Day 12

Okay, before I get into this blog I need to clarify something. While looking through photos that are taken each day we have noticed that they are all very similar. We are ALL wearing the same thing, the weather the looks the same and our surroundings look the same. We want you all to know that we did not take tons of photos the first day we arrived here and now David and I are on a romantic cruise somewhere in the Caribbean, we are actually here and living each day to the fullest....we just wanted to make that clarification.

Well, no one can ever accuse us of not living on the edge, we know how to get things done around here. After a restless night, David decided we needed to find a dentist and stat. We found one right around the corner, next to our lovely bus stop, so handy. We walked right in and they were able to see David immediately, much to his relief, but you could tell he was also a bit nervous. Through Oksana David was able to explain the pain and the wonderful dentist went right to work. She started the procedure with a shot, and when Oksana and I saw the needle we both turned our heads, we couldn't bear to watch, unfortunately they didn't have the grape or strawberry flavored gas that David requested, poor guy. After much drilling, cleaning and more drilling the dentist finally removed the nerve, which I didn't even know was possible, she then filled the tooth with a temporary filling and he was a good as new. It was quite the humorous situation watching David answer questions from the dentist, through Oksana while his mouth was being worked on and then relaying things again through Oksansa back to the dentist. Whew, it was quite the morning. We went to pay and the whole procedure only cost us 150.00 gryvna, approximately $18.75, can't beat that. In fact I told David maybe we should get all his dental work done while we are here in Ukraine, he didn't agree. We do need go and get an x-ray taken tomorrow and then if David is still in pain we will beed to do one more follow up visit, but as I write this David is in no pain whatsoever. No more 'Groundhog Day' around here anymore
On our way home we passed our, well my most favorite find, as of yet. My friends and family who know me best will surely appreciate this...I found a SECOND HAND STORE, a Ukrainian DI of sorts. I thought I had died and gone to heaven right then and there. David moaned and shook his head when he realized what kind of a store it was. Oksana mentioned that she had never been in SUCH a store before, she didn't like them. What? Who doesn't like a good second hand store? So I quickly agreed to introduce her to the fine "art" of shopping at such a store and she had a ball, let me tell you. She was amazed at the prices and the different assortment of items. We found nails, batteries, makeup (okay I wouldn't even buy makeup used), clothes, purses, kitchen supplies and the list goes on and on. I could tell my poor David wanted to go home, so I will plan a 2nd, 3rd and possibly a 4th trip back on my own time. Boy, our apartment is in an ideal location...close to a grocery store, bus stop, dentist and now a DI...life is soooo good.

When we arrived home tonight we read your comments from our blog and many of you asked if the sanatorium also has girls living there, well we spotted them for the first time today and they are just as amazing and beautiful as the boys. They are softer and gentler, they huddle together in small groups holding each other's hands. They apparently live on the other side or maybe even on a different floor, it is hard to tell once you are inside the sanatorium We took their pictures and posted them below. When we were leaving today four little girls approached us, we gave them some candy and took their picture, oh I just wanted to grab them and kiss them all over. Afterwards as we were walking across the yard to leave we heard something yelling at us, we turned around and we saw one little girl crying as she was running towards us. She put her little hands out and asked if she too could have a little piece of candy like her friends. I looked over to David and through my tears I could tell David was crying too, he handed her the whole bag of remaining candy and told her to take them back and to share with her friends. She couldn't believe we had given her the whole bag, she was so grateful and the thing is, there were only about 10 tootsie rolls left, but she was happy anyway. She quickly ran back to her friends and handed out what was left and as we turned to leave we heard the group yelling, "thank you," we then turned around and they were waving goodbye. When we got to the fence with the boys today our emotions simply overwhelmed us, we did not want to leave. We didn't want to leave the boys, we didn't want to leave the children. The boys hugged us goodbye and told us in their broken English, "it's okay," and I have to think that one day everything will be.

Kisses!!


Bogdan at his usual place, waving goodbye and waiting for us to turn the corner.



The girls waving goodbye. The girl in the brown, hooded coat with her back turned, is the one we gave the bag of tootsie rolls to.


These are the girls that approached us originally inside the sanatorium.

This is the little one that ran after us asking for candy. She was all smiles when we gave her the bag. Beautiful!!

A gentlemen was selling this right out of his van. Just after I took this picture a lady wrapped it up in a towel and headed for home. Yummy?

