Swimming in the Black Sea

Kerch is on the Black Sea. We have been taking advantage of it being so close. We can walk from our apartment to two places to swim. Oleg likes to swim almost every day. My favorite of the two closest places costs a little over $6 to swim. There are cement enclosures that look like pools but it is sea water running in and out, complete with seaweed and jelly fish! I like it there because there are chairs, things for Oleg to jump off of, and a good ladder for those of us that like to get in gently. :-)  One day this week there were large jelly fish around so I didn't last too long in the water.

We can also go 25 minutes on a bus to get to a real beach. That is my favorite place to swim, once we get passed the seaweed. There were women walking up and down the beach selling baklava and corn on the cob. We decided on ice cream.

The Black Sea is a lot gentler than the Atlantic Ocean. There are waves, but small ones. It is salty, but not as salty as the ocean. It is very beautiful.

Family Fun!

We are in the waiting period between the successful court hearing and it becoming official on August 6th when the Decree is published.  Oleg's 'Gotcha' Day will be August 6.  That's half a year from his birthday on February 5, so we'll have evenly spaced celebrations to mark the years to come.  

After court his aunt has allowed him to spend the nights with us as he has wanted to do.  We've found him to be a night owl, this will be one adjustment for all of us to work through.  Oleg has been accustomed to having considerable independence during his summers away from the orphanage and its summer camps. This year even more than usual.  They did not require him to go to a 2nd camp that started after our arrival.  We've had well more than the usual 2 hrs per day visits with him.  

He is asking more questions about America as the days get closer. He'll need to be ready for no Russian menus at restaurants and the like.   When you meet him, use whatever Russian you may know to encourage him. 

Here are a couple of pictures and helium balloon fun.  

Waiting for dinner after court.

Soviet water vending machine, it still works!  Rinse glass, select type of water, drink, and rinse glass. 

Oleg is a funny kid! We had a helium balloon break.

Our Time in Court

Yesterday was the big day. I'm sorry we didn't post sooner but we didn't get home until late last night. We had to be to the courthouse at 3:30 pm. It was Darwin and I, Oleg, two facilitators, the inspector, and one of the teachers from Oleg's school. We went into a small court room and were joined by a prosecutor, two jurors, and the judge.

Everything went very well. We had to stand and introduce ourselves. The judge asked questions about us and then she talked to Oleg. She smiled when she was talking to him. It was apparent she cared about him. He said he does want to be adopted by us. After all the questions were answered the judge and jurors went into another room. We waited for about 20 minutes. They came back in and the judge read the outcome. She granted us permission to adopt Oleg! Yea!

It is a tradition in Kerch that the family, facilitators, inspector, and school representative go out for a meal after the court time. We went to one of Oleg's favorite restaurants. It was a fun time of celebrating. 

After dinner we went to see a World War II monument that overlooks Kerch. To get there we had to climb over 400 steps. It was worth it! The view was amazing! There are some archaeological excavations near there and what appears to be a small lighthouse. We might go up there again to explore more. It was a fun way to top off the day.

Now we have a 10 day waiting period. During dinner we were discussing what we would do during that time. There are so many things to see. I'm sure we will find things to keep ourselves busy. We will post pictures later today.

Thanks for going on this journey with us and thanks for your prayers!

New Apartment

We are enjoying our new apartment on Goat St. Kozlova is Russian for goat. We are on the 3rd floor. There is a big kitchen, big living room, and good size master bedroom. There is a futon in the living room. AC is in the master bedroom.

We don't know the area well yet, though it is close to the pretty area of town. Yesterday we went to a grocery store that we know and had to carry it all back several blocks. We will learn.

Our facilitator arrived back from Kiev today. It is great to have her back. She has become a good friend, plus we will be able to be understood again! Tomorrow we have our time in court at 3:30 Ukraine time, 8:30 am Florida time. We will post tomorrow to tell you the outcome.

