Kiev!

We finally made it to Kiev late last night. We are staying in a 1 room apartment in downtown Kiev, not near Independence Square, so we are unfamiliar with where we are.
We are staying near St. Volodymyr's Cathedral which is beautiful.

The past 2 days have been pretty long. Our paperwork chase took us to the village where Kasey was born. We had to get his original birth certificate changed. When we got there on Tuesday it was discovered that the court decree had a mistake in it that 4 different people missed, but the lady at the birth certificate office caught. So, we could not get his birth certificate that afternoon. Also, there was a mistake on the original document that severed the parental rights of the mother, the year was omitted on the document.
Of course all of this happened at the end of the day, so we could not get any documents fixed until Wednesday. The next morning Scott and I with a translator went back to the courthouse to get the document fixed. Took almost 2 hours, and they started working on it as soon as we got there. Ostap, our facilitator went back to the village to find the judge that terminated parental rights to get him to fix that document, which he did. Then Scott and I and a driver drove to the village to get the birth certificate done and pick up Ostap. Long, long day. But it all got done.

We came back to White Church by 3 and had lunch. Then we went to the orphanage to hang out with Kasey and his groupa as he said his good-bye's. He kissed and hugged everybody at least twice. All his caretakers stopped by to say goodbye. We brought him his new clothes to change into. We found a Cars long sleeve shirt that he loves. He was very very excited to put on his own clothes. When we went out the door to leave and put on his jacket he was practically jumping up and down for joy that he was leaving-I had a hard time putting the jacket on him. It was about 8pm by the time we left White Church and started driving to Kiev. He was excited to be in the car. Of course 8pm is his bedtime and he fought sleeping the whole drive into Kiev. He behaved very well.

We do have a wireless connection here, which is nice. But the apartment is not nice, and we decided to find another apartment as soon as possible. Then we may not have a
wireless connection anymore.
It's about 7am here as I am posting. Scott is out looking for food and Kasey is still sleeping. We are going to go get his new passport started today. He gets to have his picture taken again. We are hoping to get the passport expedited, if not, it will be 7 days before that is ready. I am really praying that we get it expedited.

march 11

Paperwork day. Today we are running around getting our court decree, birth certificate and passport documents started. It's a slow process today. People are not getting the paperwork ready for us in a very timely manner. But we are working on it. We had a visit with Kasey this morning, but we had no toys for him because we thought it would be a short visit, but it turned into 2 hours. So we did our best to keep him occupied with 1 ballon and Scott's sunglasses. We don't think we will be able to post tomorrow, we will be very busy with Kasey's party and taking him into Kiev. If we are lucky enough to get a wireless connection in Kiev from our apartment we will post, if not, it will have to wait until Thursday. I responded to as many emails as I could this morning, but then Yahoo went down, and I couldn't get to the rest.

march 10

Sorry about not posting yesterday, but we were unable to get a computer yesterday afternoon, and we were too tired after our 2nd visit to go the cafe, so we skipped it.
Today we went shopping and got a few things for his party on Wednesday. We bought some bubbles for the kids to blow, and we are going to pick up some cookies and candy tomorrow along with fruit. We walked a couple of miles into the city with our facilitator, Lena, who comes down from Kiev whenever we need her. Whenever we walk together she slows down for us Americans :) We picked up a few more shirts for Kasey today, but can't find a regular hooded sweatshirt anywhere. He loves to wear hoods. We also got him a new pair of jeans with a lot of pockets. He always has something he needs to put in a pocket :) We were told today that we should not feed him an orange everyday like we have been doing, oranges are not good for them. BLAH!!! Sooo, what did I do? I fed him another orange today. He askes everyday for an orange.
We are just patiently waiting for Wednesday and the party. It's been a long 12 days. It's been raining here for the past couple of days, so we have not been able to take him outside and burn off any energy.
There has been a nice Ukrainian couple visiting another little boy in Kasey's groupa, which is really nice because we were told Ukrainians are not interested in adopting children, only babies. So, that's pretty good for the little boy, who is adorable. He's the one Kasey pushed down the other day. But then Kasey kissed him so all is well. Today Kasey stole a book from Igor, the little boy. When Scott made him give it back Kasey got upset with us and started to cry. Tragic, aint it?
Well, that's it for now.

Shan

March 8

Today we were able to take him outside to burn off some energy.  Dad and Kasey played some football.  Kasey will hurl his little body on top of that football to stop Dad from getting it, it's the funniest thing ever.  Then it takes him 2 minutes to get back up again.  Today another couple visited another little boy in Kasey's groupa.  Kasey went up to him and I thought he was going to play, but instead he just pushed him down on the cement.  sigh...  he is more like his dad every day.
Only 3 more days to go, then we have his groupa party and off to Kiev.  I can't wait to get back to Kiev,  lots more stuff to do and see, and easier to get around.  
I'd like to respond to a couple of comments:  Tom, he is right handed although I don't think he realizes it, he tries throwing with his left,    it never works.  And those are nerf baseballs you are
 referring too, right???           
Mom,  I know the perfect place for that drum set, the corner of your living room.  Kasey would love to play a drum solo for you whenever he comes over :)  
Miss everyone!
Shan

A ride in the car...

