Finally, another update!

It is hard to believe it has been so long since I have updated. We have just been wrapped up in raising six kids. Having 5 teenagers can keep you busy. Since bringing Katya home, we went to Disneyland, we also spent a fun week at Lake Powell. Zhenya, Leeza and Katya are all speaking english very well. All three of them have been working. Zhenya is working at Red Robin, Leeza and Katya are both working at Banana Republic. It is as close to the world of high fashion as Leeza and Katya can get right now, so they are happy to be around clothes and to have a little extra money to buy some too. Alex is still swimming 6 days a week and is starting her second year of high school swimming. Sonya is growing up fast. Dad is going to join the NRA soon and spend a lot of time on the front porch keeping the suitors under close watch. Nikitta is playing every sport he can and is doubling up this year on wrestling and basketball. He just finished a great run in football as the middle linebacker for his team that went to the playoffs. The jury is still out on his Dad's ability to coach though, because they didnt make it to the superbowl.

This past summer we purchased two jet skis and we spent many Saturdays at the lake with the kids. Zhenya scared us a little with his boating skills, but we all survived.

So, one word of caution to adopters... If you adopt five, you can officially call yourself a taxi driver. It is like a second job, but without the pay.

We are all still doing very well. Time is flying by and we are spending as much time as we can with the kids. Zhenya turns 21 in six months and he is getting anxious to move on to the next stage of his life. He is making us feel really old.

It has been a great journey these past five years as we planned and experienced our kids adoptions. Thanks to all of those who believed in us and gave us help and hope ad support along the way. I am going to try and post more than once a year, but then again, Ive said that before.... I'll post some pictures from our trips to Disneyland and Lake Powell....

Summer Fun!

We are all enjoying our time with Katya and all our kids. We can't believe how lucky we were to get Katya out when we did. A few days later and she would have been stuck in Ukraine for at least another 6-12 months.

Zhenya graduated from High School. He got a 3.7 grade point average his final semester. He has a job at Red Robin. He is averaging about 12.50 an hour. He can't believe how much money he is able to make. He has lots of great friends. He will be starting college this fall.

The Perry family from Atlanta will be coming to visit in a few weeks. They adopted Katya's friends, Angela and Jenya, from the Slinko orphanage. We are planning on going to Breckenridge for 3 days with them.

Nikitta has started third grade (year round school). Sonya is starting middle school this year. Katya and Alex will be starting High School. Leeza is starting 10th grade.

We finished our basement shortly after arriving home which enabled us to have seperate bedrooms for every child. They have enjoyed not having to share. However, all the girls end up pulling out the hide-a-beds in our basement family room each night and sleeping in the same room. We put a home theater in our basement. The basement has become the family gathering place as we watch movies together and play computer games together in our network room. We have 8 computers networked together in a computer room and everyone teams up for different games. The home theater room has been the biggest hit and has saved us quite a bit of money already as there seems to be less enthusiasm for going to the movies, which would cost us 75-85 bucks a trip, as our screen is 9+ feet wide and 5+ feet tall. It feels like a regular movie theater with the surround sound.

We haven't really planned any trips yet. We have been enjoying all being together for the first time and we haven't been bored at home. We would like to get to Disneyland at least once with everyone. We may do that in December. We can't stand the summer crowds at the theme parks so we are not in a hurry to go this summer. We have been taking a few short trips to our condo in Breckenridge here and there when we can.

Several families have contacted us for some adoption information and help and we are going to start getting more active in helping others with their adoptions. Mostly it will just be advice as we recommend people use Cathy Harris. Sometimes people just need someone to talk to that has been through it recently. We can definitely help families looking to adopt kids that are older than 5. It seems to have been a help for other families to talk to our children and get information on how to help them adjust and what to expect. We also have found a great method for families to increase their incomes by 200-1500 a month - which is perfect for families looking to add a child to their family. It can be done at home, part time, with no investments and no start up costs. It took us a long time to find something this good. Our income in our second month with this part time business will be over $1,000. Let us know if you or anyone you know would be interested in hearing how to do it.

We are going to spend more time updating our site with pictures, etc. So check back often for updates. We are still working on a good family picture that includes Katya as the pictures we took didnt work out so well. We may just put them up anyway.

Great progress!

I apologize for the lack of posts. As you can imagine we have been extremely busy. I am happy to report that Katya is adjusting very well. She is a very happy child. She is a very calming influence on her siblings. She is very kind and fun to be around. We put her in school right away and she had very little hesitation, in fact she was a little disappointed that she had to wait 4-5 days for the school to get her schedule and paperwork processed before she could start.

Katya is learning english very quickly. I would say at the fastest pace of any of our kids. Most of that is due to her hard work at english in the year before she came home. Katya is keeping in touch with 4 other girls who were adopted to the states from her orphanage group. She calls two sisters in Atlanta, Angela and Zhenya, as well as twin sisters in New York. Angela and Zhenya's family are coming to Colorado to visit in July. Katya is looking forward to it.

We are working on an updated family picture that shows everyone. And we should be getting some new pictures updated soon.

Katya is Home!

Katya and Julia arrived at Denver International Airport very late on Wednesday night. It was just the family this time around so we didn't linger in the airport. Within a few short minutes we were driving home. It was a great feeling to finally have all 8 of us together. I hadn't taken the outdoor christmas lights off of our pine trees in the front yard just for this occasion and so the lights were all on as we pulled up. Nobody really felt like going right to bed so we spent time on a tour of the house and yard. Katya couldn't believe that Zhenya was driving so we had to do a quick drive around the neighborhood for proof. It has finally happened. We just can't believe we got her home. It was January of 2003 when we first met and fell in love with Katya. Since that time we have hoped and worked against long odds to bring her here. It has been such a burden to carry knowing that we had a daughter we loved in Ukraine living in the care of a foreign government. Everyday we were weighed down with the thought of the possibilities of her never being able to come to the US, and the dangers she would face if she couldn't. Now that she is here, it means that much more to our family.