Relaxing Sunday

This has been a very relaxing day. We watched a sermon from our church online this morning. We can't wait to get back and be there in person! Our Saturday night after church dinner group went to our favorite Mexican restaurant without us last night! I am getting off track. :-) 

After church we packed so we can be ready for our move tomorrow. Oleg came over at 2 pm and we were going to walk to the new apartment to show him where it is. Amazingly he directed us to a store that sells bikes and scooters. He wanted a scooter because our new apartment is further for him.  After we made sure we could bring it home we agreed. We were able to show him the new apartment, in a round about way.

When we got into the center of Kerch we spent a little time with Oleg and he wanted to go off on his scooter with friends. We had a leisurely dinner. In almost every restaurant we have been in the wait for food is very long, even if there aren't many customers. We enjoyed the pace today. Then we walked back to the apartment so we could see what is around the new apartment. We haven't found a grocery store close by yet, but I'm sure we will. There is a large open air market not too far.

Pictures of the tourist area of Kerch.

We have spent a good weekend with Oleg. He came today asking us to help him buy a scooter.  He showed up with about 40% of the money needed, so either he's been saving or has asked his aunt or cousin or someone to help him out.  Now I'll need to track down an Allen Wrench to enable us to carry it on trains, planes and buses as we travel between cities in the coming weeks. Parenthood - It's on! We did pass a hardware store on the walk on Friday to see the new apartment which we'll move into some time tomorrow.   Our facilitator is in Kiev so we're on our own with the help of Natasha's (Land lady) friend Katya or her son Alexander) who both speak some English.  Calling a cab will be about the most linguistically demanding thing we'll have to do.

We walked from the center of the city - Lenin Square back to the site of the new apartment, about 13 minutes or so.  There are several cafe's, restaurants, and ice cream stands along the walk, along with other shops.  Street musicians are on every block during the weekends, and a brass band plays near one of the pizza parlors every evening.  About half of the restaurants have menu's in English with some humorous translations.  Specialties becomes Special Ties for example.   We have a couple of pictures of  Lenin Street which makes up most of the walk.   This city has not replaced its statue of nor streets named for Vladimir Lenin.   Our current apartment for example is on Young Lenin Street.

View of Lenin Street 

Another section of Lenin Street, Kerch Ukraine 

View of some gardens along the walkway to one of the city beaches

This shop is located just off of  Lenin Square. The larger letters say "Missisipi" (Mississippi) in Russian, it's a shop full of various arcade games, Oleg loves the 'futbol kick' which clocks the speed of  kicking a soccer ball.  He's regularly in the 50+ Mph  (80+ Kph) range.  It's for right footers or I'd have tried it too!  

New Apartment

This morning we went to look at a different apartment. We have to move on Monday. I have been hoping and praying for a nicer apartment. The one we are in now is very old, dark, and smells funny. It is a Soviet era apartment. To be honest, it has been a little depressing. We spend a lot of time here. Oleg comes over around 3 pm and we go to the sea every day.

Let me tell you about the new apartment. It is on the 3rd floor of a newish building. There is a security gate to get in. It is bright and cheery. There is a great kitchen. The bathroom is fancier than ours at home. There is a bidet! The air conditioner is in the bedroom. Yea! There is another large bedroom for our facilitator. There is a TV with many channels, though none in English :-) . There is wifi and a washing machine. We can have this apartment until we leave Kerch. It costs more than we wanted to spend, but the one we are in now is inexpensive. It will kind of balance out.

The past couple of days have been hard for me. I am tired of trying to make myself understood. Good things are coming though. Next week we have our court date. Each step brings us closer and closer to finalizing the adoption and coming home.

Yesterday we went to the museum in Kerch. Oleg's aunt works there and she wanted us to come. It is very interesting. Some of the artifacts are from as far back as the 7-6th century BC. Darwin says that is the time that the prophet Jeremiah lived.

Oleg's Orthodontics

While we were with the facilitator from Simferopol applying for and receiving our court summons for Oleg's adoption hearing; Oleg was undergoing a fitting for some orthodontics.  He now has an upper retainer that does not look comfortable. He said that he slept most of the day yesterday after the procedure. We don't know if this is the end of it or if there is a permanent thing coming. They'll have maybe 3 weeks to do whatever they'll do, and then his new American dentist will dream of a bigger boat.  After all of the crowns he's given me, I now tease him whenever he gives me a good report  "I guess the boat will have to wait."     Oleg wasn't real hungry today but did have some bologna and other soft foods. He even refused an offer of ice cream tonight.  However, he still had energy to swim for a few hours and do this bungee tramp thing, pictures below. He's resilient for sure.

