2 Weeks in Ukraine. Not a Short One.

     This one may be a long entry. Our trip started on Sunday December 23rd to the Ukraine from Oklahoma City.  The two little girls in the house were definitely way more excited than Liz and I for the day and a half of traveling.   The plane rides went uneventful with the girls laughing all the way from Chicago to Germany while watching foreign Cartoons.  The biggest hiccup on our journey on the way there was the Fast Train or the lack of.   After a full day of flying we get straight off the plane to get on a train.  We chose to travel via the fast train as it has working restrooms, it does not smell like a cattle processing facility, and it takes half the time.   Once we show up at the train station we find out that the train is broken and they will be placing us on another train.   The facilitator in Kiev looks at us very seriously and tells us that this is very bad. The word he actually used is it was going to be awful.  The train pulls in and in regular Ukraine fashion people start a stampede to cars as now there are no assigned seats.  It was every person for themselves, and they have no qualms trampling kids in the process.   The first car instantly fills up, so we some how luck into our own personal compartment on the second car.  This was the only thing we luck into on this train.   The car we ended up in has no lights, no heat, no working bathroom, and smells like we are in a porta potty.   It is -20 outside so we break into the suitcases and put all the Ski type clothes we have on immediately.  We finally arrive at our destination to exit the train in near blizzard type snow fall.  We now have 100 kilometers to travel to our apartment from the train station.   Our driver proceeds to drive 100-130km/hr (62-75mph) in these awesome conditions.  The only way to cope with it was to just go to sleep.  We finally arrive at our apartment around 2am Christmas day.  Fairly exhausting trip, but the girls were high as a kite and ready to go get Masha on Christmas.
    The reunion on Christmas Day with Masha went just as I had pictured in my mind. I knew the second she saw my girls the lighthearted fun loving Masha would appear, and it did.  Big happy tears appeared and Keira and Carley were attached to her hip for the rest of the trip.  Every time I see her interactions with the girls it reinforces the feeling we are doing the right thing.  I am positive she is more concerned with the girls feelings and emotions than anyone else in the house, which is just fine with me.
    The court date was covered in the last blog, so we'll just move on to some Ukrainian culture.  December 28th is Masha's best friend Tanya's birthday.  We were invited over for a small celebration and dinner.   The food was definitely a Ukrainian dinner and if you know my meat only diet most the food was not for me.  The most difficult part of making it through the evening was the number of toasts and what they use to toast with.   Every couple says a toast to the birthday girl and after every toast a shot of vodka is drank by everyone at the table.   I was basically done after the we got through the first line of toasts.  Liz was very good at faking her way through it. I just went along with the festivities.  It definitely made the language barrier way less stressful at least.
     New Year Day or S Novym Godom in Ukraine could be a blog post in itself. New Year is their biggest holiday celebration of the year.  When Masha stayed with us for hosting she was very displeased with our lack of doing anything for New Years other than staying up late, eating cookies, and watching TV fireworks.   Now I know why.  Everyone and I mean everyone in Ukraine appears to celebrate the New Year much like Christians celebrate Christmas other than they have fireworks that go off all night long and into the next day.   The town square was like a huge tailgating party with everyone having a spread of food and spirits to keep the night going.  Music and DJs kept the crowd awake with American music being the biggest hit.  It was awesome to hear Bon Jovi sang with a Russian accent by the crowd.   The actual day of New Year we were again invited over to Masha's friend's house to  have another meal. I declined all alcohol this time around.  I assume it was a traditional meal like Turkey is for us for Thanksgiving.  Again, I can not say I enjoyed most the food, but how much effort put into the preparation was impressive.  This particular home was like stepping back into the 50s.  The men set around the table watching TV while the women spent the time in the Kitchen I am pretty sure making fun of the men.  I had to glance at Liz several times as the Dad barked orders to the wife knowing that definitely would not fly in our house.  The family that hosted us for New Years was a Godsend while we were there, and we are very thankful for the hospitality.
     The next day the girls and I had to leave with heavy hearts.  Again it was a brutal 2 days of travel.  The girls and I got on the nice train at 5pm the 2nd to head to Kiev.  We slept in the airport  and got back on a plane at 6am the morning of the 3rd.  We flew from Kiev, Ukraine to Frankfurt, Germany to Washington D.C, and then finally home to Oklahoma City.  The trip home went smooth as possible despite my anxiety until we hit U.S. soil.  We already had a 4 hour layover in DC that turned into 6.5 hours due to flight delays.  Then on the decent into the Oklahoma City Airport the ride gets very bumpy causing Keira to loses it, and she proceeds to vomit all over herself, our carry-ons, and of coarse me.  We finally land around 8:30 that evening, and are home in bed by 9:30.
     Now for the hard part.   Liz and Masha are stuck in Ukraine for 2 more weeks from today due to technicalities with the process.  So far everything has gone as it should, but the Ukraine Government shuts down from Jan. 1-8 so nothing can be done until it opens back up.   I would love to complain about being home by myself without the person I love most in the world, but I have the easy part.  I am in my nice cozy home with my 2 little girls where we have no limitations on what we want to do.  Liz is stuck in a tiny stinky apartment, without good transportation, with terrible food, in a place where communication is difficult at best, and she worries and misses her other two girls terribly.  I know if anyone can make the best out of the situation it is Liz.  She has the amazing ability to turn anything into an adventure.  I am praying daily for my two girls stuck in another country that they will be home soon in the comfort of our home forever.     
    

