The Little Things

Today was another good day. We briefly saw another American family this morning. It is always nice to have someone speak your language, even if it is just a few minutes. They were here for their court date of another little boy here at the orphanage.
Anatoliy's teacher invited us to go to the park with their class this morning. We were excited to see a "park" since we have yet to see anything like that. Well let's just say that my idea of a park and their idea is slightly different.(lots of sarcasm here) We are all walking through a large field with knee high grasses, trash on the ground, etc., and the whole time all I am thinking about is what kind of snakes and other critters are in these grasses! Then all of a sudden the group kind of stops- keep in mind I have yet to look up from my feet in case of "attack by a wild animal", so I really wasn't watching where we were going. Well, come to find out -this IS the park?! But of course it is:) Anatoliy and his friend walked us to a bridge to show us a little creek. It was a small creek with lots of frogs. A very old metal bridge with a big hole in it that crossed over the creek. There was lots of trash floating in the creek. Let's just be honest here- there is trash everywhere. People just throw their wrappers and bottles right on the ground and find nothing wrong with it. Anatoliy's friend starting hanging from the bridge to wash his feet-we really tried to get a picture of this, but the camera batteries failed. Ok, main point of the story here. While I sat noticing all of the negative and differences from home, these two boys were intent on showing us the beauty of this park. They taught us how to make "boats" out of leaves and race them down the creek. My boat got stuck every time on this stick and these two sweet boys did everything to keep my boat going! Then they started collecting flowers for me. All kinds from this field that I had failed to even see b/c I was so busy looking down at my feet. These boys picked up every insect, dragonfly, butterfly that they could, just to show us the "beauty" of their park. We walked farther around the park and ended up at another bridge. The water here was just as nasty, yet this boy waded out into the water up to his knees! I guess it is all in your own perspective! If you haven't showered in a week, cleaning your feet in this creek probably seems like a great idea!

Matt on the bridge.



The park



A boy trying to help a baby bird back into it's nest.

On the bridge with the flowers from the boys in my hair.

We were able to take our boys to lunch with us today. Our favorite cafe was open. The sweet women who runs it asked Ivan and Anatoliy if we were here to adopt them. The boys replied yes. She said they were very lucky and look just like our sons. Anatoliy was all smiles telling us this story after lunch.

Ivan has been a little moody today. He was in great spirits this morning and then more sullen this afternoon. Of course he says he is fine, but anyone who knows me, knows that I have analyzed his mood all day. At one point I thought we should call the translator and have her talk to him, so I would know what is wrong. Matt talked "me off the ledge" on that one. I just want to say what's wrong and have him tell me everything! I know he doesn't have that connection with me yet, but I do long to give him a hug and just let him know that we are here for him and that he can tell us anything. Matt says we will have many more teenage moods ahead of us in the upcoming months so I should stop over analyzing the first one:) My ever practical husband!

Everything else is going well. We see the boys much of the day. They eat two meals with us. Their care givers make them eat dinner in the orphanage and then they come back to us and eat again. Sometimes they come with hungry friends too-we love it. I love being able to care for these children while we are here. They never tire of me offering them food and drinks:)

Matt and I have truly slowed down our lives here in Chernigivka and are starting to really appreciate the little things offered each day.


Matt on the seesaw - the boys love that Matt is so silly with them.



Chernigivka

We have settled in here at the orphanage. Our translator has left us and gone back to Kiev to start the paper chase. We will see her again on Monday.
We are really enjoying our time with the boys. They are with us as much as they can be. Today was the last day of school for them, so the last two days they have had celebrations and parties. Just like in the States, parties and awards ceremonies. We were very happy that Ivan came on Tuesday afternoon and asked Lesya (our translator) to ask us if we would attend a party with them Wednesday night and come to the awards ceremony on Friday morning. We of course said yes and enjoyed both celebrations very much. Ivan was excited to use our camera and take pictures of everyone. Anatoliy was happy to have us there to watch him perform in the play. Today was the last day of school and the boys picked us up in their finest clothes at 8:15 to head to the awards ceremony. They have an indoor gym here at the school. Please do not think of a gym at one of our kids schools - think painted hard wood floors that are buckled and broken everywhere, with two broken basketball goals at each end. This is a very "bare bones" school and town. Anatoliy received an award for math and art for the 7th grade class. They announced the graduating class. I couldn't help but think where are these kids going to go now. They truly have no options in life at the end of their school years.



Two kids who performed and their teacher.



Anatoliy in his play.

The people in the town are nice. Everyone here knows we are the Americans adopting from the orphanage. Honestly I can not think of another reason that a tourist would visit this town - there is truly nothing here. We have been to the grocery store a couple of times. Our boys and their friends LOVE to eat and they all really need to eat too.  We fed four boys Ramen soups today and they still all went to their assigned lunch and ate there too.  Trying to find a fruit or vegetable in the grocery store is non existent. Then today we visited an outdoor market - think flea market - and there were farmers selling some apples, vegetables, raw fish (which I refuse to eat), clothing, shoes, etc. It was a fun experience. We have had lots of boys in and out of the apartment all day. It is fun to spend time with them. They love to look at all of the electronics and just "stuff" that we have.