Last night we were able to take Kasey to a portrait studio to get his passport pictures taken.  It was only a few miles from the orphanage, so the ride wasn't long.  He liked being in the car, and he be-bopped to the radio.  (they love electronica music here-yuck)  He was very good in the studio, they made him sit on an old cardboard box on top of a chair for the photo, he had a hard time sitting on that old beat-up box, but he got it done.  
Then this morning there was a little musical presentation for the orphanage staff.  It's International Women's Day tomorrow, apparently its a big thing around here.  They dressed up in their little costumes and did a few songs, it was cute.  I was only able to get 8 minutes of video on my camera because I had no idea they were even doing this today.  They have been practising these songs for a while now and I have some video of that.   He is a ham.  And he loves to watch himself in the video.  
That's about all for today.
Bye
Shan

March 6

Today Scott and Kasey played some football outside, it was pretty cute to watch Kasey run around in 10 layers of clothes, he spent most of the time on the ground trying to get back up :)  He had fun outside and he tired Dad out a little.  He also got to kick the cat, which he got yelled at for, but I'm pretty sure that if he had the chance he would do that again.  He is getting a lot more comfortable with us, I remember in the beginning he wouldn't even come to us if we called him, and he would play with his toys far away from us.  Now he climbs all over us :)  We fed him some more oranges today, he really loves those.  I tried to get him to eat some fruit snacks, but he just spits those back out.  I have no idea what they feed him for food around here, but we saw them take in a bowl of milk and some bread last night for dinner :(  I think even my limited culinary skills can do better than that.  
For last nights dinner we had Borsht, which was fabulous.  I don't know why people don't like that stuff, it really is good.  Yesterday we went for a walk after lunch and saw a little more of the town. Saw a pizza joint.  We may check it out over the weekend.  
Thats it for now,
Shan

1 more week to go..

Doing the same thing every day, day after day, can wear a person down.  We try to make it interesting for Kasey's sake, but it's pretty tough when you are limited in what you can do and where you can go.   Today we finally got to go outside for about an hour.  We walked around and played with his balloon.  He found the orphanage kitty and tortured the poor thing for a few minutes until he was yelled at by a caregiver :(  I would have let him torture it for a few minutes more.  Last night he got to sing with his groupa which he loves to do.  We have it on video so he can watch it whenever he wants.   
Last nights dinner wasn't too bad,  penne noodles cooked in chicken broth with chunks of chicken in it, and some sort of spam "meat" on the side.  
Bye.
Shan

March 4

Okay, so the birth certificate situation is under control, Ostap found out how to get one at the regional center, so all is well. We bought a new car for Kasey, the pull back/let it go kind. He likes those. We also have been bringing him oranges which he really likes. The other day we had a bitter orange and you should have seen his face when he bit into that one. We have been working on memorizing the ABC song, he is pretty good at it, and he can sing it by himself all the way up to G. His catching/throwing techniques need a lot of help, so I think an intense training session with Blake and Ryan and Logan is in order, but I heard they are pretty expensive :) We could not get on the internet at our usual time today because the internet was down at the club we use, so sorry for the late posting.
Bye!
Shannon

March 3

Yesterday while visiting Kasey we had 2 short hail storms and snow, so he was pretty happy just staring out the window last night. He is always curious about new things, so our trip to Kiev next week and everything that happens after will be quite the experience for him.
Our facilitator started his search for Kasey's original birth certificate. He was born not too far from where we are, so it's not too far away. Unfortunately they had some sort of scandal at that courthouse, some woman sold some land and took the money. So, the courthouse has been closed, and he can't get a hold of anybody to help him yet. He is working on it. I'll keep you posted.
We had a another good morning visit with no tantrums from Scott or Kasey :)
He's kept himself busy this morning playing with his toys. We didn't go outside because it's pretty muddy out.
That's all for now,
Shan

March 2

Hello! We had another great morning with Kasey, no tantrums, no time-outs. Dad made the mistake of laying on the floor on his belly, Kasey jumped on his back and sat on his head, so now Kasey has a new toy-Dad :) And yes, I have pictures. He also likes to grab Dad's sunglasses and look at himself in the mirror...just like dad does. So we need to buy him a cool pair of shades.
It's been just another quiet Sunday morning in Ukraine.
This week we will be out buying toys and party supplies and gifts for his going-away party on the 12th.
Bye!
Shan

March 1

Day 1 of 12 day wait...and Riley's birthday-HAPPY BIRTHDAY RILEY!

We had a good morning visit with Kasey this morning, but we had a struggle at the end with him, which we got through. We had fun playing with the ballons that have the rubberband attached, he loves those. It was rainy out this morning, so we couldn't go outside and play. Hopefully we can go out and play this afternoon.
When we got him out of his room this morning his lips were blue and he was shivering. SHIVERING. He was wearing a sweater(which they had just put on him for our visit) over a pair of shorts. So when I walked into the room to grab him a pair of pants, all the windows were open and it was freezing in the room....! This is a family blog, so I won't write about how ticked off I was.

For those of you reading this blog who are waiting to travel to Ukraine: Bring Movies, Lots and Lots of Movies. Movies You Have Never Seen Before. You Will Have A Lot Of Down Time To Watch Movies. :)

Later,
Shan