I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15: 15b-16a)
Okay, so you caught us... It’s been a week since we last posted. Some how the blogging is starting to seem rather anticlimactic, but it has been an important part of keeping friends and family updated, as well as maintaining somewhat of a diary of this process from our perspective.
Tuesday night we said “Poka” to some people who have been very important to us in the adoption process. The abridged version of Wednesday is that we are now in Kiev waiting for the I-600 to get processed through the Omaha USCIS office and the National Visa Center in New Hampshire.
The Swinney family has been a source of positive energy for everyone, despite some of their frustrations; many of which have mirrored many previous adoptions.
Martha and I have developed this… How shall I put it? Common bond… and this addiction to Skype.
I for one am a night owl, and during a normal workweek, function on about 5 hours of sleep a night. This feeds my Sunday nap time. While we were back in the States for the holidays, I would spend my late nights checking company e-mails, power web surfing, and whatever project du jour I have in my inbox; and would periodically check Skype just to see who is on and to say ‘Hi’ to whoever is out there…
Somehow it never failed that I have caught the Swinneys logged in to Skype, so I just can’t resist… And we start in.. Topics of discussion range from current events to weather to general frustrations with the whole adoption process. Always light-hearted, always fun, and always dogging me about being up at 1 a.m. CST (‘Go to bed’ / ‘Yes, Mother’ / ‘Your Majesty will suffice’ / ‘whatever’…). And being the nice guy that I am, my “Mule” bundle was increased by a handful of games… The Swinneys are the type of friends you don’t mind doing a little extra for so I really didn’t mind.
Upon our return, we thought we had sunk to a new low… First off… EVERYONE has a cell phone, so two or three time daily chats aren’t uncommon… Second, we live across the courtyard from each other, so if we needed to, we would run down the stairs, across the courtyard, up the stairs and crash the other’s party and it’s fun.
Just so happens, the other day I was on Skype with our daughter Kelsey and who happens to pop up on skype… So the chat room begins again, talking about English lessons, how the others are doing, has anyone heard from Michelle, etc… After two or three episodes, Mari reminded me that they’re just across the courtyard, why not run over there?
“True, but, this is quicker…”
“You’re pathetic!”
“I’ve been called worse…”
Followed by “Don’t tell anyone how pathetic we are by skyping when we could just walk across the courtyard or yell from the balcony.”
“But we really are, and besides, one day we will all look back at this and laugh.”
We progressed further in to our pathetic ways the day I accidentally hit the “Call” button on Skype… and Martha returned the call…
(As the video comes on) “Don’t tell Mari this, but we’ve reached a new low in our Skyping”
(Mari is sitting on the bed and out of camera view) “Too late…”
At least from Kiev, we’ve elevated from pathetic to a more acceptable version of just plain sad… And we still have our friends.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
We're back!
Well, we’ve been back for a few days. The 10 days have been up for a while and the holidays have passed, so it’s about that time we return to Ukraine and pick up where we left off.
We look forward to catching up with new friends; all of us continuing on through the process in a fresh, new, year. We may miss Super Bowl Sunday, but, football is not one of Mari’s favorite sports and the Vikings got knocked out of the playoffs early. Get a dozen skaters on ice with sticks, well that’s a different story (We went to a fight and a hockey game broke out)…
This trip started at about 6:30 Monday morning when Andrew dropped us off at the Omaha airport on his way to work. A four hour layover in Chicago followed by a two hour or so layover at Washington Dulles, right in the middle of the inauguration festivities, and we will be on our way back to Ukraine to (hopefully) finish this off. Isn’t it just grand that the airlines can disrupt perfectly good layovers with flights?
Against our better judgment, we volunteered to be one of the “designated mules”, bringing back clothes, games, etc, for the families waiting for court dates, adoption decrees, or a friend in need of a replacement camera or whatever. The bonus plan is that it gives us another bag to drag stuff back in.
