1. First day of school
2. Just playing around








*Note - D has become our son's middle name, and his first name now starts with N. We have chosen not to use our children's names on this blog for their privacy and safety.

Well, it is clear that neither of us has a future in blogging. Somehow it was a little easier to find the time to blog, when we were sitting around our apartment in Ukraine. When Matt and N arrived home, we became busy with life, and adjusting to a new little boy in the home. N is doing really well, and MOST of the time he is a delightful and happy five year old boy who is speaking mostly in English. We had a few temper tantrums in the beginning, but as the weeks have passed, those have disappeared. I will attempt to go back and give the highlights of the last few weeks.

Matt and N arrived at the airport around 10 pm, and even though they were happy to see us, they both looked exhausted. They had been traveling close to 24 hours. Fortunately, they were upgraded to first class from Kiev to New York, which was wonderful, but N did not sleep a wink on that leg of the flight. They did sleep some on the flight from NY, so at least they were a little bit rested. We buckled N into his car seat, and told him we were now going to his new house. When he arrived, he spent a little time looking around, and we showed him his new room. He walked around his room pointing to every single toy and piece of clothing and asked, "Is this mine?" over and over. This is a child who has really never owned much of anything, and he seemed a little overwhelmed to have a room of his own, full of clothes and toys. We let him play with his toys, and eventually he settled down and went to sleep. When he woke up, it became clear that we had a son who was very used to a strict routine. He asked for his clothes, and slippers. I laid out his clothes for him, but I had failed to buy him any slippers, so I grabbed a pair of flip-flops, and he happily put those on. He then got dressed, washed his face, brushed his teeth, folded his pajamas and put them under his pillow, and made his bed. Then he asked for permission to play with his toys. After playing for about 30 minutes, he asked for breakfast. When I told him yes, we could have breakfast, he immediately started cleaning up all of his toys without being asked. He and I snuck into the kitchen, because everyone else was still asleep, and I made him some oatmeal. He still continues to be a pretty orderly child, and never complains when I ask him to clean up his toys, or his room. Most of the time, he is eager to please and is really cooperative.

For the first couple of weeks, we stayed home as much as possible. The hardest part was just keeping N entertained. He was used to having a very structured routine in the orphanage, and he really did not have the ability to play independently because, I am sure, he never had to in the orphanage. I did my best to structure his day, and provide different activities, and toys to play with throughout the day. During those first few days, we swam a lot (he had no fear of the pool), rode bikes, played soccer, played with play-doh, watercolors, and a variety of toys. The girls were a big help that first week, because they weren't back in school yet, but after they went back to school, it was much harder to keep N entertained. He really wanted mama to play with him all day long, and he would follow me EVERYWHERE I went in the house those first few weeks.

He has been very affectionate with us both from the beginning. He loves to sit in our laps and just be held and cuddled. When we first came home I would tell him "I love you" in Russian, and he would just giggle. Then he started saying it back in Russian. I still tell him "I love you" in Russian, and he says it back in English now. When "papa" leaves the house, N stand on the porch yelling "love you pop...love you popi" as he drives down the street, and when he comes home from work, he is usually tackled at the front door, and then there is a 30 minute nightly wrestling session in our family room. He also used to repeat "maiya (my) mama" over and over dozens of times throughout the day...now it's just a couple times a day. He loves to play with his sisters, and they love him too. B likes to mother him and take care of him, and K is just a really good playmate most of the time. They did have a few, short-lived moments during those first weeks when they wanted to send him back, and there are times even now when they need to go to their rooms to get away from their rambunctious brother, but most of the time, they love to be with him, and they all play well together. During the first few weeks, he did drive us crazy by constantly playing with the light switches, TV buttons, cabinets, and doors. I think everything was just so new to him, and he was extremely curious, and wanted to explore.

We have been to the both the pediatrician, and the pediatric ophthalmologist, and the dentist. His health is good although he is definitely on the lower end of the height and weight charts. He was a little bit anemic, and is on iron supplements. He is very far-sighted, and he has new glasses, which he is very happy to wear. The ophthalmologist said the crossed-eyes should correct on their own, with the glasses, and after just a few weeks in the glasses, we can see a big difference already. And the dentist said he had reasonably good dental care, and he only has one cavity.

