Day 30

Aaahhh.... the land of high-speed internet connections. It is nice to be back home with family and friends. Unfortunately, Kelley and Charles are still in Ukraine, but should be wrapping things up this week. If everything goes "as planned" - which will be one of several plans that did not come to fruition - they should arrive in Raleigh-Durham on Saturday night.
As for me, I arrived last night after a way too long layover in JFK. It wasn't supposed to be that long, and standing in line to re-check bags after Customs I wasn't sure if I would even make my flight, but after several delays the flight finally made it out of New York. Thank goodness! I really didn't want to spend the night in JFK.
Enough about me. I was able to speak Kelley on the drive home last night, and then today as well. She reports that Chas withdrew a bit from her after my departure, but today seemed to be getting back to "normal". She will pick up Chas tomorrow evening at 5:00 and then board a bus with Svitlana heading towards Odessa. After a "short" thirteen and a half hours, they will get to Odessa on Tuesday morning and begin to "legalize" Chas' Birth Certificate. What will they actually be doing? I haven't a clue. Svitlana confused Kelley and I several times during the explanation before I left Donetsk, and having Kelley describe over the phone what she thinks she will doing hasn't helped to clear things up in my mind. I know... I know... big surprise there... thanks....
Moving along... Once they are complete in Odessa, Kelley and Chas are boarding a plane for Kiev on Tuesday evening. Svitlana will head back to Donetsk (bus/train?), get Chas' Ukrainian Passport and then catch a train for Kiev on Wednesday evening to arrive in Kiev Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Kelley will be getting a physical for Chas on Wednesday, and then probably head to an underground shopping area called the "Metrograd" that I found. It is about 2km (1 1/2 miles) of shops. I know men, all of your ladies will be calling to book the next flight to Kiev. Perhaps the cold weather will deter them. Once Svitlana arrives in Kiev, Kelley will get the passport and go to the American Consulate on Thursday morning to finalize paperwork that allows Chas to be recognized as our child in the eyes of the U.S.
That's the down and dirty of it. I know I owe everyone more, but with four hours of sleep in the last 48 hours.... I feel the need to start the sarcasm engine, and I think it prudent to take the keys away before I get behind the wheel.
Kelley and I send our love to all and appreciate everyone that has been following the journey with us. I'll be back tomorrow to try and fill in some holes for everyone.
God bless...
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Day 26

Hey guys, last blog from me here in Ukraine! Tomorrow Jay leaves for Kiev after a morning visit with Charles. We just came back from a good dinner and some better red wine. We ate a Jay’s favorite restaurant, Golden Lion, an Irish Pub. He had Guinness and I finally found a red wine I enjoyed, my first since we got here. Figures, find one I like the on our last dinner here together. We had a nice dinner though. Talked to Heather for a while, made me smile since I was having hard time thinking about Jay leaving and me missing the kids so much. There are no flights leaving Friday like I had hoped so it looks like Saturday arrival for me and Charles.
We had a good day. Morning visit with Charles, outside so he and Jay ran around and played. We went to the internet café afterward and checked e-mail, blog, and plane tickets. Came home and read some and then off to visit Charles. He was in good spirits and we had a grand time playing. The KGB couple was there but the nice lady was not. We were disappointed because we had a gift for both of them. Hopefully they will be there Friday when I pick up Charles.
Now we are back at the apartment and Jay is packing. He is taking everything that will fit in 2 sHey guys, last blog from me here in Ukraine! Tomorrow Jay leaves for Kiev after a morning visit with Charles. We just came back from a good dinner and some better red wine. We ate a Jay’s favorite restaurant, Golden Lion, an Irish Pub. He had Guinness and I finally found a red wine I enjoyed, my first since we got here. Figures, find one I like the on our last dinner here together. We had a nice dinner though. Talked to Heather for a while, made me smile since I was having hard time thinking about Jay leaving and me missing the kids so much. There are no flights leaving Friday like I had hoped so it looks like Saturday arrival for me and Charles.
We had a good day. Morning visit with Charles, outside so he and Jay ran around and played. We went to the internet café afterward and checked e-mail, blog, and plane tickets. Came home and read some and then off to visit Charles. He was in good spirits and we had a grand time playing. The KGB couple was there but the nice lady was not. We were disappointed because we had a gift for both of them. Hopefully they will be there Friday when I pick up Charles.
Now we are back at the apartment and Jay is packing. He is taking everything that will fit in 2 suitcases (one big and one small) so that I don’t have so much to manage on the way home. I on the other hand am sitting here watching and typing. I am glad that this is my last blog since I am sure they are getting boring for you all, thank you for sticking with us. I think that we are getting a little brain dead by this point in our journey and boring you all with the same old stuff every day. Jay will keep up with the blog once he gets home so if you are curious what Charles and I are doing each day you can check. I am guessing that they will be short and sweet since he will be busy with the kids.
I will miss him terribly and will be counting the days until I get home and we are all together again.
Linda and I had a great talk this afternoon. Sounds like Halloween was a huge success! I can’t wait for the holidays!
Jay will keep everyone updated the next few days while in Kiev; I will have the phone so call me if you get a chance. I love you all! God Bless and see you soon!Love, Kelley uitcases (one big and one small) so that I don’t have so much to manage on the way home. I on the other hand am sitting here watching and typing. I am glad that this is my last blog since I am sure they are getting boring for you all, thank you for sticking with us. I think that we are getting a little brain dead by this point in our journey and boring you all with the same old stuff every day. Jay will keep up with the blog once he gets home so if you are curious what Charles and I are doing each day you can check. I am guessing that they will be short and sweet since he will be busy with the kids.
I will miss him terribly and will be counting the days until I get home and we are all together again.
Linda and I had a great talk this afternoon. Sounds like Halloween was a huge success! I can’t wait for the holidays!
Jay will keep everyone updated the next few days while in Kiev; I will have the phone so call me if you get a chance. I love you all! God Bless and see you soon!Love, Kelley