Something we were actually looking for, but weren’t sure if it existed in Ukraine or not was bubble wrap… Yes, Martha, I am serious about that, so of course it occupies space in one of the bags. It will also occupy time in the event of total boredom… I start at one end of the roll, Mari at the other and we just pop away at it!
We literally did hit the ground running Tuesday, getting the birth certificate… Internal ID was not so easy. Still have a couple issues since she was de-registered from Internot 4 when she started at the trade school and failed to register a residence. Essentially she is a non-person in the eyes of Ukraine, so how can she apply for a passport. This appears to be a fairly quick remedy and will be resolved on Thursday.
So for most of Wednesday, we spent our time exchanging currency, eating, grocery shopping (the one dude that works there takes his job WAY too seriously and is REALLY scary), and souvenir shopping.
About 2 or so, Alyona calls & says they will be picking us up around 5 to take care of some things… 5 pm arrives and it’s off to the races again. Five people do not fit very well in a Daewoo sedan… The Passport office was about a 10 minute walk… Well, 15 for someone with a bad knee… Once again - How can a non-person apply for a passport? Don’t ask, I sure wasn’t going to. Alyona must have some pretty good contacts, because the applications was completed on Wednesday and the registration issue was finished on Thursday.
The supporting documents were shipped via FedEx to Omaha on Thursday, but the tracking number did not appear on the web site until Friday evening. So much for a Monday delivery, but we are still optimistic about being on our way back by next weekend.
Last but not least… Something I know Vera’s been looking forward to: English lessons that have been put off for the past four weeks. We will ensure a captive audience for the English tutor. (insert evil laugh here)
We look forward to catching up with new friends; all of us continuing on through the process in a fresh, new, year. We may miss Super Bowl Sunday, but, football is not one of Mari’s favorite sports and the Vikings got knocked out of the playoffs early. Get a dozen skaters on ice with sticks, well that’s a different story (We went to a fight and a hockey game broke out)…
This trip started at about 6:30 Monday morning when Andrew dropped us off at the Omaha airport on his way to work. A four hour layover in Chicago followed by a two hour or so layover at Washington Dulles, right in the middle of the inauguration festivities, and we will be on our way back to Ukraine to (hopefully) finish this off. Isn’t it just grand that the airlines can disrupt perfectly good layovers with flights?
Against our better judgment, we volunteered to be one of the “designated mules”, bringing back clothes, games, etc, for the families waiting for court dates, adoption decrees, or a friend in need of a replacement camera or whatever. The bonus plan is that it gives us another bag to drag stuff back in.
Something we were actually looking for, but weren’t sure if it existed in Ukraine or not was bubble wrap… Yes, Martha, I am serious about that, so of course it occupies space in one of the bags. It will also occupy time in the event of total boredom… I start at one end of the roll, Mari at the other and we just pop away at it!
We literally did hit the ground running Tuesday, getting the birth certificate… Internal ID was not so easy. Still have a couple issues since she was de-registered from Internot 4 when she started at the trade school and failed to register a residence. Essentially she is a non-person in the eyes of Ukraine, so how can she apply for a passport. This appears to be a fairly quick remedy and will be resolved on Thursday.
So for most of Wednesday, we spent our time exchanging currency, eating, grocery shopping (the one dude that works there takes his job WAY too seriously and is REALLY scary), and souvenir shopping.
About 2 or so, Alyona calls & says they will be picking us up around 5 to take care of some things… 5 pm arrives and it’s off to the races again. Five people do not fit very well in a Daewoo sedan… The Passport office was about a 10 minute walk… Well, 15 for someone with a bad knee… Once again - How can a non-person apply for a passport? Don’t ask, I sure wasn’t going to. Alyona must have some pretty good contacts, because the applications was completed on Wednesday and the registration issue was finished on Thursday.
The supporting documents were shipped via FedEx to Omaha on Thursday, but the tracking number did not appear on the web site until Friday evening. So much for a Monday delivery, but we are still optimistic about being on our way back by next weekend.