N is now in preschool. He attends preschool in English 3 mornings each week, and we found a wonderful Russian preschool that he attends 2 mornings a week. He really enjoys them both, and loves to go to school, and his teachers say he is doing well. He has had lots of opportunities to play with friends and family. He is very social, and so far he has done really well in social situations, and is usually well behaved in restaurants.

We feel really blessed to have N in our family. In many ways having him home with us has been much easier than I imagined, but it has still been really hard at times. He is an early riser, and I am not getting enough sleep. He is busy, busy, busy, and if I don't remember to provide constant activities, or even just remind him to play with his toys, he is still likely to get into something that he is not supposed to. But the joys far outweigh the trials. He is happy, and loving, and grateful most of the time. He loves my cooking, and raves about "oozhen" (dinner) every night. He eats all of his vegetables, and he wants to eat everyone else's. The only foods that he doesn't like are those that are particularly "American" - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hamburgers (unless it's loaded with veggies), hot dogs, and especially chicken nuggets. He looked at the chicken nuggets at a fast food restaurant and asked, "Is this food?" Who can blame him for that!

He has a world map up on his wall, and every night before he goes to bed, he asks to look at "Oookrieena" (Ukraine). Then he goes through the whole story. He starts with the train noises, and runs his finger on the map from Mariupol to Kiev. Then he puts his arms out like a plane, and runs his finger from Kiev to New York, and then New York to LA. Then he pretends to drive a car until he gets home. We are grateful that N was well cared for at the orphanage. After having him in our home for 12 weeks, it is clear to us that he was loved and taught well there. Although sometimes when the three kids are playing together, I look at him and I can't believe that he hasn't been here his whole life.

The first few days home

1. & 2. Swimming the first week home

3. A new haircut and a new attitude!

4. Playing with trains. Thank you Haugens! He loves them.

The Waiting Child

N has been in an orphanage since birth, although he wasn't available for international adoption until the day before we met him, because his birth parents' rights had only been terminated recently. He probably witnessed many kids being adopted, and probably wondered when it was his turn. I saw this poem a long time ago, and when I read it I thought. "Oh, that doesn't apply to us, because we aren't going to adopt a child that old". It turned out to be the perfect poem for our family.

The Waiting Child
by Debbie Bodie

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully.
And as you walked away with her
I played pretend you'd chosen me.

I'm happy for the baby yet
Inside I'm aching miserably.
I want to plead as you go by
Does no one want a child of three?

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met.
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn't my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year
I knew I'd seen your face before.
But you came for another babe
Does no one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new.
A nurse came in and took my hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true? I'm almost six
And there are infants here you see?
And then you kissed me and I knew
The child you chose this time was me.

A few more pics of the orphanage

Outer Space

It is difficult to imagine what D is experiencing right now, but try to imagine what life must be like for him. He has spent his entire life inside the walls of an orphanage and then he is escorted away by yours truly, a man who speaks a foreign language. Things that you and I take for granted are amazing experiences for him. In the last 36 hours, he has ridden in a taxi, spent half a day on a train, gone potty in a public restroom, walked the streets of a cosmopolitan city, walked the isles of a grocery store, experienced the benefits of a luxury apartment like splashing around in an extra large bath tub and jumping on a King size bed, listened to an I-pod, watched cartoons on a lap top computer, flushed a modern toilet, washed his hands in a modern sink, slept on a King size bed, risen in a glass elevator, rode down an escalator, shopped in an underground mall, eaten pizza in a restaurant, and countless other things, all for the first time.

