I don't post often as this is my wife's thing and I just do the home sitting thing most of the time. But we have been blessed so much with this adoption. First we got all the court stuff done while we where there for three weeks and the adoption was final 12-27-08. So Mattea is our little girl and now we have to get Lou back for 2-3 weeks to finish this process. Just when when we think we have reached the end of our ability to find money to keep going it falls out of the sky. Very humbling to say the least and helps us to understand that this little girl has been waiting almost 7 years for us to find her and bring her home and get her fixed so she can be all she can be in this life.
Will it be easy; no it will not as the operations alone will be stressful on all of us and most of all on the parent that is sitting there waiting for the surgeon to come out and let them know how it went. Then we have the process of Mattea getting used to a new home, language, operations and most of all hopefully being able to breath better and have a heart that works like it is supposed to.
I am looking to go back to work also and if I find a job which I hope I can doing engineering then Lou can have more time at home with the kids and that will make her happy. Me I just try and deal with things as they come like any old grump does but sometimes it still gets the best of me.
I will post sometime the trip there and back in our quest for Mattea but don't have the time yet.
stew

PLEASE HELP US BRING HER HOME

As I mentioned yesterday, on our initial trip to Eastern Europe we were forced to use our entire adoption fund to be able to return home. My return trip is planned for 1/16-1/31 and I am starting at square one. Thanks to a very generous family, my plane ticket has been covered (thank-you, thank-you, hugs, hugs). I still need to raise about $2000 more to cover the rest of the expenses. I only have 2 weeks. I will be jumping at every opportunity to work overtime at my job, but for that I only have this one week coming up, as the pay period ends this Friday. So I decided to try to hold yet one more fundraiser. With your prayers and help this one last time, I have faith that everything will once again come together. Please help me spread the word if you also have a blog site. I will be randomly gifting one lucky donor with a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate. Please keep us in your prayers in the coming weeks as we prepare to bring our little miss home to her anxiously waiting family, and to much needed medical care.

Christmas miracle!

As you may have read a few weeks ago, in order to return from Eastern Europe when we did, we had to use our entire adoption savings account that had been allotted for my return trip in January. I have been stressing over how to replace those funds with only 2 or 3 weeks to do it in.
Well, we received a wonderful Christmas miracle. Another adoptive family has donated my round trip ticket to Kyiv! I am very moved and very, very grateful!!! That will go a long way to help bring our sweet Mattea home. This whole adoption process has been amazing. I have witnessed many small and large miracles along the way and watched as closed doors opened. I feel very blessed and humbled to be a part of it. And I can't wait to get our new little daughter home! Thanks so much to the very special family, and everyone else who has contributed and prayed us through this.

Mattea in action...

I finally figured out how to get the videos up. The last one is my favorite. I sure do miss our little Mattea!

The best and the worst

I am finally home in Edgewood, NM, and almost back on schedule, except now I am flip-flopping again as I am back to work, nightshift... after a 12-hour drive yesterday from Salt Lake City.
I would have to say that this trip was pretty close to the hardest thing I have ever done, but also one of the most eye-opening and amazing. I am so glad I got to have the experience.
Some of my favorite parts were: Of course, finally getting to meet our sweet Mattea!!! The foods---reminded me of my childhood. My ancestors are all from Eastern Europe and my family get togethers way back when were all about that type of food. It was SO good! Riding the night train---Estuardo and I thought it was a lot of fun! The people---everyone from the children at the orphanage, to the caregivers and principal, to the babushkas waving their fingers at us because the kids weren't dressed warm enough--- were all wonderful.
Some of my least favorite parts were: #1 absolute least favorite was the WC at the train station---nuff said. The 55 hour trip home---way too long on all of us.
The SADDEST part--- We spent almost 3 weeks in country and never lost track of my son's handmade "Taggy" blanket. I did "Taggy" checks everywhere we went and obsessed over it. When we landed in NYC after an 11 hour flight, we grabbed all our stuff and rushed off the plane, got to the immigration counter and boom, it hit me--- I forgot to do a "taggy" check and sure enough we left "him" on the plane. I made a mad dash about 1/2 mile back to the gate, which was locked by then, and managed after a frantic 10 minutes to ring the bell to an intercom and get a hold of the plane. I was told very bluntly that anything left on the plane had already been THROWN AWAY...ARRGGHHH!!!!!! I think I cried harder than my son.
I miss baby girl and can't wait to go bring her home. We have 4 days left of our 10-day wait, but I am probably heading back around January 17 after all of the holidays are over so we can get back home as soon as possible.
Sending a HUGE thank-you for all donations to Mattea Olena's grant fund!!!