David, all smiles. This was BEFORE the shot.

David and the dentist...drill baby drill.

Nice, cozy office.

Day 11, wow, really?

Day 11, in all actuality it's pretty much the same as day 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, etc...except we did it mix it up a bit today. Just to give you a little history, on the way to the airport last week a part of David's tooth fell out and it is getting progressively worse. In fact yesterday, he was getting quite sick, I don't know if the pain is making him sick or the infection from the tooth. When I touch his check, it is warm to the touch and because the pain is so bad and the ibuprofen isn't helping we decided it would be best for him to opt out of today's activities. The only good thing about him staying behind is that it gave me a chance to find the sanatorium on my own and navigate the bus system. Yes, I did have Oksana with me, but it was nice to finally figure my way around. We will try to find a dentist tomorrow, I don't think David will be able to handle the pain much longer and I am worried about the infection, we'll see how he feels in the morning.

We are starting to feel quite at home here, people are recognizing us and we as well them. The ladies at the grocery store know us quite well and when David attempts to chat with them they simply giggle, hmmm I don't get the same response, go figure. I think I now know why David likes to go to the grocery store on his own, jk.

Anyway, Oksana and I arrived at the sanatorium and the boys were quite upset to find that David was home sick, they were asking a million questions about his health, they were so concerned...sheesh, what am I? Chopped liver? Oh, they just LOVE him, and I am glad they do. PLEASE, don't any of you think I am complaining, they are just as loving with me, it's just a little "joke" David and I have with one another, it's an inside thing. I simply love to watch the "magic" that is happening before my eyes with David and the boys, it is simply wonderful.

Bogdan, is such a ladies man, he holds the door for me, holds my coat and always motions for me to go first when we enter a room, "ladies first," he states with a big swoop of his arm to move me forward, such a gentleman. Because David wasn't with us today we decided to stay at the sanatorium and play a few games my dear friend, Roseanne, gave us before we left. Bingo and Don't Eat Pete were a hit. Ruslan pulled the blanket off his bed for us to sit on and we then played the afternoon away. I wish David could have been there, it was such a FABULOUS time with them all. During Bingo Bogdan read the letters out to the boys, he would yell, "attention, B-5" then grab another chip and do the same, "attention, I-19" he was so serious. Oksana and I just kept smiling, he was way too cute for words. We brought some tootsie rolls and watermelon gum from the home to share with the boys. Once they realized I had candy, I was surrounded by grubby little hands. When I placed a piece of candy in Oleg's hand (the boy whose birthday it was yesterday) he said, "thank you" so I gave him another piece for his generosity. The other boys quickly caught on and they began to say "please" and "thank you." Ruslan was a little slow in noticing, so when I only gave him one piece he was quick to say, "pooiehosiooshka thbokspteiskehtoi," (this is what it sounded like to me) Oleg quickly reminded him to say, "thank you." Rusaln finally caught on, sheesh. Oh, that Oleg is just too adorable.

( Oh, side note...Christy, this is the Oleg that is friends with Vitaly, he asked me to send Vitaly his regards and to tell him he misses his friend. He asked me to take a picture of he and another boy, he mentioned this was a friend of Vitaly's as well. )

After the games we spent the rest of the afternoon just talking. While I was sitting there surrounded by these BEAUTIFUL children, my eyes started to fill with tears. How honored David and I are to be a part of this miracle. To be here in Ukraine at this time in our lives, amazing. Thousands of miles away from home and yet feeling quite at home here.

When Oksana and I arrived home tonight, David was no better. In fact, we will need to find a dentist tomorrow, wish us luck.

There are days we so want to go home and then there are days like today we don't ever want to leave. How do you leave these children behind? How do you go on with your daily activities knowing what you know? We will for forever be different people because of our experiences here and rubbing shoulders with these resilient, loving, beautiful children of our Heavenly Father.

We love and miss you all! Mom, please hug the kids a little bit longer for us tonight. We miss them so much!! Kisses!!


Bogdan and Ruslan stand at the fence when we leave each day. Today Bogdan walked us to the fence. This picture is taken right as we turn the corner to go home. I had to really zoom in so you could actually see him. It is hard to continually turn around as we are walking away and to see him still standing there waving goodbye.



In the boys sleeping quarters.

Some of the boys...

Oleg and his friend sending "regards to Vitaly."

Playing Don't Eat Pete. Thanks Roseanne.

Don't Eat Pete, again.