I hope I have not given you the impression that the orphanage in Mariupol is an inadequate place. After taking a tour, I was blown away by how incredible it is. The orphanage director and her staff have done an extraordinary job making the living conditions very comfortable and the schooling environment outstanding. The children are divided into small groups by their ages and intellectual abilities. Each group has about ten to fifteen children and has its own living area. In each living area, there is a large living room, dorm room with beds and lockers, and a large bathroom. The children have access to a large assembly room, a Ukrainian cultural room, a plush music and poetry room, a cooking classroom where children learn how to cook basic foods, a physical education room, an art room, and an ecology room. Besides the children’s rooms, there is a commercial kitchen, a laundry facility, a medical exam room, a sewing room, administration offices, and a staff lounge. Included among the thirty or so staff members are a doctor, a director, an assistant director, nurses, a social pedagogue, a seamstress, administrators, caretakers, cooks, laundry workers, and security guards. You can now see why I am so impressed.

We completed the medical examination on Monday and picked up his Visa at the US embassy today. So, the final stages of the adoption process are done. In other words, we are almost home. This has been an incredible experience, but I am ready to return to California. See you soon.

THREE DOWN AND TWO TO GO

After Tami and the girls spent more than 24 hours hanging out in airports and airplanes on Wednesday, I was quite happy when I heard that they had arrived home safe and sound. The first thing the girls did was check in on the cats. They missed them dearly and were excited to see them again.

While the rest of the family was traveling home, I was traveling on a train with Kostya from Kyiv to Gorlovka, Kostya's home town. Gorlovka is only two hours from Mariupol and thirty minutes from Donetsk. It made sense for me to stay in Gorlovka for a day while we waited to finalize things in Donetsk on Friday (today).

After arriving at Kostya's home yesterday morning, Olga made us a delicious breakfast, ham and cheese crepes, cheese and raisin crepes, and sour cream and raspberry jam crepes. She needs to open up a Ukrainian restaurant in So. Cal. Any investors? After breakfast, Kostya showed me around Gorlovka. He owns a comfortable apartment which is within walking distance from a grocery store, a bank, many parks, four large ponds, the city square, a bowling alley, and two large universities. It is nice place to live and raise a family. I even had a chance to chat with his 60 year old father about politics, sports, and the USSR. He too is quite a gentlemen and I was fascinated by what he had to say. I am grateful to have experienced Ukrainian hospitality first hand and in particular, the hospitality of Kostya's family. They treated me like King.

Earlier this morning, we hopped in a taxi for Donetsk, the capital of this region and the site of today's work. You see, it has now been ten days and D is our son. So, I now have the right to obtain D's birth certificate and passport. As a matter of fact, I just obtained D's new birth certificate which states his father's name, Matthew P. Armstrong, and his mother's name, Tamra J. Armstrong. Soon, we will be picking up his Ukrainian passport which is the final hurdle in the Donetsk region. After we get his passport, we will be traveling back to Mariupol and taking physical custody of D on Sunday.

It appears that we will be leaving Mariupol on Sunday afternoon by train for Kyiv. While in Kyiv, D will have to undergo a medical examination by a certified doctor and we will have paper work to complete at the American embassy. I am hoping to take D to his first soccer game on Tuesday evening to watch the Ukrainian national soccer team play against Uzbekistan. How's that for our first father/son outing? We will have quite a bit of time to play before we fly home on Thursday. I am sure it is going to interesting. I hope to see you next weekend. Thanks for checking in.

It's Official!!

Our court date went well, as expected, and hopefully, we will be able to take custody of D on Friday, August 17th. The judge was relaxed and only asked us a few questions. It was a very smooth and easy process, but relatively uneventful. The best part is just knowing that it’s all downhill from here, and D is officially ours!!

A Little Vacation and Coming Home

Even though we missed our annual summer vacation trips, we made up for it by taking a side trip to a little resort village about 20 kilometers west of Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. We joined Kostya, and his wife and son in a great little beach house that you can see in the picture. The girls had a lot of fun playing with Kostya’s son. On the last couple of days, we had strong winds which created some big waves, and we all had a great time swimming in the sea. It’s amazing how much fun the kids had together even though they don’t speak the same language. Kostya’s wife, Olga, spoiled us with her wonderful cooking, and we enjoyed great conversation with good friends. It was particularly special because K celebrated her 7th birthday while we were there.