Faith allows things to happen. It is the power that comes from a fearless heart. And when a fearless heart believes, miracles happen.

    I start with a Faith quote, because that is what brought us here today.  Two weeks before our first trip to Ukraine Liz and I were broken and ready to call it all off.  We finally got the strength to sit our girls down and discuss that we were going to give up our attempts to get Masha.  There were tears and disbelief that we would give up.  (We preach daily to never give up regardless of the reason) Carley at the end of the conversation said she would pray and we would be going to see Masha for Christmas.  I assured her it was over and final even after her comment.  She looked at me as serious as Carley can be, and she told me she was still going to pray and we would be seeing Masha for Christmas.  Her faith even then rattled me as it was so confident, and I was afraid that she would be crushed when we did not proceed.  The next week she spent every night praying at bedtime that we would get Masha on Christmas.  Then somehow everything that was in disarray just seemed to right itself, so Liz and I took off on our first trip to Ukraine that you have already read about.  After returning all we had to do is bid our time for the court date to go back.  A week and a half later we get our court date of December 26th, but we picked Masha up on Christmas Day and have had her since.  I have no doubt the events unfolded like they did because of one 8 year old's childlike powerful faith.
     Today was court day.  The start of the day was filled with mixed emotions; nervousness, doubt, happiness, fear of sadness, and under all that shear excitement for what could be.  Court consisted of two jurors, judge, prosecuting attorney, ophanage representative, our translator, Masha, and our family.  Normal questions were asked of us that one would expect when adopting.  I could elaborate so much more, but this would become a novel.  Then it was Masha's turn, and our turn to fight back tears with her answer.  She described our family as something out of her dreams that she did not even know could actually exist.  Masha's words for Liz and my girls did bring me to the brink of tears, and I think I would have lost it if  they continued with the current line of questioning.  Finally they got to the real question, "Do you Masha, want to be Masha Nicole Atchley forever?"  Her answer was an immediate yes without hesitation, however just like us I can see the fear of the unknown in her eyes.  We have discussed each one of those fears, but she has never known the unconditional love of a family that will not abandon her.  She is about to embark on a great adventure into the unknown with people that say they love her, but in essence know very little of her.  I like to again think of it as an incredible leap of Faith though I know there are many factors in her decision.   The sense I get from her today is she is happy for what lies ahead of her, but scared to leave everything she has ever known behind.


PS. I will add the adventurers of 3 days of traveling with two little ones on a future blog.  Let's put it this way if travel could be worse I don't know how.  The girls never once moaned groaned no matter how bad it got.

Day 3 & 4 Reunited

     Day 3 in Ukraine we thought would be a complete waste because we had to wait on permission to travel to Masha's region until late in the evening.  We could not have been more wrong.  Nastya our facilitator sent us a guide to give us a tour of Kiev.  This young lady, Masha, gave us an incredible tour of the city with an in depth account of the 1500 year history of  Kiev, Ukraine.  Usually I am not a big history buff, but she held both of our attentions throughout the day.  The highlight of the tour was the Catacombs at the Kiev Monastary. Walking through the caves with the caskets and the religious symbols was very Indiana Jonesish.   The tour was soon over and we were on to what we heard was the dreaded train ride to Masha.   I thought every one was crazy at first, because the cabin was not bad, I didn't mind the loud rocking of the train, and I've been in worse bathrooms at football games.  Then two hours into the ride I was awaken by sauna like temperatures in our cabin.   There was absolutely no way to turn it down or off, so the temp just kept rising.  We resorted to opening the cabin door just to be met by more heat. I'm pretty sure it was almost hot enough to crack an egg and cook it on the floor.  Liz and I rode in complete misery for the next 7 hours.  I will now agree with everyone the train is just flat awful.
     Day 4 was the day we finally got to see Masha.  The reunion could not have gone better.  We got big smiles and huge hugs.  The director got right to business asking Masha if she was ready to sign her letter of intent.  There was no hesitation in her answer of да.  We then spent the rest of the morning at the orphanage while the facilitator started all the paperwork, and the afternoon running around the small town getting more signatures, copies, and notaries.  Masha got to spend the entire day with us while we did the paperwork, but it really ate into the quality time we got to spend with her.  Unfortunately our time was short with her and we had to board a different more comfortable train back to Kiev to make our flight home.  We are currently sitting in the Kiev airport getting ready to start our journey home.   We are praying that we have the shortest waiting period for our court date, so that we can bring the girls with us.   Things are looking good right now as our facilitator was able to get every signature he needed in one day, which usually takes 3-4.  He will submit our paperwork the first of next week then it will just be waiting for the court date to come.  Following that court appearance Masha officially becomes our daughter.