Home...well, almost

First of all, court went fine. A little scary not being able to understand what all was going on, but Irina our translator did her best to keep me informed.
We had a 55 hour journey home, and we are all exhausted. I am still in Salt Lake and Stew is driving through a snow storm to get back to Edgewood today.
I will post more once I am all the way home.

Court tomorrow, then home

Just a quick note--- our court appointment is tomorrow morning! I am not nervous, yet... Then we head directly to Kyiv via bus and overnight train this time. Once we arrive in Kyiv, I think we are headed straight for the airport, so it will be one looonnnngggg journey back home. In case I don't get to post before we get home, please keep us all in your prayers. For a smooth court experience, and that the kids will do okay travelling all that time, and that WE will do okay, too. Mattea Olena is a sweetheart. I can't wait until we can bring her home to stay.

Lay's Crab Chips, the Big Supermarket, and MORE PICS!!!

Here are some pics from our visits...Mattea is relaxing more every day and starting to reach out and interact with all of us.


She really enjoys fruit leather. Once the staff realized it was fruit and not chocolate, they were okay with me giving it to her. I have to break it into tiny pieces.

Estuardo mingling with the doctors...

Onnolee and one of the docs...

Chilling in the playroom

Estuardo has lots of fun with the blocks.

A quiet moment.

Some pics of Mattea...

There were three walls full of these little boots all lined up outside Mattea's classroom.

We have improvised on the tub toys.

I keep forgetting to post about the potato chips! Seems the folks here have different tastes--- the top flavors are bacon, chicken, and crab! And they are addicting!!! My favorites are the crab and the bacon. And I thought I was going to lose weight...
Stew has been laid up the past few days with an intestinal bug and still feels too weak to go out, so Estuardo and I ventured to the BIG supermarket today, with the much appreciated help of our driver. It was probably three times the size of the market we have been going to, but our facilitator recommended it because they have uncooked meat as opposed to the ham and smoked meats at the smaller market. The prices continue to amaze me, but I guess it is relative to the lower wages here. I bought some chicken and beef for today and tomorrow. We've mostly been eating ham, potatoes and cabbage up until now so that will be a nice change. My whole cart full of groceries was less than $40. Three huge bagfuls that the driver helped me carry up the four flights of stairs (SPASIBA!!!)
Now I am off to finish up the final week of my online class. I will be glad to have that one stress out of the way.
Prayers for those in the process and especially for the others who are travelling.
Hugs and love to Mom, Serena, Kory, Jesse, Marisol, Enoch, Elijah, Isabella, Ava, and all the rest of family and friends following our journey. See you soon!

What day is this anyway?

I stopped counting days on my blog posts, and sure enough, yesterday we forgot what day of the week it was! I would have sworn it was Thursday, but the laptop and the camera were saying it was Friday. No other way to find out, so Friday it was!
No big news today, really just checking in. I have pics but I will try to post them tomorrow as I have to work on a school project today and the photo downloads take about 15 minutes each.
I am still searching for the other Reece's Rainbow children. Most of the staff is gone for the weekend but on Monday I will get with the principal and hopefully I will have some luck then. I did get a few quick peeks into some of the classrooms today, a baby room and a room with what looked like 2-4 year olds. But the doors have quickly shut before I could identify anyone.
Stew is "home" sick with a stomach bug. We've been pretty lucky so far until today, and so far it's only him. The weather is cold and damp, kind of drizzly, but no snow here in Izmayl. We do fine with our coats and yes, they are always after us to make sure the babies have hats on.
We were supposed to go out shopping today for some souvenirs of Izmayl, but that's been postponed until Monday I think.

ROLLERCOASTER...

