Day 19
(3pm)
We just got back into the apartment after a pretty full morning/mid-afternoon. We went to see Charles this morning for about an hour and had a really good visit outside. We brought him a banana and some cookies and a sippy cup with juice. He liked them all and enjoyed carrying the cup around, although I don’t think he figured out exactly how to get the juice out of it. He likes to sit in my lap and lean back like he is drinking a bottle. We were told that tomorrow morning we must be at the orphanage by 9:30 because they are putting on a ‘Fall program” and that we can video tape and take pictures (guess who forgot the video camera? Jay did.) Since he is asleep right now due to a headache, I think I will blame it on him. So if you see any thing written to the contrary, he woke up before I could post this. We will be able to take pictures though. We are looking forward to seeing it. Of course we had to check our schedule and see if we could make it……..since we will be celebrating Groundhog Day 20 tomorrow.
After the orphanage we got to go to the Notary again. It is truly amazing how complicated some things are over here, but they are. We waited there for about an hour. We had to get an application for a new Birth certificate notarized. Oleg had to come on his lunch break, because a translator has to be there. He could not stay and wait for the Notary to do the Power of Attorney (from Jay to me) and the Passport application, so we have to meet him there after work at 5pm. From there we went to lunch (pizza, French fries, Baileys and coffee, and a Guinness for Jay) and then walked to the Bazaar to look for a new fan and hot pot (those in the apartment broke). We had a nice walk and talked to Oma for about a half an hour, while she was getting the girls ready for dance and feeding them breakfast. Now we are back waiting for Rashid to come and pick up Jay’s passport to take to the airport and buy Jay a plane ticket to fly to Kiev next Thursday (11/3). It is a little scary giving your passport to someone over here, but that is how it is done. Everyone 18 years and older gets a passport as their official identification, just like we would get a driver’s license. We had to do it in Kiev too to get our train tickets. As soon as we give him Jay’s passport, we head back to the notary to sign some documents. (This has just made me realize there is a problem with this plan, do you already see it? How can he sign without his passport?) Crap. Oh well. After we walk all the way to the notary, we will probably turn right around and hit the market and grab some stuff for dinner.
We had another kink in our travel plans yesterday after court. This is a little confusing so hang on. We found out a little more about Charles, he was actually born in Odessa (500 miles SW of here, check your maps) and to change his birth certificate (new rule coming here) we have to travel there! However, we can not travel until we get Charles’ paperwork from the court/orphanage, which we can not get until next Friday (11/4, another new rule) when we pick up Charles. SO… Svitlana is trying to talk the orphanage into keeping Charles until that Monday (11/6), so she and I can travel to Odessa on Friday (11/4) and return Sunday (11/5). Then take the paperwork to the Birth Certificate office Monday morning, pick up Charles, and do the rest of the paperwork and hopefully fly to Kiev on Tuesday. She does NOT want to travel with Charles at all. I don’t see the issue, but have learned that she does know what is best. So Jay is just standing with wallet open wondering how much the orphanage is going to charge to keep him. :) Isn’t it funny how long we wait to be able to take him and now we are trying to pay to get them to keep him……..
A little more about Charles’ story, after his mom had him in Odessa, she must have traveled immediately back to Donetsk and taken him to the hospital here. The papers say she took him to the hospital and then never came back. All his papers are at the translator in Kiev right now and we will get them when we get to Kiev. I am looking forward to trying to piece his short little life together. Especially, since it is very confusing not having seen any translated documents and only receiving bits and pieces of the story.
Talked to Dad, Jo, and Dawn last night, which was fun. They are in good spirits as usual, it is always so nice to talk to someone at home and catch up on what is going on there. Bo and Molly kept trying to call, but something kept cutting us off. Around here it depends on the time of the day for cell calls, because there are soooooo many cell phones here that the airwaves must be full….. I know that is not how it works, but it sounded good.
Cousin Howell, you put a big grin on my husband’s face. He was so excited to talk to you and guess what? He sniffed out an Ukranian hunting store today, so we are leaving early to go to the notary so he can check it out. What started it was a billboard (which we could not read) that had a picture of a hand-carved shot gun that showed one shot gun chamber and two rifle chambers (again, if there is a correction later in this message Jay has woken up, but as it stands his mouth is open and he is snoring!) and he started looking around and found the shop. We had to get to the notary, but I knew we would make it back there today. I feel a stroller and Kitty coat coming my way!
