Our Growing Family

1 year

2007-05-22T17:49:00.073-04:00

I can't believe it's been a year already. We feel so blessed & so lucky to have Natasha part of our family. I wanted to say a few things, some thank yous & then tell everyone a bit about Natasha. It's a little bit of a read, so take you time. There are pictures at the end. But, in my opinion, it's worth it. :) And, hey, Dad Ray did ask for a book. LOL.

We can't even imagine our life without Natasha. I told Bob that it was just like having a baby. Once they are born, you can't imagine things being any other way. Our 5 weeks in Ukraine (as I look back on it now. LOL) were well worth it just to get Natasha home. It gave us some one on one time with her, that was nice, and also some time to start on some English lessons.

We missed our other kids that were left at home so much, our family, our friends, even our dog & cats. We cannot thank everyone enough. Anyone that had a part in bringing Natasha home, we know that it couldn't have been done it without all of you.

To all of our girls that we had to leave at home. Shauna, Sammy, Cailin, Kim, Sabrina, and Kelly. Thank you for being good while we were gone and putting up with us being in Ukraine for so long. We missed you all so very much and we were sooo glad to get back home. You have welcomed another sister into our family so well. We know that you guys all love Natasha and that she loves you back. We can't thank you enough. We are so proud of all you girls.

Shauna my love. You were the one who wrote to us the most. Blogging helped us get through the long days over there & we were always glad to hear from you. Your silliness & jokes and just everyday things you did always brought a smile and a laugh to our faces. Thank you.

Sammy. I think I talked to you and Sabrina the most on the phone. It was always wonderful to hear your voices. I am kinda glad you were so busy with your "2007 Showcase". I think it gave you something else to think about. If it was anything like this years Showcase, then we know you did a great job. We are so glad we got to see it this year. It was great !! Thanks for your understanding darling.

My Sabrina. Our selfless little girl. Since I was over in Ukraine for Mothers Day last year. When I got home Sabrina had made a beautiful card for me. Inside the card along with all my Mothers day words she put that she couldn't think of a better couple to be able to have Natasha as our daughter. I of course cried. My Sabrina has a way of doing that to me. She loves to make cards and do scrap booking. She always does a great job. We love you Sabrina and are always in awe of your selfless heart. You are growing into a most wonderful young lady.

Cailin, Kim, & Kelly. I know that you guys went "MIA" for a bit and we are sorry about that, but we are glad you got to read the blog sometimes. I think Kim & Kelly both made a few comments. We were always glad to hear from you. We love you guys and were so happy to see you at the airport. Thanks girls !!!

Mom and dad.
Thank you for being there with Shauna, Sammy, and Sabrina while we were gone. I know they appreciated it and so did we. They do like their schedule and we were so glad when we were able to get back on it. So you being there helped them stay on their schedule as much as possible. We thank you for that. I believe that you were busier than you thought you would be. Things can get quite busy back at our house sometimes. But, you did it & we thank you so much for that. You got everyone where they needed to be, when they needed to be there, and you even went to the events that we missed. Thank you so much. We couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for taking care of my yard dad. I know it's a little bit bigger than yours, but thanks for keeping it nice. I have even heard stories from some neighbors of you taking your lawn mower to my house in the bucket of your big tractor. Oh my goodness Dad. Only you. How funny. We love you both.

John & Lucia. Thank you also for taking care of the girls while we were gone. We appreciate it so much. I know it wasn't real easy for you guys. Lucia, Thanks for everything you did with decorating "It's a girl" all over our car etc.. I love that. It was so cool.

Krista & Bret. I don't know if you read this blog or not but I just wanted to thank you for taking good care of Cailin, Kim and Kelly while we were in Ukraine. I know you would have done it no matter what, but we just wanted to say thanks. We are so glad that everything is fine from Kelly's hospital stay.It was not fun being over there while she was here in the hospital. We could tell by talking to her and from the pictures that Lucia sent us that she was a pretty sick little girl there for a couple of days. Thanks for being there when we couldn't.

Grandma Plummer. We know that you were one of our biggest supporters from the very beginning. We thank you for that. You are probably our biggest prayer warrior. You are an inspiration to us. I hope that when I am your age I am at least as half as strong, half as wise, and half as stubborn (LOL) as you are. If someone ever asks me how I got to be so strong, wise, or stubborn. I am going to proudly hold my head up and say "I got it all from my Grandma Plummer." We love you Grandma. We are so glad that Natasha's middle name "Rose" was Grandpa Plummer's mom's name. We were looking for a family name, but Rose was the only one we could agree on. Turns out, it is a family name after all. We are so happy about that. (It is also Brianna's middle name. Bob's sister, Trina's youngest daughter) See how God works !!!!!!!!!!

Aunt Norma, Aunt Guyda & Uncle Tracy. I know you guys were right there along with Grandma Plummer praying. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I must mention my Aunt Orpha who suddenly passed away while we were in Ukraine. I know she was one of my great prayer warriors also. Rest in peace Aunt Orpha. We love you and will see you again someday. I am so sorry you didn't get to see my beautiful Natasha before you had to go.

Barb, Debbie, Uncle Roy. Thank you also for all your prayers while we were in Ukraine. Barb, thanks for printing everything out for Aunt Guyda & Uncle Tracy who are computerless. LOL. I know that was greatly appreciated.

Dad Ray. Thank you for all your comments, compliments, prayers and suggestions of things to do while in Ukraine. Although I don't think I got any more scriptures memorized. Memorizing is so very hard for me to do. I did get a lot of cross stitching done and a whole book read. (For me to read a book takes a lot. LOL.) As you know, it has been a wait for us & we are so glad Natasha is finally here forever. We have not had to wait as long as others we know and met while we were there. God has always been good to us & maybe you and Randa being pastors and all helped put a good word in for us. LOL. Randa. You are so funny. I don't think we heard from you until Bob wrote the blog "like an engineer". Too funny. He does very good on the "facts" though, in his behalf. Sometimes he would write the "facts" and then go to bed & I would get on and write the warm, fuzzy, emotional stuff. Thanks for everything you two.

Craig & Jerry, Trina & Jeff. We know you were there praying for us also. A big hug and thank you to all of you.

Uncle Bob. What can I say. Your the greatest. The only one who got up at 2:30am and sent us a text message prayer. That was really great. You have no idea how much that meant to us. I can't believe it took us going to Ukraine for you to go to church & pray. (Out loud). You are the best friend and Uncle anyone can ever have. We love you and so do the girls. I do believe "The force was truly with us" while we were there and "with you also" back here. We are all so proud of you !! I did a good job at getting there and back and I didn't even need any oxygen on the airplane. And, you did a good job while we were gone. You didn't need any oxygen either. Maybe a little mouth to mouth, but no oxygen. Ha Ha.

Dr. McClain. We just want to thank you again for checking in on Kelly while she was in the hospital. That helped us feel better. We owe you one.

A big thank you to everyone in "Born in our hearts". We couldn't have done it without all of your support. And, thanks for the basket of muffins. They were delicious !!!

A word of thanks to some of our best friends. Steve & Michelle, Pat & Carla, Katie & Jerry. Thanks for everything, your prayers, your friendship, and for coming to the airport. Dave & Bonnie also. That was just the greatest & so much fun. We love you guys !!!

More friends to mention. Aunt Connie, Mike & Jan, Tom & Maria, Rich & Jill,Theresa, Rick. I'm running out of words to say. We are so glad you are all our friends.

Dan & Sandy. You guys are wonderful. We are so blessed to have met you & we are so glad we became friends in the process. Sandy, We are happy we finally got to meet you. Now we know the person that keeps Dan in line. LOL. Dan, your great, ornery, but great also. LOL. Please call or come visit anytime. A great big thanks for everything you did for us.

Angelina. I hardly know what to say to you. Thank You seems to be so little for all that you did. You are one Awesome Lady. I have never met anyone like you. You should be so proud of yourself. You have a great gift for all this adoption stuff and a wonderful love for all these children. I can't even imaging how many of them you have saved. May God Bless you always. If your ever in the States and want to visit, please know that you are welcome anytime.

If we have forgotten to thank anyone, we apologise. There were just so very many people involved in making this happen.

As far as Natasha is concerned. She is doing great !!! We couldn't ask for a better girl. We love her so very much and as I said earlier, we can't imagine our life without her. She had a great summer last year and is really looking forward to this summer. She loves to swim at grandma & grandpa's (Gail's Parents) house. She is just like a "fish". It's hard to get her out of the water sometimes. She likes to ride bikes & even had a big wipe-out racing Kim. She "rug burned" her face, elbow, her bottom, her knee & foot. Thank goodness she had her helmet on. Helmets are a rule at our house. But, I believe Kim won that race. LOL. She likes to ride scooters, jumping on the trampoline, flashlight tag, bon-fires, & just plain playing. She gets along great with our little neighbor Mallory. They love to play together, and have sleep overs at each other's houses. She is adjusting very well & it seems like she did it so quickly. We often laugh at how quick she became "Americanized". LOL We have had some "meltdowns" and some "testing the boundaries". But nothing we haven't already been through with all the other girls. LOL. Gosh, they all still test us. LOL. She knows the rules around our house and abides by them as good as any of the other girls.

Natasha started school a few days after we got back last year. There were only about 2 weeks left & we wanted her to get use to what school was all about here versus Ukraine. She started out in 4th grade. Not at 4th grade level, but age appropriate. Her first day was May 22nd, and she went for 3 hours. Then full days where we would drive her there and pick her up. The last week of school last year she took the school bus. She squawked about it at first, but quickly it became no problem. We believe she truly likes school, but that's not what she would say if you asked her. LOL. We were so very blessed in that Natasha's ESL (English as a second language) teacher just happens to speak Russian. That was a really big help.

Natasha, of course graduated to 5th grade & is about to finish that up this year. She will be leaving the Elementary and going to the Middle school next. I could just cry !!! My babies grow up so very fast. Natasha has made her own group of friends at school and is doing very good with them. Bob and I were just talking about how much we like Natasha's school friends. They, of course, play together whenever possible and have sleep overs as well. Natasha is doing very good in school. She was in the 3rd grade in Ukraine, and the bottom of 3rd grade at that. As far as we can tell she didn't even start school until she got to the Orphanage. So she is doing very well in school considering all she has had to go through. She is dealing with 5th grade math very well without even knowing her basic math facts. We do math facts as extra "homework" for her at home, as well as reading out loud to us. She is reading at about a 1st grade level right now, which is excellent for having to learn English.

As much as we tried to help Natasha keep her Russian by having her call and talk to her friend Helena about every week, she seems to be loosing it. She refuses to talk to her ESL teacher at school in Russian and when she talks to Helena she speaks in English & Helena speaks in Russian. Helena does know some English. It's my opinion that Natasha still knows some Russian, but just refuses to speak it or admit that it is still there. That is OK though. It's an adoption thing. We just want Natasha to be the 11 year old girl that she is. We plan on bringing Helena over this summer for a few weeks. Natasha is thrilled & Helena is thrilled. We planned this while we were staying in Ukraine & everything still seems to be on track for her coming over. We very much look forward to it. Helena is a great girl. She too was adopted by Slavik & Oksanna.

Natasha has already figured out that she can get a lot more things from daddy than she would if she asks Mommy. She also just looks at him & says "please." But all our other girls will say the same thing also. They openly speak about Bob as being a pushover. LOL. Funny sometimes, other times, not so funny.

Natasha has also figured out that grandma (Gail's mom) loves to go shopping. She uses this to her advantage as much as possible, as do all the other girls. The other day she asked Bob & I. "Can I call Grandma?" we said "yes, but why." She said "something." So off she went to call grandma & Bob and I heard, "Hello Grandma, shopping, yes, Justice." (Justice is a new store here with really cute & sometimes expensive girls clothes. They all love it there.) We laughed, but then I had to tell her that she has to get our permission first before she asks grandma to go shopping. She didn't like that very much. But, hey, neither do all the other girls. LOL.

It is wonderful to be able to communicate with Natasha. She knows most of what we are saying & is starting to talk in sentences now. She is starting to ask us questions about things or words she doesn't know. This is a good thing but can be very funny at times. Natasha will sometimes answer a question about herself if you ask her one, but we still sometimes get the shoulder shrug with an "I don't know." She seems to want nothing to do with remembering anything connected with Ukraine right now. That is fine though. We want her to just be a kid while she is one & we figure that she will talk when she is ready. It's no problem. She gets mad when we might say something that we already know about her from her past. Like what grade she was in & the kind of grades she got. What town she was born in. Just little things like that. We don't bring up any big issues.

Here are some pictures of Natasha and some "firsts" for her.

The pictures are in no special order. I had a hard enough time figuring out how to put them on the Blog again. LOL.

First 4th of July

Natasha with her friends Lisa & Jenna at her 5th grade Musical.

Natasha helping out building the barn with Uncle Craig Easter Egg hunt at church. (That's Sabrina under the bunny costume)

Natasha (11) & Sabrina (13) Visiting Shauna at Calvin College. (You can see Sabrina, Natasha, Shauna, & Cailin. Kelly & Kim are in there also, you just can't see them). First pumpkin carving. (Natasha,Sabrina, Kim, Sammy, Kelly, Shauna & Aaron, Cailin). Christmas 2007 All of us with Grandma Plummer. (Cailin - 14, Sammy - 16, Kim - 14, Shauna - 20, Sabrina - 13, Natasha - 11, Gail, Bob, Kelly - 12 and Grandma Plummer).

First day of school, 2007 Halloween/Trick-or-Treat with Uncle Bob. (And, yes for those of you that know. Natasha is wearing my old Majorette outfit from High School) Can you believe I use to fit into that. LOL. One of Natasha & Kelly's Christmas presents was to go to a Hannah Montana concert. (With Dad, of course). About 2 weeks after we got home we decided to adopt 2 orphaned foals. (Because we didn't have enough to do). LOL That's Grandpa Ray in the background. Ice skating with friends and Family. Natasha got her ears pierced. Natasha waiting on the School Bus with our neighbor & Natasha's friend Mallory. Swimming at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Were going to the Football Game. Natasha & Mallory building a snowman. Natasha & Jenna. Natasha's 11th Birthday party. (Mallory on the left Kelly on the right) Natasha and Daddy on their way to the Father/Daughter dance. Happy New Year 2008.(Dad, Matthew, & Mallory also in the picture). Guitar Hero with Jon from next door. Playing cards at the Cleveland Airport waiting for Shauna to come back from Ukraine. Yes, you heard me right. Shauna went to Ukraine July of 2007 for 5 weeks herself to help teach English at Donetsk University. She loved it. (Sammy, Kim, Natasha, Sabrina, Cailin. You can't see Kelly) And, last, but not least, Natasha's FIRST hair cut. Isn't she beautiful !!!! I suppose that about sums up our first year. It has been the most wonderful experience in the world. We wouldn't change a thing.

