HAPPY FATHER'S DAY !

June 17, 2007 FATHER’S DAY!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! We are wishing all of you Father’s out there a wonderful day! We took it easy today, it was raining & thundering, so we just “lazed” around here in the apartment, & around 6pm, we took about a 20 minute walk to TGI Fridays for a Father’s Day dinner for Ed! We are still in Kyiv, the kids are in Donetsk & Kramatorsk, & they don’t celebrate Father’s Day here in Ukraine, so it seemed a little strange without any celebrations going on--but, we did talk to Dad & Uncle John tonight, & we feel better now!
Finally, about the children! We won’t post pictures of them until after Thurs. June 21st (our “Gotcha Day!), for obvious reasons. But here are some details about them ;-) We named our youngest son Alex, our daughter Stephanie & our oldest son Michael. Michael just turned 7, Stephanie is 5 & Alex just turned 4. They are very nice looking kids (if we don’t say so ourselves!), & look good health-wise, although they say here in Ukraine that none of the adoptable children here are labeled as “healthy” since they have been institutionalized in an orphanage setting. We received as much medical information as possible on each of them, took photos & measurements & have emailed the information to a Dr. in the U.S. who specializes in Eastern European adopted children, so we are waiting for his report back to us--but overall, they seem very good, so we proceeded with the adoption anyway. Michael & Stephanie are in the same orphanage & extremely close! They watch out for each other on the playground, & she scolds him in Russian like a little mother hen if she feels he’s getting too wild! Alex is, well…kind of like a little “tank”! He’s in an orphanage with children overall younger than him, so he seems to act a little younger too although he’s very smart, loves the musical toys, dances, but tends to bang things a little roughly--is this typical of a 3 or 4 year old boy? Time to put all the breakables away or out of reach at home!!! When we gave Michael & Stephanie their own “Life books” with photos of their new home, room, our pets, the area & of course our family, our facilitator translated for them what each picture was, & the next time we visited them, they were both clutching their little books & taking it wherever they went! It was precious to see how they loved showing others their new family! An Italian couple who was adopting Michael’s best friend were there one day & told us that the kids proudly showed them their book the day before. Alex wasn’t quite as interested in his book the first day we showed it to him, although we didn’t have the facilitator with us either, so we were kind of limited in our descriptions to him that day, & he ran to show us another toy in the playroom. The next day, however, we were sitting outside with him & showed it to him again & he looked at every page, & mimicked everything we said in English--we were so surprised! We also brought puzzles that he learned how to put together very quickly & also bubbles which he just loved! He was chasing them, then wanted to do it himself, which he blew a little too hard on the wand, but managed to get a couple out anyway! Sometimes we got “pouty” faces from them when it was time for us to leave, other times they just kissed us goodbye & ran to their friends! Kids will be kids I guess! We are going shopping with our facilitator for clothing for them tomorrow, as they will come with nothing when we pick them up. The clothing has us in a bit of a quandary, because the measurements they gave us were in centimeters, & the clothing/shoes are in European sizes, so she’ll help us convert the sizes. We’ll need to pick them up some underwear, pants & shirts, sneakers & I think we already have PJ’s, slippers & jackets for most of them. We’ll get enough clothing to last them for about a week more here, & then we can get the rest when we get home. We really miss the kids. We thought it was a good idea to get away a little, but all we do is think of them, talk about them, worry about them, look at their pictures, etc. so, we may as well have stayed in Donetsk! I know…welcome to parenthood!
We have spent a lot of time these last few days walking around the area near Independence Square. We found the Underground Mall there to be pretty, but again a little pricey--for those who haven’t been there, it’s circular & has 4 or 5 levels that you can take a glass elevator or an escalator to. We found on the top level (you guessed it!) a pizza place spelled Cili Pizza, but the waiter says it’s pronounced “Chili” Pizza. I think Kerry was mentioning this place? The food was good & we have been there twice now. We tried little beef dumplings smothered in a cream sauce with melted cheese, & blintzes with a spicy ground beef stuffing also topped with melted cheese. Another time we tried a pizza with a few different types of cheeses on it including Blue cheese, but didn’t care for it too much, very little sauce & it was quite bland, so we won’t order that one again! By the way--for those who have been here: Why do they always put oil & vinegar out on the table when serving pizza?! Well, since the pizza was so bland, I put a little on my plate & swiped my piece on it--not too exciting, just “OK”.
Our facilitator took us on the “Metro” or subway the other day, unbelievable how deep this thing is! We used to live in N.Y. so we are very familiar with subways, but Holy Cow! The escalators have got to run a ¼ of a mile down at least! All the people going down are standing at an angle because of how steep this drop is! And it is very crowded-yet quiet (unlike us loud mouthed Americans who were talking to each other & our facilitator while going down!). The subways have beautiful mosaic tile work in them, some bronze statues, & are very clean. But at rush hour, everyone still sandwiches in, just like everywhere I guess.
Our big excitement yesterday was unplanned--we did a little shopping in an open air market, & walked up to the Independence Square area where we were going to go to the Potato House for dinner. They have been building a stage in front of the Pedestal statue that locals call “The Lady on a Stick” for days now & there were rumors that Elton John would be coming next week for a concert there (which we definitely wanted to see). Well when we got up in the area, police were everywhere, sidewalks were blocked & police were lined up all around the stage. So after surveying the area & the crowds, we decided to go into a Beer tent & spotted a table to sit at right next to a fountain with a huge glass globe in the center. It turned out that indeed Elton John was giving a concert there that night at 9pm! So, we kept our table through the night by ordering quite a few beers, even finally met a great American couple who are also adopting here & they joined us as we watched Elton’s concert from the table & viewed him on the giant screen that was in the square. It was a great concert & we really had a lot of fun! After all the beer, the walk up the steep hill to our apartment didn’t seem to be as bad (plus having to use the bathroom was a great motivator for walking as fast as we could!). Well, it’s after 1:30AM Kyiv time, 6:30PM EST, & our facilitator picks us up tomorrow at 10AM so I better go. Sorry if you thought we fell off the face of the Earth, we are here, walking-walking-walking & climbing-climbing-climbing all the steps here in Kyiv! We’re getting your e-mails, thank you so much for the wonderful comments & wishes and we’ll try to write more soon. Night-Night!

Love, Laura & Ed