Ukraine Trip

What have we done!!!

2006-12-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Brian here,

Well, finally leagel parents. I'm not a blogger kind of guy so this will be short and sweet. Why the heck didn't someone warn us. June can't be here because she has 2 ball & chains hooked to her legs. One that won't stop throwing up if you put her in a car or a plane, (yes it was a fun flight to Kiev) and the other that turns on and off like a light with uncontrollable crying, (especially in very public places) because she misses the orphenage. I am sure it will get better but I praise anyone who has ever done this. Anyway, we will get our Visa's Monday evening (hopefully) and will be out of here Tuesday. As for now we will have to stay a night in New York and return Wednesday AM but I am trying to get another flight and am pretty confident I can get us there Tuesday late. We will probably check this again Monday one last time to read everyone's helpfull tips on how to keep one from throwing up and one from crying, when they don't understand a fricken thing we say. Anyway we are as well as can be expected and are eager to return..

Thanks to all,

Brian

Teeth

2006-12-08T04:20:00.000-08:00

We don't have a digital camera and didn't want to bring the one Brian uses for work, so everyone will have to wait for pictures when we get home. Yesterday we visited Irina in Yalta and this time she did the no-way brakes (meaning she held on to the gate because she did not want to go with us) when we came to visit her. Our translator laughed and said she must know that the day is coming soon for her to leave. So, Irina did the crocodile tears for us. It took awhile for us to get her smiling and laughing, boy is she shy and she closes her eyes to us. When we got her passport picture we were amazed to see how big her eyes were. On another note, she really needs a dentist. So, that ought to be a fun experience when we get home. Hmmm, a scared 3 1/2 year old who does not know english and we are going to try and teach her all about brushing her teeth? Anyway we believe many of her baby teeth have fallen out from lack of proper teeth care. We are just waiting for our 10 day waiting period to be over with. We have no idea what sizes they wear because everything here is in european sizes.
Needless to say, we miss home big time. Shari, that was mean, you know how I love Jack in the Box tacos and Round Table pizza! Now I am really home sick.
Our 10 day ends on Monday, and then more paperwork.
Meanwhile the weather here is decent since we are the most southern you can get.
Hope all is well with everyone!

Also Linda, we noticed it is in the 20's at night, can you please make sure the cats are in at night, then out in the AM.

Thanks

Preservatives are our friend

2006-12-05T04:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, Preservatives are great because food out here goes bad fast. Anyway, we are just in the waiting stage now and we have been collecting clothes, which we completed today. Tomorrow our translator (our Ukraine mother) is going to teach me how to make borsch, a russian/ukraine soup.
Yes, we figure Irina will be a challenge all right. And we look forward to starting. Meanwhile same weather here.
Thanks for all the comments!

Court Date

2006-12-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

We had our court date on Friday 1 Dec, and the judge asked that Yulia be there to answer questions. So, she showed up with her teacher and orphanage director and they asked her if she wanted us to be her and her sister's parents. She said Dah (Yes). So, we were approved as Parents! Now we have a 10 day waiting period and then after that more paperwork. We hope that we can get the paperwork done quickly so we can go home!
Today we went to Yalta to visit Irina and she was not happy that she had to leave her post on the swing when we walked up. And she made it known to us by not looking at us the whole time as we visited her. Her caretaker said yes, she is a stubborn little girl. So, we have our work cut out for us once we have her in our arms. Yulia is more use to us and is no longer the shy shy girl. We can't wait to bring Irina to her because Yulia has not seen her in about 2 years.
Linda, I see some cold weather heading your way. Please try and coax the cats in the house into the warm laundry room. Thanks so much!!! We owe you big time.
Oh, and also yesterday we survived the marketplace as we shopped for clothes for the girls. When the girls leave the orphanage they cannot take any of the orphanage clothes. So, we have purchased clothes to get them home.
Thanks!

life

2006-12-01T01:44:00.000-08:00

If you have wondered where all the expired cans and jars of food go. They are here. Alot of the jars of food we buy they are expired. And for milk, well that expires about a day ahead of the expiration date.
On the good side we do enjoy walking everywhere instead of driving and they are many people out walking around too. Shari, this is called Smart growth. Sprawl means you have to drive everywhere. So, we walk to the market, internet place, and downtown. There is even a bar around the corner but we don't go in there. It gets dark around here at about 4:30pm.
And they do make some good bread and candy here. There is this one candy called Sirock, and it is really good. If I can read the labeling I think I will call them and ask them to start producing this in the US, they would make a fortune.
Ok, Brian just said he does not enjoy walking.
Food is fairly cheap and I think they are making up years in the fashion scene. All the women and men dress nicely and they have fashionable clothes here.
And the only channel we get in English is FTV, which is the Fashion TV. Seems the military men in the middle east get the same channel because sometimes they e-mail their request to FTV.