Katya has been having fun and enjoying her family for the past two days. She will start in the 8th grade at Castle Rock Middle School on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. She will share most of Alexia's same classes at school which will be a great opportunity for them to bond. Tonight she cooked the potatoes for dinner Ukrainian style (fried with onions).

I promise to continue posting about all our kids progress and transition to family life and America.

This weekend I plan on posting dozens of photos from our trip and maybe a video from the airport, so check back soon!

Travel problem

Julia and Katya will not be arriving in Denver as originally scheduled this afternoon due to an over zealous Lufthansa ticket agent in Ukraine that apparently works for the German border patrol on the side. He felt that Katya needed a Visa for Germany to fly through that country so he wouldnt let them get on the plane this morning. So, after getting that resolved, they boarded another plane 7 hours later that gets them into Denver in the middle of the night tonight.

I'll post the whole story later, but no evening reunion at the airport.

Alexia's Surprise

So we haven't posted for a couple of days, and there is a very good reason. April 20th was Alexia's birthday. We could tell from talking to her and reading her emails that she really wanted us to be there for her birthday. We decided late last week that one of us would try to get home early so we could celebrate her birthday. We arranged tickets for me to fly home on Wednesday and surprise the kids. So naturally, because of the element of surprise, we could not write about it in the blog until it happened. In Ukraine, after court is done, it is possible for one parent to leave the country and go home early. Since we have 5 kids at home, and jobs, etc., we felt it was the right thing to do. So, as I type this, it is 2a.m. and I, Wade, am in Castle Rock typing this on our home computer. My internal clock is a little off so I am wide awake right now. I was able to spend my birthday with my daughter Alexia on her birthday. She was my birthday present 14 years ago. I am glad I made it home for her. She was very happy. I really missed the kids and I am glad to be home. Julia is a pro and is in good hands with our translator in Ukraine.

Before I left Ukraine, I had some paperwork I had to complete like a Power of Attorney, etc., so that Julia could finish everything. We had a close call as our translator forgot one thing that I needed to sign, and after I had already left the country, Julia had some problems getting the passport for Katya without me, so I almost turned around and flew right back. It all worked out and I just got off the phone with Julia and she told me that she had the passport in hand.

On Wednesday, while I was on the plane bound for Colorado, Julia and our translator went to the orphanage around noon to get Katya. Katya was still at school. Julia called her and she came home after an hour or so with her friends Natasha and Marina. Both of her friends were very emotional and upset. Katya said her goodbyes to her friends, some of the mama's and to the orphanage director and they climbed into their cab to leave. Julia said that Katya teared up, but if you can imagine, this has to be one of the most bittersweet moments in any adopted orphans life, especially for an older orphan. They are leaving behind everything they have ever known. The friends from the orphanage have really been the closest thing to family they have known. But at the same time, they are going into the unknown to fulfill their dreams of having a family. I am sure that the thoughts and emotions during that moment would be hard for anyone to reconcile, but Katya has dreamed of that moment for over a year and I am sure she has played it out in her mind over and over again. I am sure it is extremely hard on the girls left behind as they are one by one separated from those girls that either age out of the orphanage, or in this orphanages' case, see most of their friends adopted over the course of a year. While we worry about Katya and how she is handling this, we are fearful of what will happen to these older girls that are left behind. The statistics are not encouraging. They face very difficult transition years in a very unforgiving environment full of real danger, without the necessary support of a family. Some of these girls that leave are as young as 15 years old. Could any of us imagine our children turned out to fend for themselves at that age? While they have some ongoing support from the government, and they are not left on the curb, they are still too young and vulnerable at that age to be on their own. Our hearts go out to those girls who will not be adopted. Statistically, our kids are very fortunate to now have the opportunities of a normal American youth.

After leaving the orphanage, Julia ran around with our translator to get the final paperwork completed. The original birth certificate has to be located and changed to reflect her new parents names as well as her new name of Katya Ruslana Weston. Once the birth certificate is changed it is off to the passport office to get a new Ukrainian passport issued in her new name so that she can obtain a Visa from the American Consulate in Ukraine to fly home.

There were a few issues as I discussed above in getting her passport issued because I did not sign the petition before leaving. The notary would not issue the petition because it had to be signed by both of us and she would not accept the Power of Attorney document I had signed. But as with everything on this trip, the problem was temporary and a new Notary was found in a short time that accepted the document and issued the petition. It was too late to head to Kiev that night because of the delays, and the passport office received the petition too late to complete it the same day, so Julia picked up the new passport today, Friday morning.

Julia and Katya will take the train to Kiev this evening. The last things to do are to have the US required medical examination, as well as a Visa interview at the US Consulate. Those things unfortunately will have to wait until Tuesday, as this weekend is Easter Weekend in Ukraine. They are on an Orthodox calendar, so it comes a week later than ours. So no businesses are working on Monday. We have secured Julia and Katya's reservation to come to the US. They will leave early Wednesday morning the 26th of April. Their flight will arrive in Denver direct from Frankfurt Germany that same afternoon at 3:50p.m. It took me about 45 minutes to get through customs, and I expect it will take Katya an hour, so they most likely will not get out to the terminal until around 5:00p.m. Anyone is welcome to be there to meet Katya. We will spend some time visiting with those that are there so they can meet Katya. She has seen photos and video of our airport arrivals with our 4 other Ukrainian children, and for some reason she talks about and ponders her arrival at the airport.

Julia and I cannot believe that we are actually bringing Katya home. This has been so emotionally draining. Every day for over a year we went to sleep knowing that we had a daughter that lived in an orphanage on the other side of the world. And we lived with that knowing we may possibly never be able to bring her home. So many things had to go the right way for our family for this to happen. The weight of that has been enormous. So many days and nights of worrying about our girl. I can't describe how scary it is to know that your child may never come home.

We can really begin a new chapter with our complete family. The irony of this is Zhenya may soon go away to school, so after working so hard to find and bring our kids home, they may leave us quickly, but we will always be a family, and for now, there will be 8 of us under the same roof.

