The "rest of the story"...

For some reason, only part of the blog I wrote last night was published, so here's the rest of the story...

Scott and I are especially enjoying not being told anymore how to treat Ziva. I don't think I will ever understand the Ukrainian's way of caring for children. They obsess about keeping a child warm (even forcing us to bundle Ziva up in full winter gear when it was 5C outside and we were only going in the car!) and yet they think seatbelts are not necessary.

So where does this leave us? Well, we have been told that if all goes as planned, the passport should arrive in Kiev next Tuesday. We could go to the Canadian Embassy on Wednesday to get Ziva's visa, and we could be leaving here next Thursday!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers; please pray that the passport (and any other paperwork) gets processed on time and that there are no problems. We have re-booked our tickets for Thursday and are praying and hoping that we will indeed be able to leave that day.

Gotcha Day...and a few more

Tuesday, our "Gotcha Day", was a very hectic, stressful, but exciting day. We were in the car by 6:00 a.m., heading for Gadaych, Ziva's birthplace. We arrived in Gadaych at 9:30 a.m. and made our way to the "wedding palace", where all certificates are issued (marriage, birth, death...). We waited while Ziva's new birth certificate was made...which was a bit of an ordeal because she has two middle names and it doesn't fit into the Ukrainian's forms. But with a smaller font, they finally got it to fit into the allotated space. Next stop was the police station to change her name on some "court tax" form.

We then headed back to Kremenchuk and made a quick stop at the orphanage. After meeting with the orphanage director and starting some more paperwork, we picked up Ziva for her second car ride. We first went to the bank where we had to close an account that had money in it that Ziva's birth mother had received from the government when she gave birth to Ziva. (This money goes to the orphanage.) Then we were off to the police station, where the paperwork and photos were done for Ziva's passport. We stopped quickly at our apartment for our party supplies and then we were off to the orphanage for a good-bye party.

After a party that consisted of lots of spilled juice and cookies that ended up on the floor (what can you expect when your party guests are 2-3 years old?), we took Ziva home! (Well, if you call our apartment "home"!). She spent some time just running around the apartment, exploring, and when we figured she had enough of that, we gave her her first bath ever! We were afraid that she might be afraid, but were pleasantly surprised that she loved it! She splashed around in the water and even took the shower head and put it over her head! (She has got even braver since the first bath...she now puts her face right into the water, head first! I think we need to sign her up for mom'n'tots swimming when we get home...).

We spent 9 hours in the car on Wednesday...yes, 9 hours... and Ziva was good as gold! When we took Ziva out on Monday to get passport photos and on Tuesday when we ran errands, she cried in the car. She was so scared..her bottom lip and chin trembled and she cried. It was sad to see a child so scared of a car ride. When we travelled on Wednesday, she didn't cry at all! This may be due in part to the fact that she was somewhat used to the car, but we think a lot of it had to do with the fact that she had a seatbelt on. You have to understand that Ukrainians do not wear seatbelts and it is not the law to wear one. Before we left Wednesday, we insisted that our driver dig out the "buried" seatbelt for us; we know that both the driver and our facilitator thought we were odd for making Ziva wear a seatbelt. Ziva was so good in the car, and both the driver and the facilitator commented on how well she behaved; they said that usually the children cry and make a fuss the whole time.

The city of Paltava was our first and only stop. We had to go to another "wedding palace" and police station in order to process the passport more quickly. We finally arrived in Kiev at 3:30 p.m. and we are back in the apartment we had when we arrived here on December 7th (0h, that seems like ages ago...).

We are so incredible happy to finally "have" Ziva! All things considered, she is doing very well. We thought she might make "strange" with us, especially when getting up in the morning, but so far she has been very happy and excited. I guess the month of visits to the orphanage has a big part to do with the fact that she is comfortable with us. Today Ziva went on her first trip to the grocery store, where she just sat in the cart, looking around at everything.

Our next few days...

The next few days will be very busy for us, so we thought we'd let you know what we will be up to....