Day 25

Another great day, we are getting closer and closer. Jay is changing our tickets to Friday, November 10th and if all goes well, which I believe it will, we will be arriving at 7:30 Friday evening at RDU. (Heath can you call me :))
We had a nice visit this morning, had to stay inside because it is getting a little colder and rainy. It was nice because we were the only people in the Music Room. We finally met the director of the Orphanage. She has been on vacation since we arrived here. She was nice, spoke no English, and ‘checked’ on us a few times. Thank goodness she didn’t ‘peek in while we were all doing somersaults in the middle of the room. (I am getting old, it hurt!) She (via Irena) told us we were picking up Charles on Friday? Haven’t heard from Svitlana yet on that one…..we will see. This evening was a little different; since we didn’t get to go outside this morning I think Charles was full of energy….full of something! He was silly crazy, running around, bouncing off the walls (not as bad as you are picturing) but would not sit still or listen. He and Jay rough housed for quite a while. The KGB couple’s little girl sat still and cute on the couch, while “nice lady’s” little one sat in her lap while she read a book to her! Charles had the run of the huge room and he took advantage of it! One cute thing happened when one of the workers came in, he walked up to her and told her that we were his ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’.
I have been working on Jay’s ‘honey do’ for the week I am not there, so far it is only 2 pages! Not that bad, just a little rearranging of the house as you can well imagine, Dr. appointments, birthday party for a little girl turning one, and ordering wood to make me a bigger dinner table!
Tonight we are just getting a few gifts together for some of the women at the orphanage that have been kind to us, and writing in the children’s Bibles we scoured the city for. I think Jay has bought the entire city out!
I am mentally and physically exhausted as you can probably tell by the last few blogs. We are feeling the pressure of Jay leaving and the upcoming travel. There is no doubt in my mind that Charles and I will be fine, it is a little alarming thinking of traveling with out him. If I were in Italy, Spain or even France at least I could get by speaking a little and reading, but as I have said before I can not even begin to read one sign or speak a lick. I will be so glad to get back home! We have enjoyed this journey immensely and are so thankful for the support, love and prayers from all of you back home.
I must end and help my hubby……love to you all