Jeanie, have you heard anything about traveling for the football team for Regional playoffs? We were trying to plan my trip back and what is going on the weekend of 11/11. Are we going to be in Charlotte? Just curious. Tell Zac that Charles is ready to play. Miss talking to you, but it is month end. :)
3 hours later: (7pm)
I guess I did not know the plan for this afternoon, so just ignore the above. Everything was fine with the passport, etc. We are now back, we were picked up by Rashid and Svitlana and taken to get Jay’s plane ticket, then to the Notary’s office - where we took care of our documents - and then off to the bank to make a ‘donation’ into the orphanages bank account. Svitlana wanted to make sure everything was done here. Now she is off to Kiev with our documents and will return next Thursday before Jay leaves, so I won’t be here by myself. We stopped by the Opera House to get tickets for the ballet this Saturday, but they were sold out - bummer. Oleg was going to join us, but I guess we will go have a beer instead at the Chicago Bikers Bar (how sophisticated!)
Now we are getting ready for some ham and cheese sandwiches, chips and Stella Artois beer.
Hugs and kisses to you all.
Now a word from my broke sponsor:
Howell – didn’t make it by the hunting store today, but it is on the list of places to go. I am hoping that tomorrow I will have to go by the internet café to do some research on how to bring that gun back into the States. Hmm… If that doesn’t look like it will work, I think I may start working the stroller thing. One more stroller and I get a nice over/under. If that works, then I may go for the kitty coat and look at a nice Leupold spotting scope or rangefinder. That Cabela’s list is filling up nicely!! Save a big buck for Litton and me. We’ll be down soon and he needs to get something to hang on the wall in his room.
Bo – brother, we need to talk about Emma’s international calling plan. Maybe you need to see if they paid last month’s statement. If not, perhaps AT&T can help out. Keep trying… It’s not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon.
Litton - Mom and I would love to hear from you when you get a chance. Call us or e-mail. Love you.
God bless,
<><
We just got back into the apartment after a pretty full morning/mid-afternoon. We went to see Charles this morning for about an hour and had a really good visit outside. We brought him a banana and some cookies and a sippy cup with juice. He liked them all and enjoyed carrying the cup around, although I don’t think he figured out exactly how to get the juice out of it. He likes to sit in my lap and lean back like he is drinking a bottle. We were told that tomorrow morning we must be at the orphanage by 9:30 because they are putting on a ‘Fall program” and that we can video tape and take pictures (guess who forgot the video camera? Jay did.) Since he is asleep right now due to a headache, I think I will blame it on him. So if you see any thing written to the contrary, he woke up before I could post this. We will be able to take pictures though. We are looking forward to seeing it. Of course we had to check our schedule and see if we could make it……..since we will be celebrating Groundhog Day 20 tomorrow.
After the orphanage we got to go to the Notary again. It is truly amazing how complicated some things are over here, but they are. We waited there for about an hour. We had to get an application for a new Birth certificate notarized. Oleg had to come on his lunch break, because a translator has to be there. He could not stay and wait for the Notary to do the Power of Attorney (from Jay to me) and the Passport application, so we have to meet him there after work at 5pm. From there we went to lunch (pizza, French fries, Baileys and coffee, and a Guinness for Jay) and then walked to the Bazaar to look for a new fan and hot pot (those in the apartment broke). We had a nice walk and talked to Oma for about a half an hour, while she was getting the girls ready for dance and feeding them breakfast. Now we are back waiting for Rashid to come and pick up Jay’s passport to take to the airport and buy Jay a plane ticket to fly to Kiev next Thursday (11/3). It is a little scary giving your passport to someone over here, but that is how it is done. Everyone 18 years and older gets a passport as their official identification, just like we would get a driver’s license. We had to do it in Kiev too to get our train tickets. As soon as we give him Jay’s passport, we head back to the notary to sign some documents. (This has just made me realize there is a problem with this plan, do you already see it? How can he sign without his passport?) Crap. Oh well. After we walk all the way to the notary, we will probably turn right around and hit the market and grab some stuff for dinner.