Tomorrow is officially our 10th day, so the ball can start rolling! Our driver, Meesha, will be picking up our court papers. We will be also taking Ziva out of the orphanage (her first car ride!) to get her passport photos taken.

Tuesday is the "big day". We plan to leave at 5:00 a.m. for Gadaych, Ziva's birthplace, where we will get a new birth certificate issued. We will then return to Kremenchuk and complete the paperwork needed for Ziva's passport. If all goes well, we will be able to go to the orphanage by late afternoon, have a going-away party for Ziva...and then take her home with us!

We have been told that Wednesday will be "the busiest day of our life"- our first day as full-time mommy and daddy! We will leave Kremenchuk in the morning and head back to Kiev, where we will wait for Ziva's passport.

Words cannot express how excited we are for Tuesday night! It's like the excitement for the coming of Christmas or looking forward to going on a big trip or the excitement of getting married...but WAY more exciting! If I was Ziva, I would stomp my feet, scrunch up my shoulders, shake my fists in the air, and scream with excitement!! And who knows, I may end up doing that Tuesday night!

As we are about to enter these exciting days, we would covet your prayers. Pray that things do indeed go smoothly in Ziva's birthplace. Pray that the necessary paperwork gets done on Tuesday so that we can take Ziva out of the orphanage. Foremost in our minds is the passport; we have been told that it could take up to 10 days. We have also been told that that there may be a delay in the passport because of Ziva's name. (We have learned that Ukrainians have only a first name and a last name and so they aren't really sure what to do on their documents with a first name, 2 middle names, and a last name!) Please pray that we receive our passport sooner rather than later. We so want to go home!

We will let you know how things went in a few days.

Experiencing some firsts...

It's been a few days...and only a few more to go until we take Ziva from the orphanage! We continue to enjoy our daily visits with Ziva, although we must admit, we are getting quite bored of the playroom! To that end, we have been going outside in the morning for almost an hour; the weather has been milder (between 2 and 4C) and Ziva is quite content riding in the stroller, taking in her surroundings.

We have really noticed this week how much English Ziva is understanding (more than she lets on...). One day, she was being a monkey and misbehaving and Scott told her, "Sit down!". She immediately sat down...and I am not sure who was more surprised, her or us! We were so excited that she knew what Scott was saying! And Ziva had a look on her face that said, "Oh-oh, I let these people know I understand them!" Of course, the next time Scott asked her to sit, she ignored him! But now we know she knows...

Ziva can also meouw like a cat (that will be important for when we get home and she meets Simon), roar like a bear, and moo like a cow. She knows where her hair, eyes, and nose are. She also knows things like chair, ball, grapes, juice, boots, shoes, coat, etc. Since she is not talking yet, we find it hard to know how much she is understanding...but we think it's a lot more than we give her credit for!

In the last week or so, when we have gone to visit her, she has been wearing very small and very ugly clothes (too ugly to take pictures in), so we have been changing her into our clothes for our visits. Yesterday, as I was changing her and she only had her diaper on, she "escaped". She became very excited about the fact that she had no clothes on...it was so funny! She slapped her belly, pumped her arms in the air, yelled, and ran around the playroom for 10 minutes nonstop. Ahhh...freedom!

As I have mentioned before, the children in the orphanage do not wear diapers but Ziva wears one during our visit just in case she has an accident. We always have an extra diaper with us just in case she dirties her diaper while she is with us...and we knew it was just going to be a matter of time. Well, today was the day. Ziva is always running and always moving, and so we knew something was up when she was standing still, with this funny look on her face, touching her bottom. She did not like having a full diaper! (Which we think is a good thing because it may make potty-training easier!) And I know, changing her diaper may not seem monumental, but it was another opportunity for us to take care of one of her needs, which will help us to grow closer to her.

Enjoy the photos!

Ziva during her 10-minute "naked" run.


We did finally convince her to at least put on her new underclothes.


Ziva and Mommy

Ziva and Daddy.

Ziva and Mommy rolling the ball back and forth to each other.

Remember I told you how much she loves her sippy cup? Here she is pushing the stroller, which requires two hands...so what does she do with the cup? Holds it in her mouth with her teeth!

