenly had to go poopy REALLY BAD. I told him just a couple more minutes but he said he couldn't wait and that he had to go REALLY BAD. So Robert said he was taking him back to the apartment(about 8 blocks away), took him out to get him to a bathroom. Since Andrew said he couldn't wait he had to go REALLY BAD, Robert took him into a mall and found a water closet as they call it here. After he paid his 1 grivna to use the bathroom he then whisked Andrew into the stall and put him up on the porcelain floor with a 5 inch hole in the floor and feet tread marks around it. Robert wasn't thrilled with this and didn't know how Andrew was going to react. Andrew said, "Where's the toilet, Daddy"? and Robert responded right there as he pointed to the hole in the floor. Andrew replied,"I'm not going in that". I think the whole thought of going poopy in a hole without anything to sit on totally scared his poopy back inside him because he said that he didn't have to go poopy anymore. Robert asked him if he had to go pee pee and Andrew replied, yes. So as Andrew stood on the left foot tread, Andrew asked Robert to hold onto him. Andrew said,"Hold onto me Daddy so I don't fall into the hole". Robert laughed and we both laughed when he told me the story that evening. Too Funny.



After Andrew went to the bathroom we decided to walk around the malls to get some exercise. We went into a toy store and bought Andrew a plane and some cardboard dominoes. He was a happy camper of course after that. Here are some pictures of him playing with it in the apartment.



After we got back from walking around the malls, getting a bite to eat and updating the blog we went home to get ready to meet up with Dr.Yuri. We contacted a local doctor who helps adoptive families by traveling with them to evaluate the child/ren or he also will sit down with you to get you more knowledgable about the different medical conditions that are listed on the children's files, what they mean in Ukrainian terminology, whether it's treatable, whether it's serious or minor and some of his experiences from evaluating over 250 orphans in the past. He was a very nice, sincere and professional man that is very interested in helping families adopt with a peace of mind. He gave us much better insight as to what to look for, what steps we should take next and we feel much more prepared for our next appointment.

Playgrounds, Churches & Food Markets

Daddy giving Andrew a Piggy back ride in our apt.

Today we did some laundry, watched movies in the apartment until just after lunch. Then we ventured out to 2 different playgrounds both on either side of St.Michael’s Church. Andrew was excited since the playground yesterday didn’t have swings and these two did. Here are some pictures of the playgrounds and of St. Michael’s and St. Sofia’s Church. There were a couple of couples getting married today at St.Michael’s church(a beautiful blue and white church that has an arch in the back of the church where couples get married under.


Teeter totter behind St. Michaels church


Mommy on castle slide-LOL



St.Sophia's Church Bell Tower


Andrew & Mommy in front of St. Michaels Church

Wedding Arch in back of St.Michaels church.

The weather here is in the twenties today and overcast. No wind or precipitation. Today must have been some sort of holiday kind of like Valentines Day. There were many people walking around with flowers in there hands (that they were holding upside down) or balloons and many men and women holding hands and kissing in the city. Or maybe since it was a Friday it was like date night or something. Any thoughts or insight, Boris??(my Ukrainian born friend from work)


Daddy & Andrew in front of St. Michaels Church

After the park we went to the Underground Mall food court to get an early dinner. On our way home we discovered another internet café at the post office. So we stopped and updated the blog since we didn’t have time to do it yesterday. We also came across a large market that was like a huge produce, fish and meat store. The produce was beautiful so we bought some cherries, which were way overpriced even for home standards but since they looked so beautiful and were the size of ping pong balls Robert opt to get them. We also bought some grapes and pistachio nuts. The pistachio nuts were really good and had a different salty flavor to them. The meats were surprisingly out in the open on a table with people behind them trying to sell them to you. One guy had all of the meat laid out and had his newspaper laying overtop the unwrapped meat. He was reading his paper with it laying over the unwrapped meat. How’s that for sanitary and quality assurance Catelli Brothers? (a veal and lamb manufacturer where I used to work.) www.catellibrothers.com A great selling feature…ehh? Most of the fish vendors were the same in the way they presented the fish except for one. One fish vendor out of all had their fish on ice. All of the other meat and fish vendors didn’t have the meat or fish on ice at all. Very surprising. The shrimp here were huge though. The shrimp was larger than an average size banana. You could make a meal out of the shrimp alone.

