A HAPPY BIRTHDAY...AND A VERY SAD GOODBYE

Monday was Misha's birthday and he had to start the day by getting his passport at 7:00 in the morning. We finally hooked up with him at lunch time and took Misha and 10 of his friends to McDonalds to celebrate his birthday. We told the kids to get whatever they wanted, and they took us very seriously!!! Most of the kids had never eaten there. Sasha had two big macs, a giant mctasty, jumbo fry, icecream sunday, two big cokes amd he helped everyone polish off there food. He is hungry every time we see him, he is as tall as Artem now and looks like he is on a serious growth spurt. The kids had a blast eating and hanging out together. We took the bus back and Sasha got really sick to his stomach and instead of being a one hour excursion which the orphanage gave us permission for it took three, but they were very nice about it. When we got back we found out that Vladimir had received all our paperwork early and he was ready to go. This was earlier than we had planned on so Misha had just a few minutes to pack or say goodbye to his friends. He literally only brought a few token birthday gifts from his friends, no pictures, letters, awards, clothes, personal items.

I can't imagine leaving behind all my earthly possessions, especially after you see how hard they work for them and how much they value them. Misha gave everything away. This was nothing compared to how heartbreaking it was watching him say goodbye to his girlfriend, friends and teachers. The whole group was crying. I hated having Misha have to do this on his birthday. We had also tried to get Misha's sister to Sumy all day so that they could say goodbye to each other, but she was in a different village and her husband couldn't find her. We had a three and a half hour drive to Kiev, and he could hardly talk or look at us. I knew this was going to be so hard on him, but I hate to see him hurting.

We got into Kiev late, settled into a new apartment and found a great Georgian restaurant to finish the day.

We got to spend a little time with Misha's mother teacher. She told us what a great kid Misha is, that he is not capable of dishonesty and deception. That he is friends with all the kids, not just a group. She told us that his age group has some rough kids and that Misha gets a long very well with all of them, but that he is never swayed to do the bad things that they do. She said he has a lot of ambition and character and has set many goals for himelf, and that he is the strongest student in his age group. Most importantly, he is a generous, kindhearted kid. These are always the kind of things a mother wants to hear!!!!!

computer difficulties!!

We have taken some great videos while we have been here, but it is quite a challenge to get them on the log. This is one of my favorites so I hope it will work. At the different internet cafes we have had broken disc drives, no usb ports and old computers so waiting for pictures to down load takes a really long time and video is prohibitive. We brought our own laptop, but have mostly not been able to plug it in due to the usb problem. They sell wireless internet plug ins that you just buy a little time on, kind of like the phones. This would have probably been a better idea!! We are all done with all our paperwork and we have our interview at the embassy today and should receive our visa. This means that we could have left on Thursday to come home, but there were absolutely no flights. The soonest we could leave is Saturday, we fly to Paris, stay in the airport over night because we can't leave the airport due to Misha's Ukraine passport and then get home Sunday at 1:30 in the afteernoon. The last two days have been extremely boring for Misha. We've been running around with paperwork, and doing a lot of sitting and waiting, and a few hours at Delta worrying that we couldn't get tickets. We tried to get the Paris embassy to give Misha a one day visa, but it won't work. We are just so appreciative that we got some help from a friend so that we were able to get tickes home, and not stay in Ukraine for another week. We have enjoyed our stay here, but we are so ready to be home and be with our whole family. We found out that the flooding in the west has gotten even worse, the worst in 100 years, and they have shut down most of the roads we were on as well as the borders, so we are so lucky we got out of Misha's birth region when we did. We taught Misha how to play Whist, a favorite family card game, and he is already a pro!! We easily beat Kent and Natalie.

Back to Sumy School

We spent the day with the kids at Sumy today and it has been a little eye opening. During the school year and at camp they were very closely supervised and their activities scrutinized, but right now it's a whole new ball game. The school is out of session and most of the administration is gone and the mother teachers have a vacation so basically one teacher was watching all these kids. Basically these kids were free to roam and do what ever they wanted. The kids swam a lot in the lake and we spent a couple of hours playing with the apples from the apple trees that are all over the school. You may ask how you could entertain yourselves with apples but there are endless ways. We played softball with them, made flying spears, used them to juggle and of course had apple wars. The kids love to eat them even though they are new and sour. All the kids talked about their apples when we were at the camp and now we see why. I don't have more pictures today because the kids were using my camera to make videos and it is out of batteries!!

A VERY LONG TRIP.......................