Day 24

Hey guys.....Monday and the countdown begins. Hope everyone had a great weekend, enjoyed the fall colors, bagged a big buck, and just relaxed! We did 2 of the 3, can you guess which ones? Of course Jay dreamed of the other one. Sounds like the girls had a fun weekend, I am curious as to the Charles dolls? What do they look like? I think that is great for them to have and can't wait to meet the 3 other Charles'.
We had a fun visit outside with Master Charles today. We played with bubbles, colored a little and ran up and down the sidewalk. We collected leaves; they have the biggest leaves here. I think that is one of the things I will always remember about Donetsk. The children love to pick them up and sweep with them. The leaves have long stems so the kids can gather a huge hand full and sweep until their heart is content. It is very hard to leave Charles, he is crying now when we go. I keep trying to tell him (convincing myself) that it is ok and in 4 days (maybe 7) and he can leave with me. I am almost to the point that I want to tell Svitlana that I just want to take him to Odessa with us. I just don't know what to do.
We are just sitting around the apartment today waiting for Svitlana to call about times and dates and I am resting. I have caught a cold (sinus something) and am hoping to make it a quick one by resting a little and not doing too much outside between visits today.
Jay has talked 2x's to Svitlana while I have been typing and we do not know any more than when I started. Hopefully we will know something by tomorrow.
I am going to try to post now and then update later when we get home from visiting the Master :)
Have a blessed day!
The post didn’t work earlier today so I decided to just continue. We just got back from visiting with Charles. It turned into a rainy, chilly day so we played inside with KGB couple, the really nice lady, and a new lady who had a set of twin girls that she was playing with. It was nice to see so much action in the orphanage. We had a great visit, with Charles running to us and hugging and kissing. The best moment was when he kissed Jay on the head. It occurred to me that he had probably never touched a ‘bald’ head much less any other head so I had him rub Jays head, he backed up a little scared and then I kissed Jay on the head and Charles ran over and said Papa and kissed Jay right smack on the head. It was such a genuine kiss and Charles was so excited. He stayed with us the whole time, only venturing away to grab a new toy from the shelves. We have come so far in 21 days; he is not even the same little boy we met. He is so loving and trusting. Stays around us which doesn’t sound that important but it is, it shows us that he recognizes us as his family. He loves for Jay to throw him up in the air and catch him. He is so funny, he backs up to Jay, counting one…two…, so that he will pick him up and throw him up. We will be standing there talking and he will back right up and try to get him to do it. My heart is so full of love that I can’t bear leaving him there. When we left tonight, there was a lady we had never seen picking him up and he was obviously scared of her. He didn’t argue (which he always does) and just stood there with a scared look. I wanted to just grab him and run…..to the Twinkie and jump in and tell Rashid to go. But we have waited this long…..
I was just informed that it is now time for a little Gin Rummy. We miss you all.
Love us.

Day 23

Sunny Sunday in Donetsk! We woke up to one of the first sunny days here. Usually when we wake up it is grey and damp which is a hard way to start every day. Today how glorious to see the sun peeking through our underwear, undershirts and pants hanging in the sun room drying. Okay, I ruined the whole vision but you get the picture. We decided to take a long walk and venture across the bridge behind the apartment and cross the river and see what was over there. It was a pretty walk but we found nothing more exciting than on our side of of the river. Now as you can tell we are at the internet cafe checking our blog, e-mail and downloading pictures. Linda, we accidentally deleted the picture of us with Charles but sent a cute one to your e-mail. We are going to log on to MST and listen to last weeks sermon and then head out to take some pictures of the city. Can you believe that we are down to 4 days until Jay leaves and we need to get a few things done before he goes. Plus we found a museum that we would like to go through before he leaves too. Nothing too exciting, 18 and 19th century landscapes from Ukrainian artists.
Jeanie, where are you?
We played cards last night until 10pm. I am up by 2 games.
We will update you later this evening.....hope you all have a wonderful day!
love us

