March 27, 2002 update

Hi everyone,

I am happy to report that today we go to pick up the kids from the orphanage in Schezhnoe. The last 10 days have been a whirlwind, and I have not had access to email, sorry about that.

So the little Alexander that I had met in November was still there and just like I remembered, even better. He is a little cutie who is intensely curious and begs me to give him math questions to work on. I found a brother for him, also named Alexander. They were both in the orphanage in Mariupol together, and moved to this one in August, so they know each other. His patrynomic name was Nicholiev, so I took that as his first name "Nickolas". Both can go by Sasha if they want!

Nickolas just turned 9, but is small for his age. He is a singer and also concentrates very hard on doing puzzles and coloring in the workbook I brought. I love his positive attitude. He is more outgoing than Alexander, though they both are pretty shy. He goes over the photos books many times at every visit, and has shown them to everyone on his group, and his caregiver etc.

They are both good boys and come with many compliments (and tears of joy) from the orphanage staff.

On Friday, the final court decree was granted making me their official mom. They are bonding well already and are very snuggly. The judge was an eloquent woman who truly felt for the boys and what I was trying to do (build a family). She had had only one other international adoption, so I felt it was important to make a good impression for those who follow. She very much appreciated the effort of me coming across the ocean and made an embarrassing comparison to Mother Theresa! She also joked at the end if I would consider adopting more older children, maybe 40-50 years old (herself!) The orphanage director did the same! The most wonderful part of the court hearing was testimony on my behalf by the Guardianship Office women, and the social worker from the orphanage.

Life is so hard here, I feel for the people of Ukraine. Especially the Dom Bass region where I am which is heavily industrialized and hardly a pretty thing to look at. Most of the economy of the cities here is based on coal mining, and most of the mines are shut down, so there are no jobs.

I have been staying with my translator's family in Donetsk, a 2-hour drive from the orphanage. They have welcomed me as one of their family and I cannot express how much their home and support have helped me through this. I spent ten days with them. They fed me constantly and helped me learn useful phrases in Russian, and cheered me up when I had a meltdown on Friday. Really, the trip would have been 10 times harder without them. Sergey's mom is a super Mom constantly in the kitchen and brings me food saying/demanding "eat eat!". They are quite amazing and I have learned a lot about the Russian spirit and lifestyle.

We have a wonderful taxi driver named Inge who has totally immersed himself in this journey. He finally let me take his picture, but he is embarrassed about his 1976 Lada which he keeps in immaculate condition. (He also buys me chocolate!) On Sunday, after visitng the orphanage, he took me to a Russian monument to WWII. I didn't expect to like it, but was suprised to see it was for the common soldiers. Not the typical soviet monument to Lenin. I could see it 14 kilometers away in Schoezhnoe, because it sits on the highest point in the region. It is a stile (sp?) like the Washington monument, and even from a distance is awesome in its size. The names of those who died are cast in metal on a wall at the base of the monument. Like all civic areas, it is run-down and falling apart. An old man stood futiley sweeping a huge parking lot with a small hand broom in gusting winds.

I am fascinated by this country. In this far eastern part of Ukraine the people consider themselves Russians and have little affiliation with the nation of Ukraine. Saturday 3/31 is the national election for the Rada and the president. I have enjoyed seeing the Green Party election PR. They have great marketing skills which are western in nature (billboards, flyers etc) -- they feature a sunflower and faces of ordinary folk from all walks of life.

The plan from here is to head to Kyiv tonight if we can. There is some paperwork there that may be a little difficult. In the best case, we will head to Warsaw early next week for the visas, and then home on Thursday, but I will send more details as things progress.

Thanks for all your emails, I wish I could respond to each one, but am little overwhelmed right now, so I hope this website update is enough for now.

I hope to show the boys some of the beautiful sites I saw in Kyiv last weekend, St Sophia Cathedral, Adreiuskvy (sp?) Street market, Taras Shevshenko Park etc. They are thrilled with every little thing.

Ruth