Great day- frustrating computer

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.
Helen Keller

Before I forget:
Ross, we looked immediately on the first day for the 'unhappy' slide but we have yet to come across it.
Amanda, Kym, I want to hear some word from Jimmy and Kevin and no secondhand messages. You vwill tell dem diis! What they don't panimayu parooski!?
Oma and Opa Lance, thanks for the update on our pups. Chris had gotten an update on Pooh and we were very jealous to hear about Mattie and Rookie. By the way, we are starting to think Lance will be very curious of the dogs so Rookie is goin' to have to recognize his movement down the totem pole.
Lurkers!! If you read and don't post, you are a LURKER! Sometimes in the internet world this comes with negative connotation. If you want to continue lurking then I guess thats just how you were raised. If not, you simply click on the 'Comments' link at the bottom of each blog and it will be simple from there.


As you have read Lance Ivan has basically become a new child....or they keep giving us the 'good' one. Well we got the 'good' one again and we have more 'good' reports. There was absolutely zero crying today. 'Are we mixing in discipline you ask?' Not so much. I'm sure crying will come when we finally decide to stop letting him walk over us in about 12 years or so. Just kidding.
Much progress has been made on the speech front. Attention: Judy and Children's Therapy Services speech therapists!!! He is making several different sounds, slobbering a lot, putting his hands in our mouths, and putting together some sounds. Some could actually be words but, if they are they aren't in pongleeski. And for those of you that don't gavaryu parooski that means 'English.'
Any suggestions on what actions to take regarding his speech will be greatly appreciated. He's liking the watered down O.J. and not liking the Cheerios. So to recap...cookies, apple juice, orange juice good; goldfish and cheerios bad.
We also swung for the first time and this is where he was making most of his sounds. The third visit today he got back on the swing and loved it and even made a steady 'da-da-da-da-' sound. We conferred with officials to get a ruling and this sound was rejected as his official 'first word.' Ha. He also began to interact somewhat with the other 3 boys being adopted. They are in the gym the same time we are in the evening. Time flew as usual during the 6-7pm session and it seemed like we were barely there when we were already putting his shoes back on. So ended another 'best day so far.' At this rate he'll be moonwalking onto our Luftansa flight to Frankfurt. Yeah!!
In other news we hade a short informal meeting with the chairman of the courts. We were there but most of the conversation was not understandable to us. It got tense at times but Olga said everything went well. There was a small chance that Alex would be off to Kiev with our documents but one paper was not completed by the inspector even with Olga checking on it continously. They are being so helpful and in our eyes doing great jobs and more importantly being great friends. There are still some cultural barriers but it feels like we usually understand each other. Even Alex and his limited English....(he knows more English than Chris and I know Russain/Ukrainian.)
They are definitely doing a lot of God's work even if they don't know it. Today we went to DaVinci to celebrate Alex's passing of his exams to complete his bachelor's degree in economics! Good times, had by all.
Guess that is it for now. We always forget to post certain things but you can tell there is plenty to read even with forgetting so much. I really hope we have pictures in this post also because we have not only had trouble with the video but, now there is trouble posting the pics. A girl showed us two days ago successfully and now after having trouble and asking again they say it won't work!? We'll figure something out hopefully, just bare with us.
Once again thanks so much!! Continue with the posts!! Dasvidanya!!
Love,
John Michael and Karen

PS- Addison keep up the great late night typing. I am really proud of you getting to the computer all by yourself!
PSS- Truman I am so glad you like our little boy

The shell is gone

Wow, what a day today has been!!! It was great, then I come to the internet cafe and read all of you guys posts...we are truly blessed. I am a sap, too, and am in tears reading you guys comments (Karen). It is great knowing I am going to have some fun things to read when I get here everyday. I hope you feel God's presence as much as I am right now!

Well, right now, JM is working on finding a way to download some of the fabulous video from today. We didn't bring the camera down to download picts because we thought we would have video for you guys. It seems there are technological difficulties, so please be patient with us. We REALLY do want to share this with all of you. If we can not figure it out tonight we will bring the camera tomorrow and make up for it. I promise!!

Okay, where should I begin about today.....hmmm. John Michael and I went this morning 9-10am and were able to get a smile out of him!! That was a great feeling. He was half asleep so it was a small one, but yet definitely a smile caught on camera. I was flying high again and actually couldn't take a nap when I was very tired after staying up late talking. When we returned this afternoon we were hoping for another smile but got SO much more!! We were astounded at his change today. John Michael and I were actually wondering if they changed kids on us. hee hee! It is all on video if we can get it to work. ARGH! Let me just tell you a few things he did:

• smiled almost nonstop
• stood from the middle of the floor by himself
• walked about 10 steps at a time (when not tired)
• played with the toys we brought, the ipod, and us
• made some cooing noises
• of course ate more cookies (spit out goldfish hee hee!)
• and so much more!!!!

