Returning to Kiev to restart our Ukraine adoption

Hi all,

Well it looks as though our trip to Dneprpepetrosk (sp?) didn't quite turn out the way we were hoping. After taking an overnight train ride to this city on Tuesday night, we saw a little girl on Wednesday who could only be described as adorable. Blue eyes with curly blonde hair. Shirley said that if she were to show pictures of herself at that age, you would think that they were sisters. The little girl did have a physical issue with her hips but we were assured by specialists at home that this would not be a problem to correct. It would take some initial work, patience and physical therapy but for the most part she would be running and playing with her classmates by Kindergarten.

Unfortunately there were other issues with the little girl that weren't revealed in her file at the State Department. We worked closely with our International Adoption Clinic and after a careful analysis by them, it was determined that these particular "other issues" would NOT be correctable over time. We agonized over this decision for quite awhile. Finally, as difficult as it was, Shirley and I simply had to refuse the referral. It tore us up but in the long run its for the best.

We will be leaving Dneprpepetrosk tonight on an overnight train back to Kiev. Our Kiev facilitator has already lined us up an apartment (with internet access...he promises) on the outskirts of the city. Once in Kiev we begin the waiting game for our 2nd appointment. How long will we wait? We have no idea; it could be as quick as a week or as long as 3 weeks. After we're given a new appointment date, we review additional profiles of children and can only hope that this time around we have better luck.

Some interesting tidbits of our trip. I had borscht (sp?) today for the first time. Its a Ukrainian soup (although the Russians also claim it) made of beets, beef, potatoes, plus some other unidentified floatables. It was actually pretty good. Even my finicky wife liked it.

Also, there will be a major holiday occuring in Ukraine tomorrow. On March 8th everyone celebrates "WOMEN'S DAY". Similar to Mother's Day but much, much larger in scale. It honors all women and the entire country shuts down. This year it happens to fall on a Saturday but everybody still gets the day off from work on Monday. Everywhere you look there are women carrying flowers. People that we've never seen before are telling Shirley the Russian equivelant of "congratulations" - the typical thing to say to a woman on women's day. Pretty cool, eh??

So to all of our female readers....

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Steve