On our way back from the produce and meat market we there was a line of about 40 or so people standing outside a mini restaurant that sold Ukrainian hot dogs with another 15 or so people standing around eating the hot dogs. From what Alla says it’s a cheap meal from a fast food place (about 3 grivnas which is about .50 cents). That’s all for today. Until tomorrow.

Our Appointment at the SDA (Adoption Center)

Today we had our appointment at the SDA at 11:00am. We arrived about 10 minutes early and had to wait about 20 minutes before they took us into the room to meet with the psychologist. She was very nice and ask us to tell us a little about ourselves. We told her a little bit about ourselves and told her we adopted Andrew from Ukraine in 2005. We also showed her copies of our 3 annual reports that we sent to the Ukrainian Consulate each year since we’ve been home with Andrew, which tells about Andrew’s development (a requirement when adopting in Ukraine). We then showed her our photo album and she loved seeing the pictures of Andrew with our family so happy.

She then asked us what we were look for. We explained to her that we wanted to adopt preferably a girl under the age of 4 years old as young and healthy as possible. We told her we wanted to have the child be younger than Andrew. She explained that most of the young children had some serious illnesses. She then looked into the books and pulled out some files and immediately Andrew perked up to see the files of the children. The psychologist smiled and giggled to herself to see how interested he was in seeing the children. We explained to her that Andrew has also been looking forward in having a sibling and is very excited as well as us to complete our family.

We spent an hour or so in the meeting looking at file after file. We asked the psychologist to call about a couple children to get more updated details about them, however, since we didn’t find our child today, we have requested to have another appointment next week. So next Thursday, Nov 20th will be our second appointment at the SDA to look at more children. Please keep us in prayer. There are many sick children here and we definitely need discernment, favor, and for God to reveal us our blessing from above to us next Thursday. Andrew file became available the day of our second appointment in 2005 and we were blessed to be the first couple to see his file. There were many families waiting around all week as we were and the psychologist took us into the meeting room first to see all of the new children just released from the ministry to be open for international adoption. I believe that next Thursday we will have supernatural favor as well and find our child or possibly children that are meant for our family.

After our appointment we had to make copies of our documents to take back to the SDA. When we returned to the SDA we were waiting in the corridor waiting to hand in our documents, when I noticed Andrew was jumping up and down with his hands in the air as he was singing the song,”As the praises go up, the blessings come down.” You know, I think Andrew teaches me more than I teach him. Andrew is so right. In the middle of our adversities we need to Praise the Lord for the blessings are already on their way down. Just like in Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas were in prison, they praised and worshiped the Lord through their adversity and late in the midnight hour (when it seems to be the worse it can be) God turned their situation around and caused an earthquake to shake open the prison doors and loose their bands around their legs and freed not just them but all the prisoners. Therefore we Praise you Lord for You are Good and Your Mercies Endure Forever. You Lord are No Respecter of Persons. You did it before by opening the doors to our blessing Andrew, and You will do it again. Late in the midnight hour, God’s going to turn it around….He’s going to work in our Favor. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord.



After our appointment, we took a walk to the park to let Andrew play on the playground for a little while. So Robert and I played with Andrew as Alla made some phone calls. Andrew had fun burning some energy on the playground as we were trying to find a playground yesterday in our travels. Now that we know where the playground is we can come back tomorrow. Alla said that if the weather is nice on Saturday we will either take Andrew to the Zoo or the Circus.

Day out at Independence Square

Ukrianian Flag in Independence Square



Our first day in Ukraine was spent exploring Independence Square. We walked through the under ground markets where they sell just about anything from flowers to Ukrainian shirts, watches, cell phones etc. The under ground markets are also under ground malls, actual stores with clothes, jackets, and sometimes a food market.

Underground Markets

In order the cross the street the safest way you walk through the under ground markets/malls to get to the other side of the street. Pretty smart if you ask me. Our apartment is about a 10 minute walk to Independence Square. We got some of our money changed at a money exchange and the rate is actually better for us this time rather than last time we were in Ukraine. For every one U.S. dollars in Ukraine exchanges to 5.83 Ukrainian grivnas. Last time we were here in 2005 we received 5.4 grivnas for every U.S. dollar. Alla said that in recent past the exchange rate was down to 4.3 grivnas to every U.S. dollar.



We found a free internet café located in a restaurant not far from our apartment. So around dinner time we came back for some Ukrainian borsch soup (warm beet and cabbage and beef soup with a dollop of sour cream on it) and sent a message to our family and updated the blog. That internet was much faster than our connection at home. The soup was wonderful, just like we remembered. I liked the way we could get the internet within the restaurant since it gave Andrew and Robert something to do while I updated the blog and checked our email. It was much better than using the internet café where the computers needed a thorough cleaning and there was nothing else to do but go on the computer.