I knew things were going too smoothly...
Everything is wonderful with Mattea Olena. We continue to visit twice a day, all of us in the morning and just me in the afternoon. She is slowly opening up, and the visits get more interactive every day. I brought her some type of berry or grape juice today and she got very excited to have it! And she had to explore Papa's beard. She was also more interested in the babies today, reaching out several times to interact.
Our court date is next Wednesday! Unfortunately, due to the holidays, even if we have the ten-day wait waived, everything will shut down before we finish, so we are probably all coming home on the 18th, next Thursday. The problems started when we called Delta yesterday to try to change our flights. Just the change of dates was going to cost us $4000! Which we do not even have. So I spent the rest of the day spiralling downward trying to figure out what to do. At least one of us would need to get home to pick up the other kids and take them home for Christmas. If only we were a little richer. If only I had a few more weeks of vacation time. Then the solution would have been easy. So I just spent 2 hours on the internet, and finally found us some one-way tickets for a total of $2900. Still pretty bad, but at least I could pay for them. I did have to use my entire savings that was supposed to pay for my return trip though, so I sure do hope I can find some overtime shifts when I get back.
We have learned much from our visit here.
Did I mention that neither of our apartments has had a washing machine? Mom, we have been handwashing all of our clothes since Day One! That is definitely a humbling experience. The detergents they sell at the store actually are marked with a special symbol if they are appropriate for handwashing, and have hand and machine washing instructions on the box.
We are eating less, walking MUCH more, and once we got over the jet lag, we have been getting along much better than we even get along at home. We travel to the orphanage by taxi twice a day. Our facilitator set it up that the driver shows up at set times. If we need to stop somewhere, we either point to a list or we call the facilitator and she translates to the driver for us.
The babies have fully adjusted to the time change, thankfully, and they are both also learning how to walk longer distances. At first, Estuardo insisted upon being carried, I think because he was frightened of the unfamiliar surroundings. Now he is walking 90 per cent of the time. And he is so cute when he tells our taxi driver "Spasiba!" as we are getting out!
I am feeling homesick the past couple of days. I guess everyone has gone through this? And yesterday was very frightening when it felt like we were abandoned here with no way home. But I am feeling a little better now that we have tickets home.
Mom, Serena, and all, Hi and BIG HUGS! We will be there very late on Dec. 18 thanks to Aerosvit and Jet Blue airlines.

Getting to know Mattea

Mattea was a little more quiet with the whole gang present. They told our facilitator that she will take a few days to get used to all of us, before she shows her personality.

On Tuesday, they took us to a larger room for the kids. Estuardo had a fun time with the equipment.

Here you can see just how tiny Mattea is. She is standing next to Estuardo, who is 32 months old. They are just about the same height, but he is definitely heavier than she is.
My visit with Mattea went very well yesterday afternoon. She came into the room happy and smiling, saying "mamamama"!! I played with her for a few minutes and then took out a fruit leather and fed it to her a bit at a time, and she got SO excited! Waving her hands, big smiles, and reaching for more. So that was a big hit. I am glad she is starting to relax a little!

Quick update---

I am at the internet cafe waiting to be picked up to go visit Mattea for our afternoon visit, so I thought I would add a quick note. The computers are not set up with USB so downloading photos to post is difficult when you don't speak the language here. If you are out there, Sheila, is there anywhere to go in Izmayl with WiFi, where I can easily do pics and/or video?
We all piled into the taxi this morning and headed to the school/orphanage to visit Mattea Olena. Stew and the babies got to spend more time with her today and get to know her better. I think she is still a little overwhelmed when we are all there, as she was very quiet most of the time. The babies seem to accept her as one of them though, and Papa is very taken with her.
I delivered the gifts for Timur and Slava, and the staff were very happy to receive them. We have not gotten to meet any of the other children yet, though, so no pics yet :o( but the principal promises we will be able to take some, of Timur, Slava and Alina for their waiting Mamas and Papas. The school/orphanage has a very warm and friendly feeling, smells like home cooking, and the staff are all very friendly and attentive. We always hear singing when we are there!
As for our case, paperwork is definitely in progress, and our translator will be traveling today to deliver things and get signatures. We are hopeful they will be submitted on Friday and POSSIBLY (prayers needed) we will have court on Monday. Unless we receive another miracle (prayers again) and they allow us to start processing birth certificate and passport immediately after court, the timing is just off enough that we will run into holiday delays and we will all head home towards the end of next week. IF they somehow allow us to start paperwork, then I will stay on here till completion.
Papa says he will be building Mattea her own special bed like Estuardo's. She is tiny enough for a toddler-sized bed and it will be closer to the floor for her. So even if we all head home, it will be a busy few weeks while we wait, between the holidays and getting ready.
I am sending many prayers up for all of the RR families going through changes this week, and for all of the RR families getting ready to travel. Heavenly Father's plan is an amazing one if we have the patience to wait for everything He has in store for us.

