Finding a routine....

Living here in Donets'k its been hard to find a routine. We have been flying from here to there (those who've been here know I literally mean flying!) signing papers, visiting our girl, picking up food, exchanging money and trying to fit in eating!  Oy! Today we finally got to visit our girl at the orphanage in a "normal" room with a table, which assisted greatly in being able to do things together.  Life is all about sticker books, colouring, doing hair, cuddling, laughing, taking pictures and most importantly, looking at the iPad with family pics and pics of her old friends from her last two orphanages. It has been good for her to see her old friends in their families, hopefully giving her a picture of what her life will look like on the other side of the planet.

Today she hand wrote her desire to be adopted by Johnathan Richard Hughes and Beth Mitchell Hughes, which was awesome. It was all in script and quite neat too.  Somehow though, Michelle got translated officially into Mitchell!

We also had to provide her new name, which .......... you'll have to wait for until things are official :)

So we will be visiting from 1500-1700 each day for the next while, which help with something of a routine.

Here is a teaser of the girls playing....

We Met Her!!!

It feels like a week since we left Kiev.  We ended up taking the fast daytime train (7 hours) and it was a good trip.  Our facilitator met us at the station and after meeting with the social worker we were taken to our new apartment, bought groceries and went for dinner.  We quickly learned that far fewer people in Donetsk know any English, at least fewer than downtown Kiev!  Shopping has been very challenging.  We ended up really disliking our apartment (which didn't have the promised internet access) so today we requested a move and we're much happier here as well as back in touch with all of you :)

We were supposed to meet our little girl at ten, then eleven, then a little while and actually went to meet her at two PM!  This, with bags packed and waiting and no internet, not to mention a wee bit of anticipation and anxiety.  We've heard the phrase, "Hurry up and wait" and it is so true.

Anyways...

She is delightful!  She was all sweet smiles and answered clearly any questions we posed through our translator.  We all pored over the photo album we brought her of family and home (Thanks Kim!) and her eyes and smile just sparkled.  Our facilitator asked her if she liked us, if she wanted to go to Canada with us and she said, "Da!"  On our part, it was a unanimous positive decision.  Afterwards I asked Shye if she thought she could fall in love with her and she replied, "I already have!"  We will meet with the orphanage director tomorrow and we will likely be visiting our sweetie daily.  We hope we all quickly learn ways to communicate!

God is so good!

There's a whole world under our feet!

The first two days we explored our neighborhood, we frequently had the unpleasant experience of crossing crazy busy streets where pedestrians were not given any right-of-way. The saying here is, " You're not a good driver if you can't make four lanes out of three."  Day three we discovered that all the stairways heading down were not all subway entrances but actually a way to pass under those wild intersections.  Not only that but once beneath downtown Kiev, pathways headed off in every direction, littered with countless little shops.  Add to this picture full two story underground malls!  The attached photo is where we had lunch two floors beneath the street.  Good Ukrainian food!  Also attached is a photo of where we did not eat!

Kiev Update

Well we arrived in Kiev a couple days ago after a very long but smooth trip.  It's been quite an adjustment to the language and culture of downtown Kiev but we're getting the hang of things.

The weather has been cold and rainy but we've ventured out each day to wander around and find food!  Today we walked for four hours and while my hip is sore, it kept me going and I'm so thankful.  We are actually quite thankful for so many little things...  We enjoyed some good borscht and vareniky for lunch today.  Then we picked up orange/lemon pastries to have in our apartment with tea this evening.  

We had our DAP appointment today and will be taking the train to Donetsk on Wednesday to meet our  little girl!  We are all looking forward to meeting her very much.  We are praying that when she meets us, she will just know that we are her family and that she will have peace with becoming our daughter / sister.

So much to be thankful for.

On Our Way

One flight down, two to go.  It's going to be a long day / night but we're very happy to be travelling at last.  Next post should be from Kiev, Ukraine!!!!

ONE WEEK!

We leave in one week and we are very busy tying up loose ends and figuring out what to pack.  It is quite a challenge to pack three suitcases for 3.5 people for two months.  Our packing includes a large variety of activities to do at the orphanage and in our apartment, some food items, toilet paper and hand sanitizer,  all kinds of meds including eight weeks of diabetic supplies, paperwork, cosmetics, iPads, umbrella, face cloths, clothesline...  Oh yeah, we need to fit clothing in too!

We are excited and nervous.  Sometimes we just can't wait to meet our girl and other times we wonder " What are we doing?!!"   Inner peace comes and goes.   We are thankful that we do not walk alone.  

Just last week we learned that passports have to have at least six months left on them to travel internationally.  Shye's has five months :(  The Service Centre here told us we could get one in 24 hrs. If we drove to the big city (5 hr. drive each way).  We made arrangements, travelled down there and were told that they could not do it in 24 hrs.  We would have to make another trip to pick it up the following week!  This was so discouraging but we are very, very thankful that we learned about this with just enough time to take care of it.  Hopefully we can pick the passport up next week with no further difficulties.  It will be good to have it in our hands.

We greatly appreciate your prayers for preparation, for peace (for Shye too!), for protection of our new little one and of us as we travel.

Flights are Booked!

We have purchased plane tickets!  We leave early on September 20 and arrive in Kyiv  19 hours later!  We are busy making preparations and starting to pack.  It's countdown time :)