I went with Anatoliy to his class party today. My sweet boy asked if he could bring in cookies to the party and maybe some drink? Of course this meant, "Mama, can you go buy some things, so that I can bring them to the party." So two bottles of juice and cookies were purchased and I am sure it is the only time that Anatoliy has ever been able to bring something to a class party. He asked if he could carry it all in - and my sweet boy walked in with the biggest smile and so much pride that he got to bring something to offer. His art teacher was very friendly. They gave me a gift from the class, that was handmade by one of the students. It was very thoughtful of the class. Matt has been working all day, so he missed out.




Anatoliy's class party.

Origami crafts that the kids made.

Last night a restaurant opened just for us to eat. They cooked us a nice chicken cutlet and fries. I just couldn't get out of  my head that the chicken I was eating was probably the chicken that I saw in the street the night before!! We are staying in for dinner tonight. We bought some frozen raviolis, that we will attempt to cook and eat!

Making lunch for the boys and their friends.

They love Ramen noodles.

Seeing our boys!

We left Kyiv on Tuesday night after a long and tiring tour of the city. The tour was wonderful and we learned a lot about Kyiv, but it was a grueling uphill walk for a large portion of the way. We boarded the overnight train and I am very thankful that we requested a compartment to ourselves. Our translator slept in the compartment next to us. The space was very small and honestly Matt and I were very tired and just ready to get into out PJ's and sleep. I will say that Matt and I had lots of laughs on the train. I really disliked the bathroom, or squatty potty, as it is known here! Squatting to pee over a hole while on a moving train really takes a talent!!
Anyway, we arrived in the Zap. region at about 6:30 am, took a very bumpy, pot hole filled road through very remote areas of Ukraine - and 2hrs. later arrived at the orphanage. The director, Aleksander was waiting on the steps for us. He was very welcoming and genuinely nice to both of us. We dropped our luggage in the apartment and went straight to his office to get started on the paperwork and see our boys. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the boys to come through the closed door. Everytime it opened, I got excited. There were a few people coming and going, social worker, secretary, social services inspector an employee needing his time card stamped, etc. All the while the director is trying his best English to speak with us! Honestly it was a blur, until our sweet Anatoliy walked through the door dressed in his best clothes with a tie (the fact that the tie is two sizes too small meant nothing:) He walked right up to me and gave me the biggest hug and said "Hi, Mommy!" I of coursed kissed his sweet face all over and hugged him tight. Then Ivan walked in and I am just elated to say that he hugged me tight, kissed me on the cheek and said "Hi Mama!" They were both grinning ear to ear and I just sat there thinking this is what all of the delays and frustrations were for - these two boys are why we never gave up pushing through the paperwork, keeping our chin up from the failed first trip, etc. The director asked them to sit and the inspector asked them if they wished to be adopted? Are you being forced to go with this family? You desire to leave the orphanage with this family to America? I don't need to publish their answers:) Ivan and Anatoliy have asked to keep their first names, which we are very happy with. We all decided together on their middle names - Ivan went through a few choices that we offered to him before finally accepting a new name. So I am very happy to say that our soon to be sons names are: Ivan John Givens and Anatoliy Matthew Givens!! They practiced saying it a few times - it was very cute! OK, off to bed for now - but will post tomorrow about our day with the boys today, meeting kids at the orphanage, where we stand on the paperwork and about the town where we are staying.

Also I will say, this is all from my point of view and will let Matt share in his own words seeing our boys again.


Front of orphanage




Boys signing paper stated that they want to be adopted.



Front door of our apartment at the orphanage.

Our train compartment - doesn't Matt look happy:)

Photos 1 - Our Apartment

This is the same apartment we stayed in on our last trip.  We were/are very happy with it.  It has all the things you need, and more.  Location is good; there are tons of options for food and site seeing within walking distance.  Here's a photo from the front door looking back up the alley that leads to the street; and then a shot of the apartment's front door (which is on your right when looking at first picture).

Once inside, here's a) the view of kitchen (after entering door), b) the living room (which was taken from same spot as kitchen shot, looking to left), and c) bedroom (which is down the hall from kitchen, on left).  I'll spare a shot of the bathroom, but its perfectly acceptable and clean!  I will post some site seeing shots later, but there is some beattiful architecture within blocks of our apartment.

SDA Appointment

Our appointment today went fine. We will pick up our referral tomorrow afternoon and then board the overnight train right after that for the boys orphanage. Their files were fairly short and we will learn more about the boys history from the orphanage director when we meet him on Wednesday.

Last night we enjoyed some time in the city. Had a wonderful dinner and the best ice cream I think I have ever eaten! We caught up on some much needed sleep too. Matt and I got no sleep this time on the plane, so we are still recovering from jetlag. We are finally taking some pictures. I will post those separately.
Lisa