We are having difficulty rescheduling our flights home. Our original return plane tickets were for Wednesday, August 15th, but we need to reschedule them for Wednesday, August 22nd. We contacted our travel agent, and Delta has no flight available with 5 tickets anytime near the 22nd. It looks likeI am going to have to come home with the girls on the 15th, and then Matt will come home with D the following week. We really want to fly home together as a family, but it looks like this is our only option. The girls cried when they found out they may be going home early, and Matt and I had a hard time deciding who would go and who would stay. We finally decided that I will come home with the girls early, unless the travel agent is able to come up with a better option. We’ll keep you posted.

DOWN BY THE SEA

After a week of living less than 500 yards from the beach, we ventured down the long pathway to the Azov Sea. As you can see from the pictures, we are living by a beautiful beach. It has plenty of sand to layout on and a view of the water which extends beyond the horizon.

While standing on the beach, you get three interesting views. When you turn to your right, you see one of the country’s largest metallurgical plants operating in high gear. You can see plumes of red smoke rising up into the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If Al Gore knew about this city, he would be busy making “An Inconvenient Truth 2”. When you turn to your left, you see an open coastline with tall trees and sand bars reaching out into the sea. When you turn around and look back up the hill, you see ugly Soviet era apartment buildings. When you think about the real estate on our coastline, it is strange to see buildings like this lineup the coast highway.

For those of you who are curious about the city of Mariupol, it has nearly a half a million people and is the tenth largest city in Ukraine. It is the largest producer of steel and iron in the country. The plant you see in the picture is absolutely massive. When driving by it at 60 miles per hour, it takes over five minutes to pass. The downtown area seems to have plenty of shops and restaurants.

D is doing very well. He has even mastered a few useful English phrases. His favorite so far is “Cookie please”, but he also appears to know the importance of a well balanced diet because he can say “juice” and “banana” equally well.

On Tuesday, we have our court day which is the day when the judge decides if we can make the adoption official. Several other parents who have adopted from this region have assured us that things should go smoothly. If everything goes well, we will have a ten day wait before we can pick D up. Then, we will have a few hoops to jump through in Donetsk, which is the Capital of the region, and in Kyiv. Please pray that all of the details fall into place.

We are having a lot of fun over here. Thanks for following our story.

The last few days

Visits with D continue to go really well. With each passing day, we see more of his happy, easy-going personality. We are still waiting for the moment when he really tries to test our boundaries, but that hasn’t happened yet. We fill the time each day playing with sand toys, books, crayons, Legos, and a few other toys we bring. He has become more talkative, and we are beginning to see just how outgoing he is. He will chatter on in Russian for a quite a long time. Sometimes I am able to catch a few key words, and figure out what he is trying to say, and sometimes I have absolutely no clue. I just say, “Ya nye paniyi-maiyu” (I don’t understand), and then he laughs at me. I’m sure he must be thinking, “Why did I get this stupid American mama?”. He learns a few new English words each day, and his English pronunciation is much better than my Russian.
Vanya spent Monday and Tuesday morning running around completing paperwork. On Tuesday afternoon, Matt and Vanya went with the orphanage director to an electronics store to help them buy an air-conditioning unit for their main meeting room. Then at 5:00 pm, Vanya took the train back to Kiev to take care of more paperwork at the SDA. He will arrive back here tomorrow (Thursday morning). In the meantime, if we need a translator, we can call Kostya (he is in another city with our Mississippi friends) or Vanya, and they will do it over the phone.
I know that you are probably having visions of a wonderful seaside resort town, but Mariupol is definitely not a resort town. The centerpiece of the city is a large metallurgic plant, which emits a stinky brown cloud that settles over the city. There are people swimming in the Sea of Azov, but Vanya says it’s polluted and we shouldn’t swim there. We actually live very close to the sea, but we haven’t ventured down there yet. I’m sure there is probably a pretty part of the city somewhere, but we haven’t found it yet. When we were in Kiev, Kostya said that the tax money from the other regions, all ends up back in Kiev and now I understand what he means. The public areas here are not nicely maintained like they are in Kiev.
We are renting a two bedroom apartment from a young, single mother. She actually moved in with the next door neighbor so that we could live here. Thid is very common here. It is very clean and charming in sort of a “grandma’s house” kind of way. She is charging us $30 a night (and no, that is not a misprint) which is about 25% of what we were paying in Kiev. We prepaid her for 10 days, and she immediately went out and bought a new sofa, because she said the old one wasn’t comfortable enough for us. She also said that cleaning, laundry, and ironing is included in the price, but when she came to do our laundry today, we paid her 100 gryvna (about $20). When we leave, we hope to be able to leave her a little extra to thank her for her generosity. The building that we are living in is a 9 story concrete blockbuilding. Vanya said that hundreds of these exact same 9 story buildings were built all over the Soviet Union in the 1980’s. They were built to alleviate the housing shortage during the 70’s. The best way to describe the outside of the buildings here is to say that they look like the “projects”. The outside of these buildings are not maintained, but inside they are clean and nicely decorated. There are several of these concrete buildings built in sort of a circle around a common “weed patch” area with benches, and a dilapidated playground. In the evening when it gets cooler, the older men gather in one area, the older women in another, and the moms (dressed up in their stiletto heels and short skirts, of course) take the kids out to play.
We have found a couple good restaurants in town, but we are mostly buying food at the market, and eating in our apartment. Tonight we bought a roasted chicken, a salad with cabbage, cucumber, dill, and a very yummy dressing, and French fries and ketchup for the girls.
We are hoping to get a tour of the orphanage soon, so I will write about the orphanage after we see it all.