It was absolutely amazing. I am not sure if many of you understand how huge this is. Before today he would scowl, cry or just sit. He didn't pay any attention to any toys and only watched us part of the time. The evening took him a little while to get pepped up again because he awoke from a nap, but before long he was back at it. It didn't hurt my feelings when he was tired he clung on tight. We are getting so much more attached with his continued level of openess. I am in tears just thinking about today! Let me tell you, he is going to be all over the place.

We also met with the director and doctor to get the past medical information about Lance. He was born at home on July 6, 2004 and was brought to a maternity hospital on the 31st! I guess his mom tried to take care of him for a little while. He stayed in the hospital for 8.5 months until he was moved to the orphanage. He has never been put in the hospital or isolation since then. There is not too much more info. John Michael and I were invited to his presentation on Wednesday. They are also going to talk about Myrah, Lex, Lena, and Dema! We went to the notary for the first time here and had several documents notarized. Small steps, but yet steps...

That reminds me...I have been meaning to put our quotes of the day (provided by my dear friend Kym) on here. Ooops! I will start today: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." I hope I quoted that correctly. I forgot the paper in the hotel.

I guess I have talked your ears off. We love you guys! Can't wait to tell you about tomorrow!
Love, Karen and John Michael

Coooooookieee!!

Hello!

Well we did have our first great nights sleep last night. Whew, that was nice! We are still waiting on hot water. We have been at the hotel for 11/2 days and so far we only have luke warm water. Eeek! Needless to say we are getting in and out as quickly as possible. But atleast we have sleep.

So at first today was uneventful. Lance is still pretty scared, but we have some small breakthroughs...we decided to put him down more instead for hold him all the time so he could start to get comfortable down on the ground with us more. He watched as John Michael juggled (a talent I didn't realize he possessed), he watched us as we walked around, but still stiffly. Then as I moved out of the line between him and the door he made a b-line for it, but as soon as I turned around he stopped mid-crawl. It was hilarious. He is a quick little guy and very observant. We were also able to take him outside today for 30 minutes. We will not be able to take him out again until Wednesday because he is in a presentation the orphanage is giving on Wednesday due to his great improvements from the exercises we share with them last year. They do not want him to be sick.

When we returned this evening we met several other couples from Peru, Slavania, and there was another couple. Our driver from previous trips was there, too. It was nice to see him. We will probably go to see a monastary near-by on Saturday with him. Anyway, one of the ladies (Anna from Peru) gave us a cookie to give to Lance. He refused for quite a while, BUT when everybody left and it was less stimulating he actually tried, liked and finished the cookie!!!!!! This is huge for me! John Michael said I was floating. One more step toward our future. :o)

The weather continues to be beautiful here in Kramatorsk. It is sunny and probably in the 50s. John Michael and I walked home from the orphange and really enjoyed it. Then to top it off I received a call from Kym and Amanda. It was really nice to hear from you guys! By the way, John Micheal and I started our workout plan today. Ha! Hopefully we will keep it up.

Love you all!
Karen and JM

We're here, we met, it's all good!

Let's go ahead and start off with the good stuff!! Just to check and make sure you have a safe amount space around your screen we decided to post this pic sideways so everybody will have to turn their screens sideways. Ha, now you're reading sideways. Anyway, this is our second short trip back today! It is amazing. I won't start cuz I couldn't stop. We are loving the time spent with him so much. All the discomfort we've had to go through is irrelevant now!

This is basically how it went today. We hung around him, tried to entertain a little, and he tried really hard not to cry. He looks composed somewhat in this picture but the furrowed brow we have become accustomed to seeing was in full affect. This is the door to his room which is also his comfort zone. They prefer we take him out to the gym when we are visiting. There are several other children in his room. In the gym he's tense because he's away from all familiar faces. Before we went to the gym he was doing really great.

Today we saw him for about 2 seperate hours. We found out from here on out we can see him from 8-10am, 12-3pm, and 6-7pm. This is really cool and will keep our days busy I think. The caretakers at the orphanage were nice, welcoming, and seemed supportive of this adoption. Time will test many of these first impressions.

We haven't mentioned the train ride so far. It was 13 hours long, numerous stops, cramped, stuffy, and warm at times. Chris, Karen, Olga, Alex, and I all shared one cab until late when Alex went to sleep in another cab. Needless to say, we were all ready to get off!