God Bless,

Bob & Gail Ray

May 22nd, 2007 - We are home

2007-05-22T17:29:00.000-04:00

WOW !!!!!!! What a ride we have been on. Just wanted to say a short "Thank you" to all involved. I will write more soon as there is so much to say and it will take me a while to write it all down.

Thanks Everyone,
Gail

Day 35 - May 19th, 2007 - Almost Home

2007-05-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

We have made it safely back to the states, completed our trip through customs & immigration, the taxi ride to La Gaurdia, and are now waiting for our flight to Akron/Canton. Our flight is supposed to leave in a little over an hour, right now everything is on time. We met up with the Schnitzel's (the two year old twins) at the airport. Gail was glad to help out holding the girls during the flight. We are all tired, but glad to be almost home. We talked to our girls during the cab ride between airports. It was good to hear their voices over a good connection, but everybody is still anxious for our arrival home. Natasha, even though tired from the long trip, is still very happy to be in America. She flashes a huge smile when we pull out her new passport and they read her name "Natasha Rose Ray". We can tell she is very happy to finally be ours forever. Be home soon.
God Bless,
Bob, Gail & Natasha

Day 35 - May 19th, 2007 - We begin our long trip home

2007-05-19T01:55:00.000-04:00

As usual Natasha and I are all packed and waiting for our driver to pick us up at 10:00 am to take us to the airport. Gail, on the other hand, is still packing. She is doing good this time and should finish soon - I think that is because she is so anxious to finally be going home. This will be a long day, our driver will pick us up at 10:00 am, we should be at the airport by 11:00 am. Our flight will leave Kiev at 1:00 pm, and is scheduled to arrive in New York at 4:20 pm. We are arriving at JFK and will go through customs and immigration there. We then have to take a short taxi ride to La Guardia airport for our flight to Akron/Canton. Our flight to Akron/Canton is scheduled to leave New York at 8:52 pm and arrive at 10:12 pm. We will be arriving in Akron/Canton on Airtran airways flight 212. Anybody interested can check our flight status at http://flightaware.com/live/flight/TRS212. If everything goes on schedule, we should arrive in Akron/Canton a little longer than 19 hours after our driver picks us up to take us to the airport.

We are anxious and excited to get home. We have missed all of our girls very much and look forward to seeing them at the airport tonight. We are looking forward to attending our church(Rivertree Christian) tomorrow together as one big family (although with the long travel day, we are expecting to make the 11:00 service). Please pray that our travels will go safely and smoothly.
God Bless,
Bob

Day 34. May 18th, 2007. We are coming home tomorrow !!!

2007-05-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. We can not wait to get home tomorrow. We are all so home sick and we miss our other girls & our home & family & friends & our dog and cats, even the bunny. LOL.

Today we went back to the American Embassy to pick up Natasha's Visa and her immigration paperwork. She will be a United States citizen as soon as she steps foot on U.S. soil. That is so cool !!

We also went to a place here called "St. Andrew's descent" where they sell a lot of souvenir's. We tried to get Natasha to let us buy her this Ukrainian outfit, but she said no.

Natasha found something else she liked, but I couldn't find anything I thought the rest of our girls would like. Oh Well !! Whhhhhhaaaaaa. Whhhhhaaaaaaa

We all went out to lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant that is down at the bottom of the hill. We didn't have a whole lot of time to eat because our facilitator had to catch an airplane back to Donetsk this evening.

Bob, Natasha, and I did some more shopping this evening at the underground mall here. It is really neat, but I forgot to take any pictures of it.

We had dinner at TGI Friday's tonight. We were in the mood for some American food with an English menu. LOL.

I don't have time to make any comments back to everyone who made comments to us in the last couple of days. But plan on doing that when we get home. I, of course, have to start packing for tomorrow. We need to be ready to leave our apartment here at 10:00am.

God Bless everyone. We are off to the airport tomorrow. Pray that everything goes smoothly and our flight is safe & we all get home safely. All my girls at home. I love you. See you tomorrow evening.

I will leave you with a few pictures. This is out our window looking at center of town. The dome is the center of the underground mall. The steps on both sides of it go down into the mall. It is really nice.

Uncle Bob. Natasha took this picture for you. This is Ketchup. The one on the train was a beer bottle. LOL.

Hugs & kisses,

Gail

Day 34. May 18th, 2007

2007-05-18T11:32:00.000-04:00

This part of the blog is for Uncle Roy, Barb, & Debbie. For those of you who don't know. My Aunt Orpha passed away suddenly on Wednesday. Uncle Roy, Barb, & Debbie. I am so terribly sorry and I am so shocked and saddened by this. Please know that our prayers are with you. We did try to change our flight to today (Friday), but were unable too. We could get as far as New York, but couldn't get any flights home that would get us to the funeral on time. I just want you to know that I am so sorry we can't be there. I am upset about it & so wish we could be there. I do not want to miss it, but it seems that I don't have a choice. We will come and visit you very soon. I know you will have lots of family there, so we will come when things settle down a little bit. We love you guys. Hugs and Kisses. Take care.

God Bless,
Gail

P.S. I will update the rest of our blog later with what we did today.

Day 33 - May 17, 2007 - A busy day in Kiev

2007-05-17T11:53:00.000-04:00

The train ride went smoothly. Here is a picture of Natasha already settled in the train for the night.

We arrived in Kiev at 7:00 am. We went directly to the doctor to get Natasha's medical exam. We met another adoptive family at the doctor's office. They were completing the adoption of their son. This was their second adoption, they had adopted two girls a couple of years ago. We exchanged contact information and hope to hear from them after we have returned to the states. We then went to the US Embassy to get Natasha's visa. We met up with the same family we saw at the doctor's office. We also met another family who was just completing their adoption of two year old twin girls. Since both families were in front of us in line, Gail gladly volunteered to hold one of the girls until it was our turn (they will also be on the same flight from Kiev to New York so I'm sure Gail will get a chance to hold them again). By the time we left the embassy, it was after 1:00 pm and everybody was hungry, so we went to eat lunch (we ate at the same cafeteria dad & I did when we were in Kiev in October). We then picked up our tickets for our flight home on Saturday, stopped at the store for a few groceries, and arrived at our apartment just around 4:30 pm. We spent most of the day in the van running from place to place. Once we got into our apartment, we were ready for a chance to rest and update our blog. However, we had to call the apartment manager back to get our Internet working. We are now settled in. Everybody is tired and anxious to get some rest for tomorrow. Natasha is enjoying watching Nickelodeon on the satellite TV. Tomorrow we will pick up Natasha's visa in the morning, and then spend a little time looking around Kiev. Our facilitator, Angelina Zherevichuk, will leave us tomorrow and fly back to Donetsk in the afternoon. She has been an excellent help throughout the whole process and we will miss her.

To all our friends and family, thank you for all of the prayers and comments. (Yes, Gail did get everything packed in time for our departure to the train station - our driver looked at all of our bags and thought he would have to make two trips, but we made it on time and with everything). Natasha already misses Helena, and we look forward to keeping in touch with Slavik and his family.
That's it for tonight as get some needed rest before our last full day in Ukraine.
God Bless and good night,
Bob

Day 32 - May 16th, 2007 - We begin our journey home

2007-05-16T08:43:00.000-04:00

We are just finishing our packing and getting ready to head to the train station. We will be taking the train to Kiev tonight. It is about a 12 hour trip. We leave around 7:00 pm and will arrive in Kiev around 7:00 am. We will go immediately from the train station to the doctor for Natasha's medical exam. Our appointment with the US Embassy is at 11:00 am. We will then get some lunch and head to our apartment in Kiev. We will pick up Natasha's visa on Friday, and should have most of Friday to look around Kiev before we head to the airport on Saturday morning.

We are excited to be heading home, but sad to leave many of the new friends we have made. Gail is busy packing (whatever she can't pack before our train leaves will stay here - Natasha and I finished packing several hours ago), and will respond to the comments tomorrow night.
Bob

Day 31. IT'S A GIRL !!!!!!!!!

2007-05-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

May we be the first to introduce you to our new daughter:

NATASHA ROSE RAY

Weighting in at 99lbs, 3 oz
60 inches long
Her Mother and Father are doing great and are coming home on Saturday !!!!!!!

This is Natasha with her Passport, Birth certificate, & Adoption certificate. She has been smiling ear to ear all day since the judge announced she was officially ours.

This is all of us at the courthouse. The Judge is in the middle. There are 2 members of the jury. The prosecutor is missing from this picture. Juvenal authority. The deputy director of the Orphanage & our facilitator is behind the camera.

The court room.
Natasha with our facilitator, who is the absolute greatest !!!
This is us just outside the courtroom before we went in for our appointment.

This is the Court building.
We left about 8:00am this morning and didn't get back till 7:00pm this evening. We had a very big wonderful day. After court or facilitator dropped us off at a restaurant that we like. We wanted to celebrate some with Natasha. Plus, we were all hungry. LOL. While we were eating and enjoying the park, our facilitator was running around getting the adoption decree, the birth certificate, the paperwork needed for the passport. There was an error on the court document so she had to go back to the courthouse to get that fixed also. I'm telling you, this lady is a working machine. It was probably 3 hours until she was able to pick us back up and go to our apartment. Luckily it was nice and sunny and warm out. We had a leisurely lunch and walked the whole park. And, we still had time to spare. LOL.

Thank you , Thank you everyone for your continued prayers. Uncle Bob you are just awesome !!! We love you, you brought tears to our eyes this morning. For those of you who don't know, Uncle Bob really does have a "soft side". LOL. Seriously though. We got several text messages on our cell phone from Uncle Bob right before our court hearing today. That means he set his alarm and got up and PRAYED for and with us. You make me smile and we can't wait to get back and go to church "with" you Uncle Bob. Just an FYI. Any single Lady's out there looking for a really great, studly man who will always treat them right. Uncle Bob is your man. And thank you for "Talking to Shauna", she needs her butt beat. You have my permission to go over and do so. Although you don't really need my permission anymore because she is what they consider an "adult" now. And with such language !!! But, dude, don't give her any more "words" to use. How about just "Natasha is so tall." I love you my Shauna. We are coming home in 4 days. Can you stand it. I miss you !!!

Shauna, maybe grandma could shut the garage door when she is there during the week. DUH !!! Hey mom, I forgot to tell you that Bob has said. "It's a little weird knowing that your mother-in-law is at home sleeping in our bed." LOL. Don't you just love that. Maybe he will buy me a new mattress now !!

Theresa. I'm sorry, we have not run into your boy. I will try to ask about them tomorrow. Thanks for the prayers.

Thank you dad Ray. And your going to Mexico for lunch is too funny. I know it just made Shauna's blood boil. LOL. It's not fair though that we don't know what she says to you in Spanish.

Thank you Lucia. Thank you Michelle. We got this on as soon as possible. We were visiting with our friends we have made here this evening. Oksana & Slavik have given us a gift from the Ukraine. They are such good friends. We are already planning on trying to bring Helena over next summer for a few weeks to visit. It was funny, because she does not want to wait a year, she wants to come this summer. LOL.

Hey Dan. Trying to spoil my big news much. LOL.

Thanks again everyone,

God Bless,

Sweet dreams,

Love,

Gail

Day 30. May 14th, 2007. 1 day till court.

2007-05-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Today was Natasha's party at the Orphanage for her class/friends. They all seemed to have a blast. I brought balloons from home and we just blew them up. I thought I would run out of air. LOL. We took in pizza, cake, soda pop, & candy. Seemed to be a hit. After the kids ate their pizza and cake they started playing with the balloons. The balloons were everywhere. Then they started trying to play keep away from me. Bob was in the hallway with Natasha's teacher getting all the specifics on her current grade level and capabilities. It was funny because the kids and I started to run around the table. The teacher flew open the door & was about to yell at the kids for running. She got about 3 words out & then noticed that I was the instigator. She smiled and shut the door. LOL. Too funny for me.
We also stopped at the Records Bureau to confirm their agreeing of the judges waiving the 10 day waiting period. From there we went on our hunt for a Notary. For Pete's sake, they are so hard to find over here. We must have stopped at at 1/2 a dozen of them until we found one that was in and willing to Notarize our paperwork.
It is late here and we have court tomorrow. Our appointment isn't until 10:30am, but our facilitator is picking us up at 7:45am. She has to make a stop back at the orphanage and take pictures of other children for another hosting program. So I will leave you this evening with lots of pictures to look at. Some of you will recognize yours.
Shauna Marie. I told you about the raccoon before we left. Shut the garage door at dark time. OK

Lucia. Thank you for the prayers. And yes, I think I will try doing laps while I talk on the phone. Maybe that will help. LOL. Sabrina cracks me up !!!

All of you who are reading. Please pray for our big day tomorrow at 10:30am. That's 3:30am our time. So everyone, get up at 3:30am and pray OK. LOL.

Lots of hugs and kisses,

Love,

Gail

One of Natasha's teachers.

Edward. I Love him. He is fun !!

And the one with the most balloons wins !!!!!!
Natasha's old room.
Look who I found !!!

Day 29. May 13th, 2007. 2 days till court

2007-05-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

Hello all. We went to 2 hour church today again. It was very good, but Bob said he thought it took longer than 2 hours this time. LOL. We are not sure if it is his drug induced stupor, (from his sinus medicine) or if we are just so anxious to go home. Whatever it is we are looking forward to being at our own church next Sunday. The singers were the same again and I got a blurry picture of them so I won't show it. Our Russian pastor was Slavik again. He was very good, even though we didn't understand a word he said.. LOL.

Our English pastor was a man from Missouri. He comes to Ukraine 3 times a year to teach at another seminary. We had a good laugh about him at lunch with Slavik and his family. He brought his saxophone along and played a song for us. Amazing Grace. Well, Slavik said that he plays that same song every single time he comes. LOL. They said the second time he played it they just thought that he didn't remember that he had played it before. But now, they know what song to expect. We said that maybe that was the only song he know s how to play. LOL.
We went out to eat at the amusement center again after church with Slavik & his family. We had a good time. Natasha has been saving up her tickets for the really big ticket prize worth 260 tickets. Kind of like Chuck-E-Cheese. Well, today was our 3rd time being there and after the kids had all played and tickets were counted we still had only 171 tickets. OMG. So we went up to the counter and asked, with Slavik's help of course, if we could give them the 171 tickets and pay cash for the rest. Oh no, you can't do that. It all has to be in tickets. So we bought some more tokens and found out very quickly that this was going to take the rest of the evening if we did it that way. LOL. So we made a deal with Natasha. We would buy her a similar item in the mall (which just happens to be right at the amusement center) and she would give her tickets to Helena. She immediately accepted. She is no dummy !! LOL. So Natasha and I went into the mall to pick out her present. It was something like Princess doll with her sister Sissy. Very similar to a Barbie doll.

This is Natasha with one of Slavik's son's. We can never remember their names or tell them apart. LOL. It is terrible of us I know. We asked Natasha his name and she shrugged her shoulders like "I don't know." So it isn't just us. LOL.

Helena and her brother. (same boy, I think). LOL.