WE FOUND OUR BOY!!

We found our boy!!!!! We had planned to come home with two boys under 5, but God had something else planned for our family, and this boy is a perfect fit in every way. He has dark hair, light eyes, and the same skin tone as the girls. He is bright, energetic, and has a happy disposition. When he walked into the room to greet us, he came up to us, shook our hands and said, “Hello, my name is D” (in Russian of course).
Several adoptive parents have told us that you will know instantly when you meet your child, and that is how we both felt. We still took some time to meet with the orphanage personnel, and the doctor, and we spent some time playing with him on the playground at the orphanage, but we knew from the instant we saw him.
He does not have any health issues that concern us, although he does have a very small umbilical hernia that they chose not to fix because it is so small. He also has a lazy eye which seems to be very common among orphans. I think this is due to a lack of visual stimulation when they are babies. He will likely need glasses, and possibly some corrective surgery, because he may be considered too old to completely correct the problem with eye patching. He was able to identify the objects in a picture book, and he was able to name each of us on the small display screen on our camera, so he seems to see fairly well.
When we went back to the apartment after our visit, we realized that we had all noticed that he was walking funny. Matt had already come to terms with the idea that he was not going to have an athlete for a son. Knowing that we were concerned, Vanya immediately called a pediatrician, and they discussed the possible causes of this, and whether or not it could be related to the lazy eye. When we returned the next day, we focused in on his walk. We first noticed that his sandals were buckled way too loosely. Then, we noticed a problem with his right sandal. We were tickled to find out that the cause of his funny walk was only a broken sandal. The next day he showed up in a new pair of sandals and has walked fine since.
He is very conversational, and seems to have an appropriate vocabulary for his age. Vanya has been quite surprised at some of the things that he has said. After we decided to adopt him, he told Vanya that his new parents spoke English, and he would speak English after he goes on the samulot (plane). If only it were that easy! When we were leaving the orphanage yesterday, Vanya overheard him talking to the guard at the door. He said, “I used to not have a family, but now I do”. Are you crying now? I’m sure he can’t begin to imagine what that really means, since he has little concept of what a family is, and he has no idea how much his life is about to change. He has spent his entire life in an orphanage, which is actually somewhat comforting to us, because from what we have seen of the orphanage, he is loved and well cared for, and we don’t have to wonder if he had some kind of tragic home life.
The social pedagog (the lady whose job it is to teach them social skills) told us that he likes Legos and soccer, so we decided to bring him Legos on the second day. He immediately opened the booklet that comes with the Legos, and started building one of the examples in the book. Today, we brought him a puzzle, and he completed it easily. The girls are crazy about him, and they are a huge help when it comes to entertaining him for 4 hours a day (visiting hours are from 10 am -12 noon and 4-6 pm each day) on a rather uninteresting playground. When we brought him the puzzle today, he said, “I want my sisters to do it with me”. We are settling in to a new schedule of two daily visits, and I’m sure that the rest of our time will be filled with meals, grocery shopping , laundry, and other daily necessities.
Vanya spent Friday, and part of Saturday running around like crazy to get paperwork completed, and tomorrow he will be leaving at 5:30 am to travel to D’s hometown to complete more paperwork. A taxi will pick us up to take us to the orphanage for our visits. This will be our first visit without a translator, but I’m sure we’ll be just fine.