We left Thusday night about 5:oo p.m. deciding to drive straight through. We had to get the papers changed and notarized on Friday or we would have to wait until Monday, delaying our trip home three more days. We had hoped to get their by 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. However, as often happens in Ukraine, expect the unexpected. Somewhere close to morning Vladimir hit a major pothole that damaged both of his rims on his tires. We couldn't find a place to fix them so we kept driving. When we got a couple of hours away we were stopped by the police who had set up a roadblock because the highway ahead had been damaged by a major flood. They said the only way to get to our destination was through the back mountains and weave through the villages. This detour added about 5 hours to our journey. We went through tiny villages that were half way submerged under water and washed out roads, all with the worry over whether our tires would make it.Vladimir ended up driving 18 hours straight with one15 minute break. We got to the village where Misha was born and they changed his birth certificate to put mine and Kent's names as his parents. They destroyed his original birth certificate which made me sick. We then had to travel an additional two hours to get it notarized in the regional city. We barely got everything signed by 5:00, but we got it done. We finally ate a meal after a 25 hour stretch. This has got to be a non eating record for Kent!! We stayed the night in a cute hotel and got up early and started back. I 'm sure that I'm making this sound bad, but it was also fascinating. The Carpathian mountains are very beautiful and the area has a fascinating history. We passed a village founded in 1085, saw several castles and saw some of the most beautiful country in Ukraine. The hotel we stayed at was right next to the border station of Slavakia and we we were also close to Romania, Poland, Hungary and the Check republic on our trip. This side of Ukraine has a very European feel to it. We were so glad to get back to Sumy though, and get out of the car!!

From East to West

Misha is back at the orphanage. All the kids seemed happy to be back home. We were hoping to leave at noon after picking up the court decree, but the Judge was called out of town so we had to wait til 5:00p.m. so we missed the train. This means we will be driving by the car from one side of Ukraine to the other. Vladimir was hoping to do this in about 13-14 hours. We went to visit Misha, but he wasn't feeling well. He took us to see a local state run equestrian farm where he used to ride horses. The facility was really nice and the horses were amazing. They had several horses there that were national champions in dressage, jumping and long distance running. We saw the biggest horse we have ever seen. We left Misha so that he could rest, he didn't want to visit the nurse. We took the Branch President and his missionary companion out to lunch. The branch President is a missionary from Armenia, he has only been a member of the church for two years, and a missionary for about 6 months, and now he is responsible for the whole branch. They told us it is very hard to find time to tract because they are so busy with branch issues. They are in a large area without a car and it can take hours visiting between members, and they have a lot of elderly women and widows. They had just finished building a hand railing for one of the members.

LAST NIGHT AT CAMP

Our last night at the camp was a lot of fun. The kids put on a massive talent show and then they presented awards and gifts to the kids. Misha received the sportsmans award and got a cool cd case. After that they had a bonfire and a rope pulling contest. They had another big disco night but we decided to leave so Misha could have teenage time without his parents watching over his shoulder. It was so sad saying goodbye to all the kids from the different orphanages. We exchanged adresses with many of the children. The kids are so curious about America and have so many questions, like do we cook, do we have gardens, do we have orphanages there? The saddest question, how do we get adopted?? The Director was very nice and pleasant tonight. She gave Misha a special pin from the camp and said "Mother to mother, she was handing him over to our safekeeping and to take good care of him. That all these kids need is a lot of love".

More images from camp

I thought I would add some pictures from camp to give an idea of what it is like. Many families come and visit the kids while they are here. It rains so frequently that the kids still play soccer even if the field is soaking wet. At the last game we watched the kids were sliding and falling and covered in mud. Of course they loved it. Most of the kids play soccer in their bare feet which is hard to watch because they kick it so hard and they are not playing on groomed fields. There are swing sets which the kids get creative with. Our experience with the kids is that they are polite, affectionate and very well behaved. They have been eager to interact with us and try anything!! I also had to include the picture from our last basketball game. Can I just say it got a little competitive? Ukranian basketball is a contact sport....

SWIM DAY

We had been trying to find a way to break Misha out of camp so that we could go swimming. We had to take the lawyer with us today to get permission to take Misha for a few hours. We had to promise to treat him like a glass doll!! We found a place to swim down in the center of the city and we had a great time. The water was perfect( despite being a little dirty). Misha was doing a back flip of the peir and cut his foot, so I think we may be in a little trouble. We took Misha back to watch him play soccer, but Kent got extremely sick to his stomach so we had to drop Misha off. For those of you who know Kent, he will eat absolutely anything(including the grasshopper he had to eat in a competition with the kids), so I knew it was a matter of time before he got sick, I'm just glad he made it this far. Today the kids are hiking all day so we won't be able to see the Misha until tonight.