These are some flowers I bought for Dave and Laura upstairs. They are returning tomorrow & we wanted to have some flowers waiting for them.

They do not celebrate Mothers Day over here. They have an "International Women's Day" in March. So Bob explained it to Slavik, without me knowing. Gave the girls some money and sent them out into the store to pick out a present for Oksana and myself. It was too funny. We don't know if anything was lost in translation or if the girls decided on their own. But, Natasha bought a gift for Oksana, and Helena bought a gift for me. LOL. It was cute. So here is my Mothers Day present from Helena.
For those of you who are asking. I don't know what it is. Just a baby sitting on a heart trinket box. But, I love it because Helena picked it out. It's perfect.

Shauna Marie McLaughlin !! We bought 2 bags of dog food before we left. You must be feeding Dakota too much. Just like you do poor Georges. You have to go to Fishers. It's Purina Mainstay. And, she gets 1 1/2 cups in the morning and 1 1/2 cups at night. OK. And Sammy told me how fat Georges is getting and how funny you think it is. You have 6 days to walk him and cut down on his food before I see him. Poor Georges....... If I had any money I'd buy you something also dear. Whhhhaaaaaa. But, I will just come home. I Love You !!!

Goodnight everyone,

Sweet dreams,

Happy Mothers Day to all,

Gail

Day 28. Saturday, May 12th 2007. 3 days till court

2007-05-12T13:52:00.000-04:00

Hello guys. It was a nice sunny warm day here today. Probably in the 70's, sun shining all day. As usual, Natasha did all her English lessons for the day. Bob, myself, Natasha, Slavik, Helena, Karina & Karina's younger sister Angelina went for a nice walk today. (Karina is the girl I mentioned on day 23 that I couldn't remember her name). She has been a good friend to Natasha also. Slavik showed us the way through the gardens where there are some horses. They were pretty horses. It was very nice of Slavik to do that.

We really didn't do too much today except enjoy the pretty weather. After dinner Bob and Slavik got together on the computer for a couple of hours discussing schools where Slavik could finish his Doctorate. So, I went out for another walk. Look what I found today Sabrina. They have been hiding from me. LOL.

I should tell you a little about our slumber party last night. The girls had a DVD of the movie "A walk to remember." They wanted to watch it on Bob's computer. We said that was fine but they had to first wait till I finished last nights blog. LOL. They kept showing me the clock because I said to give me about 1/2 hour and they started showing me the clock when it had been about 45 minutes. LOL. They were impatient with me. The had a very good time. I actually don't know what time they went to bed last night because I fell asleep while they were still watching their movie.

And, look what I got today. My flowers are getting prettier and prettier !!!!

Hey Mom. You are welcome for the Tulips. Hope you enjoy them. You will have to take a picture of them for me to see. Have a great Mothers Day Mom. Say "hello" to Mary for me. Maybe she would enjoy reading some of the Blog. I don't know, you will have to ask I guess. LOL. I know Grandma Plummer is reading. So, did you get Grandma to spend the night ?? LOL.

Connie my love. You crack me up. It was getting way to quiet here for us. Once the girls figured out that they could sleep in that extra bedroom, they were all over it. LOL. The reason Bob and I fell asleep before the girls did, was that the noise put us to sleep. Hahahaha. There's no big deal, just breathe and have fun with it darling. And don't forget about Ariel's 16th now. LOL. Our babies are turning 13. It is so hard to believe. It seems like we were both just pregnant laying on the couch complaining. LOL. Yes, a new daughter for Mothers Day. How many can say that, huh. Love you girl. Thanks for the love and prayers.

Goodnight everyone,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 27. Friday, May 11th 2007. 4 days till court

2007-05-11T13:32:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Well if you take Wednesday's and Thursday's blog and just add going to the grocery store, that's what we did today. Oh my goodness. Thankfully our slow days are coming to an end and then we have something planned everyday from Sunday the 13th until we get home on the 19th. Yea !!! So as I mentioned, we went to the grocery store today. Natasha did her usual English with me and on the computer. She only played a couple of hours today because of us going to the grocery store, dinner, and her and Helena playing this evening. She is up to unit 4 now, so she is progressing. I took my usual 1 hour walk. Bob walked 20 minutes with me, then he had enough. Still not feeling well, but he did get "Thera-Flu" at the store today. There is a small drug store in the grocery store. It was the best we could find that has a decongestant in it. They do not sell anything like Sudafed over here yet.
Oh, new news just in. We are having a slumber party again !!!!! Yea !!! Giggle girls all night long. They are probably just trying to get us use to being home again. LOL. Same 3 girls. Natasha, Helena, & Tanya. They asked me and I said yes. They were so thrilled I got hugs !!! No pictures yet. They have the camera. So maybe a few good pictures for tomorrow.

Dad Ray. Bob showed Natasha your message. She read it and smiled. Awwwww. Good job Grandpa Ray.

Hey mom, just offer Sabrina some money and she will have the house cleaned quicker than you or I could ever do it. That girl can clean circles around me. But, then again, who can't. LOL. Did you think we were exaggerating when we would talk about all the homework these kids have ?? OMG. I don't like it. I would like to see them get to play a little more because they are so scheduled at school also. But, I guess they are OK. None of them seem deprived or anything. LOL. Natasha has been listening to the music that's downloaded to my telephone and playing the games that are on there. She has figured out more things about my phone than I ever knew I had. You must just have to be a kid to do all these computer/cell phone things. LOL

Hi Lucia. Yes, we are very eager to get home ourselves. Our numbers are in single digits for court and our date to come home. That is looking really good to us !!!!! Hope everything works out for your girls. You will have to let us know. Val is very good at translating.

Well Katie. There are not 5 days left. There were 5 days left until court (now 4) But we are down to 8 days before we get home. Hurray !!!!!!!!! My love, you do not talk fast, you talk longggg and go in circles & circles, etc... There is a difference. Hahahahahahahaha. I love you girl. Keep up the good work on playing dumb & weak so Jerry will do it. Ha Ha Jerry.

Sleep tight everyone,
Love to all,
Gail

Day 26. Thursday, May 10th 2007. 5 days till court

2007-05-10T14:21:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness you guys. If you read yesterdays blog you will know what we did today. Absolutely nothing !!! LOL. I'm the only one that even left the apartment today. Can you believe that. Bob is not feeling good again. He was getting better, now this morning he was sick again. He took some of what he thinks is close to a Clartin. We had bought it at the store back when Natasha was first allowed to stay with us, because she had the bugger snots then. Not that Bob will go let Slavik read the directions and tell him if he can take more than a teaspoon of the stuff. Or even let Slavik run him to the store to get a decongestant. NO, we will wait this thing out until we go to the store with our facilitator tomorrow. Bob as been through a whole box of Kleenex today and is now onto paper towels. And sneezing his head off. So we may all be awake tonight. LOL. Although he did take some Tylenol PM before he went to bed, so this may help a lot. But, I can hear him breathing. LOL. Yea, we get to go out tomorrow !!! Natasha has spent about 5 or 6 hours on this computer today playing her English games. She is up to unit 3 now. She is doing so good. I'm glad she likes to play the games. She is so funny though when it comes to reading a story. The game will actually read a small story to her. All she has to do is turn the pages. Then they ask a series of questions about the story with multiple choice answers. She has to pick the right answers to get through it. Well, she goes right to the questions without listening to the story and tries to memorize the answers. She always gets at least a few of the questions wrong & of course, doesn't get through that part of the game. She knows she has to do all parts to get to go to another level. She gets so mad when she gets a wrong answer. I then tell her that she has to listen to the story. She rolls her eyes at me, goes to another part of the game and then goes back to the story later when she thinks I am not listening. She is too funny. Her friend Helena had school today and probably something else, because the two of them talked, but did not play today. I went for my usual 1 hour walk around the campus. Actually it was 55 minutes today because it started to rain. It was probably in the 50's today with on and off rain. It was one of those days when you wore your coat it was hot, and if you took it off it was cold. Unlike the weather we have been having at home. (That makes me so mad). LOL. So here is my only picture of the day. Sabrina, this one is for you girl.

Our facilitator said that it was safe to go ahead and book our return train and flights. So here is our return info. This is booked, and we pray that there will be no changes. If for some reason anything changes I will let everyone know.

We take the train on May 16th from Donetsk to Kiev. Leaves Donetsk at 7:00pm, gets into Kiev at 7:00am.

We are booked on Aerosvit flight #131 on May 19th from Kiev to JFK. Leaves Kiev at 1:00pm, gets into JFK at 4:25pm.

Then Airtran flight #212 from LaGuardia to Akron/Canton. Leaves Laguardia at 8:52pm, gets into Akron/Canton at 10:12pm.

OH YEA !!!!!!!!!! I can't wait. I so cannot stand myself. I can't wait to get home.

Oh Michelle. You guys get more of that than anyone I know. LOL. And, I know you clean your house because it is cleaner than mine. LOL. I am so sorry. Hope Jon and Ellie don't get it and I hope you guys are feeling better. Oh how I wish I could be jumping on the trampoline right now looking like a weird mom. I don't understand what happened. One day I could jump just fine, than poof, I'm a mom and jumping like one also. The same thing happens when I try to run. LOL. I look in the mirror and expect to see my 20 something self and I can't find it. I sooo miss my girls also. Who would have thought that Shauna would be missing me the most. I Love You my Shauna !!!

Hey Lucia. Yes, those pictures are so cute. Girls !!! Sorry about the e-mail we sent to you, but we thought that if we were in your position we would want to know. We don't know if it means anything or not. Just thought you might want to check it out.

Love to everyone,

Sweet dreams,

Gail

Day 25. Wednesday, May 9th 2007. 6 days till court.

2007-05-09T14:59:00.000-04:00

Hello all. I am just laughing because on yesterday's blog is says 2006. LOL. That's just what happens when you are over here for too long. LOL. It was another slow day here. First I need to show you a picture of our sleeping beauties from last night. It was about 1:00am - 1:30am when they crashed. There is another room in this apartment with 2 beds in it. The girls pushed them together. Notice Helena's and Tanya arms are interlocked. LOL. They are all so cute.

They took the camera today and must have took at least 80 pictures. I'm not exaggerating either. Here are just a few of the crazy pictures that they took. I love girls !!

Helena.

Tanya.
We had bought a pineapple at the store. The girls asked if they could have some. We didn't realize they had the camera yet at this point. Too funny !!

So, as I said earlier, it was a slow day here. We did the usual English lessons. It kept looking like it was going to rain. It was in the 60's, but the clouds were dark and they were calling for rain. So I cross stitched & Bob did his Sudoku puzzles. Noon, still dark clouds. 1:00pm, still dark clouds, 2:00pm, etc.. etc... , but never any rain. They don't have Doppler radar over here to check where & when the rain is actually going to come. At 5:30 pm I said, "That's it, I'm going outside for a walk." "Anyone want to come with me." Nobody wanted to come, so i put my headset on again, listened to my tunes & walked the campus here till 6:30pm, because I COULDN'T STAND MYSELF ANYMORE. LOL. The rain started at 7:30pm. LOL. I made it just in time. The campus was pretty empty today because of it being a "Holiday" and all. It's Victory Day. Everyone must have been out celebrating. We heard fireworks tonight, but could not see them. That's about it. I know were our on the downward hill part of this trip, but come on !!! 25 days and counting. I am sooo home sick and miss everyone. I wanna go home you guys !!! I forgot to tell you that Laura & Dave upstairs have a bird. A Parakeet. Since they are gone, I have been feeding and taking care of the bird. His name is Petey. He refuses to come out of his cage, but I have got him to sit on my finger now. :) Did you have any doubt. LOL. Here is Petey. He also helps keep me sane. I don't think he appreciated getting his picture taken.

Hey Jan. I think I will miss it too when I get home. LOL. We did not see Elena or Alyona yesterday. I don't know if they were there or not. It was a busy place there yesterday. We are having our "party" on the 14th. Hopefully they will both be there for that. Yes, we have made some great friends here. This University is nice to stay at that way. I know we will miss our new friends as Natasha will miss hers also. We have already talked to Slavik about trying to keep Natasha and Helena in touch over the Internet and maybe by phone at times. We are hoping it will help her to keep her Russian language. We have read that it is hard for them to learn English & keep their Russian. So, we will see.

Hi Kendra. I'm so glad you can get on here now !! We are missing everyone. I did get an e-mail on my AOL account about the Meghans from Rob. So we did hear about it. I remember commenting to Bob about them leaving, going all the way to China and back before we get home. No Fair. LOL. I also heard about the 5am prayer. You guys are so awesome. I'm sure they really appreciated it. Looks like we are going to miss their homecoming. I love those homecomings. Thank you, thank you for all your prayers. They do mean so much to us. We feel so far away from everything and everyone. Knowing that you guys are praying helps. Give Lauren a hug and kiss from us. How sweet is that. What a cutie.

Katie. I was thinking that if you wanted to write a book maybe you should start your own blog. Whhhaaaa Whhhhaaaaa. I am still laughing at you. Even on-line you are chatty. LOL. That's what we love about you. And, you do get yourselves into some predicaments don't you ?? Oh my goodness girl. Maybe you shouldn't have read that book from small group. LOL. Thanks for all your prayers.

Oh Michelle. Please tell me that you guys are not barfing again at your house. LOL

David and Stacey. Thanks a lot guys !!! We are enjoying the attractions very much. Ha. LOL. Hope everything is going well for you now. Good luck.

Hey mom. Going to DQ after "everything" has become a tradition for us now. LOL. We enjoy it and so do the kids. It's fun. Thank you for the Choir picture. I am so proud of dad for opening up the pool this early. Usually he refuses. LOL. I can't wait to go swimming. Tell dad to have the temperature at 89 degrees on the 20th.

Hugs and Kisses to all,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 24 - Tuesday May 8, 2006 - 7 days till court

2007-05-08T14:40:00.000-04:00

Hello guys. Hope everyone is well. Our day started out with us getting ready to go to the Orphanage to watch the Victory Day presentation. We also added English lessons in there, of course. We are getting words today like "I'm sorry," "Please", "Thank you." We are so thrilled to hear them. Our "Driver" picked us up about 12:15pm. ( I still love that). We were set for our 1:00pm viewing of the presentation. We were treated like royalty and escorted to the 2nd row. The first row was for the Orphanage director & staff. We couldn't understand a word of it, but enjoyed it very much. Here are a few pictures. Yes, the first one is Marina.

These girls danced very, very well. I was impressed !!

After the performance Natasha was getting hugs from a lot of her friends. She took us to her classroom. They were working on cross stitching. Both boys and girls.
This is her teacher. She hugged her and said "goodbye". Some of the kids said "goodbye" also and waived as we left. It was a little bit sad. When we left the room and were in the hallway, Natasha looked up at me and gave me a hug. I about cried. I told her that we have lots of pictures & she shook her head yes.
Our facilitator did not stay for the performance, she was off to try and get confirmation from the records bureau that our ten day waiting period would be waived. She confirmed that they were willing to agree with the court decree about waiving the ten day period. This means that we are on schedule to finish up all of the necessary paperwork once we have our adoption decree from our court date. Our facilitator has informed us that we are safe to purchase the return train tickets to Kiev for Wednesday evening, May 16. That would put us on track to return to the states on Saturday, May 19. These dates are all tentative so far, we will let you know when they are confirmed .

