We're Into Single Digits :):)

Only 9 more days till we come home. You have no idea how good that sounds to us!!!

Today was a very good day with Emma. The last couple of days have been extremely difficult as she has been quite defiant. Today is the first day papa didn't have to spank her!

We're really trying to sit down with Emma to teach her. She is very behind and we're concerned about catching her up. With the language barrier, we know it will be lots of work! And as far as learning our language is concerned, she has no interest at all. She'll repeat the odd word here and there, but I don't think she understands. The only words she knows for sure are mama and papa and truck. But she doesn't say truck...it's more like tru-vuck. Oh well, we'll take what we can get.

Today we actually got to sit down and try and do a puzzle with us. This is a huge accomplishment because we've been having a hard time to get her to sit down and do anything. The puzzle is quite easy but she still doesn't understand how to put the pieces together correctly. But we'll keep working on this one till she gets it, then we'll get a new one. We also worked on counting today. We are starting in Russian just to see how much she knows. She is able to count to 5 when she is in a good mood. If you try and get her to count or learn anything if she is not in the mood, she gets very frustrated and walks away. The main thing is that she's opening up to us and trying here and there. I know when someone strange comes to talk to her, she clams right up and doesn't say anything. We're getting there. It's only day 3!

Another issue we've run into is potty training. You'd think a 6 year old would know. Well, Emma knows how to use the toilet, the problem is she doesn't know WHEN to use the toilet. At the orphanage the kids only went during certain times of the day. If they had to go at any other time, I don't think they were really supervised. So that's something else we're working on. The only time she'll run to the toilet is when she has to poop (thank God!) There have been a few accidents, so now Terry is super paranoid and makes me take her to the washroom every 10 seconds! Bedwetting is also an issue. Any tips out there?

Overall, we feel things are going very well. This is a HUGE adjustment for the three of us and it's going to take some time. Living in a hotel isn't the greatest environment either. A good routine can start once we get home. I'm not too sure how the 20 hours of flying is going to go. If she's in any mood like she was yesterday, it could be pretty scary!! :):):)

It's Official!

Emma-Lee Julia Carter

That's our girl! So much has happened in the last couple of days. My mind is just a blur. I've had about 5 hours sleep in the last 3 days, so bear with me. This post will probably be all over the place.

Many of you have been sending emails asking questions about Emma. We could not release any details until she was legally ours, so here goes:

Emma was born October 9, 2001 in the city of Romny, Ukraine. She was named Julia (pronounced Yulia in Russian) Girzheva. Her mother was 21 and her father was 43. They were not married. She was carried to term, born at normal birth weight with no complications. Her measurements during the first year of her life were normal. So it sounds like we got all kinds of information, eh? Well, after that everything gets a little hazy.

We were told that Emma was raised by her single mother until last year. She was placed in the orphanage in June 2007, as her mother passed away at age 26. We have tried to get more information about her mother's death, but have been unsuccessful. Our facilitator told us that many young single mothers in Ukraine commit suicide, as they can not cope. This is something we will never know.

When we were first shown Emma's file, we were told about her problems. She is very behind developmentally and has emotional problems. It makes sense considering what she's gone through in the last year. Losing her mom and getting put into the orphanage was probably very traumatic. They showed us her medical file. When she was first placed in the orphanage, she was seen by several doctors and her immunizations were updated. This would explain why she is terrified of doctors. Also, the picture we were shown of her at the adoption centre was when she was first placed there...she was bald. They had shaved her hair off. Poor thing!

We got to pick up Emma Monday evening. She was SO excited!!! She ran out of there so fast and then waved up to all of her friends up in the windows. I must say it was pretty emotional for me, saying goodbye to so many of those kids who I've grown to love. I can't believe we'll never see them again. We pray that they will all find homes. Once Emma waved and yelled PACA (bye) to all of her friends, it was straight to the car and no looking back!!!

The last 2 days have been a rollercoaster. Several ups and downs. We are seeing the results of no discipline in her life. We are trying to correct her, but it's very difficult when you don't speak her language. She is still papa's biggest fan. Mama's still low on the totem pole, but she's starting to warm up to me. She's never had a dad, so I imagine it's pretty exciting to her. I think she just sees me as another caregiver, like at the orphanage.

The last couple of days have been super crazy with paperwork again. We had to get our court decree. Then we travelled to Emma's birth town to get a new birth certificate with her new name and Terry and I listed as parents. We were able to get a picture of the hospital she was born in. I thought that was pretty cool.