Now it's time for real comments on the situation. This place SUCKS!!!. the food is bland and fatty, the beer is terrible and the peaople are the most depressing things I've ever met. God Bless America, the country which people would die for. Who the heck would die for this crap hole. Hopefully only 2 more weeks here and we'll be back, so I have some important favors to ask. Ron, you missed a big spot next door while you were mowing so you need to pay more attention and get beer. Doug, your mission is a little more important, make sure Ron gets beer. Dave, you have the most important task, make sure everyone does their jobs and we will see you in a couple weeks.

Getting Colder

2006-11-30T06:05:00.000-08:00

It is getting colder here now. We have been enjoying at least warmer days here. Tomorrow we have a court date.
Linda thanks again so much for taking care of everything.
Oh, I meant to thank Hannah too for helping.
Meanwhile the wait continues......
oh, and something strange to report, we have seen two cars with California license plates here, what is up with that?
Shari, I hope everything is alright with you....bundle up!

We are still here

2006-11-28T02:34:00.000-08:00

Every day we visit Yulia because we are staying in the same town as her orphanage. Monday we visited Irina in Yalta which is about an hour away on the coast. She remembered us from last week and came walking up to us with her bear that we gave her. But when we sat down to visit with her she was really shy, so we used Cheerios to coax her out of her shyness. I hope that she will be easy to deal with on the plane ride. So, Friday we are suppose to have our court date and then a 10 day appeal period after that, and of course more paperwork.
Thank you Doug and Teresa and Devon for checking on our kitty-cats and house. We worry about them with us being gone for so long.
Oh, and the names of the girls we did not change because we thought it was right to keep their names that they were given and we didn't want to confuse them anymore than what they will be when we hopefully get home soon.
So, their names are Yulia Lynn Cowles and Irina Marie Cowles. You can tell we gave them their middle names. Both girls share the same shyness and we, or should I say Brian gets them to break out of their shyness.
Meanwhile it is a waiting period and maybe next week we might go shopping for clothes for them.
Thank you for all your comments.
Oh, and Dianne, you would not like it here because there are alot of grey buildings!
Take care everyone.

Thanksgiving right?

2006-11-23T04:13:00.000-08:00

of course here we had to remind ourselves it is Thanksgiving. So, we are thankful for all of our family and friends. Yesterday we went to Yalta and visited with Irina (the youngest). At our first meeting she did not even look up once and was very shy. So, we did not expect much but we came with a gift, a stuffed Panda bear that made a noise. She was laughing and playing with Brian and the bear by the end of the visit. So, it was a great visit. We also visited Yulia today and played with her and she was interested in the book we brought with pictures as she said items in the book in Russian then we would say it in English. She also got a stuffed bear (mishcka).
Linda, we got your comment on this post but not on the others. So, we wanted to make sure you could communicate back and forth. Brian says, don't forget to pay the bills. The two credit card bills and mortgage payment for December are already paid. Please once in awhile put a light on in the house too. Thank you soooo much for watching over the cats!
Glad to know that you guys (Mom and Dad) got home safe and sound in time for Thanksgiving. Thank you again. Yes, more girls in the family.
dinner tonight will be chicken sandwiches and soup.
Nice today and pretty warm. Tomorrow we hope to visit some ancient caves after we visit with Yulia.

flight

2006-11-21T05:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks Mom and Dad for everything, the cats thank you too! I hope they will do fine with minimum human contact.
Linda, if you are reading this please write back on the comments. I wanted to explain the mail thing.
Today we visited Yulia and she is quite shy but by the end of the hour she was hitting the beach ball back and forth with us and laughing, so we are very happy that we had a great visit. Tomorrow we hope to visit Yalta to see Irina. She is really the shy girl but the caretakers say she is quite a character!
Doug and Teresa, thanks for your comments and yes we may need a babysitter in the future.
Thanks for everyone's comments and we are doing well here in Crimnea.