Sunday and Monday

We had a great weekend. Katya just amazed us with her English skills. She has been working hard this past year on English. She switched into translator mode a few times while we were talking to different people. We spent the day Sunday with her and thought about everyone at home celebrating Easter. It was hard to miss Easter morning with our kids. Grandma did a great job as always, but we really wished we could have been there. And now Alex's birthday is coming up on Thursday. That is definitely one downside to adoption. We have now spent a total of almost 3 months in ukraine over 4 different trips. That is a significant amount of time away from family, although the first trip we had Alex with us so we were all together. We feel like we finally have this place figured out. Our language skills are coming along, we feel very comfortable here and now we will be coming home soon and we don't have a pending return trip planned, so it is a little sad.

Katya is ready to go. She has her bag packed and while she is sad to leave her friends behind, she is so excited to finally be coming home.

We are working on a few things that may get us home a little early. It all depends on getting some paperwork done on Thursday and flight schedules this weekend or early next week, but it may happen.

Julia and I have been picking a new restaurant every day. The food here is so good. The restaurants all have accomplished chefs and we get gourmet, upscale restaurant food here for like $6-8 dollars per person. Amazing. Our apartment is great, it is very clean, comfortable and is on the top story of a nice building and our balcony looks out over the park and Opera House. (see our picture page www.wadeandjuliaweston.com/main/page22.html )

Ready to have some fun!

We picked up Katya today at 3:00. We came right back to the apartment. She wanted to listen to some CD's that we had bought. After that we went for a walk in the park across from our apartment. A picture of the park is on the picture page. At the far end of the park we found a restaurant that looked like a cabin. They had an English menu and we had dinner. Katya just wanted dessert. She ordered cream cheese filled crepes with a strawberry sauce. I had a bite and it was good. So good, we are going back so I can have some tomorrow.

We took lots of pictures on our walk. A vendor had set up a karaoke stand in the park that consisted of a tv and speakers and microphone. Dozens of young people had gathered and were having a good time. The singing wasnt that great, but I guess that is the same no matter where you are, with Karaoke you never know what you will get. I took a picture of the karaoke stand and I will upload it tomorrow.

We walked back to the apartment and made microwave popcorn and watched King Kong on DVD in Russian with English subtitles.

We then sent several emails with Katya and showed her our website. We translated some of her story to her as best we could. She was fascinated with the concept and gasped when she saw the counter on the main page. She was a little embarrased that so many people were looking at her pictures and reading her story.

It is now 1:30am and Katya is still awake. She is too excited to sleep so she keeps finding ways to entertain herself. Jules and I are just letting her savor the moment on her first night alone with her parents.

Lots of Uploaded Pictures!!

We have been enjoying the downtime after court and visiting with Katya each evening and going on long walks and practicing English. We are picking her up at 3:00pm on Friday and we get to take her out of the orphanage until 8:00pm on Sunday. She has been looking forward to staying with us and it should be a great weekend.

During the days I have been working on getting pictures prepared to post to our website. I am planning on posting about 8-10 per day.

This will take you to a page on our website that contains lots of photos from our trip. I will try to add 8-10 every day.

The link is www.wadeandjuliaweston.com/main/page22.html

Court

We had a great weekend with Katya and Grandma and Grandpa. We walked around downtown and ate at some fun places. We walked past an artist that does pencil sketches and Katya wanted hers done. It took him about 45 minutes, and he did a fantastic job. He only charged $10 to have it done. We are going to take him some pictures and have all our kids done. We spent lots of time with Katya this weekend as well as with all the kids at the orphanage.

So the court was today. To make a long story short there was very little drama. It went exactly as planned. It seemed very different and not as emotional as it was with the other four kids. There are several things that we realized that set this experience apart from our other adoptions. We have known Katya for 3 years. For this time, she has always been our daughter. No matter what court decrees we didn't have until now, she has been a family member. Also, we knew what to expect. We have come to realize that court decisions are really decided before you even show up. They just go through the motions and ask lots of tough questions, but the outcome is really approved before hand. Also, we have been so busy entertaining our short term guests that we were conveniently distracted from the stress of what could have gone wrong. And with this being our third round of adoptions in this country, our knowledge of the process and familiarity with what was going to happen kept the stress level down. This made it easier to relax and enjoy our time with Katya. On our previous adoptions, we did not know what child we would be adopting until a few weeks prior to court.

The decree from the judge is not official for 10 more days, due to the mandatory waiting period, and so now we enter a period of waiting. The only thing that can cause us problems now is getting injured or sick or someone officially protesting the adoption in the next 10 days. We don't forsee that happening. So count on Katya coming home.

There have been lots of little miracles along the way, and I have to share the most amazing one. We received our appointment invitation to come to Ukraine to receive a referral to adopt Katya for the 30th of March. This was the last day they were allowing foreigners to come to Ukraine for appointments. She became available for adoption on the 29th of March. Since that day, no new people have been seen for adoption appointments. It is entirely possible, that had her paperwork been delayed by one or two days, and the adoptions were closed down for more than six months, she would have turned 16 during this time and become ineligible for adoption. The timing of this and that she may have never been able to be adopted is what makes us so happy that things have gone as they have.

We are so grateful for the support of our friends and family. As we were preparing for court today, my sister Drew called. It was early on Monday here, and still late Sunday night in Colorado. She had been at church with the kids earlier in the day and she let us know that at every prayer said during the service Katya was mentioned, and that many members were fasting for Katya. I felt at peace all morning and throughout the entire court session. I felt that everything would be fine. As Julia became nervous before and during court I was able to comfort her and let her know that Katya was coming home. And each and every time I felt at peace and I knew that Katya was coming home. I am so thankful for the support we have received. We felt it here and it is great to have the support of so many wonderful people. The way in which our children have been welcomed and loved and supported by our church, the community, and our families, has been amazing. I really don't know what God has in store for our children. I do know that they have been taken from desperate circumstances and put in a place where they can have amazing opportunities. The only hand Julia and I have had in this is the desire to have more children and a love for children we have met, as well as a perservering drive to complete our family. The doors that have been opened along the way and everything else is the result of a loving God that has blessed us and our children. I know this to be true. God has great things in store for these wonderful children.

