Court Day

Court went pretty well today, better than we expected. We had an appointment at 9am, but didn't get to see the judge until 9:30 because the orphanage director didn't show up until 20 after. There were 2 jurors, the orphanage director, some other lady and the judge in the room. It was pretty informal, he questioned me first, name, birthday, address, then asked Scott the same questions. Then he asked me what kind of house we lived in, how many bedrooms, the community...we gave him our photo album then, and he asked how much we bought our house for. He was amazed that it was so cheap. Then he asked Scott when our anniversary was....of course he stumbled a little bit, I helped him out with the answer...the judge got a kick out of that, he said all men forget that. They really liked our photo album, they thought that our nieces and nephews were really happy and healthy and cute. Overall it was a great experience, no tension, and we were pretty relaxed after a few minutes. It was over in about 15 minutes, they congratulated us and we left.
So, its official!
We were about 30 minutes late for our date with Kasey, and he was outside with his groupa walking and looking around for his papa and mama. We had a good day today, with only a couple of time outs for throwing stuff. He is making progress everyday on learning new english words.
Our 10-day wait has been extended to 11 days due to a Holiday on the 10th of March. Bummer. So, we get him on the 12th of March, then it's back to Kiev for more paperwork. I don't anticipate leaving until the 20th or 21st??? I'm not positive on the date yet.
Other than that, we miss everyone, and I hope it warms up there soon.

Shannon

Another day in Ukraine...

So, this morning we took Kasey outside for a walk around the orphanage. We taught him how to throw rocks and sticks :) which we will probably regret later. Dad bought him a little tank that lights up and flips over when it hits a wall, so we were pretty much ignored this morning, :) I don't think he gets to see toys like that very often, so we let him be. It was a little cooler here today, with a chill wind, but still it's warm. Tomorrow is our court date, so our 10-day waiting period starts on Saturday. Not much else is going on. I can't wait to get home so you guys can meet him, he is a lot of fun. Before I forget I just want to say
Happy Birthday Riley! Miss you!

Shannon

Shopping!

Today we were able to take Kasey out of the orphange to the market across the street to do some clothes shopping. He was pretty excited, a little scared, and he really held on to my hand. The market across the street is like the Pine City flea market. It's just a bunch of shacks bunched together. You can buy anything here, food, clothes, dog toys, hardware, fish, produce, toys...it's like an outdoor walmart! We found a few outfits here to bring him home with, the clothes were pretty expensive here, no walmart prices. The clothes here are strange, you can't buy a plain pair of jeans, they all have writing or patches or some strange design on them. We bought the plainest pair they had, with pockets of course. Kasey loves pockets, dad bought him some tools and he needs a place to put the tools. He also loves hoods, so we bought him shirts and sweatshirts with hoods on them. He had lots of fun, but got scared by some lady and wanted me to hold him from then on.
That's all for now, it's almost time for our second visit of the day.
Bye
Shannon

Trip to Kiev

Hi! Yesterday we took a trip into Kiev to do some sightseeing. It took 2 buses and a subway to get us to Independence Square where we got to finally send a few pictures and eat some PIZZA. nummy. (On sunday night we had the pleasure of eating an unknown fish, with bones, cooked in an egg. yeah. not good.) After we were done eating we walked to this big steel rainbow structure that signifies the unity between Russia and Ukraine. At night it's lit up so it looks like a rainbow. Then we walked to the Miriinsky (sp?) Palace, which was undergoing a lot of construction. It was completely surrounded by fencing so you can't see in, but I managed to get a picture from the front gate of the front of the palace. No one lives there, but they hold state dinners and greet foreign dignitaries there. Then we walked some more to the Ukraine Orthodox Church. It's a huge complex, lots of buildings. It's about the size of maybe Valleyfair. We got a lot of pictures of the murals and the church itself, but weren't allowed to take pictures inside. We walked down into a cave where they keep a lot of dead people in glass coffins. There were souvenir booths everywhere, even inside the church. Then we walked to the Ukraine WW 2 war memorial where the keep hundreds of tanks and copters and other war stuff. Scott was more impressed with it than me. There is also a lot of sculptures of soldiers and people of Ukraine that we have pictures of. There is a very tall lady on top of a hill that looks like our Statue of Liberty, but she represents the protection of the people of Ukraine. She holds a sword and a shield.
It was a long day with a lot of walking. I missed Kasey. He missed us too. We were home in time to visit him at 6:30. He was very happy to see us.
Our morning visit with him went OK, but morning visits are harder because we are always interrupted by orphange workers coming in and out of the room we are in. The night visits are a lot more fun because we are left alone. We brought him some grapes today along with his usual cookies and juice. He likes grapes a lot. We haven't brought him any candy yet, we don't want to spoil his appetite too much with candy.
Almost out of time on the computer. I hope everyone liked the pictures we sent. Bye!

Shannon

Feb. 25

Hello from Keiv. We are here just doing some sightseeing today. We might get to visit Kasey later this afternoon. I posted a picture of him playing outside, yes I know, no face. Sorry. We sent a few pictures to family today. If you want to see a picture of him, please email me or Scott. We'll post our adventures in Keiv tomorrow. Have a great day!
Btw, it's 55 degrees here today-haha.

Feb. 24

Today we finally got to go outside and play. He's had a cold for a while now and they wouldn't let him go outside all week. He headed straight for the playground which I am sure was off limits because of all of the mud. He sat on this wheel that goes around in circles and had a blast. He fell off a couple of times right into the mud. But he was laughing the whole time. All the playground equipment is made out of metal and wood. Scary stuff. He went nuts when he saw dad climbing up on a jungle gym. He has to copy everything dad does. He was completely full of mud by the time we got him back in his room. We tired him out pretty good today.
Tomorrow we are going into Kiev to do some sightseeing. We have another translator, Lena, who is going with us. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures tomorrow.