On our way back from the boarding school, we stopped to get Natasha's pictures for her new passport. :)

Natasha and Helena and another girl Tanya are having a sleep over here at our apartment. Kind of makes us feel just a little bit like home. There is no school tomorrow. Because of another holiday. Victory day. It is a total giggle fest. Bob and I have commented that we wish we knew what they are saying. It's kinda "no fare" !!!!. LOL. Helena, who can speak a little English, came up and gave me a hug. She said "My Momma." Natasha turned around with that mean look she can get on her face and said "NO". Helena laughed & then Natasha laughed & off they went to giggle some more. I totally loved it !!!

Shauna darling my trendsetter. Bob and I were just saying the same thing before you commented on it. It's too funny. Fishing would be fine, but you put the worm on. OK. And I would love a huge poker game. But regular poker, not that other stupid one that I can't even think of the name of right now. And for quarters, or dimes, or pennies. Cody would not win. He has never played me before. LOL. Please use a measuring cup for Georges food. I told you it is not healthy to make him fat. Even though you think it's cute. LOL.

Hey Katie. Keep that weather warm for us OK. Bob use over the counter medicine. Please !!! That would mean he would have to admit he is sick. LOL. I can't believe Faith is almost walking. Noooooo. Tell her to wait. Girlfriend, you must not be putting those tights on right. I think I still have tights from some of my kids dance classes. And, hush up about all that cat stuff. Sabrina doesn't need any more ideas. LOL

Goodnight,

Love to all,

Hugs and kisses,

Gail

Day 23. Monday May 7th, 2007. 8 days till court

2007-05-07T13:48:00.000-04:00

Hello. It was a pretty slow day for us today again. As usual Natasha did her English lessons/games on the computer. She is getting better & better. The program she is using has 12 units on it. Not grades 1 - 12, but just 12 units. She moved to unit 2 today !!! The program won't let her move to a new unit until she is done & knows everything from the previous unit. I am so proud of her. She was so excited when she realized that she did it & that she gets new games every time she moves up a level. Natasha & I did some English on our own also. She of course does not like that as well because it requires her to write. LOL. But, necessary for her to learn. She is really doing very good here with us.
Bob and I took a walk this afternoon. We told Natasha we were going for a walk. She wrinkled up her face, but didn't give us any trouble. But, when we got outside she pointed to the playground. LOL. So we let her play while we took our walk. We didn't really walk far today. Bob is not feeling good. He has the bugger, snot, sneezes. LOL. And he is cold, with goose bumps. And, he took a nap. So I know he is not feeling well, because he almost never takes a nap. So we will all pray that Bob gets a good nights sleep & feels better tomorrow. OK. This is my darling daughter while Bob & I were walking.

Bob stopped walking after about 1/2 an hour. It was a nice sunny day out about 64 degrees, so I continued to walk for about another hour. I got my cell phone and headset & played my tunes that Shauna downloaded for me. I just walked around the campus. Sabrina, look what I found !! (can you see both of the cats ??) I was over by the school building when Helena got out of school. She ran up and gave me a big hug. She is a sweet girl. Natasha will not be the only one that's going to miss her. She, of course, asked where Natasha was and the two of them were off to play for the day. I got a couple of pictures of them while I was walking. Aren't they just adorable !!

The girls went out to pick some beautiful flowers for Helena's Mom. (She didn't have to spend the night at the hospital. She is back home and doing well) Praise God !! Look what I got also. I love them !! We made spaghetti for dinner. Helena & another girl (I can't remember her name) stayed and ate dinner with us. They think our food is too spicy. They are not use to the hot or even mild spices. When Bob and I made our Enchiladas we cut the chili powder in half and the kids still thought it was hot. The adults were fine. They thought our spaghetti sauce was spicy also today. LOL. Too funny.

Hi Katie & Jerry. Your so funny. What I would do to be home with 7 kids getting on my nerves right now. LOL. I will have to remember this when it happens. Luv you guys !!

Shauna. I don't really know what to do about Tinkerbell. We have had her to the "bunny vet", but they were not able to do anything on that day. I forget why. Maybe ask Sabrina & just keep an eye on her. As long as she is eating and going to the bathroom she should be fine. I'm so glad you had fun at your prom and at the park. Sorry about the Suburban. I sent grandma and e-mail about it. Maybe you and Cody could take Bob and I to the park with you sometime. How fun does that sound ?!?!?!?! Good luck on finals week. Do good, study hard. I know you will do fine, you always do. (I'm still going to show Grandma Plummer your profile) Whhaaaaaaa. Love you girl !! I have no idea how Natasha makes those dandelion crowns. I bet she will show us at home though. I think the seeds from all the dandelions in our yard blew all the way over here. LOL

Hello Adoptedthree. Thanks and yes, go ahead and add our blog. No problem. My husband found yours. I have only read a small portion of it. I did read your "one year ago story." You poor thing !!! Thanks for the things to visit idea, but we are not allowed to take Natasha out of the Donetsk region right now.

Goodnight all,

Miss everyone,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 22. Sunday May 6th, 2007. 9 days till court

2007-05-06T15:45:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. You probably guessed it. We went to 2 hour church today. I found out the name of the church. It's called New Hope. They changed the order around on us today. Probably to keep us awake. LOL. We had the English sermon first & then the Russian one. Of course we had our singers. I believe they were the same as last week.
Our English sermon was done by a man staying here at Dontesk University for a few days. Bob Barber from Bible centered ministries. He and his wife are originally from Pennsylvania, but have been living in Scotland for the last 37 years. My Bob met him at breakfast yesterday morning. That would be the translator up there with him.

Our Russian sermon was done by non other than our own Slavik !! We enjoyed it very much even though we couldn't understand a word he said. And, Of course, he wasn't behind us to translate. LOL. This is Natasha and Helena talking to their friends at church. She is looking back because she heard me taking their picture. I told you that they are getting really sick if the camera !! LOL. Bob and I came back and finished off our chili for lunch. Natasha stayed at church with Helena for some kind of lunch thing they were having. It was really nice and sunny here again. Very high 50's and might have gotten into 60's. We walked for an hour through the gardens again. Must have seen over 100 gardens. It was a nice walk. Look what I found on our walk !!! Hey mom, tell dad that by the time we get back I have probably missed out on "baby chick" season. Maybe next year. Natasha and Helena played all day long , of course. They make these wonderful "crowns" out of dandelions. I asked Natasha if she would show me how to make one. She said "No." LOL. That is one of her standard answers when she doesn't understand what we have said. It's either "yes" or "no". She is too funny Slavik & Oksana invited us for dinner tonight again at 6:00pm. They made us a traditional Ukrainian meal. It was good. I apologise if I spell any of the words wrong. We had "polmeni," which is like noodles or dough with meat wrapped up in the middle. You can put sauce on it or sour cream. We also had "Varanasi." This is mashed potatoes & onions wrapped up in this same kind of dough. Kelly bear, you would really like it. I will try to make some when we get home. For dessert we had "blini." This is like a very thin sweet pancake and then there was this sweet creamy icing to dip it into. Yum, Yum. That was sooo good. After dinner they wanted to show us "Mr. Bean." Any of you 6 girls every seen Mr. Bean ?? It is a weird & sometimes stupid slapstick comedy. We watched about 3 or 4 of his episodes. That was enough for me. LOL. Then again we were invited for some tea and ice cream. Oh my gosh. It's a good thing we took an hour walk today. LOL. We said, "you guys don't have to feel like you have to feed us so much." They told us that we were their guests and it was their pleasure. I am still full. LOL.

Oksana is going into the hospital tomorrow for some kind of planned surgery. We don't really know what it is other than some kind of female surgery. Slavik said it would only take about 15 minutes, but she would have to spend the night there. So are prayers are with Oksana and hoping some of you can keep her in your prayers also.

Hey Rick. Small world. We know Andrew. He has been at our house. That was of course when he was dating Kory with a K. LOL. Bob said he would send you his e-mail address in the morning. Thanks !!

I got a couple of pictures from Shauna this morning from the prom. Here's my baby girl !! Can't wait to see more pictures.

Uncle Bob. Look at our baby's. Oh my goodness. That rocking chair is coming up way too fast for me. LOL.

Hello Cody's mom. LOL. Debbie you are too funny. I know your name by now. But that's OK. I still get call "Shauna's mom" at times from Shauna's friends. I'm glad Shauna & Cody FINALLY showed you our blog. I didn't even think to give it to you before we left. Sorry about that. Glad you got to see the kids all dressed up, again. LOL. Well, at least now if you follow the blog you will know when I get home. LOL. (The kids can't fib about it.) LOL. Just a little mother humor Shauna and Cody. Breathe. LOL

Hey Michelle. Thanks. Kendra, you got on once!! LOL. We understand that some people are having a difficult time getting on. That's why Bob mentioned how to do it on Day 11. If that helps anyone out. Try it. If not, I don't know what to do from there. That's OK, we just thought everyone in BIOH had abandoned us. LOL. Just joking guys. Thank you for the family comments Michelle, and your on for a Mexican night also. Doing it with small group sounds great !! We miss all of you. Tell Matthew that we did tell Natasha that "Monkey/Matthew" said "Hi" and she laughed. We may need to be careful with these two Michelle. LOL.

Hurray !! We are finally in the single digit's on the court day countdown. !!!!

Goodnight,

Sweet dreams,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 21. Saturday May 5th, 2007. 10 days till court

2007-05-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

Hello All. Today was a good day. It was nice and sunny. High 50's, low 60's. Something like that. Bob went to his church breakfast this morning. He said that he had a good time. They had bananas, oranges, and some kind of breakfast casserole. It had eggs, meat, cheese, etc.. (Yuck) I was very happy with my honey nut cheerios. LOL. Natasha and I went to English class this afternoon. When we arrived, nobody was there again. I was going to scream. But, Slavik went with me to make sure everything went OK. Pretty soon 1 student came. Then the teacher strolled in, then another student 15 minutes later. LOL. Ukrainian style class. I love it !! Laura had told me that they are all not in a hurry around here. A little more laid back. I think maybe we could learn something from all of this. My kinda style, that's for sure. LOL. Natasha and I didn't stay in class for more than about 1/2 an hour. They have been in session here a while and were already on taking Russian words and translating them into English words. Natasha is not there yet, so the class was too advanced for her already. But, that is OK. She is doing very well with what we have been doing together and she is continuing to progress in her English computer game.
Bob and I wanted to take a walk because it was such a beautiful sunny day out. We ran into one of our friends, Colleen. She showed us a different way to walk where we could go through the gardens that they have here. It was really nice. I guess everyone has a plot of land where they can grow vegetables, flowers, whatever they want. There are these small houses and I guess they sometimes spend weekends there. Some are more run down and some are kept up quite nice. Natasha was on the playground playing. So we gave her a choice. Walk with us, or stay and play. You guessed it. She stayed and played. LOL. Here are just a few pictures from our walk. There are so many gardens and we only saw a hand full of them. We probably saw about 50 of them today.

We had our chili for dinner and Natasha was invited to spend the night at Helena's apartment again. They are becoming quite the team, the two of them. And everything is sooo hilarious & they are always smiling and giggling. It is very fun to watch.

Dad Ray. Yes, I love your suggestion. I do think it's funny that they know the Bible better than you. LOL. You would think a person your age would have them memorized by now. Whhhaaaa.

Lucia. You are very welcome for taking the gifts. It was no problem. We just had to buy another suite case. LOL. Just kidding. It was no problem & I'm sure the girls enjoyed them. And, Mexican night is always a good time, count us in. If we are to make tortillas from scratch though, we need to buy a tortilla press first. Which we already plan on doing because we have enjoyed it so much.

Shauna, my love. You are so funny. For those of you who don't know. Lucia is my ex-husbands wife. We get together at times for dinner or whatever. I babysit their son sometimes. We all sit together at choir concerts, band concerts, recitals, whatever. Shauna is making fun of our "ridiculous" family. It can be a little weird I suppose, but it has worked for us, and is better for the kids. And Lucia takes good care of my children when they are with her and their dad. She is a good step-mom. (Better than a wicked step-mom, I tell my kids)

Shauna I know you are beautiful tonight in your Prom dress, hair done just right. Make-up, jewelry, nails, all planned out. Shine girl !! I love you. I am anxious to see pictures.

Goodnight all,

Miss everyone,

Hugs & Kisses,

Gail

Day 20. Friday, May 4th 2007. 11 days till court

2007-05-04T15:09:00.000-04:00

O.K. Everyone. Are you ready for this ?? Our big excitement for the day. Our apartment telephone rang !!!! We couldn't believe it. Bob & I looked at each other and then he ran for the phone. But, it was for me !!! Hahahaha. It was Slavik. He had a question about American sizes for his daughter Helena. Someone he knows from the states is sending Helena some clothes for her upcoming birthday in June. He needed to know her size. In American sizes. Our day's seem to be dragging on & getting more boring. LOL. Someone help me !!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, day 20 for Pete's sake.
Nothing really new. Natasha is continuing to progress in her English. It seems her worst part right now is rimming words. Like Cat & Hat, etc... But she is doing well. I cut my finger today in the kitchen & Natasha came in just as I did it. I said "ouch" & it started bleeding. Bob came in and said "Are you OK"? Before I could say anything Natasha said "No." We looked at her and she smiled. She is catching on !! It was great to hear her voice. We both gave her a big hug.
I made Chili today. Ukrainian style. The stove top works just like the oven. No temperature setting just on and off. LOL. So you basically have to turn it on & then when it's getting too hot, you turn it off. etc.., etc.. No simmering the chili on low all day. Just on till it boils & then back off. LOL. But it was good. Took me about 2 1/2 hours to make it. I think opening cans took the longest time.
Natasha & I plan on going to the beginners English class tomorrow. Again !! I am told that they will be there. This time the class is from 1:00pm - 4:30pm. That's better than 9:00am. LOL. I hope it's good for her. We will see. Bob plans on going to the men's breakfast at church at 8:30am. I wonder what they will make for breakfast. LOL. We are doing good here because we can go to the store & buy food. I hear the breakfasts here are not what we would think of as breakfast food. I guess we will see on that one also. No pictures for today. Natasha played with her friends today, but they are all getting really sick of the camera in their faces. I can't blame them. We will have to try to sneak a few, i guess.
Hey Mike & Jan. Yes, the one on one time with Natasha is good, but the time is dragging now. We just want to go home. LOL. But we will wait things out and hope we are still sane by the time we get home. LOL. With Natasha being here with us we have not been back to the Orphanage yet. When we do go back, I will get more pictures for you as best I can. We are having a party on the 14th, so that will probably be a day when we will see as many of the kids we know that are there.