Here are a few pics and videos from today.

Oleg on a bungee-tramp on the beach

Video version of Oleg on the bungee-tramp, be sure your seat belt is buckled and hang on! 

This is the picture of Russia from our public beach in Kerch.  This is a strip of land not much wider than are the Florida Keys with a highway (M-25) running Northeast to Ilych, Russia.  Ferries from Kerch and Bulgaria come to the terminal.  The picture below was called Russia mistakenly, Pat informed me of the error, she's the photographer in most of the shots you have seen.   This will be a busy area in February when Sochi Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Sochi is perhaps 300 miles South of here on the Russian land mass, facing the Black Sea.  It barely snows in Kerch, we'll see how they handle that this winter. 

A zoomed in view of the end of the Crimean peninsula.  The Kerch Strait seperates Ukraine from Russia here.


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We have a court date!

There are a few things going on now with the adoption. Our facilitator is in Kiev. She submitted our petition to adopt Oleg to the adoption center. Today we went to the court in Kerch with another facilitator to submit our request for a court date. We will be going to court upon July 25th at 3:30 pm. When we get the approval from the court there is a 10 day waiting period to see if any immediate family members come to protest the adoption. After that we apply for a new birth certificate here in Kerch.

The step after that is to apply for a Ukrainian passport for Oleg in Simferopol. We heard today that they have not been issuing passports for anyone, but should start up again soon. Please pray that everything will be flowing smoothly with the issuing of passports by the time we apply for Oleg's. After we get the passport we will go to Kiev to get US required medical tests and a visa to go to the States. We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Have you ever had calamari on a pizza? When we took Oleg and his friends for pizza last night one of them ordered calamari, we think is was Oleg. :-). The boys did not like it. I didn't try it.

Just when we thought that it couldn't be more interesting ...

We had a good weekend with Oleg and his friends Viktor and Vladim  We navigated ordering pizza again and it was a little less of a mystery than the other night.   Yesterday was Fisherman's Day in Kerch, they had the Ukrainian Navy, yes they have one! as well as some local fishing boat captains. The boys went on a power boat ride and seemed to enjoy it. Fisherman's Day is one of 3 unique holidays in the city of Kerch, and it was just as any American city's festival.  We all do the same things at our fests.

Tonight after pizza we went to the market,while the boys took in some more games. As we got off the bus at our stop and arrived back at the apartment I noticed that I could not find my wallet!  About  250 rph ($30 USD was in it and my credit card.  I tried calling my bank and ran out of minutes half way through.  Calling home is pricey from here.  We texted our friend Eric in Poltava and he was able to get my card blocked thanks to Majick Jack.  It throws a  wrench in our plans, but we can thank God that it wasn't worse. We caught it immediately.  

A video of Oleg doing a back flip from an air raft.

and Pictures

Left to right: Viktor, Oleg, and Vladim going for a boat ride at Fisherman's Day, 2013

Oleg doing bumper cars. 

We are trying to teach Oleg a little English every day.  Today we brought a small English vocabulary book with us and went over things in a house.  He is doing well.  Conversations are not real easy but Google translate is helping.

Ordering Pizza in a Foreign Land

Today Oleg and I went swimming in the Black Sea again. Or, I should say I went swimming and he went sliding and jumping and back flipping. It is so fun watching him enjoying himself. 

Darwin met us for dinner at a pizza place. I ordered what I thought would be a personal size pizza. Darwin ordered what he thought was a calzone. We didn't know what Oleg ordered. My pizza was a little bigger than I thought it would be. Darwin got a large calzone pizza. Oleg ordered a large pizza for himself. Needless to say we had plenty. Thankfully the pizzas are thin crust and don't have much cheese.

It was nice to have dinner with Oleg alone, though communication is a challenge. He started to hurry as we were coming home and tried to tell me something. Then he started picking leaves off a bush. I think he was trying to tell me that he was supposed to be at his aunts house doing yard work. Maybe he was saying he wanted to watch Edward Sissorhands on TV. He gave us each a big hug, I told him in Russian that I love him, he got a big smile on his face and he ran off. God is good!