The judge said something during court that really touched me. Katya chose the name of Ruslana as her middle name. Ruslana is a famous Ukrainian singer. The judge told Katya that much like the famous singer, she thought that people would come to know Ukraine through Katya. As I thought about the people in the US following her story, I realized at that moment that what the judge said had already begun.

Our Final Hurdle

I apologize in advance for the lack of a post for a couple of days, but we have been very busy and so tired when we get home that I haven't posted. Our translator submitted the court approval request on Tuesday and it was rejected that evening with a phone call from the Adoption Center. Katya is a true orphan, meaning she has no living parents or grandparents. She doesn't even have any aunts or uncles or cousins, but she does have one lady who visits her about once a year. It is an older lady in failing health. She has never expressed a desire to adopt or care for Katya. She occasionally brings her gifts. We met her when we came for Katya's birthday in September. She claims to be a distant relative on Katya's fathers side. The orphanage is supposed to log all visits from Ukrainians when they visit kids in the orphanage. The sad irony of this is that there are major hurdles to overcome when someone wants to be adopted that has had visitors. The orphanage told us that they had not been logging any visits from this lady because they did not want to complicate Katya's adoption. However, with the move to a new ministry and extra scrutiny in this country on adoptions, the orphanage Director got cold feet and decided that we needed to add language into the court approval request that there was a Ukrainian citizen that had been visiting Katya. We don't blame the director for doing this. While it may complicate things, it is the truth, and she is surely worried about her job. Which is her right to do. We can't expect people here to break the law to make this adoption happen. It scares us to death that it will cause problems, but we just have to face the issue head on and hope that it will work out. So we knew when we submitted the paperwork on Tuesday that this was a real possibility. So it has been a stressful few days. When they rejected the paperwork, they said that we needed to provide a statement from the Inspector in the region with more information on this person and whether or not they had ever had an interest in adopting Katya. Our translator was able to get this done in a day. The inspector did not have any information, but she wrote that there was no record of any person requesting to care for Katya. Luckily, this was enough for the Adoption Center and they issued the court approval. So court is going forward on Monday as planned. We then just need to wait for 10 days and we can bring Katya home. The 10 day wait is so that anyone can object to the adoption during that time. While we don't forsee a problem, it is possible, so that is really our final hurdle. For 12 more days we just need to stay healthy and safe and let the time pass.

Katya's grandparents arrived on Thursday morning. They were very tired, but they were troopers and they were able to visit with Katya that evening. She was very excited to see them. It has been great spending two days with them and having them be able to see where 5 of our kids lived for so long. They toured the orphanage and saw their old beds. They visited their school and met all of their caregivers. It was great to experience it with them as they soaked it all in. The great thing is they are so adventureous. We explored the subway system today and made it to the stop close to the orphanage. Although I would never ask for directions, we were never really lost for more than twenty minutes at a time deep underground. How bad could it be, anyway? If you get lost, you just go above ground and take a taxi like we always do to the orphanage. We walked our legs right off today and they kept up every step of the way and kept asking for more. I really believe the family units are never just one or even two generations deep. I just wish Julia's parents could be here too. They will have to come on the next round for sure. Does anyone know of any motels for sale? Preferably close to a swimming pool and a school.

We met up with the Scott and Kayla Thompson family for lunch today. We ran into them at the local store here. They are adopting 2 children ages 6 and 7 from the same orphanage. It was great to get to know them and hear their story. They have their son, Cade, with them and they remind us of ourselves three years ago when we were adopting a brother and a sister and we had Alexia with us. It was so fun to hear how their adoption is going and what they are feeling. It brought back all of the memories for us with Sonya and Nikitta's adoption. We have discovered a great cafe here that we shared with them today. They have a lunch special that changes daily, but it is several courses and it is only about $4.50. We have really liked the variety and this is one of only a few places that has a non-smoking section. (It seems as though 90% of this country smokes. This is one American export they can do without here.)

We will be bringing Katya back to the apartment tomorrow at her request. We asked her what she wanted to do and she said "I want to go to the apartment." She could go out for pizza, or to a movie, or anywhere, but she wants us to take her home and spend time with her there. Even if it is a temporary home, that is where she wants to be. How many years has she wished and hoped that someone would come and take her home? It just breaks our hearts that we couldn't have had her home years ago. These kids don't deserve to be here. One of the first observations of grandma and grandpa was that every kid in that orphanage would be a great addition to any family. They are fun, sweet, kind, well-mannered kids that just want nothing more than parents. I am so grateful that I have discovered this thing called adoption. It is one of the best secrets that shouldn't be a secret. I just want to be able to do one of those Star Trek mind melds with everyone so they could see into my heart and mind and know what this feels like. I love my kids. And I love my wife for leading the way to make all this happen. Without her I would have never experienced all of this joy. As I keep pinching myself, I wonder how I ended up with the beautiful wife that keeps bringing me lots of children. Sorry, she is taken. :)

....My kids are going to be reading that last bit from home in the states and cringe with all the mushiness going on over here.

Court Approval Submitted

Early Tuesday morning our translator left for Kiev. She was taking the express train so she could submit our court approval papers to the Adoption Center. She called us after she arrived and submitted the papers. The good thing is the Adoption Center is still open for business and processing papers. This is good news. We should be able to get the court approval back by Thursday. If we do get them back then court should be next Monday. There is still the slight chance that the Adoption Center could close down before then, but we are confident it won't. So, after Thursday, whether or not the Adoption Center closes down should no longer affect us. We will have the court approval. Everything else can be done in the Kharkov region.

My parents left for the airport early Tuesday morning. They are scheduled to arrive in Kiev today at 4:20 pm. Our translator is meeting them at the airport. They are going to do a quick Kiev tour and hopefully catch an overnight train. If no tickets are available, they will stay at our translators apartment and then take a train in the morning.

We went to the orphanage Tuesday evening. Katya's english is great. She has really worked hard all year. She is fully able to carry on conversations. She understands much of what we say. Last year, when we adopted Leeza and Zhenya, they could not understand anything. Katya is younger and will have a head start because of what she has learned in the last year. And seeing how well Leeza and Zhenya have done with english in the year since they have been home makes us think that at this rate, Katya may not have an accent within a couple of years.