Goodnight all,
sweet dreams,
God Bless,
Gail

Day 19. Thursday, May 3rd 2007. 12 days till court

2007-05-03T14:34:00.000-04:00

Hello. Today we went to the grocery store. LOL. But, that's really about all we did. A very slow day. Our facilitator said she was going to be in town and would pick us up at 11:00am and take us to the grocery store. At 1:00pm I asked bob to call her and find out if she forgot us. She said no, but that she was busy and would call back soon. She called back about 3:00pm and said it would be a couple of hours yet. She didn't get here till 5:45pm. We have to laugh at that. But she was truly having a very busy day that wound up with complications she had to deal with.
So basically Natasha and I did some more English. Then she wanted on the computer to play her English game. She must have played for at least 3 hours.

Bob did his Sudoku gamed and I cross stitched. Later in the afternoon we decided to go for a walk. Oh my goodness, you would have thought we asked Natasha to do something terrible. She said "No." We said "Yes." She continued to protest as Bob and I got our shoes and coats on. We finally had to make her put her shoes and coat on. She protested the entire walk. It was kinda comical. She walked with her arms crossed and about 20 feet behind us the entire time. We had to keep looking back to make sure she was still following us. Here is a picture we took as we just about lapped her walking around where are apartment is.
It isn't the best picture.I couldn't put the zoomed in version on here. So, if you can somehow zoom in on it. Her face is priceless. She was not a happy camper. They keep telling me she is 10 years old, but she sure does act like a 12 year old sometimes. LOL.

Here is a picture of Natasha sleeping. It's a good thing nobody has to sleep in the same bed as her. That is her foot sticking off her bed all the way onto Bob's bed. And Bob thought I flopped like a fish. This one has me beat.

Uncle Bob. Are you insinuating that we are fat ?? That we would eat all the tortilla mix & Shauna would have no more to sell ?? How dare you, Mr. Ice cream cake man. LOL. I think I'm loosing my mind here, because I can't remember what spice your talking about, unless it was Chili Powder. And, I can't even remember talking to you about it. It must me the "OBL" water huh. Whhhaaaaa. I know you will get that one !!! ( Were getting pretty good at this)

Dad Ray. We did not eat "Chihuahua" Meat. We had Chicken. (At least we thought we bought chicken. ) LOL. Ha Ha , you think your sooo funny. Those Mexicans had me pegged from the get go. Next time I will have to go in disguise. LOL. Shauna found out about a class here for a month in the summer. It's a "Summer Intensive English program." She is going to help teach English to the people here in Ukraine that have signed up for it. LOL. And, she can't even spell her own name !!! LOL. She seems very excited about it. It's the end of June till the end of July.

Hello Grandma Virginia. Dad Ray told me you were reading, but couldn't comment because of the speed of your computer. I was thinking that if you didn't live out in the middle of nowhere, you might have a better chance. LOL. Glad you are reading and enjoying. We are enjoying this blog too. It helps.

Well goodnight all.

Talk at you tomorrow,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 18. Wednesday, May 2nd 2007. 13 days till court

2007-05-02T15:39:00.000-04:00

Hello All. Today was just a slow lazy day. It was not very warm outside. It's only about 35 degrees right now and only got somewhere in the 40's this afternoon. Natasha got up this morning and went right to the computer to play her "English" game. She must have played for at least 2 hours. It seems to be doing the job we want it too. That is a good thing. One of the kids from downstairs came up around 2:00pm to ask Natasha to play. So she went out to play & got out of doing English with me also. I'm sure she didn't mind though. LOL. Bob and I made Enchiladas again. This time for Slavik & Oksana & their family. We are getting popular around here for our Enchiladas. LOL. We did find out that the corn tortilla mix that we used last time, with Dave & Laura, you can't buy here. You have to buy it in the United States. Dave and Laura have left town for the next 12 days. So another couple we have met let us use their mix. So it seems that we may be sending more tortilla mix over with Shauna when she comes. LOL. I only have 1 picture today. Natasha and her friends were watching "The Chronicles Of Narnia" on Slavik's TV. Can you tell that they didn't want me to take their picture? LOL.

We went down to start dinner at about 4:00pm. After dinner we had Ice cream, and then Oksana & Helena made waffles & tea. We ate way too much. LOL. We talked till around 9:00pm. They have been very kind to us and are becoming good friends. Oksana speaks no English & we speak no Russian, so Slavik is always interpreting. I wish Oksana & I could talk. Short and sweet, but that was our day.

Dad Ray & Lucia. You are just jealous of our 3 ring Ray household circus. LOL. We wouldn't trade it for anything !!!!

Dan. You are so funny. I have to laugh at you deleting 200 pictures. We have had that same experience with our kids & Natasha is no different. When she gets a hold of our camera, we never know what we will get. We have not deleted anything yet, but we have pictures of pictures. LOL. It's too funny. The University is looking for ways to make money. I will ask if there is anyone here that would be willing to teach English at the orphanage. If I find anyone I will direct them your way. Yes, give that guy a call that we met here at church. I forget his name, but sounds like he is just needing more contacts or something like that. I forget how much the circus cost & Bob is asleep. I will try to remember to ask.

Krystal. Bob said that he would e-mail you the apartment information in the morning. It was fine though. We didn't have any problems. Different from anything at home. Key codes on doors. Two doors to get into apartment. I think they are all like that here though.

Robb & Jill. Thank you for the well wishes. We appreciate them. We have been meeting several new people since we put up our blog. One couple we even talked to on the phone, but have never met them yet. Bob went to your blog & it looks like you are coming here soon, again. Good luck to you guys.

Goodnight all,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 17. Tuesday, May 1st 2007. 14 days till court

2007-05-01T14:43:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Natasha & I started out our day with some more English lessons. Then she played the "English" game on the computer. She is getting a little better at it each day. I even heard her say "A - apple." I don't dare say anything, because if she knew that I heard her, she wouldn't say it. LOL. At 2:00pm our driver picked us up. I Love That !!!!!! We went to the orphanage to pick up Marina to go to the circus with us. We got to the circus by 3:00pm & it didn't start till 4:00pm. This driver made good time because there was hardly any traffic out because of the "Holiday", and he seemed to know the roads better. A better way to get to and from where we were going. So, we went next door to a place similar to Circuit City & Target. Just looked around for 45 minutes before we needed to be at the circus. Bought a few things like paper, crayons ( I want Natasha to learn the colors). Bob told the girls they could each pick out a book. They both choose colored pens & a small sketch book. Total cost for the 2 girls, about $2.40. Not bad huh. We picked up a round casserole dish for Laura, because they loaned us theirs and it broke. So we are replacing it.

The circus was really nice. We all seemed to like it. I was impressed. It was a 1 ring circus and they added water shows with it. It was good. I like the 1 ring better than our 3 ring circuses at home. Here are some pictures from the circus.

Uncle Bob. Dude. I am totally with you. Your posting was a day or two behind, that's what messed me up. But, I think all you have to do is join the circus. O.K.

After the circus we took Natasha & Marina to McDonald's for dinner. The food is just as gross here as it is back home. LOL. Then it was back to the orphanage for Marina. We stopped at the grocery store, which is a challenge here. Nothing at all is in English, so it's hard to know what to get without a translator. Unless you just need milk, bread, eggs, & bananas. LOL. We are going to have to go back tomorrow or the next day with an interpreter. I want to make chili & we can't find chili powder to save ourselves. LOL. It was another good day. Hope you enjoyed the circus pictures.

Grandpa Ray & Dan. You guys think your so funny. You try teaching a 10 year old girl English who already knows Russian. LOL

Dan. Too funny. Does this make us even ??? LOL. You know you took that picture on purpose !! LOL.

Steve. My theory is that you picked a marriage book so you could hear more donut stories. LOL. Thanks !!!

Talk at everyone tomorrow,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 16. Monday, April 30th 2007. 15 days till court

2007-04-30T14:33:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Today started out as a slow lazy day. It was only in the upper 40's and has rained all day. Helena from downstairs knocked on our door at 10:00am. Natasha & I were still in bed.
After breakfast Natasha and I did some English. She sat at the table with me with her arms crossed at first. Still protesting English a little bit. Bob found two different programs on the Internet that seems to be good to use. One lets me print out English worksheets & games and is designed for English as a second language. The second one is an interactive program that Natasha can play games on. It's kind of like a computer game, but it's teaching her reading, phonics, math, etc.. at the same time. She seems to be enjoying it so far. She had a bit of help this evening though with Helena translating in Russian. LOL.
Slavik & his wife Oksana had invited us out for a picnic this afternoon. But, it rained, so we went to their apartment downstairs instead. They told us that they were first going to prepare a traditional Ukrainian dish for us, but decided to do tacos instead. It was delicious. Although their tacos are with soft flour tortillas. The ingredients were meat, cheese, tomatoes, corn, kidney beans, yellow peppers, some sort of green leafy vegetable, carrots, parsley, sour cream & pickles. The taco sauce tasted sorta like ketchup, but it wasn't ketchup. It was very, very good though. I am liking the food so far & thinking about changing some of my meals at home around. Or, making some of these Ukrainian recipes.

This is Slavik & Oksana. On the table is the dessert we had. Two kinds of rolled cake, bananas & oranges. I brought the oranges.

Natasha & Helena just chattered the laughed the whole evening. They even did some whispering, which we find so funny, because we can't understand what they are saying anyways. LOL. They said to us, through translation, that they are like Winnie the pooh & Piglet. Friends forever !! That is so sweet. Bob & I are worried that they will truly miss each other when we have to leave. But we have already talked about exchanging e-mail addresses. Natasha was shocked to find out that you can send a letter through the computer. It was cute to watch her face as Slavik explained it to her. Their family just got a kitten about 2 days ago. The girls were mugging the poor thing all evening. It drove me crazy.

The girls then took the camera and went & took pictures & pictures & pictures. Oh my word. Everything from the bedrooms, to themselves, to the house plants.

Sabrina. Natasha has enough pictures that she would probably love to have in a scrapbook. I can totally see you two doing that together.

So, Helena asked Natasha to spend the night & Natasha accepted. Actually I think it went sort of like this. Helena wanted to ask Natasha to spend the night. Her dad said to her. "Have you asked her yet." Helena said "No." Natasha chimed in and said "Well ask me then." When Slavik translated for us we all laughed. It was too funny. So Natasha is having her first sleepover and we aren't even home yet. LOL. Bob & I aren't sure weather to be happy or sad about this. LOL.

Hey Michelle. We figure it will probably be somewhere between May 19th - 21st. We will let everyone know as soon as we know. Still have to go back to Kiev & Natasha has to have an exam by a doctor. Also, we have to go to the US embassy for her Visa. We missed being at group also. Ask Steve if he thinks Shane accomplished anything on page 308? Hey "monkey". Do you miss me ??? LOL. I will Tell Natasha you said "hi".

Jerry & Katie. It's about time we heard from you. Very funny about the sedation. Ha ha.

Dad Ray. I'm your only DIL (daughter-in-law). Of course I would be the favorite. Hear that all my girls. I am a favorite also !!! Can you believe that we forgot the ice cream when we went to the grocery store, and Natasha was with us & she forgot also. We are going tomorrow again. I have it on the grocery list now. Love ya !!

Shauna. You could come over and take some English classes with Natasha and myself before you try to teach it to others. LOL. Don't tell grandpa Ray I told you, but he had to look up "chistoso" in his Spanish dictionary. LOL. Love you & miss you.

Uncle Bob. Your still alive. Thought you forgot us. No I hadn't eaten the cake yet. Thank goodness huh, I might have broke the swing. Just 1 piece so far. But I bet you have eaten more ice cream cakes than I have pieces of cake. (you said "that will do !! Your running out of time!) (I don't get it. explain).

Well, off to bed for me. I have a Circus to go to tomorrow & our driver is picking us up at 2:00pm. LOL. I love that. I'm getting me a "driver" when I get home. !!!

Love to all,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 15. Sunday April 29th, 2007. 16 days till court

2007-04-29T12:57:00.000-04:00

Hello all. Today we went to our 2 hour church service again. First a young lady from Donetsk who is Missionary in a small out of the way Russian town. She was telling us her story, in Russian. But, our friend Slavik interpreted for us again, then an English pastor. It was all very good again, but I must say that I am having trouble staying awake in church even with Slavik interpreting. I don't know why. I guess I'm just use to the more more "up beat" style of Rivertree. I don't fall asleep there. Although all the sermons have been very good, I miss Rivertree & can't wait to get back. Slavik and his family took us to church again. I got to meet his wife today. She is very nice. She does not speak any English though, so Slavik was always interpreting what we said & also what she would say to us or ask us. To go back and forth between the two languages I believe is hard. I think it takes a special "knack" for one to do that. My hat goes off to all that can do it. I don't think I have the perseverance it takes.
Natasha sat in front with Slavik's daughter Helena. We kinda felt that she didn't want to be seen with old "mom & dad." I told Bob. "But, she is only 10 years old. I thought I had one or two more years until this." But, she did look back 2 or 3 times to see if we were still there and gave me a smile each time. It made my heart sing. :)

These were our singers. Different from last week.

This is the young Missionary girl. ( Now, now, Uncle Bob ?!?!?!?!?!)

This was the English pastor who spoke. ( With the interpreter)

After church we treated Slavik & his family to pizza at the Arcade place we have been taking Natasha too. The pizza there is very good & the kids had a blast at the Arcade. I bet we were there 3 hours eating and talking while the kids played. The kids ate very quick so they could go play. It is fun watching them all have fun. Bob snuck in a few times to get some pictures. This is Natasha with Helena.

We got back to our apartment about 4:00pm and Natasha & Helena spent about 3 1/2 hours playing back and forth from our apartment on the 3rd floor to Helena's apartment on the 1st floor. I wish I could understand what they are saying to one another. They talk non-stop. It was a good day.

I know this will probably start my fat jokes again. But look what I bought at the grocery store. I had a chocolate attack & a weak moment. Yum, Yum.

Dad Ray. Thank you for your comments. You are so very kind. We love you !!