Guess what? The garbage was picked up today. It was the very first thing we all noticed when we left this morning.

Days 9 and 10

Andreas likened our days thus far to the movie, Groundhog Day and he is absolutely correct. We pretty much do the same thing day in and day out with slight variations here and there, but pretty much the same thing. Even the time with the boys is a rerun of the day before. Yesterday we did mix it up a bit, yay, we explored downtown Dnipro and had a great time. In fact, we met an Iranian gentleman that spent the day with us showing us the city. When we went went to see the boys today the first thing they asked why we "no show" yesterday. I thought they understood we were not going to see them that day, but once again things were lost in translation. They then told us they had stood by the window waiting for us all afternoon and yes, just so you all know, we did feel TERRIBLE when we heard this, Ruslan then said, "please don't no come again." We will for sure try.
They are anxious to leave the sanatorium and continually ask when we will ALL be going home. Ruslan hopes he will be home for his birthday on December 27, I told him for sure we would be, we better. We told them today that David would be leaving next week and afterwards they seemed to cling to him just a little bit more for the rest of the day. I think if they had their choice they would rather me go home instead, they have both really bonded with him. I think it's because he is big softy, he will do anything for them...they truly have him wrapped around their little fingers.
Some of you have asked why the boys are in the sanatorium. Well, a few weeks back they received their TB shots, and as I have mentioned in earlier posts they have more freedom and better food at the sanatorium, so they scratched the shot area to make it look infected so they would be sent there, clever. The sanatorium is like a HUGE doctors office, but I haven't seen one really sick child yet and I want to keep it that way, because what I see already is sad enough.
We go to court on the 18th, Monday. We still haven't received our Interpol clearance yet, but we did receive our clearance from social services and they sent there recommendation for adoption to the SDA (State Department of Adoptions). We are getting closer and closer, so if all goes well we will be in court Monday and David will return home Thursday, the 21st. Oh please, oh please, oh please. After court our 10 day waiting period will begin, this is to see if any family member(s) will come forward and deny our petition to adopt. Translator Oksana doesn't quite know what happens after the 10 days, and we are a bit unclear also. Facilitator Oksana is in Kyiv, so we are not able to ask her at the moment, we'll just have to wait and see what happens next. It's all one big roller coaster ride, some days we are high and other days we are low and then there are days we want to get off and go home.
I know we have said this already and we will continue to do so. We so appreciate your comments, love and prayers. It's nice to know we have such a huge cheering section cheering us on. Loves and kisses.

This is a friend of the boys, it was his 14th birthday today. The boys picked out Coca Cola and a Snickers candy bar for his present. He is such a quiet, kind young man, too adorable.

This is usually how we walk anywhere, the boys holding David's hands and me trying to catch up.

Best buddies, now brothers.

Our "groupies".

The view we see each morning when we walk out our apartment building.

Another view. Who knows when the garbage will be picked up, we've been here over a week now and nothing as of yet.