It is now Wednesday morning. We are going to do lots of laundry today and go scout out some more places to see once my Mom and Dad arrive. We found a war museum and a monestary that will be fun to see.

We are encouraged by how things are going. We have pictured Katya walking through our front door about a thousand times, and now, after 3 years of knowing her, every day we get a little closer and our confidence grows that it will actually happen.

Marathon Monday

We were able to take Katya out on an excursion again on Sunday. We walked around town. Katya wanted pizza so we found a pizza place. We also received a call from our kids in Colorado early Sunday morning. It was late Saturday night in Colorado when they called. They are all doing great. We are missing our kids back home. We really want this to happen quickly and get home with Katya. So far we are on track.

Monday was a big day for our timetable. It was actually an easy day for Julia and I as we really didn't have to do much, but our translator had to get up early and run around all day. She had to get Katya from school and have her write up a letter stating her desire to be adopted. This had to be done in front of the Orphanage Director and Orphanage Lawyer. Our translator had to have the Director then sign some documents and get them to the Local Inspector, who had to then get the Mayor to sign them. The big problem was the Mayor was only available from 2-4pm, but the Orphanage Director would not sign the documents until 3:30pm, for some strange reason. Our translator was able to pull off all the signatures same day and get tickets for the morning express train tomorrow. She will be going back to Kiev to take the court request to the Adoption Center so they can sign it. She also managed to meet with the judge today to schedule court for next Monday, April 10th. We had estimated court would be on the 13th or 14th, so because of our marathon day and everything coming together, and the judge agreeing to a quick court date, we should be 3-4 days ahead of our estimated return date.

We are also contemplating me heading home the Wednesday after court, to be able to return to work. We can sign powers of attorney for Julia so she can complete the adoption and bring Katya home about 12 days after the court.

So today worked out well. The drama from a year ago is much different. It wasn't a tough day for Julia and I as we slept in and then walked around town for several hours before taking a taxi to the orphanage to see Katya. Our translator met us there. She was exhausted. We are back at our apartment now, and we feel like a huge weight is off our shoulders because of how things went today. Our translator said that it looks as though the Adoption Center will not be closing to couples in process. We keep waiting for something bad to happen, but as critical days and events pass without problems, we feel more and more confident that things will go well.

Wade and Julia

Pictures From Our Weekend Visits

Here are some pictures of Katya's friends.

Nastya 12
Julia 14
Marina 15


Masha 9
Kristina 8 (Kristina is now in the older girls group, she knew our son Nikitta and was in his group when we adopted him 3 years ago.)

Our Saturday Visit

I didn't feel so good in the morning, so I stayed in bed while Julia and our translator went to the orhpanage to get Katya. While we can't take her overnight, they are letting us take her out on weekends to go shopping, etc. Our translator had to run a package to the bus station, so Julia and Katya came back to the apartment. They had a tough time getting the door to unlock, so I tried to help them from inside. There was a small hole in the door that went through both sides, and I heard Julia say, "here, grab the key and try it from the inside." After I heard that I heard a muffled clink as the key hit the bottom of the inside of the door. So no more key. We called our translator on her cell phone as she had the other key, and luckily she was walking toward the apartment about 5 minutes away. The interesting thing is that in looking closely at the door to figure out how to get the key out, the back part of the door is cardboard that is screwed on with a few screws. So it should be easy to retrieve.

We had a fun day with Katya. We shopped for some shoes and let her pick out some Ukrainian style beauties.

She wanted McDonalds, so we ate there and then headed back to the orphanage to visit with all the kids. I started asking all of their ages and names again and whether they had siblings so we could start gathering the information needed to match up the letter writing program my mom has set up.

We are headed back tomorrow to take Katya out for some more fun tomorrow. Otherwise, it has been fairly routine here. The non-traveling days and time with Katya have been great and good for getting over jet lag. We are all sleeping well and my translator helped me understand my stomach issues from this morning. She said there is a joke that if you are constipated in Ukraine, you just need a teaspoon of tap water and you will be fine soon. So I need to be a little more careful with my toothbrush and how I rinse it. Probably too much info. Sorry about that.

Love,

Wade and Julia

P.S. Here are some pics from the orphanage and of our shopping excursion

We survived the overnight train

We survived the train. I don't mind it too much. Julia would rather take the express train that takes 6 hours, but I like taking the overnight because you get to lay down, sleep and then wake up just before you arrive. As long as you don't need to get up several times a night to use the restroom, it is a good way to go. The trains bathrooms can get a little scary later in the night, but early on they are ok. When we arrived in Kharkov, our driver called on his cell phone and told us he could not meet us at the train to help with bags because he couldn't find a parking space. So we hired a couple of army guys that were moonlighting as porters. They carried 3 bags each, which totalled about 160 pounds total. Being the only guy on this trip, the $12 in porter fees were the best dollars spent to date.

We went straight to the Inspectors office to get the local permission to visit the orphanage. That went quickly and we called the apartment people to meet us at the apartment and let us in. Our last 2 trips I have taken on the apartment finding myself. When I leave it up to translators or others I never know what I am going to get for the price. I failed to arrange our Kiev apartment this time and we had water for only a few hours a day and paid 3 nights instead of 2 because we checked out a couple of hours late. In Kharkov, it was a different story. The apartment is the nicest one we have ever stayed in. It has 3 large bedrooms plus a family room, dining room table and two toilets. A normal size bathroom and modest kitchen. The nice thing is that it is clean. We checked in and then we all freshened up before going to the orphanage to see Katya.