A VERY GOOD DAY

We arrived in Mariupol at eight in the morning on Friday after the longest train ride of lives. Fortunately, we brought lots of food to eat and had four relatively comfortable beds to sleep on. We were ready to meet this five year old boy.

Unlike our first meeting, everything on Friday went perfectly well. First, the district social worker met with us on time. He then, unlike most people in his position, escorted us to the orphanage. When we arrived at the orphanage, he quickly walked us into the orphanage director’s office. After the director and her staff gave us a briefing about the child, we met our son for the first time.

I can tell you that the moment Tami and I saw D, we knew he was right for our family. He has a contagious smile and a charming personality. Our first two days together have been a pleasure. He even looks like a little Armstrong.

I must say, I was not expecting to have such a strong emotional reaction when he walked into the office. It was beyond words. I can think of no better way to explain this other than to say he is the answer to our prayers.

Today, we had a chance to not only visit D a second time, but offer him a small snack. Even though we have been warned about the eating habits of orphans, it is hilarious to watch him eat for the first time. His first course was a banana. He quickly unpeeled it and proceeded to devour the piece of fruit in three large gulps. While we watched each bite, I worried that he was going to choke because he shoved the banana so deeply into his mouth. Tami quickly grabbed the peel because she thought he was going to eat it also. His next course was a box of juice. He took a deep breath and drank ten ounces of juice in one continuous sip. He then tilted the juice box multiple times to see if perhaps a slightly different angle might get him more juice. We now know precisely why the directly told us in no uncertain terms not to give him too much to eat during snack time.

Thanks for checking in. We’ve been so busy that Tami hasn’t had time to blog, but you can expect to hear from her soon.

A SECOND REFERRAL

Yesterday, we received a surprise morning phone call from the SDA regarding a five year old boy who had just come available. We were presented with the option of waiting until next week when many more children will come off the registry, or going to visit this little boy now. During our afternoon meeting, we had many questions for the social worker. After she explained the story of this child, we decided to accept this referral.

We are packing up and preparing to leave Kyiv at 3:00 pm for the Azov Sea town of Mariupol. We are scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. Fortunately, we will have our own compartment with four beds. Yes, it is a long train ride so it may be a few days before we get a chance to post again. We appreciate your support and thanks for checking in.

Sunday night soccer game

Last night, we went out to dinner with Vanya. The food here is a little different, but still yummy. I had a salad that had two peach halves filled with chicken salad and cheese. We also had our favorite Ukrainian pizza which is topped with chicken, corn, and pineapple. The pizza here is small with thin crust, and sort of reminds me of the pizza from Panera. The kids always get cheese pizza, and I can tell from the waiters’ reaction, that this is quite unusual. There is always some additional dialog between our translator and the waiter and I’m assuming the waiter is saying, “Only cheese… nothing else? Are you sure? Well, that’s still going to cost you the same.”
After dinner, we went to the soccer game between two Kiev teams. Dynamo Kiev, which seems to be the most popular team here (and Kostya’s favorite), and the other team, whose name I don’t remember. Matt said it was sort of like the Lakers vs. the Clippers. It was fun, but the girls were getting bored by half time. Vanya went and got them an ice cream, which probably bought us an additional 20-30 minutes. We left before the game ended, which was probably good because we beat the crowd. When we left, Dynamo Kiev was winning 2-1, but I haven’t heard the final score. After a quick trip to the bakery and the market, we went home and went to bed.