Yesterday we travelled to Sumy to get Emma's passport. When we got there, we found out it takes 10 business days to get a passport, which would mean we would need to reschedule our flight again, which is not an option. So we had to pay $$$$ to get a same day passport, but we're glad to have it out of the way. All we have left now is to get a Visa for Emma. That will only take one day in Kiev.

So now we just bide our time and wait for next week to come. We are staying in Okteerka, as it is much cheaper than staying in Kiev. We will travel to Kiev next Wednesday to get Emma's Visa. Then we will stay there till Saturday because that's where our flight leaves from. Our American friends have left to Kiev already. Their plane leaves tomorrow. It was sad when they left. It was so nice to have friends while we are here. It feels lonely now. Their entire adoption took 3 weeks and 3 days. Unreal!!! We will have spent 7 weeks and 3 days once all is said and done.

I should go. Terry is back at the hotel with Emma and he told me not to take long. Thanks for your continued prayers. Even though it seems things are done, things are just beginning. I'm still a little nervous about the whole thing. Good thing Terry has nerves of steel and can always calm me down!! By the way, shower time goes much better now! :) We got so many comments from people who loved that story!!

Bye for now!

Oh ya!!! I almost forgot! Swiss cheese chips: 2 thumbs down for me and 1 thumb up for Terry.
Chicken chips: 1 thumb up for me and 2 thumbs up for Terry.
Sorry, Jen. I haven't run into any crab chips again. If I see them, I promise to taste them!!! :):)

Restaurant Woes

We have a daily eating routine....breakfast in our hotel room, lunch in the American's hotel room and then we go out for supper. We have three restaurants to choose from. Each has it's pros and cons. Usually we pick based on location, but when we get tired of that restaurant, we have to go somewhere else. You have to understand, it is at least a 15 minute walk to the closest restaurant and temperatures here right now are close to 40 degrees celcius. Lately we've been running into some problems at our restaurants. Sometimes...they don't serve food. No rhyme or reason..we just get there and they tell us "no food." That's quite disappointing after walking 15 minutes in the blazing sun and find out you have to walk 15 more minutes to get a meal.

Today we thought we would be smart and have our driver drop us off at the furthest restaurant from our hotel after our orphanage visit. Then we would only have the half hour walk back. After our driver dropped us off and left, we went inside only to find out the bad news...."no food." What the heck? It's supper time and we've come here for supper many times!!!! Talk about utter frustration. So we do a 15 minute treck to the next restaurant. We pull out our camera to show the pictures of what we would like to eat. Terry points to chicken....."No...only pig kabobs." Ugh! So we were all stuck eating pork kabobs or go hungry. We didn't want to risk walking to the next restaurant to find out they're not serving food either. I personally liked the pork kabobs. It was a refreshing change from the chicken dipped in egg that I've eaten for the past seven days straight. Terry, however, would have preferred chicken for the eighth time! We can't wait to eat a big juicy steak when we get home!!! (hint, hint dad!) LOL (LOL means laugh out loud, in case you're wondering, dad)

Yesterday we bought every flavor of chips from the supermarket. Unfortunately, they do not have crab flavor. Last night's first sample was bacon flavor. The picture on the front of the bag is of raw bacon...not very appealing. I gave it two thumbs down, Terry gave it one thumb up. He polished them off.

Funny thing about the supermarkets here. The Canadians and Americans are cleaning them out. Every time we find something we like, the next time we go to buy it, there's none left. It's very strange. And the stores here only seem to get stock every one or two weeks, so we're basically hooped. One store where I bought some cereal I liked has been out all week. I found it at another supermarket today. They had a whole two boxes....so I cleaned them out. Even when we order drinks at a restaurant, we usually can't all get the same thing. They will only have like two sprites and three cokes. Luckily we can usually work it out between the five of us who gets Sprite and who gets Coke. Oh ya, and that's the only two flavors of pop they seem to have in Ukraine...at least in this town.

Today we bought three huge watermelons to take to the orphanage. There was a lady selling them on the side of the road. She was totally amused by us english speaking people. The watermelons weren't that great. It's been awhile since I've had some with seeds in it. The kids at the orphanage loved it, though. Especially Emma. She polished off about six huge pieces. And she was soaked from nose to bellybutton in watermelon juice!

