News from Kremenchuk

We are very excited to bring you news about our daughter, Ziva! Yesterday was a very exciting day for us. We left Kiev at 5:00 in the morning and arrived in Kremenchuk at 10:00 a.m. We went first to the social worker for some paperwork and then went straight to the orphange. After receiving some information and history on Ziva, they brought her into the director's office for us to meet her.

Ziva is 31 months old and very petite; she is currently 24 lbs and 34 inches tall. She has light brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. We were quite surprsied with how fine (and short!) her hair is, but we were then told that at one years old, they shave off all their hair (Scott-style) so that "better" hair can grow in. Although she is petite, she has big chubby cheeks and a nice round tummy!

Right after meeting her, it was lunch time and we were fortunate enough to be able to go and help with lunch. She is in a group with 11 other children and there were 4 adults assisting the children. After a big bowl of soup, she then ate a big plate of mashed potatoes, 2 hamburger patties, and some sort of veggie (maybe squash). We were impressed that she could pack it away! We left as they were getting ready for their afternoon nap.

We are allowed to visit Ziva every day from 10-12 and 4-6. They have a special playroom for adopting parents to use when they come and visit their child, but often parents take children outside during the morning visit. I am so glad that, at the last minute before leaving Canada, I decided to buy a few clothes- everything fits her perfectly, except for the boots which are a bit big.

So we took her outside this morning for a while and we could tell that she wasn't too familiar with snow! Then it was back inside to the playroom which has all sorts of toys to play with.

We have been quite surprised with how quickly Ziva has warmed up to us and allowed to hold and hug her. She seems happy and smiles and laughs a lot; when she laughs, she scrunches up her nose and it is so cute!

We have settled into an apartment that is a 10 minute walk from the orphanage. The apartment reminds us a bit of camping- we just have to make do and rough it- but it will do. We are really hoping that we will get internet in the apartment (we put a request in) because the internet cafe is quite a distance from our apartment; with only 4 hours of daylight a day inbetween visits to Ziva, we don't really want to spend the whole time walking back and forth to the internet cafe.

Ukrainians love their holidays and so things will be closed here from today until January 8. Stores will still be open, but all government offices are closed. That means that for the next 10 days, we are at a standstill in the adoption process. This frustrates us somewhat after the 3 weeks we already spent in Kiev doing nothing, but it can't be helped. At least now we can visit Ziva every day. We have also been told that the adoption process happens quite quickly here.

Please continue to pray for our newly formed family. Pray for the new relationship that is being formed between Ziva, Scott and I. We will try and post photos of Ziva soon; from what I can tell, the computers in this cafe are not set up for it, so it may have to wait until we have internet in the apartment.