Ear Piercing and Bowling

On Saturday, B decided that she was ready to get her ears pierced. Even though I didn’t mention it, I was a little concerned that the safety and sterilization would not be up to US standards, but I was wrong. Right after B mentioned it, Kostya started looking into salons that did piercings, and before we knew it, he had an appointment scheduled. It was a very nice salon, clean and modern. I don’t even think they did hair. I think it was just for facials, massages. etc. B was a little nervous. We were greeted by two very sweet Ukrainian women in white lab coats who helped B pick out a pair of earrings. Then one of the women took us back into a room. The room looked a bit like an operating room. It was bright, clean, and sterile. She scrubbed down like she was about to perform surgery, and began removing tools from the sealed, sterile containers. She spent quite a long time measuring and marking B’s ears, and then she let B try the gun so that she could hear what it would sound like. The next thing we knew, B had pierced ears and now she was getting a shoulder and neck massage. All that for 68 gryvna (less than $14.00) That will always be a great memory for her, and now K has decided that she wants to come back to Ukraine to get her ears pierced when she is 9.
After B got her ears pierced, we went bowling with Kostya, Vanya (one of Kostya’s assistants), and our friends from Mississippi. Matt was winning, but in the final frame, Vanya bowled three strikes to win the game (Matt said that was an unnecessary detail to add).

Another Day

Life in Kyiv is not too different from life at home. On Wednesday, we traveled to an American style mall where we ate McDonalds, ice skated, and window shopped. Yesterday, we went to a beach on the Dnepr River. The beach was similar to the Balboa fun zone. There were all kinds of fun things to do. The girls had a blast on the water slides and went on a bumper boat ride after they swam in the river.

Today was laundry day. Thankfully, our friends from Mississippi offered us their washing machine. Our new apartment does not have a washing machine and neither one of us wanted to do laundry in our apartment bathtub. So, Tami spent most of the day at their apartment doing laundry while I stayed at our apartment watching the kids. I think they broke a record for time on the internet playing at their new favorite web site called “Club Penguin”. Tonight, we walked to a park so the kids could run around a little. Before we knew it, it was 9:30 and time to head home. The playground was still full of kids and there was plenty of daylight when we left. Just another day in Kyiv. Thanks for checking in.

Yesterday, we went to St Sophia’s Cathedral, and to the top of its bell tower. The view from the bell tower was amazing. We had a bird’s-eye view of the entire city. The original structure was built in 1037 by order of Kievan Rus Grand prince Yaraslov the Wise, whose sarcophagus is in the cathedral. The cathedral is adorned with the original 11th century frescoes and mosaics, which are absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside.
After we went to the cathedral, we took the Funicular, then the Metro, and then a shuttle bus until we arrived at a very American style mall with an ice rink, bowling alley, and movie theater. The girls had a great time ice-skating. At their food court, Kostya and I ate at Sbarro (spelled Cbappo in Russian, but still pronounced Sbarro) and Matt and the kids had McDonalds. The mall also contained a grocery store that was bigger than any market we have at home. It was about the size of a WalMart, but it was mostly groceries. I was so overwhelmed with all of the choices that we actually left without buying anything. Earlier this morning I was regretting the fact that we didn’t buy any pastries for breakfast. The baked goods are wonderful here, and you can buy at huge loaf of bread for 3 gryvna (about 60 cents).

Ice Cream

I’m sure we have passed by Baskin Robbins at least a dozen times, but we still haven’t tried any. There is also a TGI Friday’s here, but we haven’t gone there yet either. We did go to McDonald’s once. K calls this one McDonald’s Palace, and you can see why in the picture. Yesterday, the girls declared that they like Ukrainian ice cream better than California ice cream. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to sample every kind, because Kostya buys them at least one almost every day. I think this is his way of keeping the whining to a minimum.