The orphanage kids were out on Spring Break all last week, so they were all there when we arrived about 12:30 pm. Katya was happy to see us. The orphanage was in the middle of what they called a Spring Concert when we arrived. So we all slipped into the room and watched the performance. It is interesting to see the older boys (ages 15-17) participating in the performance. We would have thought they were too proud to put on the costumes and sing and dance, etc. But they were all good sports about it and seemed to enjoy it. We video taped most of it. After the concert we met with the Director, orphanage lawyer and the orphanage doctor. They asked about all the kids. All of our kids have been adopted from this same orphanage. The Director was very happy to hear about Zhenya. He was a star at the orphanage and expect great things from him and we were happy to report that he is on track with good grades and a great attitude towards his family and his future. We stayed at the orphanage and visited with Katya and the other kids for about 3 hours. We then left and went to the local store called "Target." It is not our American Target, but it is a nice supermarket. We loaded up on supplies and headed back to the apartment. We ate dinner and then went to sleep. Fairly uneventful.
I am glad that this time around we don't have the dramatic things to report every day as we did on our last trip. It means things are moving along as expected. We had hoped that the Director would let Katya just come home with us and stay at the apartment. She let us take her for several days at a time when we visited in September, but for some reason, and we haven't figured out why, something has changed in the last couple of weeks and everything is now by the book. This means that our time at the orphanage will be limited and most likely Katya will not be able to stay with us until after court. We are not going to complain about the tight rules. If you can imagine, think of a foreigner coming to a government run facility in the US and asking the institution to allow a child to leave and spend several days with them. Of course, that would be frowned on. Does the Director trust us? Yes, but that is beside the point, she could lose her job if those activities were ever scrutinized. So we understand.

Our only concern at this point is to not get seriously ill or injured and to hope that the Adoption Center does not close down in the next week. There is a rumor out there that the Adoption Center may close and leave all in process couples in limbo until the new Ministry is up and running in May. If it does close, we will come home within a few days of it closing and head back when they open up again. In all, the time we would spend in country would be almost exactly the same if we had to split it into two trips. The downside is my parents plan to come next week, and the fact that Katya would be waiting an estimated 6 more weeks to come home. Splitting up the time missed from work into two sections would probably be better anyway. We should know Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning if the Adoption Center will be closing. And we can warn my parents in time not to travel. Our gut feel from the information we have is that there is about a 10% chance this may happen. We have learned from the past that there is no reason to stress or panic about things you can't control with Ukrainian Adoption. You just go with whatever happens and eventually, with a little heartache and perserverance, it all works out. It may work itself out in a longer term than we would like, but it should be ok. So no worries, just possible set backs to be dealt with.

Love,

Wade and Julia

We picked up our referral letter!

This afternoon, we went back to the Adoption Center and picked up our referral for Katya. We were surprised at the large number of people waiting to be helped outside the center. Most were not waiting for referral letters, but for an opportunity to get back inside to get matched with children because their initial appointments did not either yield a match, or they wanted a different match. We were surprised when talking to people that most of the people there were looking for very young children. One couple was asking for two children under the age of three, one boy and one girl. And they had already seen some children in a region and were looking to get new referrals. I feel bad for them because they are probably not going to get it done in April. We had been under the impression that Americans were not being given appointments for children younger than 10, but these people may have had appointments from a long time ago. It did seem strange that so many people were still there working the system despite the Adoption Center limitations on children older than 10 or special needs.

The referral letter was ready to go and we were in and out in a short period of time. Our original time table was that the referral letter would take two days to get, so having it the same day as the appointment puts us one day ahead of schedule. The sooner we get back, the better as we are going to miss the kids and work.

We are packing once again and soon our driver will be here to take us to the train station. We will be taking the overnight train to Kharkov. We leave Kiev at 10:40 pm and roll into Kharkov about 9:30am tomorrow. From there we will check into our apartment and then get the necessary local permissions to visit the orphanage and see Katya. We expect to be at the orphanage around 1:00pm. Friday. The important thing is that Friday is still March. And Katya has had it in her mind that we were coming for her in March. It is important to her and us that we are able to be there to see her in March as planned. Waiting a year is hard enough, and if it rolled into April before she saw us it would probably seem like an extra month to her.

I have pre-arranged for dial up internet service in Kharkov like I have here in Kiev, so I should be able to log on tomorrow night to check email and send another post on the days events.


Wade and Julia

We had our appointment at the Adoption Center

Between car alarms going off, garbage trucks, dogs barking, cats fighting, and completely psychotic dreams about our upcoming appointment, we didn't get much sleep last night. It could have been the distractions or maybe it was just that everything has built up to this appointment at the adoption center. We submitted lots of new paperwork to update our dossier a few weeks ago that we didn't know whether it had been approved or not. We were not completely positive that Katya's paperwork was fully in order and the adoption center is shutting down soon to move under a different ministry. And with the way Ukraine goes, you can look at someone the wrong way during your appointment and be on the wrong side of basic decisions.

We woke up and put on our good clothes. I realized as I put on my clothes that I had brought my blue shirt and yellow tie, which are the colors of the Ukrainian flag. So I really couldn't be denied today since I was a walking patriot. It was a little chilly outside as it had rained much of the night. We will take the chill rather than freezing temperatures and snow. It is trying hard to switch to Spring here. We met our translators husband on the corner outside our apartment. We hailed a taxi and took it to the Adoption Center. Once inside, we met up with our substitute translator that was arranged yesterday since our normal translator is in the hospital. We briefed her (Sveta) on our situation. She looked through our pictures and we chatted for a few minutes before we started up the stairs for our appointment. The adoption center had 15 couples on the list for appointments today. We were quickly inside the center and ushered into a room with the director. Three American couples were asked to come in. The director started talking about recent changes in the law and that they wanted us to sign statements that we had been warned that the adoption could stop at any time because of the switch to the new Ministry. They would try to accomodate us in April as our adoption progressed, but there were no guarantees we could complete it in April. The Director made a comment to everyone in the room that she recognized us (returning every year for three years in a row can make you a regular) and that she was glad we were back. We smiled and from that moment all was good. As soon as the short meeting was over, the director shook my hand, took our packet of papers and hand walked them around the office to different people and then finally to the deputy director, who does not normally handle appointments, those are done by psychologists, said a few words to her and then left the room. Our translator said that this was not normally the procedure, but that the Director wanted our case handled by the Deputy director. We showed her our picture album. She was smiling from ear to ear the whole time. We talked about Katya and then she left the room for about 30 seconds. When she came back she put Katya's paperwork folder in front of us and asked us if this was her. As we looked at the folder and her picture from when she was 8-9 years old, we both welled up and nodded. She then walked everything over to the lady that does the referrals and asked her to get it ready immediately and that we could pick it up today.