We had another kink in our travel plans yesterday after court. This is a little confusing so hang on. We found out a little more about Charles, he was actually born in Odessa (500 miles SW of here, check your maps) and to change his birth certificate (new rule coming here) we have to travel there! However, we can not travel until we get Charles’ paperwork from the court/orphanage, which we can not get until next Friday (11/4, another new rule) when we pick up Charles. SO… Svitlana is trying to talk the orphanage into keeping Charles until that Monday (11/6), so she and I can travel to Odessa on Friday (11/4) and return Sunday (11/5). Then take the paperwork to the Birth Certificate office Monday morning, pick up Charles, and do the rest of the paperwork and hopefully fly to Kiev on Tuesday. She does NOT want to travel with Charles at all. I don’t see the issue, but have learned that she does know what is best. So Jay is just standing with wallet open wondering how much the orphanage is going to charge to keep him. :) Isn’t it funny how long we wait to be able to take him and now we are trying to pay to get them to keep him……..
A little more about Charles’ story, after his mom had him in Odessa, she must have traveled immediately back to Donetsk and taken him to the hospital here. The papers say she took him to the hospital and then never came back. All his papers are at the translator in Kiev right now and we will get them when we get to Kiev. I am looking forward to trying to piece his short little life together. Especially, since it is very confusing not having seen any translated documents and only receiving bits and pieces of the story.
Talked to Dad, Jo, and Dawn last night, which was fun. They are in good spirits as usual, it is always so nice to talk to someone at home and catch up on what is going on there. Bo and Molly kept trying to call, but something kept cutting us off. Around here it depends on the time of the day for cell calls, because there are soooooo many cell phones here that the airwaves must be full….. I know that is not how it works, but it sounded good.
Cousin Howell, you put a big grin on my husband’s face. He was so excited to talk to you and guess what? He sniffed out an Ukranian hunting store today, so we are leaving early to go to the notary so he can check it out. What started it was a billboard (which we could not read) that had a picture of a hand-carved shot gun that showed one shot gun chamber and two rifle chambers (again, if there is a correction later in this message Jay has woken up, but as it stands his mouth is open and he is snoring!) and he started looking around and found the shop. We had to get to the notary, but I knew we would make it back there today. I feel a stroller and Kitty coat coming my way!
Jeanie, have you heard anything about traveling for the football team for Regional playoffs? We were trying to plan my trip back and what is going on the weekend of 11/11. Are we going to be in Charlotte? Just curious. Tell Zac that Charles is ready to play. Miss talking to you, but it is month end. :)
3 hours later: (7pm)
I guess I did not know the plan for this afternoon, so just ignore the above. Everything was fine with the passport, etc. We are now back, we were picked up by Rashid and Svitlana and taken to get Jay’s plane ticket, then to the Notary’s office - where we took care of our documents - and then off to the bank to make a ‘donation’ into the orphanages bank account. Svitlana wanted to make sure everything was done here. Now she is off to Kiev with our documents and will return next Thursday before Jay leaves, so I won’t be here by myself. We stopped by the Opera House to get tickets for the ballet this Saturday, but they were sold out - bummer. Oleg was going to join us, but I guess we will go have a beer instead at the Chicago Bikers Bar (how sophisticated!)
Now we are getting ready for some ham and cheese sandwiches, chips and Stella Artois beer.
Hugs and kisses to you all.
Now a word from my broke sponsor:
Howell – didn’t make it by the hunting store today, but it is on the list of places to go. I am hoping that tomorrow I will have to go by the internet café to do some research on how to bring that gun back into the States. Hmm… If that doesn’t look like it will work, I think I may start working the stroller thing. One more stroller and I get a nice over/under. If that works, then I may go for the kitty coat and look at a nice Leupold spotting scope or rangefinder. That Cabela’s list is filling up nicely!! Save a big buck for Litton and me. We’ll be down soon and he needs to get something to hang on the wall in his room.
Bo – brother, we need to talk about Emma’s international calling plan. Maybe you need to see if they paid last month’s statement. If not, perhaps AT&T can help out. Keep trying… It’s not like we’re going anywhere anytime soon.
Litton - Mom and I would love to hear from you when you get a chance. Call us or e-mail. Love you.
God bless,
<><
posted by Kelley @ 11:57 AM
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