We have had to get creative in the playroom, so Scott made a "fort" for Ziva. She is laughing so hard and scrunching up shoulders because Scott just peeked around the corner- she is easily amused! (Notice the sippy cup??)

Photos of a winter wonderland...and some more

This is the main entrance to the orphanage.

This is Ziva's room from the outside.

A playground under a blanket of snow.

Ziva running towards Mommy!

Ziva was quite intrigued by the snow on the branches.

Ziva and Daddy

Back in the playroom...

Mmmm...that yogurt was yummy!

Just wanted you to see how MOST of the pictures we take of Ziva look! She'll pose and smile, but doesn't like the flash and so she closes her eyes and squints. Good luck to the photographer who has to take her passport photo next week! What have we done...

Spending time with Ziva

Hello, everyone! So we are just spending time with Ziva, waiting out our 10-day waiting period! All this waiting is very difficult. January 26th officially marks the end of the wait, but we will probably take her out of the orphanage on the 27th; we have so much paperwork to do after the 10 days are up...and towing Ziva around in the car for hours and hours and going to appointments with her would not be very good- for any of us! (Remember, she has never been out of the orphanage and has never been in a car!)

Today we heard Ziva cry for the first time. Actually, it was more of a whimper, although she had every reason to cry hard (most children from orphanages are "conditioned" not to have "full-out cries"). She was nicely sitting in her chair, drinking from her sippy cup. I opened my "bag of tricks" and told Ziva that I was getting out the books. You would not believe how excited she gets when I get the books out! She quickly got out of the chair, threw down her sippy cup, proceeded to then trip over it, and fell, head first, into the metal table leg! Although we did not enjoy seeing her get hurt, it did give us the opportunity to comfort her and "kiss it better".

We have noticed a slight change in her caregivers since Friday. They no longer ask if we are taking her outside, they don't dress her to go outside for us anymore, and today, I actually put on her diaper! Ziva needs to understand that we are the ones in charge of her care and needs, so these are good things. We have also been told that, if we like, we can put our own clothes on Ziva now. We are afraid that if we do that, the clothes will get "lost" with the rest of the communal clothing. So we will wait.

Scott and I are continuing to "deal" with Ziva's high spiritedness and her determination. We know that most orphanage children are independent and very tough- it is a matter of survival for them. There is the tendency to play rough, hit, be destructive, and be defiant. We started to realize that, hey, in a little over a week, she will be with us. It had to start sometime... so we are beginning to set boundaries and we are saying, "No!" more often. And yes, she does understand "no"!! Today, after we said, "No!", she put her arm up against her head to cover her face, put her head against the wall, and pouted! It was hard not to laugh; but, we are glad to see that she is responding to our discipline...even just a little.

That is all the news for now. I will try and post a few more photos from today as well...

Now we are three!

Ziva is officially ours! We had our court appointment today at 3:00, which took about an hour. Scott and I were so nervous, although we didn't really have any need to be. We were asked quite a few standard questions about our age, address, occupations, education, why we chose Ukraine, income, etc.- all things that were already explained in our home study and our documents. Poor Scott, he was asked at least twice as many questions as I was! Then they threw in a few "strange" questions for us and we wondered if they did that just to see if we would reacte. They asked Scott how many square metres our house is and he automatically answered in square feet; he then had to backtrack, do the math, and give the correct answer. This may not seem like a big deal, but when in a Ukrainian court where everyone is very serious and you are very nervous, it is easy to get flustered! They asked me if I had ever been a prisoner! I was also asked, "If Scott and I were ever to have a biological child, would we bring Ziva back to the orphanage?" And the best one was, while pointing at Scott, "Are you married to that guy?" Too funny. The judge spent quite a bit of time reading some approvals and statements, during which I looked outside at the falling snow and daydreamed. Hey, even the judge sounded bored as he read it and the people who understood Ukrainian looked like they were going to fall asleep! After all the statements were read and the questions were asked, there was a 2 minute recess. The judge returned, read another 2 page document, and next thing we knew, he and the other "court people" were shaking our hands and congratulating us! It was somewhat anti-climactic; I guess that is to be expected when you don't understand the language!