Pictures!

Ignore the hot, sweaty woman on the left...HERE SHE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is our Mattea Olena!

We met our little girl!!!

We travelled all morning yesterday on a minivann through the country to Izmayl. It was a foggy, rainy day and we got here about 1:3o in the afternoon. Our little apartment is on the FOURTH floor, no elevator, so I am sure I will lose a few pounds before I get home.
The children are sleeping better at night now, except Onnolee wakes up at about 2 or 3 in the morning screaming for something to eat, so she has her first meal of the day and then goes back to sleep for several hours.
First thing this morning, we headed out to do initial paperwork and then to the orphanage. We spent about 15 minutes with the principal and then the physicians and before I knew it, our little precious Mattea Olena was being walked through the door. She is very tiny, looks to be about a size 3T, or maybe even smaller, and she will be 7 in May. She was very quiet and reserved but agreeable to sit in my lap on the floor. I shared a book with her and then a lollipop. Onnolee came right over to her to meet her, followed quickly by Estuardo, so they have given her their welcome too. We've only spend about 15 minutes with her so far, but we gave them the YES WE WANT HER, so her paperwork is now in process.
I am headed back over to spend some time with her this afternoon. Hopefully tonight, or tomorrow the latest, I will be back here with some pictures and maybe a video or two. But she is PRECIOUS!
We are hoping for a court date the middle of next week, and then we will fly back home for the holidays. Her 10-day wait leads right to the Ukrainian Christmas holiday, so I will not be able to come back until later in January to bring her home, but so far everything has gone smoothly. The few small hiccups we have had, have all resolved easily.

Out on the town, and sleep at last! Day 5, EE

PICTURES!!! Okay, Blogger posted them exactly backwards from what I downloaded but I am too TIRED to try to switch them, so they are in opposite order...

My boy loves the borscht!!! This was taken at the cafeteria we finally were introduced to today. TONS of food--- we ended up with more than we could eat. I had borscht, stuffed cabbage, pierogies with potato and with cabbage, Stew had sausage, another soup, crepe-type pancakes with apple filling, plus another cup of borscht for Estuardo, and 4 cartons of juice all for less than $14! And it was delicious!!! They warned us that we would probably end up with more than we could eat, and they were right! The bad part is that it is quite a walk from our apartment.
Just some late-night antics, taken at dark-thirty one of the first nights we were here.

Downtown---I am in the red coat. Today we went on a walking tour of our section of the city. Another adopting couple plus our translator and her children accompanied us. We got to see a few things, but the best part was probably being able to share experiences with the other couple.

Stew, in the center of town, about 2 blocks from our apartment.

Bubs on a children's playground nearby. He's been wanting me to carry him everywhere and he is HEAVY! So today he got to do a LOT of walking.

Stew and Onny in front of St. Michael's cathedral.

Downtown at about 5:30!

Estuardo riding a little train at the circus. The smile only lasted a few seconds. As soon as the ride started he got scared being alone and they had to stop it to take him off.

Last night our translator took us to the circus! The babies really enjoyed it, as did we. Onny clapped and cheered almost the whole time, and Estuardo especially liked seeing all of the animals. They had many kinds including trained porcupines! This did the trick to wear the babies out. It was from 7 pm to 10 pm and by the time we got back to the apartment, they were ready to SLEEP!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!

A few of the things we purchased at the little grocery store. Strawberry yogurt drink, water with "no gas", the best apple juice we ever tasted, and a slab of butter.

The outside door to our apartment--- I have forgotten to write about these doors. The outside door is huge, and heavy metal and you punch a code of 3 digits at the same time in order to open it. This is followed by a second door that either requires using an intercom somehow or the use of a key which is how we got in. Then our apartment door is also huge and heavy and requires a skeleton type key that you have to turn around 3 times, 3 clicks to open. There is also an inside door that has about 5 different locks on it that we did not have to use. All of these security things in place... But walking the streets is supposed to be relatively safe. I did not feel the same insecurity that I had felt in Guatemala where there are armed police all over the place. The people here are very friendly and patient for the most part.

Tomorrow morning early at about 5:30 we leave for Izmayl. I hope there is internet...