Jan. For Pete's sake darling. If we would have had the court date on Friday the 27th. Our 10 day waiting period would have ended on May 7th. Back to Kiev on the 8th. Home by the 11th, 12th, or 13th ?? LOL. But thanks for trying to make me feel better. I'm still laughing !!! LOL We are going back to the orphanage on the 8th for sure. They are going to have some kind of program and we want to see it. We will ask then about Alyona's medicine & Elyona. And get pictures if we can. It's the least we can do. You guys have helped us out so much with this phone. It is really nice to have one hear & for the kids to be able to call us. Good luck on your Dossier.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers.
God Bless,

Love,
Gail

Day 14. Saturday April 28th 2007. 17 days till court date

2007-04-28T06:52:00.000-04:00

Oh My Gosh !!! So Natasha and I got up early this morning, ate breakfast, did our hair, got dressed, etc, etc... Left for the academic building "on time" for our 9:00am English class. We got there and nobody was there !! Just then our friend Laura came down the stairs & told us that because of the upcoming Holidays the class was canceled. Nobody knew it though until this morning. Apparently most have to work on this Saturday so they can take off for their Holiday. I said, "What's the point of having a Holiday if you have to make it up." Oh my word. Who does that? I was so looking forward to this English class, because it was a beginners class, taught by a Russian speaking person. I figured Natasha could learn some & I could find out how much she knows & doesn't know. Plus, maybe the teacher could direct me in the best way to teach her. So we came back to the apartment and Natasha and I did 45 minutes of "English." I brought along ABC flashcards. She did well. She doesn't know them all, but knows some. At first she wouldn't speak, but towards the end she would say the ABC's with me. We spelled out her name then we spelled body parts. I would point to them & say them & she would find the letters in the deck. We did eyes, nose, mouth, arm, finger, legs, & toes. She did very well. I have met a few more people around here that say they can help me teach her English. So we will see what happens & in the mean time Natasha and I will continue with our ABC's.

We went to our friends Dave & Laura's apartment for dinner this evening. They bring 2 or 3 kids over every Saturday night from a place called The Good Shepard. These are boys & girls who still have a parent or relative in their lives that visits them or sometimes the kids will go to the parent/relatives house for a day or 2. They are considered unavailable for adoption because the parent or relative still has the parental rights, but just either does not have the means to care for the child or doesn't want too. Kinda sad to see. Today they had 3 girls over. Dalyia - 6 years old & her sister Anya - 8 years old. Plus Vika - 12 years old. I made my famous raspberry crisp for desert & then all of us including the kids made and put together enchiladas. It took me 3 hours to make my raspberry crisp here because of all the appliances being old. Oven is different. It's either on or off. No temperature setting. Plus no utensils like we have at home. Just a bowl & a spoon. It usually takes me an hour at home from start to finish. Nothing over here goes fast. LOL. But, it was fun. Natasha kept coming into the kitchen & helping, then playing, then helping again, etc... It was cute.

Robert, Natasha, and I took a walk this afternoon. Then back to the apartment until 4:30 pm. Then all 8 of us went outside to play at the playground before starting dinner. We had a wonderful evening & the kids had fun helping with the meal. We made the tortillas from scratch, because you can't buy them here.They played some more & we left about 9:00 pm to go back to our apartment for the evening. Here are some pictures from our day.

Hey Dan. That would be great if the other trial would end early. I don't think I should hold my breath though. LOL.

Oh my Sammy. I missed your Showcase and your recital. I'm so sorry. I wish I could have been there. I'm so proud of you. I know you did good. Grandma & Lucia told me so. Love you sweetheart !!!

Mom, you can send me mail, but I'm be home before I would get it here. So basically, no you can't. What mail do you want to send ???

Pat & Carla. Poor little Porker/Parker. We will pray for him. I hope the tests go well & he will be fine. Poor little guy. Why are you moving & where are you moving too ?? Poor, poor kitty. You need to take him along.

Lucia. I don't know who you have been talking too, but I did not fail English. I didn't get an A, but I didn't fail either.

Well, goodnight everyone. Talk at you tomorrow.
God Bless,
Gail

Day 13 - Friday, April 27 - A good ending to our day

2007-04-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

Well our day started out with mixed news. We were happy to finally get a court date, but disappointed that it would keep us from our other girls for so long. Our facilitator stopped by the records office on the way to pick us up. She was able to convince them to issue Natasha's new birth certificate in Donetsk instead of her birth city. She was also able to convince the judge to waive the ten day waiting period following our court date. She has told us that both of these are miracles because they never agree to do this. However, we know that God has opened many doors for us throughout our journey. We also feel very blessed to have the facilitator that we do. She is an amazing woman who takes everything personally and will do everything she can for us and the kids.

Our facilitator picked us up and we went to the boarding school to pick up Natasha for the holiday weekend. We spent a lot of time talking to the boarding school director. Our facilitator explained our current situation with our court date, the waiting period, etc. We also talked about where we are staying, Donetsk Christian University (DCU). She explained that they have their own complex and provide English lessons to the community on weekends. They also have an elementary school on site, so Natasha would have kids her own age to play with. She also mentioned that they have their own boiler for heat. Heat in Ukraine is provided by hot water radiators. The boilers are operated by the city and have already been turned off. Water is also turned off for most of the night and isn't available after a certain time in the evening until the next morning. DCU has their own boiler and we still have heat, plus have access to water (including hot water) all day. The heat in the boarding school is the same as the city and has already been turned off. One of the many things the director said the boarding school could use was coats and blankets for the kids. We were painfully aware of this each time we picked up Natasha. She usually had at least two shirts on and her hands were so cold. We made a small donation to the boarding school and wish it could have been more. Anyway, the good news is that the director agreed to let us keep Natasha not just for the holiday weekend, but all the way to our court date!! The court date will officially make her our daughter, so she will no longer have to leave us and go back to the boarding school. In fact, she is playing downstairs with some other girls that live in the same building, one of which was adopted from the same boarding school five years ago (before Natasha arrived there). It was fun to watch her go play this evening, because she didn't want to earlier. She is already warming up to the kids & having fun. We feel very blessed to be staying here at Donetsk Christian University. Most people here speak both English & Russian. We are able to explain some things to Natasha through the people here & know that she understands. Before now we had to use the computer with the on-line translator. Which we know sometimes didn't translate just quite right because Natasha would wrinkle up her face & just look at us. We would re-word it & usually that was better. Although Natasha has been told that she is still "in school." One of the reasons her orphanage director said she could stay with us is that we were going to do our best at teaching her as much English as possible. Starting tomorrow at 9:00 am, Natasha and I will go to the beginners English class from 9:00 am - 12:30 pm. I am interested to see how that class works & hope I don't fall asleep in it. LOL. I am also looking forward to talking with the teacher and maybe he can direct me as to the best way to start teaching her English, so we already have a busy day tomorrow.

We feel that God has blessed us so much with everything He has given us, even though our court date is not as close as we would like.

Here are a few pictures from today. The 3 of us arriving at the University today.

Natasha when we showed her bed to her, which had one of her favorite stuffed animals on it, which we brought from home.

Natasha going through the clothes we brought for her.

Natasha looking through the "English" I brought for her to do.

Natasha all bathed & in her new Jamie's ready for bed. She loves to listen to the music on the cell phone.

Shauna, you are so funny. You and Georges bring sexy back. LOL. I miss your kisses also. Looking forward to them when I get home. If you say "freaking" one more time on this computer, I am going to come right through and smack you. And, NO, you have to wait till I get home & can watch Lost. You can't tell me. It would ruin something or they wouldn't have it on the show. Remember, it's a rule. You can't be mad at me while I'm in the Ukraine. O.K. Love you Shauna !! I don't think the judge is lying. We were just told that he is a very hard judge to work with. But, he did waive the 10 day waiting period because he is making us wait until May 15th.

Connie. With you on your super duper diet, you would make me look bad !!! Thanks for the prayers. I love you.

Michelle. I think group is tonight. Give everyone hugs from us. Tell Steve that this guy really irritates me at times. Example : page 3. LOL. No, page 294. The comment in quotations right before the Danish prayer. Was that really necessary ?? I didn't appreciate at all. And yes, our emotions are all over the place. So, thanks for the prayers. Maybe you guys could pray that I don't have a meltdown. (seriously)

Kendra. Oh my gosh. I didn't think anyone from BIOH was even reading this. You are the first to comment. I e-mailed Dr. McClain when Kelly was in the hospital & Susan said she can't seem to get on because it won't accept her password. That's why I had Bob write in the blog a day or two ago how to do it. I'm so glad to hear from you. Didn't realize you worked at the school. I'm so glad. (More spies). LOL. Thanks for the prayers.

Kelly. We are so glad you are home and feeling better. We miss you too. Luvs ya bear!

Kim. We are very glad you are doing so well in language arts. Keep up the good work. We are still watching all of your grades online. Sorry we won;t be home for your band concert, you will have to have someone tape it for us. Kelly and you need to try and post your comments on the last day listed, we would have missed them if you hadn't told me about them. We love you and miss you too.

Going to bed here,

Gotta get up for class in the morning :)

God Bless,

Bob & Gail

Day 13 - Friday, April 27 - We have a Court Date - Bad news/Good news

2007-04-27T02:26:00.000-04:00

Just a short entry to let everyone know what is going on. Our facilitator just called as she was leaving the court house. She is now on her way here to take us to get Natasha. She did meet with the judge this morning. The judge is tied up with a long criminal court case right now and refused to schedule anything until after this case is over. Our facilitator did everything she could to get our court date scheduled immediately. The judge did schedule our court date. It is for Tuesday May 15. We can't believe it. Although we are glad to have our date scheduled, this seems like forever (especially to Gail). The judge stated that with the holidays in the next two weeks (3 days next week, and 2 days the week after), that this was the soonest he could give us. Our facilitator is very much on our side and takes it as personal as us. The only good news is that it sounds like she was able to convince the judge to waive the 10 day waiting period, since the court date is scheduled 17 days from now. We will have to write more later, it is time to get Natasha for the holidays. We are feeling both elated to have a date when Natasha will finally become our daughter, but so disappointed that it will keep us from the rest of our daughters for so long.
Bob

Day 12 - Thursday, April 26

2007-04-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

Today we visited with Natasha for most of the afternoon. Our facilitator went by the court house to see the judge, to schedule our court date, before picking us up. We were disappointed that he was too busy to meet with her in the morning. So we stopped at the court house on our way to the boarding school, so she could try again. He refused to see her today because of his busy schedule before the upcoming holidays. He did agree to meet with her first thing tomorrow morning. She believes this is too late for us to be able to have our court date this week. But she also said "miracles can happen." We are still hopeful for that miracle. That the judge will meet with her in the morning, and let us have our court date in the afternoon. If not, then the next working day for the court would be next Thursday, which adds a week to our trip. Please pray for everything to work out tomorrow for our court date ( and maybe a P.S., that the judge will waive the ten day waiting period).

We picked up Natasha and Marina and took them to lunch, and then to the arcade games again. We found a great Georgian restaurant, where we had grilled chicken and pork (real similar to shish-ka-bobs). The girls ate well. However, I think we liked this restaurant better than they did. Once we had eaten, it was off to the arcade. Marina liked to jump, while Natasha was more interested in the other games. It was a fun day.

Natasha is going to be able to come & stay at our apartment with us starting tomorrow instead of Saturday. Because everyone is going to be away celebrating the long holiday weekend, which is Saturday - Wednesday. Bob & I were talking and we don't think the U.S. has any 5 day holiday weekends. Good for some people I guess & bad for others.

Today was mostly pretty uneventful. When Bob & I got back to our apartment we took a walk. The weather was nice today, about 55 degrees and the sun was shining. We stick out like a sore thumb though. We are just in jeans & a shirt out there walking in what we think is kinda warm weather. Everyone else here has their jackets on & little kids have winter coats & hats on. Plus, we smile at people & nobody usually smiles at anyone they pass. We think word has gotten spread around the campus that we are the Americans staying here, because when we were out walking, if we would pass any of the kids they would say "hello". That's English, of course. LOL. Kinda funny and cute.

We have guests with us in our apartment for tonight and tomorrow. There are 2 bedrooms in here. So we have to share for tonight. Don't know about any other nights yet, but I guess we'll see. Shucks, now I can't go to the kitchen in the nude. LOL. LOL. Can you imagine? What a sight. (I never walk around in the nude anyways, just joking.)

Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Krystal. OMG !!! That's what I'm afraid of. Because when I was in my 20's, wearing a size 5 for Pete's sake. I thought I was fat. Now in my 40's I know I'm fat. I don't want to be in my 50's & look back at these pictures & say "wow, I looked good then." Oh my word. That would be even fatter & I would be in big denial. LOL

Shauna. No, no, no. You can't tell me anything about "Lost" until I have had a chance to see them. I can't watch it on-line over here because they only allow that in the states. So, no ruining it for me !!!!! Uncle Bob and his cheese puffs. Do you remember when he use to stop by and eat lunch with us on his lunch break when you were little ?? He would bring Cheese Puffs then also, plus he would also call Aunt Peggy and say "I got to see Shauna and you didn't." LOL. Love you darling. What kind of picture is that of you and Georges. ?!?!?!?!

Uncle Bob, you lost me on your last comment. ?????

Hugs & Kisses to everyone,

God Bless,

Bob & Gail

Day 11 - Wednesday, April 25 - A Day of Rest

2007-04-25T10:39:00.000-04:00

Well our plans for today turned out a little different. Our facilitator called and said she received the consent to adopt from the SDA in Kiev. Yea !!! I was exhausted from the non-stop running around since our arrival in Ukraine, and Bob had some work to do. So we decided to stay at our apartment, while our facilitator did her best to get our court date this week. Unfortunately the bills still come in, even though we are in Ukraine, so it is good that Bob is still able to spend some time doing work. It was disappointing not to see Natasha this afternoon, but the main goal is getting our court date so we can have her with us permanently. We also took a walk and ate dinner with Laura and Dave here at the University. Thanks guys. Dinner was great. We had soft tacos & rice. Laura is a great cook.

We have talked to Kelly again today, and everybody has been so helpful with their concern, visits, and prayers. Thank you, thank you all. Kelly is doing much better and apparently is going to get to go home today. Yea !!!! Glad your feeling better Kelly bear. We miss you & love you. We got your pictures & video. Thanks. It really helped to be able to see you & hear you. (A big thanks to Lucia on that one.)

Hey Mom. Yes, I do believe the kids like their schedule. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree huh. LOL. The Circus is on water, or around water, or something like that. Should be interesting to say the least. We can see pictures/posters of the circus with people in the water holding up Alligators. Should be interesting.

Gibbs. OMG !! I'm serious. And I'm not eating that much, so "bite me." Oops, Grandma Plummer reads this. Sorry Grandma. As far as church goes. I'm so very proud of you. But come on, we all know that the real reason you went to church is because the pastor was talking about sex !!! So, when we get home, I expect you at church, for a real sermon, sitting up front with Bob I. O.K. Also, if it took me going to the Ukraine to get you to pray, that's pretty good. Huh. Thanks Gibbs. You make me laugh & that's hard to do over here sometimes. I understand you didn't like what Natasha picked out for you. LOL. She was all in favor, said they were perfect for you. I don't understand the problem. :)

Hey my Sammy. How is your busy week going for you ? Don't stress out. You will do perfect. You always do. And from now on, don't read Uncle Bob's comments. LOL. Love you my Sammy !!

My Shauna. For Pete's sake. If I get anymore chin I'm going to start looking like Tinkerbell. And, I haven't had one donut & the pastries are suppose to be delicious over here. Keep taking good care of Georges, Dakota, Princess, Marshmallow, & Tinkerbell. We miss them all. I was so desperate today that I almost tried to pet the stray kitty that runs around here. But then I thought about it more. LOL. Laura said that when it's cold out or raining out the people here will let the cat into the building & it goes up & down the stairs meowing until someone lets it in or gives it something to eat. Awwwww. How nice. Can you imagine if I was here all the time. Everyone would be like "Who let that cat in again?" I would just have to smile. Miss you darling. Love you lots.