Our smoothest and easiest appointment yet. I don't know if it was the yellow tie and blue shirt, but we got the VIP treatment today. We were the last couple up the stairs and the first back down. We got all handshakes and smiles from the Director and Deputy.

Most of our fears melted as we walked out the door and realized that there were no more paperwork updates to worry about. No more waiting for Katya, as long as we can quickly get the paperwork done in the region, we can possibly get her out of here before the big changes shut things down. We are not out of the woods yet, but it was such a good feeling to have them hand us her paperwork file as a child eligible for adoption. Our despair from a year ago is behind us. Brighter days are ahead. Katya is eligible for adoption and we are going to bring her home. It is now a race against the clock to get her out before they shut down adoptions to change Ministries.

We called Katya and told her we are taking the train to Kharkov tonight and that we would arrive in the morning. She was very excited.

So fairly good news all around. Much better than expected at this point.

More to come...

Our first full day in Ukraine

We woke up today with a good 12 hour sleep and we felt like we had overcome the jet lag. So we ventured into the city to see some sights. We have been checking the weather every day and we were worried because it had been showing snow almost daily for the past month. Somehow, the day after we arrive, there is some sunshine and 53 degrees to enjoy. We walked down to Saint Sophiya's Cathedral which was about 1/2 mile down the road. We paid a 20 cent entrance fee to get into the compound, and then we paid another fee to get inside the church and another fee to see the bell tower. We have been to Florence Italy and seen lots of paintings and Fresco's from the 16th and 17th Century, but we were amazed that this church was originally built in 1054AD. The church has been added to and changed over the centuries, but they have removed many of the layers so you can see the original artwork, floor tiles and building structure that is nearly 1000 years old. They had a marble sarcaphogus on display that was for Yaroslav the Wise who was born in 954 AD. It was all very facinating. Julia and I both went up the bell tower which was built later, in 1699. The steps and floor were very uneven and water was condensing on the masonry inside. It was a scary feeling to be 100 feet in the air with something built in 1699 under us, but it was fun to experience it.

After visiting the cathedral compound, we walked down to the main square and did some people watching. Ukrainians dress well, but they tend to go to the extreme sometimes. If they wear a mini skirt, they try to wear a mini skirt that is shorter than anyone else has ever worn before. Or the guys seem to be in competition as to who can wear the longest and pointiest black leather shoes. They may look nice in the store, but once you walk about a half mile, those ends just curl up and it makes them look really short with pointy ears. It is a good thing that black is in style and not green.

We received a call from our translator. She told us she was admitted to the hospital and that she was not going to be able to attend our appointment at the NAC. She was going to send her husband with us. He does facilitate adoptions for French couples, but we had met him and did not feel that he could speak English very well. So this worried us a little. We knew of a few people who had just completed adoptions and decided to get a hold of them in case we needed to hire their translators as backups. Luckily, we were able to get a hold of our friend who arranged for a translator to meet us there tomorrow, so all is well.

Our appointment is in the morning at 9:30, which means we are one of the first families of the day and there is a good chance we could get the referral paperwork quickly so we can be on a train to Kharkov to see Katya soon. So the sightseeing is over and the real adventure starts tomorrow.

Wade and Julia

We have arrived in Ukraine!

Julia and I arrived early this afternoon in Kiev. Our translator met us at the airport and we took a taxi to the apartment. This apartment isn't as updated as some of the others we have stayed in, but it will work. The nice thing is that it is within a few hundred yards of the main square in Kiev. We are really tired from traveling, but we are trying to stay awake and active and fight the temptation to sleep until later tonight. We are going out for some Ukrainian food tonight. We will try to get a good night sleep tonight and do some sightseeing tomorrow before our appointment on Thursday morning. We called Katya from the airport. She was excited to hear that we were actually here.

One of the first things we did was buy $30 worth of stamps at the first post office we found. The post offices don't carry a large inventory of international stamps, so we will buy them every chance we get so that my mom's airmail adoption program will have enough.

The parliamentary elections were just held so there is a lot of political acitivity in the square downtown. There are lots of people with banners and flags of their parties. It is good to see that Ukrainians are active politically despite being somewhat let down with Yushenko's parties infighting after the incredible protests just over a year ago that created a rerun and subsequently fair election process.

More later.....

Wade and Julia

Almost time

One week to go until we leave. We are getting nervous that some crazy thing will happen that will derail this whole thing. Ukraine announced a week or so ago that all April appointments have been cancelled while they move the Adoption Center under the new Ministry. Our appointment is for the 30th of March. We were that close to having a disaster. So with the unpredictability of the process we are on edge. I'm not sure that we will be able to relax until the plane lifts off from Kiev with Katya with us. There are just too many things that can go wrong.

We leave 3 weeks from today!

Three weeks from today we are leaving for Ukraine! We talked to Katya on the phone this weekend and she told Leeza her bags were packed and she had already said goodbye to all her friends at school. (Even if the adoption goes well, we won't be home for at least 6 weeks)

She is obviously ready to come home. The winter over there has been very harsh and there is several feet of snow on the ground. We are hoping for a quick thaw before we get there, but usually that means flooded streets full of melting snow that freeze each night. Unfortunately, we think we will need to pack for both Winter and Spring weather.

Our friend Terry Robinson, who traveled with us last September will be traveling with us again for the first week. She wants to return to see the kids that she became friends with on the last trip. Wade's Mom and Dad, Vicki and David Weston, will be traveling over the 5th of April and will hopefully be able to attend Katya's court hearing. Vicki is also going to facilitate "AirMail Adoptions" so that she can match up interested families to orphans for letter writing, picture sharing, etc. So far the response to her idea has been great and a lot of orphans will be very excited when they get their packages and know that they have friends in America who think and care about them.