Day 22

In seven days Jay will be back in the good ‘ole US of A! I know he is so excited. Keep your phone lines open, since it will be late and he will want to talk to everyone on the 3 hour drive home. Let him know if you are up to a call between 9pm to 11pm, but I know it will be too late for some. Even though he is leaving, I am just as excited to get Charles out of ‘Our Children’, get on the train to Odessa, and then the plane to Kiev to finish up the paperwork and get home too! Looks as though we may be home in time to go to Litton’s Playoffs in Charlotte. I am just guessing as I have not changed our plane tickets yet. Watch out Heath, we may be sitting on your front porch!
Just got off the phone with Oma. She sounds great and I am so excited that she is staying (I knew she would), so that she can get to know Charles before she leaves. I just can’t wait to get an Oma hug and have some time to unwind with her. As you all know, Oma and I can sit for days in our jammies and talk, watch the Hallmark Cannel and “Mary and the House”! Anyway we were talking about how we are going to rearrange the bedrooms. We are thinking that Litton will move to the downstairs bedroom with a queen bed, and the two twins will go in Litton’s old room for Charles. I know Litton wants to move down stairs and it will give him more room to have a desk and study area. (I am not sure he is excited about the study area.)
We had a good visit with Charles today, we played outside and got some cute pictures that we will download tomorrow when we go to the internet café and listen to Manassas St. Thomas’s sermon from last week. We will catch up on e-mail (Litton, yours never made it) and download pictures. I was reading some of the blogs, a few people said that they could tell a change in the pictures so we went back through all the pictures today and we think that he looks more ‘at ease’ or peace. He does look happier, thanks Cynthia and all of you who noticed it first. It really made us feel good looking back. Now we are just so ready to take him out of there. I am almost sick of the orphanage, it is a lot more difficult to leave him each day. I want to go see him, of course, but just want to take him with us when we leave. There is so much I want to show him and teach him.
I finished my one English book that I found at the bookstore, for all you literary folks, Molly, Dad, Jeanie, Howell….The Picture of Dorian Gray is weird! (Oscar Wilde) It was all I could find last week. If you have read it you will understand why Jay is not interested. By the way, were they gay or just weird? Today we went to three book stores and I found Good Wives (Alcott) and Kidnapped (Stevenson). There was another Wilde but I didn’t think I could do it. All the books are classics, which is nice (since I haven’t read many of them, just cliff notes :)) but strange, no good mysteries or easy read trashy books! I’ll let you know how these go, no book reports from me though!
Tomorrow, we will head out to the café, then maybe to the bazaar to find some shoes and undershirts for Charles. I think that is all we have left to get him. I can’t wait to get to Target! I will check on the kitty coat to make sure it is still there. Check the pictures tomorrow, I took one of the kitty coat and will send it! I am not sure what we will do in the afternoon……maybe just hang out and read, play cards and drink a little beer and Baileys. Wish we could watch some football games. If anyone gets a chance send us the scores of Nebraska, VA Tech and NC State. Actually I think Tech played Thursday? Just curious.
Well off to the land of Gin Rummy…….and some cheese and bread for dinner.
Love to you all………
Not so fast folks. I just wanted to be able to put my two cents in for today. I had a great visit with the kids today on the phone, and was talking to Litton before we were cut off. Just to let everyone know – from all reports the rut appears to be in full swing back in Carolina and it is time that the Van Der Werff clan opens up the safe, digs out the cammies and orange vests, grabs a couple of rounds (because we’re all real good shots), and head to the woods. I think this is the year that Litton will get a buck that rivals mine in the playroom. The rack isn’t huge, but it would be a good start for his wall. After that we just need to start adding…
Okay, that’s it. I just had to focus all of the men that are reading this blog, since some may get all caught up in the girl talk that goes back and forth about a daggone coat. I am not too worried if she does buy the coat, because I know where some of my old uniforms are that can be cut up and a couple of patches on the coat would fit right in.
Love ya...

Day 21

We were unable to pull up the website last night to post, but here it is for those who want to read it over their coffee....