We'd go on into more subject but, we are about to be timed out. It took awhile for me to figure out how to use the system here. Okay, until next time. Keep up with the comments and we love all you guys.

Off to Antoshka Tonight!

Since we last wrote we haven't done much except some tourist things. We found some interesting places to eat and shopped at the outdoor market which is basically some boths on the sidewalk. We are noticing other English speakers here and there (probably because we are in some of the popular tourists locations).


Today we got a late start out because we don't have a lot to do before we head out of Kiev tonight at 9pm. Once we did get out it had began to rain for the first time in at least a couple of weeks according to Chris. It is still cold too so its prime weather for the sniffs and sneezes! Whoo hoo!! I think we are all actually pretty healthy feeling except for Chris and his cold. Him and I staying up all night talking probably didn't help anything. We have great spirits and attitudes right now. Personally I was excited to be pro-active yesterday in having the meeting at the SDA. Olga was actually able to represent us to get our referral yesterday instead of us having to be there like we originally thought. All is going according to plan still.


We do have a few pics so we hope ya'll enjoy!

Chris has apparently converted our bear into a Russian bear hence the hat alla Sean Connery in Red October! (In the living room at the apartment)
Karen showing off our fancy digs. This is the lovely bedroom.
Karen and I in front of "Olga" not to be confused with our facilitator. This Olga was bad.
Chris and Karen in front on St. Michael's. We have more but this is all we could post for now.

Till next time....we love you all and thanks so much for the posts. We were very excited to see we had 9 comments!!! to check out. Later.

Touchdown Kiev

Helloooooo.........
First of all we are sorry we are just now posting. Yesterday we were pretty worn out and could not find an internet cafe near by. We are so happy to update you guys now!
I will start from the beginning...When we arrived to catch our plane (for the second time) on Wednesday we were told it, too had been cancelled because the flight crew couldn't get there from the north. We then were told we would be put on a Delta flight to Atlanta, then Frankfurt and catch our original plane to Ukraine. We went to the Delta counter to check-in and they said the flight to Frankfurt was full! Eventually we got it all worked out and the final flight plan ended up with us in Atlanta for 7 hours, then Frankfurt and flying Ukrainian International Airlines to Kiev. We were worried a little, but it ended up going smoothly. (By the way, there were no luggage charges for the Ukrainian airlines, as we thought there might be...yesss!!)

So, we arrived in Kiev yesterday at 2:45pm. We were very happy to see Olga our facilitator, then her boyfriend Alex and Chris! our cousin!! They were sights for sore eyes. We spent the rest of the day walking a little, trying to get a phone card (but really didn't know what kind to get) and eatting at a little pizza place. The pizza was great by the way! We had plenty of jet lag to deal with so we didn't last beyond 8:00pm.

Now on to the interesting news. We had our appointment at the SDA this morning at 11:00. The people were very nice and we felt comfortable there. We were told a little about Lance Ivan's family...mother was born in the 80's, the dad was unknown, he has a brother who was adopted by Ukrainian nationals in 2002. As they say, the mother had an immoral lifestyle because she does not work...whatever that means. We were excited to learn that we could take Lance's picture from his file because we had one of our own to exchange for it!!!!! Good tip for prospective adopting parents. Maybe I can take a picture of it and post tomorrow. I tried to ask a lot of questions about getting the five days waived and other things but they said I have to talk to different officials. We will get our referral today! Unfortunately, Olga already bought our train tickets for 9:00pm tomorrow, so we will have to wait one more day to see Lance anyway. John Michael will get to meet him at approximately 10:00 on Saturday! It has already been approved. I found out the SDA (head of adoptions) will be closed the 30, 1, 2, and 9th, but open between those days. I also found out they might waive the 5 day wait if Olga calls and asks, but not for sure (see itinerary for explaination.) So, overall, everything is going very well in the process.
Now we are going to get something to eat...have not eatten anything yet (it is 1:00pm) and go to the outdoor market. We pick up our referral at 5:00 tonight.
Love you guys!!
Karen and John Michael

1st change of plans

Okay...well, our flight has been cancelled until tomorrow now. We will be leaving at 6:00am out of Austin instead of 12:00 today. Fortunately, we planned an extra travel day just in case something like this happened. Praise God!!! We will still arrive the day before our appointment if all goes well. As good as that sounds I have to admit I am pretty disappointed and a little on the sad side. It will all work out. There is a plan even if it isn't like mine. :o) Well, to make things a little better, I think I am going to go to the outdoor mall here. hee hee!

Will post again when we arrive in Kiev!
Karen