When Wade's Mom isn't traveling to Ukraine, she will be in Denver watching the Weston kids staying behind, and when Vicki leaves, Wade's sister Drew will be coming to Denver with her two kids to hold down the fort.

We couldn't do this without the support we have received from our family and friends. We are just hoping for an outcome that brings Katya home. There are lingering doubts in our minds that something will change in Ukraine that prevents us bringing her home. Nothing is certain until we are all safe at home together and there are just too many things that can go wrong. There are too many people in Ukraine that are involved in the adoptions for self interest that can cause us problems.

We return to the doctor to pick up some forms on Wednesday. After that, all our paperwork will be complete. It will just be a hectic 3 weeks getting ready to leave. There is lots to do when you are leaving 5 kids at home for 4 weeks, especially when we both have full time jobs.

More to come!

We are returning for Katya in March 2006!

We have waited for over a year now to return for Katya. She has waited patiently and is ready to come home. We have written her letters frequently, but what has really kept us connected is her cell phone. We have text messaged her on a daily basis and we call her once a week and talk to her for about an hour. She has worked very hard this past year on her English. She can carry on a conversation with Mom and Dad on a variety of subjects for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

We have an appointment with the National Adoption Center on March 30th. Our plan is to leave Denver on the 27th to give us an extra day's buffer in case of flight cancellations or some other issue. We are planning on making this a quick a trip as possible.

We will keep this updated as we prepare to travel.

Leeza and Zhenya Update

We had some serious issues with our web hosting company soon after we arrived home from Ukraine with Leeza and Zhenya. They were bought out and decided to change the way web sites are updated. We were informed that we could leave our website how it was and not be able to update it, or we could recreate it in the new format. Unfortunately, soon after arriving home I didn't have 100 spare hours to recreate, so we opted to leave it as is until I could find some time to recreate it. This version is now recreated and we can post new updates.
Most of the email questions we get concern how Leeza and Zhenya are doing and if and when we are going to be able to get Katya home. Being as old as Leeza and Zhenya are (18 and 16), there is a lot of curiosity as to how well they are adapting and learning the language.
We brought Zhenya's transcripts with him from Ukraine. The high school had them translated and plugged in the credits. He only needed several English classes and a couple of other credits to graduate. We enrolled him as a Jr as soon as we came home so that he would have 5-6 months to practice English so that he could do well in his final classes his senior year. During the summer Zhenya was able to start swimming competitely. He also began playing basketball on a team with his friends. He also was able to attend a soccer camp for a week. He really soaked up every opportunity and was very grateful for the opportunities to do the things he loved doing. Zhenya was a little disappointed because he really loves soccer and unfortunately the high school has several thousand students and an extremely competitive soccer program. Zhenya is very good at soccer, but he doesn't have the team experience that was required to make the team. The coach also felt that the team had been playing together for several years and it would be hard to integrate a new player. So, he wasn't able to play soccer for the High School. Zhenya has made lot's of friends. Most of his friends are from church. They get together at their youth leaders house for computer game parties every other week or so. Zhenya worked very hard in school his first semester. He wasn't given any breaks by the teachers because of the language barriers and had to complete everything just like everyone else. Zhenya earned a 3.5 grade point with mostly A's and a few B's. That got him an honor roll letter from the principal. Zhenya studied and passed his driving permit test and now has his drivers permit. The test is not easy and he passed it without any translation help. He got to learn a whole set of new vocabulary words related to driving. Zhenya's english is excellent. He understands about 95% of what people say. He is able to express himself as needed. He still has a thick accent which is hard for some people to understand, but he gets better every day. Zhenya will graduate this spring from High School. He is most likely going to attend a nearby community college for a year before deciding what to do. He needs at least one more year at a lower level school prior to jumping into a university setting because of language issues.
Leeza is doing well. She misses her friends terribly. All she ever knew was the orphanage and the girls there were her family of psuedo sisters. Leeza is very emotional and at times became upset with family members when she became frustrated. In the year since she has been home she has done very well and each week she is getting better and better at feeling comfortable in America and in her new family. She has made lot's of new friends at school and has worked hard to make good choices. She has really started bonding with her sisters in the last 4 months. She now sees them as friends and assets rather than rivals for attention. Leeza earned a 3.2 grade point average her first semester as a high school freshman. She comes right home every day and works hard to get all her homework done. Unfortunately, she didn't work very hard at math in Ukraine so her homework takes a few hours with her Dad tutoring her, but she works very hard to do well. Leeza has really jumped into swimming. She is always anxious to go to practice every day and has improved greatly in the 10 months she has been swimming. She plans on swimming for her High School for the next three years.Sonya and Nikitta are doing great. They are quickly catching up to grade level in school. They are fully Americanized, which is a little sad as we loved some of the quirky things they did when they were first home. Where in Ukraine they would bite the head off of a little dried sardine and love it, now they cringe at any food that is slightly strange. Sonya is a very happy and fun child. She is very funny and independent. Sonya is swimming with the rest of the family. She is looking into branching out into cheerleading and tumbling. Nikitta is about as athletic as they come. He is good at everything he tries. He has tried just about every sport. He hated baseball,(too slow, little action)but he loves football and wrestling. He has also started swimming and has become very good in a short amount of time.As a family our lives have felt a little on hold as we worry and wait to bring Katya home. In the mean time, we have settled into work, school, swimming routines that have helped us enjoy each other and pass the time until Katya comes home and we can finally call our family complete.

Thanks for visiting our new Website and Blog

We have finally been able to update the website. We will start posting to this blog on a regular basis. The technical issues are a long story we won't get into, but we are committed to keeping this updated. We will try to differentiate our posts into different categories. Some people are following our story because they are in the process of adopting and want some insight and/or help. Others are family members or friends just catching up on the latest happenings. Others followed our early stories and want to see how things are going. We will try to keep this blog organized so that you can quickly find what it is you are looking for. Some of the different subjects will be our return trip to get Katya, our ongoing orphan support projects and updates on our family happenings as our kids progress and transition into their new lives.