Tomorrow will be our last visit to the orphanage. Terry and I stopped by a little store today to find some treats we could pass out to all the kids. This store had a pile of Kinder eggs, so we thought it would be a good treat becasue they each come with a little toy. We asked the lady behind the counter how much (they always punch the amount on a calculator and show it to us so we can understand) They were five and a half hryvna each...which is quite a bit because we wanted thirty of them. Terry punched in the calculator the number thirty to show the lady how many we wanted. Her eyes bulged out of her head as she punched in thirty times five fifty and it came to one hundred and sixty five hryvna (about thirty bucks Canadian) Terry nodded his head "yes" so two ladies behind the counter started packing them all up. They were just talking and laughing very hard. They were probably wondering why two adults needed thirty Kinder eggs! People here laugh at us wherever we go.

Another Day

We had an interesting evening last night. We were invited to eat dessert with a lady who works at the hotel. She doesn't speak much english, but she was sitting in the staff room with her daughter and her daughter's friends. She saw us walking by and gestured at a cake sitting on the table and invited us to come sit. So we did. This lady's daughter and her friend spoke quite a bit of english so we were able to have a good visit. They asked us several questions about Canada. Also how we liked it here and where we've been in Ukraine. They were very curious about how we've been living without knowing the language. They were quite entertained by our stories of how we order food at restaurants and how we buy food in grocery stores. Terry went on and on about how great Canada was compared to Ukraine...I almost wanted to kick him! But they didn't seem to mind..they were very interested. Then they finally asked us the big question which we've been trying to avoid....why are you here? One thing we didn't mention on the blog yet is that we can't tell anyone in Ukraine why we are here until the kids are legally ours. Most Ukrainians are against foreign adoptions, and they can cause serious problems if they find out you're adopting. We have been advised not to tell anyone because during this 10 day wait, anyone can appeal our adoption. We did tell our new friends, though. Our 10 day wait is practically over and we knew this wouldn't cause a problem. They were actually quite happy to hear that we were adopting. They told us that it's nice when the kids get adopted because they have very little hope staying in the orphanage.

Today the paperchase began again. We are nearing the end of our 10 day wait, so we had to go to court to pick up some documents and then run around to the "tax police" and a notary...all very exciting stuff. Emma is legally ours on Monday and we know we won't run into any problems (objections) because no one has come forward yet and now it's the weekend, so the court is closed. On Monday we will be able to share more information on the blog regarding Emma and her history. Stay tuned....

Another Fun Day at the Orphanage

Hey...it's me again. I've received some complaints regarding my lack of posting, so here we are! No more complaints. You do realize this will be much harder once we have Emma!

Today we had a fun visit at the orphanage. All the kids were outside so we got a chance to play with them all. It was so great to spend time with all of them. They really love it when we come out. They laugh at us when we speak english or when we try to repeat something they are teaching us. Any food we take is a huge hit. Our American friends are quite adventurous when they go to the market...they're always trying new things. If they don't like it, they just take it to the orphanage. Anything goes there! We're getting quite attached to a few of the kids there. If we could, we would certainly bring them home with us. It's going to be very sad when we leave. I keep wondering what's going to happen to them. The unfortunate thing is that most of them are older and no one wants to adopt them.

When we were in court, the orphanage director told the judge that he would have to fire three staff members because of recent adoptions. We are very blessed to have an orphanage director that would rather see children get adopted than keep employees. We have heard many stories of orphanages making adoptions very difficult because they don't want people to lose their jobs. The director straight up told the judge that there is no hope for the children who do not get adopted. He said they are well cared for while they are there, but once they leave at the age of 16, they are "labelled" as orphans and it is very difficult for them to find jobs. Many just start the cycle over again of having babies too young and putting them in orphanages. It's so sad. That's what breaks my heart when we see these kids that will not be adopted. Their future isn't looking so bright.

Our visit with Emma was good today. We actually tried to take a break from her to play with the other kids. Whenever we're with her, she expects our undivided attention....I think she's worried we might forget about her or something. Hopefully when she feels a little more secure about her position in our family she won't be so needy. The bonus is when I (Tara) play with the other kids, Emma actually likes to come and hug her mama. I think she gets a little jealous. So it's one of the rare times when mama gets some lovin! :)

Many of you in the family will remember when I took pictures of all of you to make a photo album for our new kid. We have taken it to the orphanage with us everyday. Unfortunately she has very little interest in the strange people we are showing her. When we take out the album, she skips past all the family pictures and goes straight to the pictures of our house and her room and tells us a little story in Ukrainian about papa, mama and Emma. We're quite sure she understands that will be her home. I guess she'll have to get to know you all when she meets you.

I've posted some pictures below of some signs we've seen here. I think they paid too much to whoever did the translating for them!....

Funny Translations!