EE Day 4- SDA appointment

Just a brief note---still no pictures. I thought I would be able to use our home laptop here at the post office, but they are not Vista compatible. I will try to find some other way.
But meanwhile... our SDA appointment was this morning at 10 a.m., and they wanted us to bring "all of us" so the babies came too. We met in an office, sat around a small table, and were presented with Mattea Olena's "file" which was one sheet of paper in a page protector with a little photo in the corner of her as a baby. They say we may have the photo after court, which I am hoping as it was very tiny, too small to take a photo of. The appointment lasted only a few minutes. We were asked one question, how we came to know of her. That was it, and we were finished. Now we will head to Izmayl on Sunday morning, and finally on Monday we will get to meet our Mattea Olena!
The babies are slowly adjusting. Estuardo was wired last night until about 2:30 when he finally crashed. Late, but better than 4 or 5. Tonight our facilitators are supposed to be taking us to the circus! It will last until around 10, and I am hoping that will tire them out enough to sleep. Tomorrow we hope to do a little sightseeing before we leave for Izmayl.
Our facilitators are not holding much hope out for us getting the 10 day waiting period waived, so we will most likely be doing this in two trips, not one. They are guesstimating our court date at about 2 weeks from today. So probably Christmas at home but not with Mattea. But we are very excited to be meeting her in just a few days!!

An hour to myself...Day 3 in Eastern Europe

Hi everyone, I can think a little better, and I will try to sum up our first few days "in country"---
We drove to Salt Lake City last Wednesday to spend the holidays with our family, then on Monday morning, we left on Delta for JFK airport at around 8:30 in the morning. We then had a direct flight to our destination which I thought would be the best chance of not losing any luggage. We, and all our luggage, made it here fine, with a tailwind that took a few hours off of the travel time, however prior to leaving JFK we had a three hour delay due to engine trouble and a plane switch. Our facilitators met us at the airport and took us to our apartment. It is very old but I like it! It has a kitchen, living room, and bedroom, a tiny room with just a toilet, and a tiny room with a bathtub and sink. (I took some pics but can't post until I figure out how...) We DO have hot water, yay, but we do not have a washing machine, so yesterday was my first time to do laundry by hand. We were told to lay out the damp clothes on the radiators to dry and this worked very well as even my sweatpants were dry in less than a day.
There is a small grocery store about a block away where we have bought most of our food. The deli meats and cheeses are very good, and the fruit juices are amazing. We managed to get the "right" water right off ("no gas"!) and even some fresh fruit. Our first meal out was at the "Potato House" where they presented us a menu translated to English. The meal we had was baked potatoes stuffed with meat, cheese, broccoli, and "green sauce" which was a kind of cucumber sour cream. The meat had been cooked in some really good spices. Two of these plus a whole liter of cherry juice was around $8. Today we ventured into a "PECTOPAH" (pronounced ree-stoh-RAHN) for our dinner and we had borscht, fresh vegetable salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, and grape juice, but it was considerably more expensive. The food was good though but we probably will not eat there again. I have heard such good things about the borscht, I just had to find me some. Estuardo really enjoyed his and ate just about a whole big bowl himself.
The hardest part about the trip so far has just been adjusting to the time change, 9 hours later here than we are used to. THe babies are taking their noontime nap at 7 at night and then getting up and staying awake all night. Today we all took a nap in the afternoon, so I am HOPING they start to adjust.
Tomorrow morning at 10 is our SDA appointment, finally, and since our Mattea Olena is down in Izmayl, we will not get to meet her until Monday. Due to the size of our family, and all our luggage, we decided to be driven in a minivan. The train was our other option and it only goes to Odessa, so the problem was they have limited access to minivans, and we would have needed TWO cars to get us to Izmayl. So we are told it will be about a 6 hour drive by minivan.
We miss all of our family and friends--- big hugs to them. I will try to post pictures by Monday at the latest. That is when we get to finally meet our girl!!!

We are HERE!

We are in country, arrived 2 hours late on Tuesday. Right now we are adjusting to the time change and attempting tu use the Cyrillic internet cafe. Our apartment is old but very nice. I will post pics in a few days or when I figure out how . I am not sure what is up with the counters but our SDA appointment is Friday, not today. Babies are with us, so not much time to go into details here at the post office. Now we will go explore the "PECTOPAH"s...Much more later...