Hi Lynn & Doug. Yes, Sasha was there. We had run into her just by chance the other day, but forgot to get a picture of her. Bob ran into her yesterday while Natasha & I were inside. So, I posted that picture for you. Hope that helps. Bob said it would probably be easier for you to talk to Sasha through Olga or whoever else. We are happy to help, but we have only run into her twice & both times she was on her way somewhere else. I don't know. I know it's hard to be away. But I must say, It's kinda hard to be here also. Nice place, seen the sights, but now I want to go home. LOL. You know the deal though.

Oh Dan, my buddy. All I can say is maybe, I'm not sure though, but maybe, you have no room to talk. LOL. LOL. If you have some fat embarrassing picture of me, just keep it to yourself O.K. I don't need to see anymore. I'm glad that everyone is enjoying my fatness pictures. I guess the camera doesn't lie though. I just keep looking in the mirror & expecting to see my 20 something body & I look and it's my 40 something body. I can hardly wait to see my 50 something body. LOL. Yes, we have seen the bowling alley, but don't know about skating yet. I'm sure we can find out. And, on Bob's side, he is taking us to the Circus on Tuesday. I'm sure that will be in Russian. I can't imagine sitting through a Theater in Russian not knowing the language.

Hugs & Kisses to all,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 11 Wednesday April 25

2007-04-25T05:35:00.000-04:00

We appreciate all of the prayers and support for Kelly, Natasha, and the rest of our family. We understand some have had trouble leaving comments on our blog. If you select other or anonymous under "Choose an identity", you should be able to leave comments without the need of a password or logging in.

We will be visiting with Natasha this afternoon. We will post more tonight.
Bob

Day 10 - Tuesday, April 24 - A Long Day

2007-04-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

Well today started out with a phone call at 4:00 am about Kelly being admitted to the hospital. We talked to Kelly briefly and posted our prayer request, then tried to get some more sleep before our facilitator picked us up at 10:00am. We went directly to the boarding school. We had to sign our official applications requesting a court date. We also signed an official request that our court date be expedited in the hopes of getting it for this Friday, before the holidays. Our facitilator wanted to file the applications today in the hopes of persuading the judge to schedule our court date before the official consent to adopt has returned from the SDA in Kiev. We spent some time visiting with Natasha while our facilitator dropped off the applications with the judge. Once she returned, we went downtown for some pizza. And, walked through the center of town. Kind of like a walkway through the center of town. It was pretty. The picture below is when we were visiting with Natasha, doing a jigsaw puzzle.

Our facilitator received some phone calls after lunch, telling us that the SDA has changed the requirements again. The documents we sent on Saturday would have been sufficient last month. However, this time they want more signatures from the boarding school. So it was back to the boarding school quickly to redo their documents for the SDA. These will leave for Kiev tonight, which means we will not be able to receive our consent to adopt before Thursday at the earliest. This will still be in time for a Friday court date, so hopefully everything will work out. We are told the first working day next week will be Thursday, May 3. This would add a week to our trip. We stopped on our way back to the boarding school to buy tickets for the circus. We will go next Tuesday, during the holidays.

We have talked to the Kelly Bear, and she is feeling a little better better today. She still is not getting enough fluids in her & that is still bothering the Doctors. She will spend another night in the hospital, and then we will have to see how she does tomorrow.

Thank you Theresa , Michelle & Rick for all your prayers.

Shauna, my dear, you know you don't have insomnia. You just have to stick to a schedule & go to bed. I warned you about staying up all night and how it can mess up your system. It takes a long time to get it back intact. GO TO BED !!! Love you Shauna. P.S. Can I get any more fatter in these pictures. OMG !!!!!

Bob & Gail Ray

Day 10 - Early Morning Prayer Request

2007-04-23T21:13:00.000-04:00

Our youngest at home, Kelly, is in the hospital. She has strep, that has caused a small abscess in her throat. She is being treated and they hope the abscess will begin to heal tonight. If so, they will send her home tomorrow on antibiotics. Please pray that everythng goes smoothly and she can go home tomorrow. This is very difficult for us being so far away during this. Kelly Bear - we love you very much!! We are praying that everything goes as the doctors want and that you get better quickly. We so wish we were there to be with you!!

Day 9. Monday, April 23 2007

2007-04-23T04:03:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Our facilitator was suppose to pick us up at 3:00 pm. She called at 3:40 pm & said she would be another 30 - 40 minutes, but she was still late and didn't get here till 5:00 pm. Busy lady. But that's OK. LOL. It takes us about 30 minutes to get to the orphanage, so it was after 6:00pm till we saw Natasha. The orphanage director was busy for a while. When Natasha came in she sat down in between Bob & I and gave us both hugs. We found out that she is only in 3rd grade here. She started later because of her situation that put her in the boarding school in the first place. She will have some catching up to do in school when we get home. But she is a smart girl & will do fine. It will be good that the end of school is near and summertime will be first for her. To play & learn English should help her a lot.

We gave out the gifts that some of you had sent with us. The only one that was actually there to receive her gift was Alyona. Taya, Ira & Kola, and Elonya (sp) were at the Sanatorium/camp. Rymma & Artyom are, of course at another orphanage. We did pass out candy to some of the kids from the hosting program. Russel, big Sergei & little Sergei, Marina & Svetlana were there. Edward was at the hospital because he had the flu. They told us he cried because he knew we were coming & he wanted to pass on to his American family that he loved them. Sasha was out playing. We did see Sasha Friday & Saturday very briefly. She gave us a hug and looked good, but we didn't think to take her picture. Sorry about that. Of course, our Natasha was there. Sorry about any misspelled names.

The conclusions of from the juvinlie authority work were sent out to Kiev on Saturday. They are still at the SDA waiting for approval & our consent to adopt. We should have them signed by Tuesday or Wednesday. That means we will get them here Wednesday or Thursday. Our facilitator was not able to reach the judge today, so she plans on going there in person tomorrow. We are still praying that we can get in to see the Judge this week for our court date. Our facilitator was talking about trying for Friday, but is not sure she can get our date scheduled without the consent to adopt from Kiev.

We go tomorrow to make our formal application for a court date. We will also visit Natasha again tomorrow. They are talking about letting Natasha stay with us at our apartment on Saturday - Wednesday, during next weeks holidays. She is thrilled, as we are also !!!!

Lynn & Doug. Nice to hear from you. How is everything going on your end ??

Michelle, Matthew is sooo funny. I miss all of your kids also. Tell them we said "hi." I'm glad Sammy did good.

Oh my darling first born child. Trouble from the beginning ? Maybe just 22 hours of labor, but you did that on purpose. LOL. And I would do it all over again if I had to. My confident, determined leader. Take pride in being the first born. Look how many wonderful characteristics you got from that. Besides, Grandma & Grandpa spoil you the most. LOL. I'm glad you saw Kim. Any word on Cailin & Kelly yet. We told them to talk to us on the blog, but nothing yet.

Hey dad !!!!!! Look at my pictures at least. The computer can't be that bad. How's your head feeling ???

Love to everyone,

God Bless,

Gail

Day 8. Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

2007-04-22T06:14:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Bob & I went to church today. Our new friend Slavik drove us there along with his 2 children. One is Helena, who he adopted, from what we can figure out, is the same orphanage that Natasha is at. Cool huh !! She was 7 when he adopted her, she is now 12. We thought maybe when they allow Natasha to come to our apartment and stay with us, her and Helena could maybe play together. His son Rinaldo is his biological son & then he has another biological son (don't know his age or name). That boy stayed home with his wife because he was not feeling well. So we haven't met Slavik's wife yet.
The church service was nice. These were our singers up front leading the songs.

The first hour was in Russian, but Slavik sat behind us & translated for us. This is the Russian preacher.

The 2nd hour was in English. It was done by a guest preacher that is staying right here at the University. He is from California & is here teaching some classes. I believe he and his wife plan on leaving to go back to California on Friday. When the English part of the service started, they had a translator up with him repeating everything in Russian. This was our English Pastor.

A few pictures of the church & building it was in. There were probably about 60 people at church.

It's not very warm here today, and windy. Only about 41 degrees. Burrrrr. Bob & I were going to walk to the grocery store, but we opted out on that one. It's about a 20 minute walk & too cold out. Plus, I have no hat to wear to keep my head warm. LOL. So we didn't do much today after church. Read our books, Bob did some work & sudoku puzzles. ( I still can't figure them out). He says "They are just logic." Grrrrr Bob's work is a little slow because he has to wait a day for the e-mail he needs & the e-mail he sends because of the time difference. I took a nap. That was about it. Looking forward to seeing Natasha tomorrow. We pray that we can get our court date this week.

So only the men drive here in the Ukraine. Very small number of women drive. If the women want to go somewhere & their husband can't take them they have "drivers" they pay to take them. (Now that's more like it !!! LOL) They just go where they are told & sit & wait on you until you come out of the store or where ever you are going. They all drive like maniacs though & talk to the other cars & pedestrians.

I know it's warm back home. I have been told that several times. Bla , Bla , Bla. It will warm up here soon.

Pat & Carla. It's about time we heard from you guys. Tell Steve I'm on chapter 11, page 294. This guy sure seems to end up in jail a lot. LOL !?!?!? And, I also know something & can prove it. LOL. Mine is here say. LOL Give little Parker/Porker a squeeze from me. Love ya & miss you both.

Shauna & Sammy my wonderful children. You need to stop fighting, you all know that Sabrina is truly the favorite. Whhhhaaaaaa. Love to you all. And, rats, there was no skee ball there. because if there was I would have won a lot of tickets for the girls.

Talk to everyone later,

Hugs & Kisses,

Gail

Day 7. Saturday, April 21, 2007

2007-04-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Today was a good day. Our facilitator picked us up about 9:30am. We went to the juvinile authority and picked up the signed & stamped paperwork. Yea !! Then we went to the orphanage. We picked up Natasha & her friend Marina. Went shopping for a shower curtain, because we don't have one here & the water spray's everywhere. The shopping center was nice. It was 4 floors and the top floor had an amusement center where we let the kids play. It reminds me of a Chuck-E-Cheese that we have back at home. The kids could play all kinds of games. Arcade type games. Some of the games gave out tickets & then the girls could pick out a "prize" depending on the number of tickets they had.

Natasha got a bead set with her tickets & Marina got pens & colored pencils. After that it was about 1:00pm & we got some pizza to eat. It was good pizza.

We took the kids back to the orphanage because our facilitator now has to get our paperwork to Kiev and back by Monday. We told Natasha we wouldn't see her until Monday afternoon. :( She wasn't very happy about that. We didn't like it either, but understand what has to be done so we can come back home as soon as possible !!!

Bob & I are basically on our own now until Monday afternoon. We met a few more people here at the University. We found out how to get to an English speaking church tomorrow & also they found us a ride. Nice people here. I guess the service will be part in Russian and part in English. Services here are 2 hours long. It will be interesting to see the difference between this service and our own back home.

Cailin, Kim & Kelly. Are you guys there ?? Are you reading our Blog ?? If you are, make some comments. We love you and miss you all very much.

Shauna, Uncle Bob told me about your ice cream cake. He said he even had fun with you. LOL. Glad you enjoyed yourself. Poor, poor Cody. He can't even play a game and win without being called a cheater. LOL. I'm sorry Cody !!

What's the matter Dan. Jealous !!!. LOL. Thought you might enjoy that.

Have a great day everyone. We are just going to chill.

Love,

Gail

Still day 6. Friday the 20th.

2007-04-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. We left to go visit Natasha about 2:30pm, but we didn't get to see her until about 4:30pm. We had to make a stop on the way there. Our facilitator (and driver) was out this morning trying to get the conclusions from the juvenile authority. These papers need to be signed & stamped by another official. She first told us that it would not happen until Monday due to scheduling problems. She continued on the phone after telling us that. We don't know what she did or who she called, but about 1/2 hour later she said to us "We got it !!." "We can get the signature & stamp we need tomorrow, so we can send everything off to Kiev on Saturday night. Yea God !!!

We were able to take Natasha & 1 of her friends out to McDonald's (the kids choice) for about an hour. Then it was back to our apartment. It was still light out so Bob & I took a walk & we were invited up to our friends apartment here (Dave & Laura) for some dessert at 8:15pm. Good thing we took a walk huh. LOL. I can't tell you what it was, but it was delicious !!!! She made it from a fruit called persimmon. She said that is a common fruit here.

Uncle Bob. I have to say that I am sooo proud of you for writing more than just 2 or 3 words. LOL. Thanks dude, I have been enjoying hearing from you plus all your antics. We love you and Bob & I are looking. LOL LOL LOL (Uncle Bob knows what that means) Yes, we had beds on the train. 4 bunk beds.

Dad Ray. Natasha grabbed me tight & hung on. I, of course did the same. It was very good to see her. She is quiet again & the language barrier is there, but she seems to be opening up more everyday. Just like she did at home. She got a kids meal at McDonald's. Then her and her little friend did some whispering. Like we can understand what they are saying anyways. LOL. Then she had her friend say. "Bob. Me, Natasha, Mahrozhena." It was too cute. For those of you who don't know what Mahrozhena is, it's ice cream. Grandpa Ray & Natasha both love Mahrozhena. As well as the other 6 kids.

My Sammy. You are my favorite, middle child. LOL. I love you. Tell me about your Art project & how that went. Sabrina, my cat whisperer, what do you think. Should I bring this cat home ??

Hey Dan. Just thought you would like to see who I got to play with today. LOL. LOL. LOL

Here are a few pictures of our apartment/dorm that we are staying at in Donetsk for everyone who is interested in seeing it.

Good night everyone. Gotta get some sleep. Our facilitator will be here in the morning for doing paper work & then seeing Natasha again. Love to everyone.

Gail

Day 6, Friday April 20

2007-04-20T04:55:00.000-04:00

It is almost noon. It was nice to get a good night's sleep after our train ride and busy day yesterday. Our Internet connection was established today, so we will be able to post more details tonight. We will be heading over to the boarding school to visit with Natasha around 2:00 pm. Our facilitator is working this morning on getting the conclusions from the regional juvenile authority. We need to get this sent to Kiev as soon as possible, so we can get our official consent to adopt for our court date. If we don't get our court date scheduled before the upcoming May holidays, it would add about a week to our trip. Once we have our initial court date, there is a required ten day waiting period before we can pick up the new birth certificate and travel back to Kiev for the final paperwork with the US Embassy. The ten days is ten calendar days and would include the holidays and weekends. Also, there is a good chance Natasha will be able to stay with us after our initial court date. We also found out that Natasha's birth city is a small town outside of Donetsk. We will have to travel there, once we have received our official adoption decree following the ten day period, to get the new birth certificate. This could be an adventure in itself because our facilitator did not recognize the name of the town. She mentioned it must be a small town and she would have to look it up on the map to find out how far we will need to travel.