More time with Family

W e got to take Misha out of the camp again today. We took him to church and then met up with his sister and her husband. Misha wanted to say goodbye to his grandparents, but his sister got very emotional and told us this was a bad idea. We walked around the childrens park today, it is like the other park in that it has a lot of rides and activities with statues representing classic fairy tales. At the camp the day before they had a professional play group come and put on a show for the kids which was quite entertaining. The boys also taught us a new game which is similar to the american game, truth or dare. If you lose you have to do whatever wild stunt that the kids could come up with. They had Kent talking like a duck and acting like a muscle man in front of the girls. Kent had them chasing a car, barking like a dog and doing silly dances. We also got to experience the movie theater in Sumy, we took Misha to go see Hancock. It was a good choice of movies in that it was easy to follow along in another language. The theater was really nice, with a huge screen and a good sound system. The biggest difference was that they have a full bar at the concession stand, so there was some serious partying going on in the movie theater.

A day away from camp!!!!!!!!!!

We got to have Misha all day! This is the first time we have really spent alone time with him. When we are the camp we are swarmed by kids, which is a lot of fun , but it was so good to have him to ourselves. We took him to get passport pictures which was the reason they let us take him and then we went to Mcdonalds (Misha's choice) and then to the open air market. We had the best time wandering the park, walking through the gardens and enjoying the rides. He is such a great kid. We took him back to our apartment and talked with him about some more serious things. Misha is worried about learning the language and starting school, but the hardest thing for him is saying goodbye to his family, friends. We hope he will be O.K. It is a lot of change.

Visiting the orphanage

We had to go back to the orphanage to sign more papers and we took treats to the kids that are still there instead of at the camp. When we got there they were all down swimming at the pond, it was so much fun watching them!! There father teacher taught them all to swim and they were having a terrific time. It is such a pretty, relaxing setting. I can see why all the kids at the camp want to get back to their home. At camp the kids have to walk for a half hour to the lake and then they only let them swim for three minutes......they say its bad for their health to swim longer. At the orphanage they can swim and fish and explore the neighborhood. It took us a lot longer than we had planned on at the orphanage so Misha called at 6:00 wondering what had happened to us. We headed to the orphanage and had a late night disco party with the kids. I was a little embarrassed about dancing at first, but those boys are persistant! The boys had a great time finding girls for Kent to dance with. They made sure he never had an empty dance card.

10 endless days

Some of the darling kids we wish we could take home!!

We had hoped to have our ten day waiting period waived or shortened, but that didn't happen so we are very glad we registered Misha at the embassy when we first got here so that we will not have a problem getting him out of the country. Even though he is legally ours, the court gives 10 days for anyone to appeal the decision, and it starts from the day of court. Sometimes the child is allowed to stay with the parents after court, but our camp director is not going to go for this. We will be able to take him on the 24th, but we may not because we have to take a train to the opposite side of Ukraine to change his birth certificate in the city where he was born. Right now we are not far from the russian border and Moscow, but we will travel down to his region that borders Checkoslavakia and Romania. All three countries actually converge into the same city.

The train ride can be 24 hours there, and we are planning to just stay for the afternoon and head back so I think we will not make Misha go with us. He returns to the Internat on the 24th so he will have a couple days to spend with his room mother and other teachers. We hopt to go pick him up on the 28th, Misha's birthday, and take him forever. We have to apply for his passport in Sumy before we head back to Kiev for his visa, and a mandatory health check up requred by the American Embassy. We had a little incident at the camp, we attended a competition at the camp auditorium and then were handing out pictures that we had developed of the kids and we had a small group of younger children surrounding us, Misha took off for his soccer game. After about 20 minutes Misha, all the kids that we had been talking to and us were called back into a very serious meeting with the Director. Someone had stolen a cell phone from the deejay after the competition and she was sure it was either Misha or one of the kids we were talking to. We explained through our translator that Misha never went by the stage and neither did any of the kids we were talking to, but she was not convinced. She had at least 100 kids leave the room right before us, but she was convinced it had something to do with us. She just grilled and grilled the kids while we sat there. She had to know this was mortifying to Misha. She told the kids that the police would be called and they would be punished. They cancelled disco camp for the night as well as any other fun activities. It was an extremely uncomfortable situation and we couldn't figure out what her agenda was, but we are kind of at her mercy to see Misha everyday, so there is not much we can do. Yesterday we went back to the orphanage to formally give our donation to the orphanage. They let you choose how it is spent but they give suggestions on how they would like it spent. Two boys that are in Misha's grade stole some welding equipment and were going to have to go to jail for a year if they couldn't pay the fine so a large amount is going to this payment. The boys are at the same camp with us so we have to go talk to them today and explain what we did for them, and how their actions affected the orphanage. They hope that our talking with them will help teach them a lesson. Part of the money also went to help some kids go into Kiev for treatment for TB, only a small ammount was left over for Misha's class. We are heading back to the orphanage today to take some candy and gifts to the kids that are still there. At the camp, basketball is still the game the boys most want to play. They grab Kent as soon as we get there. He's playing about four hours of serious sports everyday, so he's going to come back a lot skinnier! Everyday we take a different American treat for the kids. Kent brought over a whole suitcase of American junkfood. The kids have had a blast with cheese whiz the last couple of days. I don't even think they like the way it tastes, but they have so much fun spraying it. The kids here are amazing at sharing. Everything they receive is shared, including phones and electronics, which explains why the boys never have working phones!!