So now we begin our 10 day waiting period. January 26th marks the day that we can take Ziva out of the orphanage, but we may have to wait until the 27th because of some paperwork that needs to be done first. We will keep you posted.

We have noticed a change in Ziva this week when we go and pick her up from her room. Before, she would take the time to tell her caregivers that we had arrived and go and get ready. Now when she sees us, she gets very excited- she starts to stomp her feet, shake her arms, and scream! (Which starts the other kids to screaming, which is not appreciated by the caregivers!) She runs as fast as she can over to us, pushing other kids out of the way (who are always crowded around our legs), and just falls into our arms. She then needs to go back and get ready; we can often see her getting dressed and she does the foot stomping, arm shaking, and screaming the entire time. It is the sweetest.

Thanks again to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Today was indeed an answer to prayer! God is faithful!

Some more photos

Some more photos for your enjoyment...

Ziva loves Honey Nut Cheerios!

Today it was 4C! I think today was the first day that I was able to go outside without my hood on! Notice that we now have a nice, new stroller for Ziva...it's amazing what you can get with a little complaining...

Ziva absolutely loves grapes. She always needs one in

each hand and will eat them until they are gone.

Ziva cracks herself up!

Ziva loves to play a game with us where she stands

right behind us and we ask, "Where's Ziva?" She

sneaks out in front of us and we make a big deal of

"finding" her, saying, "Oh, there's Ziva!" She will

play this over and over again and she thinks it is

so funny. Here she is playing the game with Scott.

A girl after my own heart...reading.

Ziva was so proud of the stethoscope that she

"borrowed" from the doctor.

A hello from Kremenchuk

Hello, everyone. A few more days have passed and we are just enjoying our time with Ziva... and waiting and waiting. This trip has been a true test of patience!

Our doctor's appointment on Sunday went very well. The doctor was warm and friendly and we all liked her immediately. She gave Ziva a "once over" physically and also did a developmental assessment with her. Because of the language barrier, it is difficult for us to know how much Ziva understands and what she is able to do, so having the doctor perform the assessment was invaluable to us. She filled in some of the gaps and answered a lot of our questions. Dr. Anna could tell right away that Ziva is full of spunk and vinegar and always "looking" for something to get into (that she should not)- and she said how great that was to see in a child from an orphanage. She said that most children from an orphanage are more timid and afraid to try new things or to be curious (they have been told "no" too often). As Dr. Anna said, "Those kinds of people make the worst kids, but they make the best adults. Who wants a mushy watermelon for a child?" Ziva's determination is a good thing!! Oh, and just as we had already suspected, Ziva has bronchitis. So we are pumping her full of fluids from her new sippy cup (which she carries around under her arm like a football, by the way, because she doesn't want to put it down!). One more funny thing Dr. Anna said: when we told her how long we have been in Ukraine, she asked, "So you are applying for Ukrainian citizenship, then?" Ha! Ha! At least she could appreciate how long we have been here.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day here in Kremenchuk- the nicest day yet. It was sunny, no wind, and the temperature was just above 0C. We were excited to take Ziva out on such a nice day...only to be told by her caregivers that we were not allowed! When we questioned why, we were simply told, "Doctor". We do not always understand their decisions for Ziva's care. Ziva has had a cold/bronchitis since we got here 2 weeks ago and we have never been denied going outside before. When we pick Ziva up, they always insist that she put an extra sweater (she sweats so much as it is because she is always running!) and one day, they even wanted us to put a toque on her...and this was for indoors! Maybe they think all the extra clothes will make her bronchitis go away... Anyway, we suspect that the orphanage doctor is on a power trip because we brought in a private doctor on Sunday. Hopefully we will be able to go outside tomorrow...

That is all the news for now. I will try and post some more photos tomorrow.

Introducing Ziva!

Here's our girl! I know, there are a lot of photos, but it has been a while in coming so I figured I'd make it worth our while!