We did not get many pictures of Natasha yesterday. We were too busy hugging her or running around. We will get more today. However, here is a picture of Gail and Natasha right when we first met.

Day 5, Thursday April 19 - A Very Busy Day

2007-04-19T13:35:00.000-04:00

Our train ride went smoothly. We arrived a little later than scheduled. Our facilitator met us at the train station and told us what we needed to do in order to get our court date scheduled, so we said let's get started as quick as possible. Therefore, it was off to the juvenile authority to get our official permission to visit the boarding school. Once we had that it was on the boarding school to see Natasha, and to review her files and get the necessary documents to prepare our application for adoption for the juvenile authority. We then had to get that notarized (an interesting experience in Ukraine). We then dropped off our luggage at our apartment at DCU, and headed back to the orphanage to see Natasha one more time. Our facilitator finished our application for the juvenile authority while we visited with Natasha, including dropping it back off at the juvenile authority. Once she returned, we had to say goodbye to Natasha. We stopped at the store and got a few groceries on the way back to our apartment. The current prayer request is that the juvenile authority completes their approval of our application tomorrow, so we can get it sent off to the SDA in Kiev to obtain their official consent to adopt Natasha. We need this to obtain our court date, which we would like to get scheduled before the upcoming Ukraine holidays (May 1 & 2). We have yet to get everything settled in (including getting our Internet access hooked up - we are borrowing the couple's above us for this entry). It is now 9:00 pm our time, we are tired from the train ride and all the trips across town. We will post a few pictures and more info tomorrow, once we have more time.

God Bless,
Bob

Day 4, Wednesday April 18

2007-04-18T08:46:00.000-04:00

Today was pretty uneventful. Our facilitator picked up our official referal yesterday. We slept in a little today and have now adjusted to the time change. We are packing and getting ready for our driver to take us to the train station. The train leaves Kiev at 7:20 pm and arrives in Donetsk at 7:10 am. We will sleep on the train tonight. Our facilitator arrived in Donetsk this morning and has already started the necessary papaerwork we will need to complete in Donetsk. We are anxious to see Natasha tomorrow.

Day 3, Tuesday April 17th

2007-04-17T13:19:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would talk to some of my family and friends. Although, with some of my friends and family, I'm not sure if I need any enemies. LOL.

Uncle Bob. You think your sooooo funny. My airplane ride went fine. Your just trying to make me look bad. LOL. Here is 1 picture of the outside. Thought it was the best for you so you could see where to get a cheeseburger. Whhhaaaaa. I don't think your going to find one anywhere else.

P.S. I will send you some more pictures on your regular e-mail.

Krystal. Bob has told me your story. My prayers are with you. As far as recommending this apartment. Yes. It is nice. It is within walking distance to Freedom Square and the SDA. It also has Internet.

Hey Jeff. If you are reading this I would have to call you also a Saint for putting up with Connie all these years. Gosh, I don't know how you have done it. Want to go head to head with me my wonderful ex-sister in law (because I have better sister-in-laws now. LOL) Bring it on baby. I leave you with Baaaa Raammm Yooouuuuu !!!!!

For a minute there I thought that Sabrina had written to me because it said "the favorite daughter." LOL. LOL. My wonderful darling daughter Shauna. Shame on you for calling me a fatty. Don't worry when your my age God will get you & you will look just like me. Whhaaaaaa. Yes, we heard about the shooting in Virginia. I'm so sorry this upset you, although we feel bad for the people this affected, I'm glad none of your friends were hurt. I love you darling. Thanks for calling today. It was good to hear your voice.

A Good Ending to Day 3

2007-04-17T12:27:00.000-04:00

Our appointment went great this morning. We went in shortly after 10:00 am and met with the English translator and SDA psychologist. We asked about Natasha right after the introductions, explaining that we met her on a hosting trip, fell in love with her and that we felt she belonged in our family and had decided to adopt her. The psychologist smiled, pulled her file off her desk, and said she was available for adoption. We showed her a small photo album, we had brought with us, full of pictures of Natasha and our family together. They commented on how well everybody seemed to get along and that she looked very happy. They showed us the picture in her file, the earliest one they had from when she was originally registered with the SDA in 2005. She is 7 or 8 in the picture. We boldly asked if we could get a copy of it since we didn't have any pictures of her before we met her. The psychologist thought about it for a minute and said they were required to have a picture of her in the file. However, if we were willing to give her a more recent one from our photo album, she would let us have the one from the file. We quickly agreed and let her pick the one she wanted. She said she could tell Natasha would be very happy with us. They then explained the process to us. We will be able to pick up our official referral for Natasha tomorrow between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. We then need to take this to the juvenile authority in Donetsk to obtain permission to visit her at the boarding school and talk to the boarding school director. We will then complete the required applications to send back to the SDA to obtain the SDA's consent for adoption, which we need before we can schedule a court date in Donetsk. We were done within 15 minutes of going in. The meeting was short, but very sweet!!

After the meeting, our translator, Angelina, helped us to obtain some necessary items we needed (additional minutes for our cell phone, currency exchange, map, needle/thread to sew up my duffel which came apart in baggage handling, and a new hair dryer for Gail that works on 220VDC). We were able to finish all of the errands and return to our apartment before noon. We walked to a good restaurant we found for lunch and then came back to the apartment for some more rest. Our apartment is about 5-6 blocks from the SDA office and right off Independence Square. The square was full of demonstrators from the current political situation. The demonstrators are paid to demonstrate in support of their political faction. It was interesting to compare how Ukraine politics work compared to our own. Our politicians have several fundraisers to pay for the onslaught of political ads during the election year. In Ukraine, instead of the onslaught of expensive ads, they pay for large numbers of demonstrators. I must admit, I would rather see the money go to people instead of advertising and broadcasting companies.

Anyway, tomorrow we will have most of the day to look around and for me to be able to do some work. Our train to Donetsk doesn't leave until 7:20 pm, after we get our official referral.

Although we are anxious to see Natasha on Thursday, we already miss the rest of our girls.
God Bless,
Bob

Day 3 Tuesday April 17

2007-04-17T01:16:00.000-04:00

We feel much better after getting a good nights sleep. We were both very tired. A hot shower felt very good this morning. It is 8:30 am and we are getting ready for our appointment at the SDA. Actually Gail is getting ready, and I thought I would write a short entry in the blog. Our appointment is at 10:00 am. Our facilitator is meeting us at our aprtment at 9:30 am and we will go over to the SDA together. This is the appointment we get our referal for Natasha. Please keep us in your prayers today as we meet with the SDA.

We will update everybody this evening.
God Bless,
Bob

Day 2. Monday April 16th

2007-04-16T13:32:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. We made it !!!! Yea !!! Aerosvit didn't end up leaving until 9:00 pm or a little after. I had the stewardess take our picture so you could see that we were really on the airplane.

We feel so blessed because we found out that our SDA appointment is tomorrow at 10:00am and if we would have waited for the next flight we wouldn't have made it in time. Plus, we found out that Aerosvit only flies out of JFK to Kiev 3 days a week. And, one of those days just happens to be Sunday. Yea God !! See Shauna our Doves worked !! Randa, I love your comment. Too funny. We arrived in Kiev about 1:15pm. We met our driver, who took us to our apartment that we are renting for the next 2 nights. It's not bad at all. Everything is nice. Here are a few pictures of our apartment.

Bob & I walked around town for about 2 1/2 hours today. Plus we stopped to eat. We went to a cafeteria style restaurant. I have know idea what the food is. It doesn't even look like our food. I picked what I thought looked edible to me. LOL. I just wish they would have the food labeled in English also. Oh well, I suppose I will have to get over it. We stopped at a small market & got some water & some milk because we have a refrigerator here. The fruit market lady was closing up by the time we passed her again. Well, Bob & I have both only had 3 hours sleep. Saturday night & about 3 hours of sleep on the airplane last night. So, we are tired. Going to bed. Pray that our appointment with the SDA goes smoothly tomorrow. Again, our appointment time is 10:00 am. Thanks for all your prayers everyone.

Hugs, Gail

STILL day 1 !!!!!!!!

2007-04-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness. This has been a day. After we left our hotel this morning we felt we had plenty of time to get to JFK. We were wrong. The weather here & while we were driving was not so good. It rained the entire time, but now started pouring. Visibility was not good & we of course, could not drive very fast. We arrived at JFK about 3:15pm, our flight was to leave at 4:20pm. We RAN to the departure area & to our surprise there were probably 500 or so people in line. No joke. This storm has messed up a lot of people. We talked to a Delta airline Representative & he looked straight at us and said. "That flight is closed, you can't get in." I said "I don't think so !!. I explained our situation with the cancellation of our flights, our driving to the airport, and our adoption. I said "We need on that flight, we have to be there & if were not there we have to start all over & that could take a year or more." He said "Sorry." Ha. Sorry, I don't think so. By this time I was furious & started crying. "We want to talk to your supervisor." He said, "Sorry she is to busy right now." OMG !!!!! I told Bob to stay with the luggage & I was on my way to the front of this major line we had. I asked the guy that was in front, crying like a baby by now, "could I please ask the agent a question". He said "Yes, no problem, are you OK." right then, no, I don't think I was. I then again explained our whole situation. She said , "where are your papers." OMG. "They are with my husband at the end of the line." She said, "go get them." So I ran back to Bob & we pushed up to the front of the line with all of our luggage. With everyone either staring at my hysterics or complaining that we were getting ahead. We give this lady a lot of credit. She could not get us on our flight, but she sure tried. We got her name & plan on writing Delta & singing her praises. So, as you can probably already guess. We missed our flight. They did put us on tomorrows flight, but Bob & I were not happy with that. Because, we are worried that this storm will get worse & that flight tomorrow would be delayed or canceled. Plus, our appointment with the SDA is on the 17th, and we cannot miss that. So, Bob & I went to terminal 4 where they told us we could get a wireless Internet connection. Low and behold it was the same terminal we picked & dropped off Natasha at when she was here on her hosting programs. We basically ran right into Aerosvit airlines. Same airlines Natasha used. Bob went up to the counter. Came back & said, they have a flight that leaves at 6:45pm & gets into Kiev at 11:00am, but they only have business class left. OMG. So we have already used our emergency credit card, but we are on our way to Kiev. We both are feeling better right now & are sitting in the business class lounge. We get that luxury because we had to pay for two business class tickets. Ha. We didn't even have a choice. And, of course, Bob just checked our flight and it has been delayed now till 8:00pm. So, we will be "enjoying" the lounge for a bit longer now. Pray that we get to Kiev safely, that God will help us to overcome all of the hurdles being placed in front of us, and the faith to trust in Him.

Hugs everyone,
Gail

Still day 1

2007-04-15T04:32:00.000-04:00

We made it as far as Clarion, Pennsliviania. Stopped at a Hampton Inn to get some sleep. It is now 9:00 am and we are back on the road. We have about 5 1/2 hours to go before we get to JFK. Our flight to Kiev is currently scheduled on time.

Sunday April 15, Day 1

2007-04-11T23:21:00.000-04:00

Well, day 1 is not getting off as we had planned. Bob found out about 11:30pm last night that our flight from Akron/Canton to JFK had been canceled due to bad weather in New York. Delta had changed our flight to an afternoon flight, getting into New York after the Kiev flight departed. He spent over an hour on the phone with Delta and couldn't find any options that would get us to New York in time for our flight to Kiev. We cannot take the chance of missing our flight from JFK to Kiev. We have to be there on the 17th. If we are not, we have to start all over again from square one. We have a beautiful little girl waiting for us, therefore we are NOT going to miss our flight to Kiev. So Bob just picked up a rental car from the airport and we are leaving tonight for New York. We will drive until we get tired, stop at a hotel and then complete our trip later in the morning. So, it's 1:30am and we are driving to JFK. It's about a 7 1/2 hour drive.
For all of you that were going to meet us at the airport this morning. Thank you, thank you, so very much. I am very upset myself because I was so looking forward to seeing everyone & praying with all of you before we got on our airplane.
I know that you guys will continue to pray. Please pray that we have a safe drive to JFK. That the weather holds out in time for us to make our flight from JFK to Kiev. That our adoption goes smoothly and quickly. Pray for our kids here at home.
They are starting to have a little trouble with us leaving. I'm sure they will be fine, it just all this initial getting going stuff. They all will be well taken care of by family & friends. Of course, pray for my nerves and my anxiety about going & also about leaving the other girls at home. We love you all & will let you know something when we know.

God Bless,
Gail

Welcome

2007-04-11T19:10:00.000-04:00

Hi everybody. We decided a blog would be the easiest way to keep everybody updated on our trip. I guess the first thing we need to cover is everything that has brought us where we are right now. Our story began last summer. We were able to host a beautiful little girl from Ukraine for the last three weeks of August. Natasha is ten years old and currently resides in a boarding school in Ukraine. We had a lot of fun during those three weeks. All of the girls got along wonderfully. It was not long before all of us had become attached to Natasha and realized she belonged in our family. Her return departure at the end of August was hard for all of us. We immediately started working on the immense paperwork required for our home study and our adoption dossier. We completed our dossier in October and forwarded it to Ukraine for translation and submission to the Ukraine SDA (State Adoption Authority) in Kiev. Bob was able to visit Natasha for a day during a two week mission’s trip to Ukraine in October. We were fortunate that Natasha was able to return for another three weeks during the Christmas holidays. Her second return in January was even more emotional for everybody. After several delays, our dossier was submitted at the beginning of this year. We received approval of our dossier and an appointment date with the SDA for April 17. Shortly after receiving our approval and appointment date, we found out that Natasha only became available for adoption at the end of February (they have to be on the national registry for 14 months before they are available for international adoption).

We have purchased our tickets to Kiev and will leave at 9:00 am Sunday morning April 15, and arrive in Kiev at 9:00 am Monday morning, April 16. We will spend the first three days in Kiev and then travel to Donetsk where we will see Natasha and finalize the adoption. We have our train tickets and will leave Kiev Wednesday night, arriving in Donetsk on Thursday morning. Bob met a wonderful couple through their blog. They have spent the last couple of years in Donetsk at Donetsk Christian University. They graciously helped us to obtain the apartment above them at DCU, which will become our temporary home in Donetsk.

We expect to be in Ukraine for approximately 4-5 weeks to finalize our adoption of Natasha. We are currently finishing off all of the last minute details for our trip. We are anxious to see Natasha again and bring her home permanently, although we are concerned about leaving the rest of our family behind for so long. Please feel free to check back as we post the details of our trip to bring Natasha home.

Right now we are moving bedrooms around and getting ready for when we return with Natasha. We would like to have everything ready for when we walk back into our home. Hahaha. We’ll see if that happens. Gail has also started packing. LOL. But, she will probably still be packing at the last minute anyways. Bob will probably pack Saturday night.