Day 2 Ministry of Magic Appointment.

     Day 2, appointment day, or first of 3 D days.  Today is the first day we actually accomplished something for real.  We met with the State Department of Adoption/SDA/Ministry of Magic.  This is where you set down with Ukraine officials select Masha, tell a little about yourself, and hear Masha's psychosocial and physical status.  I will have to say Liz quite impressed me with her Russian as she answered questions directly to the lady helping us without the translator.  I think it also put the official at ease because at first she appeared uptight and tense.  That seemed to change with a little effort from Liz to speak the language.  We also had to present a photo album, which they looked through every page and asked many questions.  After the interrogation we were told to come back the next day for approval to go down to see Masha.  Not sure why it takes a whole day, but it looks like we will finally see Masha on Friday after being here the entire week.  Tomorrow we will go on a 10-12 hour train ride to see our girl.
     Riding our high from a successful appointment Liz and I set out on foot around Kiev.  We probably covered a solid 10 miles of walking.  This place is truly a shopping girls paradise.  I thank God we only have so much room in our suit cases, because I think Liz has seen a million pairs of boots she would buy.  We ended up again eating something not very adventurous and settled on Pizza.  We did however eat dessert at a coffe shop and had some nice coffee and cheesecake.   I was feeling pretty good following the coffee and really tried to get Liz to head to a club and go dancing, but was completely unsuccessful.  She was worried how it would be perceived.   I was thinking it would be a good way to experience more of the culture myself.  Instead we came back to the apartment, she put on her flannel pajamas, watched it pour down snow, and now we are going to sleep.

Ukraine Day 1

     Day 1 pretty uneventful .   The only thing we did was stop by the grocery store, which was not much different than at home other than you have to lock up backpacks before you shop and the swap meet like shops you walk through to get to the groceries.  The people and driving remind me a lot like  New York, lots of pushing in baggage claim, no use of excuse me, and tons of honking in traffic with crossing more lanes than a person should at once.  Liz even stated she needed to put her New York hat back on, and the airport instantly reminded me of her friend Shannon throwing people out her way to get my bags when she picked me up 15 years ago.  After the grocery store we headed back to the apartment  which is very nice inside, the exterior reminds me of something right out of the movies or Rocky V.      I am very boring when it comes to trying new food so we went to TGIFs for some very American cuisine.  When dinner was finished we went for a short walk around the streets of Kiev.  I noticed Liz blended in very well and I stick out pretty noticeably as I got lots of stares at dinner and walking down the street.   Guess I'll attempt to wear a stocking cap and Johnny Cash type attire the rest of the trip.  Back at the apartment we pretty much crashed after a rather brutal day of travel.  We slept for a couple of hours, woke up to talk to the girls via Skype, and then back to bed.
      Wednesday is a pretty big day as we have our meeting with the ministry of magic to get our ok to go see Masha.  After the meeting we plan to get our adventurer hats on and explore the city some since we can not leave to Masha's region until the following day.  More to come as the 2 year quest to bring Masha home continues.

There is No Certainty; there is only Adventure!

    So it is officially official, we have our dates to fly to Ukraine and meet with the ministry of magic.  Liz and I will leave Monday, have our meeting on Wednesday, then travel immediately from there to Masha's orphanage to have her write the letter of intent.  This ridiculous roller coaster ride of uncertainty is about to come to a finite end in the next 6-8 weeks.   I think in the last 2 months we have been to both extremes on our decision to continue, but when it comes down to it there is a little girl that we have had in our house for 10 weeks that we all fell in Love with.   Our real adventure starts next week as we work to permanently make Masha a part of our family.  Liz and I both know that there is no certainty on how things will go once we bring her home, but we hope with our love and guidance we can help her to change her stars.  We know there are some that will think we are crazy, some that will not understand, and others that flat just do not agree with what we are doing, but we hope that those that feel that way can find in their heart to be supportive as getting her home will just be the beginning of the journey. 

A Very Short Update

     A quick word on where we are at right now.  All our paperwork has been submitted.  We actually received a travel date to Ukraine, but it is 2 weeks before Masha is available.  Since Masha isn't available to adopt until November 28th we had to turn down the date and request another.  The issue with having to turn down the date is we are only allowed 3 appointment dates.  If the next date doesn't fit in the appropriate time frame we will be out of luck.  Right now we are taking it one day at a time not getting our hopes up too much.  Not one thing has gone as planned to date, so no reason to expect it will in the future.