Day 8

We have slowed down a bit, our days pretty much consist of me waking up at 4am, then trying to wake Dave up, with no luck and then laying back in bed until it is bright enough for me to read my book. I think I will try to find a flashlight today so my reading can start earlier. We then have breakfast and then wait until it is time to visit the boys. We found the the bus depot, which is right around the corner, lucky us, and found that bus 10 will take us within a block or so of the sanatorium. While loading the bus, Dave and I realized they are not made for people who are over 6 feet. It was quite the experience trying to fit our 6'1" and 6'4" frames into the seats. I almost had to grease David down to get him out, and while getting off we both bumped our heads good and hard...ouch, yes we are quite the dorks. After returning from our visit we make dinner and then I try to stay awake until bed time, which I fail at miserably and thus the reason for me waking up at 4 am each day.
Well, I tried to do a little bit of laundry yesterday, big mistake. I poured in a liquid detergent, at least that is what the bottle said, but after the clothes had been washing for a bit and upon further investigation I realized I was washing the clothes with an oven cleaner, nice. The clothes are a little stiff this morning, but they do smell good.
Wendy, we mailed your package yesterday, YAY! You would have thought we were mailing some illegal contraband the way the woman was questioning us. She was sniffing it, rolling it around in her hands and then stamping it. She had to stamp it numerous times and because of the tape, the ink from the stamp wasn't drying, so she would sniff the package some more and then try to find a place where there was no tape to stamp it again. After the third or fourth time of her sniffing and stamping I had to turn my head away. I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her, but it was a hilarious situation and I couldn't stop giggling. Dave and I couldn't look at one another either for fear of laughing out loud. It was so nice to finally really laugh hard, we haven't done a whole lot of it since our arrival, so thanks for having us mail it. We still chuckle each time we think about it.
We had a nice visit with the boys yesterday. David brought the laptop along and when the boys realized we had it, you would have thought they had died and gone to heaven, they were so excited to play video games. A pretty uneventful afternoon, but it was good to just spend the time with them.
A lot of you have asked to describe the sanatorium a bit, so I will try. From what we can tell it is a huge U-shaped building with at least two levels. Long hallways with rooms going off into mazes. It is quite confusing to us, so we just stay close to the boys and Oksana. The boys sleep upstairs in rooms with beds that go from wall to wall. When you go upstairs to the living quarters the smell just hits you, it's a smell of body odor, urine and food, but after a while you do get use to it. The walls are painted with vibrant colors in beautiful murals and it is clean for the most part. The boys prefer it over the orphanage, they say they have more freedom and better food there. The moment we arrive we are overcome with children, they surround us just looking for any kind of affection and touch from us, it is hard to contain the tears sometimes. When we leave we walk past the "dining room" and the children all have there little faces pressed against the windows trying to get our attention one last time, it is hard not to leave with a dry eye. Each day here makes us so much more aware of all the we have at home, we are truly blesssed and have so much.
Again, we so appreciate your comments, your love and prayers. Loves and kisses.


This is a small handful of the group of boys that follow us everywhere. Just the cutest kids ever.





We took the laptop with us today, we have portable internet so the boys were able to play a couple of online games. Bogdan's smile says it all.

Our bus depot which is right around the corner from our home.

Another view of the bus depot.

Little bit of day 5, day 6 and 7

We spent the last part of the day on Friday with the boys. We went to an amusement park, but it had been closed for the winter season, the boys were quite disappointed, but it looked to us as if it had been closed since the 1950's, it was old and run down, but apparently it's quite the attraction when opened. They are always hungry when we pick them up, despite the fact they have just eaten lunch, so we usually end up buying them a little something to snack on. At the grocery store Ruslan asked for a piece of chicken and Bogdan chose potato chips, he is not a real meat eater we've noticed. There was quite the array of chip flavors, he eventually picked the salami flavor, thank goodness, the crab flavored ones looked a little nasty to us. They are open and loving when they are with us, but when we get close to the Sanatorium they are more reserved and less loving, which is okay with us, we understand. Such pressure on these little guys...
A few of you have asked where the Sanatorium is located in comparison to the the Orphanage. It is a good 20 minute drive from the Orphanage to the left bank where they are, or the right bank, or the left bank, um, hold please...okay I just found out we are on the RIGHT bank and the boys are on the LEFT. Having them there is both a blessing and a curse, they have more freedom, but we can't afford to get there daily. Tomorrow the goal is to find a bus and hopefully we will be able to spend more time with them this week. Whew, I am glad we finally found out which bank we live on.
Anyway, yesterday was pretty uneventful. We spent the day in the apartment just reading and sleeping, actually it was quite nice to not be running around all day getting documents signed and avoiding potholes. I'm sure as the days progress the reading and sleeping will get monotonous, but for now we are really enjoying it, at least I am, David is getting a bit restless though.
Today we went to church, which was so wonderful. No matter the language we felt so at home. We watched General Conference, which was great because we were not able to see it last week because of our traveling here. We originally started in the large room with everyone, but eventually they moved us to a smaller room where we were able to watch conference in English. We were in a room with missionaries that had just recently arrived and could not speak the language as of yet. We met the nicest couple from the Sandy area who had only just arrived a few weeks ago, they look as if they are still adjusting to the way of life here, just as we are. We sure didn't want to leave when it was all over...
Wendy, we will mail your package tomorrow, finding a post office is first on our list. We haven't had a chance to really explore our surroundings yet, so it'll be nice to get an idea as to where we are.
We love you all so much. It's hard to believe a week has gone by already. Some days it feels like we've been here forever, and yet it's going by fast. Please keep us in your prayers...loves!!

Bogdan and Ruslan. Bogdan chose salami potato chips over crab flavored, good choice.

A typical Ukrainian apartment building.

The boys with a couple of their buddies. The taller one is Ruslan's "protection".