Shannon

Feb.23

We had a really good visit with Kasey this morning. He is learning to listen to us when we say no, and didn't even throw a fit today. We found out today he likes to us to pick him up and swing him in a circle, of course that just makes Scott even more dizzier than he already is. ;) We brought him a skidster that came with a couple of tools, he was more interested in the tools than the skidster. I think Scott is going to buy him a snowblower next, just to get him used to it. We have been trying to work on his throwing and catching skills, but I think they frown on the kids throwing stuff, so we have long way to go. He kinda throws sidearm without aiming at anything, kinda like his Uncle Tommy. :) I think Blake and Ryan and Logan have to help him out with his baseball skills.
In keeping up with the latest fashions, he was wearing a girls denim/pink oshkosh bigosh bibs, a size too small, and 2 shirts and a pair of shorts underneath the bibs. I can't wait to dress this kid in his own clothes.
The weather here is really warm, and all the snow has melted.
We have our court date scheduled for next Friday at 9am. Then our 10 day waiting period begins.
That's all the news for now. Bye
Shannon

Feb. 22

Kasey was pretty good the last couple of visits, he had a few time outs for throwing things, but otherwise he's a pretty good kid. He likes to copy dad a lot, Scott blows on the car to make it go faster and then Kasey blows on the car to make it go faster. It's pretty cute. Last night it was about 140 degrees in the room we were in. All week long he has been dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, and last night they put him in a sweater and pants and put us in the sauna.
We have been teaching him English terms for anything that we see, nose, eyes, fingers, shoes, butt.
He pretty much has that stuff down. We brought a children's picture book with us and he can point out a lot of the pictures using English. He hasn't been able to go outside yet, he has had a cold all week. We can't wait to go outside with him. Being stuck in the orphanage gets pretty old.
We have been eating a lot of soups lately. A lot. We can't wait to go to Kiev next week so we can eat out. I'll let you know what we have for lunch and dinner tonight, but I'm pretty sure we are having soup. :)
Bye!
Shannon

Feb. 21

Hi!
Sorry about not posting yesterday, but we couldn't get on a computer at the internet club.
The past couple of days with him have been interesting. Overall, he is a pretty happy guy, loves music and playing with cars. We gave him a little piano keyboard and its the first thing he grabs when he sees us. He also loves to play with cars. We need to work on his throwing skills :) Language is always a barrier, but we are getting better at it everyday. He has lots of energy and is wearing us out. Yesterday we were able to see his whole groupa sing us some songs, they were so cute! He loves singing. We are doing OK here, but we reallllly miss pizza.
Bye.

Feb. 18

Hello. We have 4 visits with him over the weekend and 1 this morning. Yesterdays visits were a little rough, we had no translator, he was in Kiev. Communication was a little frustrating yesterday, nobody in the orphanage speaks English. But, we got thru it somehow. Today went much better. We brought him some juice and cookies and that was a big hit. I had to teach him how to drink from a sippy cup, I don't think he has ever seen one before.
We are getting around the town a little more every day. Found a store today that sells crayons and coloring books, so we will give that a try tonight. We brought a little puzzle with us today, and he knew exactly how to put it back together again. Other than being a little homesick, things are going very well for us. We are eating some very good food, and are not starving to death. Natalie has fed us very well. Please pray that we get a quick court appointment and can come home quickly.

Shannon and Scott

Feb. 16

HI! We finally found an internet club. Sorry it took so long to post.
We are in a town called Whitechurch in the Kiev Region. It's about an hour south of Kiev. We had a very good appointment, the meeting went well, and we decided to visit a boy named Andre.
He is 4 and is very healthy physically and mentally. We have visited 3 times already and he is warming up to us a little more each time. We are staying with a very nice couple, Natalie and Yuri. Natalie is the music teacher at the orphanage. It's directly behind the orphanage, so we don't have far to go.
The first few days we spent in Kiev were fun. We walked around a lot. We found the underground mall, and the McDonalds. Our apartment was right down the street from Independence Square.
It's a nice city, and I look forward to visiting it again when before we leave.

Our flights were pretty bad, we didn't get into Kiev until 10pm tuesday night. Our luggage was lost and we didn't get it back until Thursday night. I had to comb my hair with a fork :( not funny.

Ostap, our facilitator is doing very fast work. He has managed to convince people to get their end of the paperwork done quickly. We were able to visit Andre on Friday instead of waiting until Monday. I hope all the paperwork goes that quickly.

Now that we found an internet club we will be posting more often, so check back!

Shannon and Scott

Lost in Europe

I would like to be able to say that we have arrived in Kiev, safe and sound...but, currently we are sitting in Vienna, waiting for our last connecting flight. The flight out of MSP was delayed because Chicago grounded all their planes yesterday for some weird reason, so we missed our original flight out of Chicago and had to rebook a later flight to Frankfurt. We could have made our original flight from FRA to Kiev, but we sat on the runway in Chicago for over an hour while they deiced the plane, so we also missed that flight. So, when we got to FRA, we had to rebook a flight to Kiev, thru Vienna. The Vienna airport is nice, its more like a mall than an airport. Scott refuses to buy me anything from Swarvoski ;(
I hope everyone reading this realizes that I did not use any swear words at all. It's 4:00pm here and our flight leaves at 5, so that's it for now.

Shannon