I-171-H Form

2006-11-19T05:38:00.000-08:00

Mom and Dad just read your comment. Please call our adoption agency and ask for Gail Stern or Leah at 919-732-4321 and explain to them what you need for the airline tickets. Either they can fax it to you or fax it to Delta Airlines, you may have to give Gail the reservation number. Mandala has copies of the form and they can get it to Delta ticket agent or ask Linda if Gail can fax the form to her, Linda has a fax machine. So, i guess try to do this on Monday morning. And let us know how things go. Also, Delta might need the name of our Agency, Mandala Adoption Agency and their number.
Thanks!!

19 Nov

2006-11-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now in an apt and enjoying cooking again for ourselves. We visited the orphanage today and yesterday. Sunny and not that cold today. Our "ukraine mother" picks us up everyday to visit and go to the market. She is very helpful and we feel very relaxed and happy.
Mom and Dad thank you very much for taking care of our cats while we are gone. Please get up with Linda and Ron about the cats and tell them if it gets too cold to try and get them in the house at night as we worry about them. And tell them thanks too. Oh, make sure linda knows how to get on the blog and write comments back and forth. Also, hope you enjoyed your stay in our house and you got to enjoy some golf. At this point it is not clear if Brian will stay here or he might fly back then return to Kyiv to help me out. We will see what the next couple of weeks brings. But we both agree that one of us cannot get the two kids back and do the paperwork in Kyiv.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and comments. They have helped out alot and we both feel better.
Please tell Ron that Brian said he missed a big spot while mowing.
Hope things are going well at work. No one here knows what i do for work, so they write down architect which is similiar.
Take care!

Must be a southern thing

2006-11-18T01:47:00.000-08:00

Thankfully we are now in the south in a much better region, Crimnea. And i am over being sick. In kiev I could not keep anything down and was sick much of the time. here in crimnea the sun is out and it is much better. We were met at the airport by our translator, natalia who is like a mother and took us straight to a hotel to get chicken soup. next day, Yesterday we went straight to the orphanage and met the oldest girl, 6.5 age, she is so cute and smart and very nice and she recited a russian poem for us. Then we went to Yalta to meet her little sister 3.5 age who was very very shy. We were so happy to finally see them for real because at the adoption center in Kiev, the pictures they had were old and they had just had their heads shaved.
Anyway, to give a good report that it must be because we are now in the southern part of ukraine and things are much better. i feel better and brian is getting over his poison ivy he got the day before he left for the trip. Thank you for all your upbeat posts and having your health makes a huge difference.
We have requested to adopt the two sisters, Yulia and Irina.
Mom and Dad know you know their names so, go ahead and buy the tickets as Yulia Cowles and Irina Cowles. We are now in the process of paperwork.
Mom and Dad make sure to tell our neighbors, Ron and Linda to not pay the 2 credit card bills and give them the checkbook. Give our cats a hug and kiss
Thanks and until our next update, doing much better.

2006-11-15T03:27:00.000-08:00

Still here in Kiev due to some paperwork problem and we are trying to get out of here to check out the children. The region we are traveling to is Yalta in the south. Otherwise we are doing the same thing every day and I believe communism is still here as our appt felt like we were in a meeting with people who didn't care who we were or our background to match a child. We talked to the other americans and they stated they saw the same children at their appt. Meanwhile I spent yesterday sick in bed. Thank goodness for McDonalds because I do not trust the food here in other restaurants. Although the McDonald employees really don't speak any english but the music is all English. Boy is it depressing here in the former communist country. Not taking very many pictures cause it would be all of depressing stuff. Thank goodness we live in the USA! Thanks for all your comments. Mom and Dad do not pay the Citi Card or Bank of America credit card bill. We already paid the bill. Shari, how are things (you know) going?
Untill our next post.

here in the ukraine

2006-11-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

We made it here and thank goodness we won the cold war. otherwise we might all be walking around very depressed.
had our appt today and it was hard. Each child had a medical problem. So, we are going to visit 2 girls in the southern region. a 4.5 year old and a 3.5 year old. So, we will see how things go when we get there. We were shown mainly boys and only one set of sisters. We hope to travel Tuesday or Wednesday. in the meantime we are huddling together with 2 other American couples through this ordeal. While we were waiting for our appt we noticed one couple outside and the wife was crying. Which should of prepared us for the worse. We will know more once we visit the children. The 3 year old we have been told has hip dysplasia, but they say that she is ok. So, like i said we will find out when we get there. Mom and Dad, do not buy tickets yet until we visit and make our decision. otherwise we are surviving here and glad that we ran into americans that are adopting too. We are traveling to yalta which is as south as you can get!

Test

2006-11-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

And this is a test!

Ukraine Trip

2006-11-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

This is our Ukraine Trip to adopt siblings.