Hi-di-ho neighbors and family…. You guessed it. Kelley’s taking a night off from the Blog. Actually, she said that since I haven’t typed anything of significance (her opinion) the last couple of days I needed to grace everyone with some of my satire.
First, to all of my hunting family and friends. Scott – if your family won’t eat venison, mine will. We’ll hit the woods when I get home. And you still owe me the story about the quail. I guess it can wait until next Sunday.
Howell – I went by the “hunting” store today. Kelley and I had to go outside to turn around, it was so small. Although, they did have about five or six nice Rizzini over/unders – but the price was appropriate. So no bargain deals in Ukraine. Drats…. Maybe if I save enough money by eating ham and cheese sandwiches the rest of the time I am here, Kelley will feel kind enough to let me get an O/U when I get home. Why? Because I have slots open in my gun safe. Can one ever have enough firearms????
For those of you that are taken back by this little pro-NRA frenzy, the rest is for you. And yes, I’m still holding out on the kitty coat – but there are ongoing negotiations and Kofi Annan is thinking about coming to Donetsk to mediate for Kelley and me. If not Kofi, then I hear it may be Hillary. This really isn’t looking good for me, and I am hoping to see if anyone can find Newt Gingrich’s phone number. Or maybe William Bennett?? Somebody please help me!!
Okay… Today started off pretty good. Rashid picked us up and he described the upcoming weekend, since Sunday is a national holiday here for professional taxi drivers. I didn’t know Hallmark was so well entrenched over here too, but apparently it is a pretty big day. He had plans for a barbecue with a lot of his friends and family.
Irina did not allow us to go outside, so we played in the Music Room this morning. We had the young lady and her mother in the room with us. The really cool thing is that the young lady must have noticed Kelley’s cross necklace, because she asked if we were Christians. We said we were, and then she asked if we were Baptists to which we answered we were Methodists. And that’s about as far as our Ukrainian and her English (of which she spoke none) got us. But I thought it was very refreshing and… really, just awesome that in Donetsk, Ukraine the Holy Spirit can bring believers together and reveal His love. Our God truly is an Awesome God!! I just wish that our Ukrainian, or even my Russian, was better and that we could have communicated more.
Well, after our time with Chas we headed to Lenin Square to walk around. We were on a mission to head to the “hunting store”, but we allowed ourselves a lot of wandering to get there. We have about four hours each day between Rashid dropping us off and picking us up again at our apartment, so there is definitely no rush. We walked into a couple of stores prior to finding the gun store. Every time we find a bookstore we go in to see if they have children’s Bibles. Most of the time we can find one, maybe two, and we purchase them to give to the orphanage as a gift. I think we are up to five now, but hopefully we will find some more.
After some strolling we made it to the gun store. They had one rack of jackets with some old Soviet style camouflage – I guess Mossy Oak hasn’t hit here yet – and about 30 firearms in all. They also had a small display case with some knives, scopes, dog repellant(?), and a few other items. Apparently, dogs are a real problem when you are out hunting around here….
Well, as I stated earlier I had to forego the over/under as much as it pained me to leave. I was soon back to myself though, as we sat down at the “Chateau” restaurant for some lunch and a beer. Yes, this is the same restaurant that we found last week and we really like their food. And their prices are good too, considering we can both have a meal and a beer and still walk out under $20 including the tip.
Well a full belly and a good beer…. We made it back to the apartment with about two hours before Rashid would pick us up. I succumbed to a nap, while Kelley was reading. It was very hard and I tried to resist the temptation, but I failed. For those that are truly concerned for me, don’t worry… I was okay after about an hour.
Then we headed back to see Chas for our afternoon visit. We brought along a toy helicopter (gee, I wonder why?) that we found in the bazaar yesterday. He was very excited to see the new toy, so we put it together and started flying it around the little area they have to play in. That didn’t last too long, as Kelley – be careful or I’ll kick your butt – used her brute strength to break the helicopter. Thankfully, there was a little saucer-like toy that came with it too and we were able to fly that around the rest of the time. It was a little cool out, but that didn’t stop Chas from having some good ‘ole ~3 year old fun. At least we didn’t let him get too muddy tonight. That is the only downside to them allowing us to play outside – not letting little boys just run around and get dirty. I can see already that we’ll be clearing the shelves of Tide once we get home, but that’s okay. I understand that they don’t want to do laundry a lot, but sometimes they just need to let boys be boys. Of course, I have one “almost teen” and two little girls – with a third not far behind – back home in Carolina that enjoy getting dirty too, so don’t think that I am biased. I say Mossy Oak for everyone!!!!
We wrapped up our visit… Actually, that’s not accurate. While we were playing with Chas, a couple ladies brought out about six or seven children to “play” outside. For those that have seen the pictures of the play yard, you will remember the little round “cupolas” that the children can go in and sit. Well…. That’s where these ladies put their children, while they we’re complaining about someone. The international language of yelling and hand gestures gave it away – maybe trouble with their men…. Gents, you know what I’m talking about. I know, all I wanted to do was grab a beer and turn on NASCAR.
Anyway…. One of the ladies came over right at 5:00pm to take Chas. She didn’t take him inside, but back over with the rest of the kids. Oh well, I guess he had too much fun and needed to get back with the rest of the others. Thankfully, this will all be over for him by this time next week.
Then as we were traveling back to the apartment, Rashid informed us that he would not pick us up tomorrow morning. We were puzzled and he explained that his aunt had died today and that he needed to make preparations for her funeral. So that set a somber mood for the drive home.
A little reading, ham and cheese, a game of gin rummy, and here we are. Wrapping up a note for the blog before going to bed.
We hope that everyone is doing well back home. We love and miss you all, and can not wait to get back on U.S. soil. This has been fun for Kelley and I in a lot of respects, and I know that we will look back and reflect hoping that we had done more; but we’re ready to come back home to everyone.
That’s it from Donetsk. God bless you all and stay tuned for the next update from Ukraine….
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