Independence Square Buildings


Fire Twirler

The weather here is around 45 degrees Fahrenheit, clear with no wind or precipitation. A little brisk but not bad. We went out after dark for a quick walk to find a market to buy some more yogurt, water and bread for tomorrow. As we were looking for the market we came across a street entertainer that was twirling a baton that the ends were lit of fire. After twirling them around in the air and under his legs he then put some alcohol in his mouth to get the crowd excited and he spit the alcohol toward the fire to see a burst of flame coming from his mouth. After that he took his bottle of vodka and drenched a rectangular piece of card board with the vodka and lit it on fire as well. He then in his bare feet walked across the board several times until he put the fire out. Andrew said that “I bet his Mom wouldn’t want him to do that, Not Good.” After the show was over and as we were walking home Andrew kept asking us, “Why was that guy walking on fire?”. We explained to him that was his way of making money, however, it was very dangerous and that his feet are probably sore with burns on them, as well as that is not a good thing to do because you could get seriously hurt or even die.



We had a wonderful day out on the town and when we got back to the apartment we explained to Andrew that tomorrow is a very important day where we will meet with Alla, Valentina and some other ladies who will show us pictures of different children that we could possibly adopt. I told him how important it was to keep quiet while the ladies tell us all about the children. We all are looking forward to tomorrow and are wondering what child God has in store for us. We are believing for a girl that is healthy and is as young as possible, preferably younger than Andrew(who is 4 almost 5 years old). Please stand in agreement with us for God to reveal to us and make it ever so clear the child he has for us. Thank you and love to you all.

Hooray we made to Ukraine!

Andrew on the plane with pooh bear sleeping next to him.

We made it to Ukraine! Hooray!! We had 2 great flights. The first one landed in Rome, Italy on Delta Airlines and the next went to Kiev, Ukraine on Ukrainian International Airlines. Andrew was so excited to travel by airplane. We had a delay of about an hour before we even left JFK airport. We waited on the airplane for about an hour for our turn just to get onto the runway. Andrew was very anxious to get up in the air as the rest of us were. He kept saying over and over, “I can’t believe I’m on an airplane”. When we finally got up in the air it was dark and we could see all of the lights from the buildings and bridges. He thought it was cool to be in an airplane.

I brought a sliced apple with us in a Ziploc bag which I’m glad I did. Andrew was so hungry since it was around dinner time when we were sitting on the airplane waiting for it to be our turn to take off. He ate the whole apple and also ate all his chicken, salad, roll and a brownie that they served us on the plane. I was surprised he ate all his dinner since he ate the whole apple right before. Andrew was very good on the plane, the only trouble we had was trying to get him to sleep. He just wanted to play with his blanket rather than sleep. He finally fell asleep about an hour and a half before it was time to land in Rome.

When we arrived in Ukraine, Alla was there at the airport waiting for us. It was wonderful to see her again. It felt like we were just here yesterday. She surprised me with some flowers. I am so glad that we have Alla again! She’s the best! She gave Andrew a kiss and a hug and then we were on our way with Sasha in the car to our apartment. It was funny watching Andrew’s eyes move back and forth as he was watching Alla and Sasha having a conversation in Russian. He was quietly listening and watching the two of them talk. I wasn’t sure if he understood them or recognized the language or just was trying to understand what was going on. I asked Andrew quietly, “What are they saying?”, just to see if he could understand them. He quietly whispered back, “I don’t know.” I smiled and giggled to myself. Alla says hello to everyone!

We stopped at the market to get some food for dinner and breakfast before we went to the apartment. We had roasted chicken, bread and butter and chicken patties that were dipped in egg and juice. I love the Ukrainian juices here. We are in an apartment that is different from the apartments we were in before. This one is located in the heart of Kiev. We are near Independence Square and the Opera House and lots of high end department stores. There is even a Friday’s Restaurant nearby.


Our Bathroom

Our dining room

Our Kitchen

Our living room

Anyway we slept good last night. We all slept for 13 hours straight. We were a bit exhausted and are now caught up on our sleep. Alla says that our appointment with the SDA is at 11:00am on Thursday. Please keep us in your prayers for Godly wisdom, knowledge, understanding, discernment and supernatural favor and for God to reveal to us the child he has for us. Thank you and we’ll be in touch.