We are officially new parents!!!

We went to court today. We were finally allowed to take Misha from the camp today. We took him shopping for some new clothes which was quite an adventure. We went to store after store, but we couldn't find any clothes for teenage boys, and the clothes are very expensive here. We wish we had brought more clothes with us. The court actually went quite smoothly. I was more nervous than anyone else. Court takes about an hour, they ask you a lot of questions about the family in Ukraine to make sure that no one would take an interest in keeping Misha here. It was hard for me as they went over and over why no one here could take him and that no family in Ukraine had shown any interest in him. They also had a lot of questions about our contact, how often we wrote and called. They also asked us about our income and home. A woman from the jury was worried that we were going to make Misha change religions. The sent us out for five minutes and then announced that our petition was successful. Misha wanted to change his name from Mykhalo to just plain Misha Jorgensen. So we have our son!! We were invited to go and celebrate, but Misha was anxious to get back for his soccer game. They have a fierce competiton going with the neighborhood Roma men. Because it is the Roma men's territory they get to choose which side of the field and they get to decide if the ball is in or out. It is kind of frustrating because our boys have to play facing the sun and many calls are questionable, but they are excited to play against tougher competition. They had already easily beaten the boys in the surrounding camps. We attended a singing talent competition that was a lot of fun, all of us got to vote for a winner and Misha's girlfriend won by a landslide. We are pretty sure that it was rigged!! For all the other competitions the kids vote for the children from their own orphanage, but they were all convincced to vote for her. Misha was the one collecting votes for her and almost everyone put their vote in his cup. We've been teasing him that he is running a little mafia organization here. In actuallity he is very well liked and respected by all the children. Kent organized a game of softball using ping pong balls and paddles. We have to get creative here! The kids thought it was a lot of fun. We have gone to church twice now. The church members were very warm and welcoming and patient with our lack of speaking ability. We continue to enjoy the city, but it is shocking how expensive the cost of living is here when the incomes are so low. Nothing is cheap. FYI for those of you coming later, I bought the converter adaptor set from walmart and it has worked great with all our plug in stuff. I haven't been able to plug in our computer at the internet cafe, so I am just downloading pictures from our camera. My kids back home are somewhere in the middle of Wyoming , close to Yellowstone at a family reunion. We are missing them like crazy!!!!

We have a court date!!

We have court on Monday!!! We would be beyond thilled if they would wave the 10 day waiting period, but we know this is not very likely. I have to say though, we are having so much fun playing with the kids and seeing them interact with each other. We wish we could bring all these kids home with us. They are such great kids. The boys played against the camp next door and they won in both soccer and basketball. We also got to watch a very entertaining talent show competition. The Sumy kids tied for first place. These kids practice kicking the soccer ball for hours against the gym wall and they play in bare feet. It is painful to watch. The little girls here are starting to warm up to Kent. I don't think they quite knew what to think of him at first. Kent has discovered some good eating places here in Sumy, so he is a happy man. They make fresh crepes with either fruit or meats right outside our hotel.

Boys will be boys

Meeting Family

Misha called us this morning to tell us that his sister and her husband and little girl were coming to the camp to meet us. We have been so anxious to meet his sister, they have been very dependent on each other for a very long time and he loves her very much. Before we could go we got to change apartments. When you rent apartments over here and you want a one bedroom and they only have two they lock the second bedroom door, so in our case they locked the door that had the air conditioning unit. We've slept with mosquitos and they love Kent!! We also haven't had hot water, so this change will be nice. Our new apartment smells so much better!! Do we sound like spoiled Americans?? On the way to the camp we ran into this little family walking in the forrest in the pouring rain, it was Misha's sister. They had been walking a long distance and Lana was wearing high heels, which basically all the women do here. We had such a good meeting with her. She is only three days older than my own daughter. She just turned 18 and she has a two year old daughter. She is very sad about separating from Misha but feels that this is what is best for his future. She filled me in a lot more on their family situation and it was even more heart breaking than we had thought. She is a lovely girl with beautiful skin and eyes. Her daughter is a total doll, full of energy and smiles. We visited with them for a while and hope to meet a few more times with them before we go. We went back later that night to hang out with the kids. All the kids were now playing some of the games Kent had taught them the day before. Ruslan also taught Kent a new game which is basically like our paper, scissors, rock game, but when you lose you get flicked in the head really hard. All the boys wanted to play this with Kent. He went home with quite the headache!