Last but not least… Something I know Vera’s been looking forward to: English lessons that have been put off for the past four weeks. We will ensure a captive audience for the English tutor. (insert evil laugh here)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Phone calls...
As we continue “The Waiting Game”, Christmas and New Year’s Day have come and gone and the Christmas décor has been unceremoniously pulled down, boxed, and put away. The pounds we lost in the first three weeks walking around in Ukraine have been found and put back where they were. And the worst part of it all is that we have done this without our new daughter.
In the meantime, we have returned to our jobs and some sense of normalcy until the government offices return to action in a couple weeks.
With nothing better to do on a quiet afternoon, I pulled out the cell phone we were using in Ukraine and looked up Vera’s phone number. Skype is a wonderful thing… and inexpensive to call Ukraine… So we have managed to use it on a couple of occasions…
(Ring)
“Da”
“Vera… It’s Papa.
(Several excited gasps) “Pap.. Papa.. .PAPA! HI! How are you?? (More excited gasps and an obvious loss of words)
“Fine thank you. Happy New Year! How are you?”
(Still breathless from excitement) “Good… Happy New Year!!! Mam.. Mama.. How is Mama, and Andrew and Kelsey?
“They are very well.”
(Deer in headlights) “What is ‘well’?”
I explained as best I could that everyone was fine, we missed her and will be back in a couple weeks. I could sense the deer in the headlights at times, but breaking sentences down to two or three words at a time helped. Kelsey also had a chance to talk with her… Several “Happy New Years” and “I don’t understands” later, I get the head set back…
On the second call, Vera was not as excited as the first call, but still very happy to hear from us. Mari had a chance to ask some questions and see how she was doing… Mari got a few answers from her, then, “I don’t understand” and the phone gets handed off to Lena. Apparently we talk too fast for her… Okay then… I get the headset back again…
“You I understand… Kelsey, I no understand… Mama, sometimes I understand”
That is a step in the right direction… Now she is supposed to be getting with a tutor while we are away so she can pick up some more English. We explain to her that school here will not be easy until her vocabulary and comprehension improve. She understands.
So for the next couple weeks, we have the Skype phone (used sparingly) and Michelle with her hit and miss internet connection and just regular Skype to tell her we miss her, we love her and will be back soon.
In the meantime, we have returned to our jobs and some sense of normalcy until the government offices return to action in a couple weeks.
With nothing better to do on a quiet afternoon, I pulled out the cell phone we were using in Ukraine and looked up Vera’s phone number. Skype is a wonderful thing… and inexpensive to call Ukraine… So we have managed to use it on a couple of occasions…
(Ring)
“Da”
“Vera… It’s Papa.
(Several excited gasps) “Pap.. Papa.. .PAPA! HI! How are you?? (More excited gasps and an obvious loss of words)
“Fine thank you. Happy New Year! How are you?”
(Still breathless from excitement) “Good… Happy New Year!!! Mam.. Mama.. How is Mama, and Andrew and Kelsey?
“They are very well.”
(Deer in headlights) “What is ‘well’?”
I explained as best I could that everyone was fine, we missed her and will be back in a couple weeks. I could sense the deer in the headlights at times, but breaking sentences down to two or three words at a time helped. Kelsey also had a chance to talk with her… Several “Happy New Years” and “I don’t understands” later, I get the head set back…
On the second call, Vera was not as excited as the first call, but still very happy to hear from us. Mari had a chance to ask some questions and see how she was doing… Mari got a few answers from her, then, “I don’t understand” and the phone gets handed off to Lena. Apparently we talk too fast for her… Okay then… I get the headset back again…
“You I understand… Kelsey, I no understand… Mama, sometimes I understand”
That is a step in the right direction… Now she is supposed to be getting with a tutor while we are away so she can pick up some more English. We explain to her that school here will not be easy until her vocabulary and comprehension improve. She understands.
So for the next couple weeks, we have the Skype phone (used sparingly) and Michelle with her hit and miss internet connection and just regular Skype to tell her we miss her, we love her and will be back soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