Dinner with Oleg

We didn't go sightseeing. That will have to wait because the one that was going to take us is in a mission trip in another part of Ukraine. Darwin was working most of the day. His "patch Tuesday" has turned into patch Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Oleg and his friend came over last night for dinner. He stopped by earlier in the day to get money, swimsuit, and towels for a day in the sun. I decided to stay home and cook dinner for them. Once a day he is used to a meal consisting of soup, salad, main meal, and dessert. I went all out with meatball soup, salad, chicken, potatoes, and ice cream. It was all a hit, except Oleg was too full to eat the chicken and potatoes. I guess we know how the money was spent. :-)

After dinner Oleg told us that his friend, Victor, wants to come to America with him. They are best friends. That was so hard. We are on our third and last adoption referral. We can't add Victor. Papers have been submitted and are in process. Victor is 15 years old. When he hits 16 he will be too old to adopt. Please pray that God will raise up a family for him fast. Oleg was acting very squirrelly last night. I think he was nervous about asking us. With the help of Google translate and a dictionary we were able to understand what he wanted.

Tomorrow is a fisherman's festival in Kerch. We are going to take Oleg. He is really interested in that.

Life in Kerch

We have settled into a routine here. Oleg stays up late and sleeps late so he comes over sometime after lunch. After he arrives here we go out some where in Kerch. Oleg likes to go to a certain place to swim and dive. We sit and watch and take pictures. Last night we went to dinner and he wanted to include his best friend Victor. During dinner Victor asked our facilitator how we found Oleg. He was wondering why he wasn't being adopted. It is heart breaking seeing all the older children here that want to  adopted. When the turn 16 they are too old.

Yesterday I did laundry by hand. Our apartment has no clothes washer. It takes a long time and I am sure I don't do as good of a job as a machine would do. If we don't wring out the clothes well they take a long time to dry in the sun! This morning we had to take a bus to the grocery store. I understand why people go to the store often. You have to carry the bags a ways to get home. Thankfully we have a little store close by so we can get some things.

We are doing better with getting around here. Our facilitator has to leave soon to go back to Kiev to submit more documents at the adoption center for us. We have to learn which busses go where. We will also be on our own in communicating with Oleg. We better get used to that. We are trying to teach him 5 new English words each day. He is doing well. We are also trying to learn a little Russian. Darwin is still doing better than I am.

Tomorrow we might go sightseeing. We will post pictures.

Pictures of Oleg

Yesterday was an eventful day here in Kerch.  We had our appointment with the school director (Superintendent in our system) yesterday.  Oleg wrote out 2 statements in cursive stating his desire to be adopted by us!   One goes to the Kerch city court, where we will have our hearing whenever they can schedule it, late July is possible; and the other one to the government of Ukraine in Kiev. Our facilitator will need to travel ti Kiev next week to submit and oversee our documents there for a time.  We will remain here and meet with Oleg as often as we can.
We then went swimming in the Black Sea to celebrate.  Oleg is quite the acrobat and always needing to move.
For our Social Security system Oleg needed to choose a middle name.  He wanted Kevin - you may recall the movie "Home Alone", he said that this was the motivation for his choice.  I guess it will be awhile before we leave him home alone!
He has been off from summer camps for the past week.  He may have to go to one more called Camp Hope, run by some churches in Kiev.  The Kerch people go to Kiev and vice versa.  Oleg would stay here and we may be getting the usual 1 -2 hr visits with him.  We've been blessed with 4-6 hrs lately and that puts quite a workout for us!
The adoption is not final even if the court agrees, there is a 10 day period for immediate family to lodge protests.  After this period there is about 3 more days in Kiev at the American Embassy getting immigration documents.
Here are the first pictures more sure to come!

Oleg diving from a raft, it's tough to get good shots, he jumps quickly and with enthusiasm. 

After a day of swimming

Oleg Kevin Ammala 

Taken outside of his school 

Church in Kerch

Last week we met a woman named Natasha, she helped us with translation at the notary's office. She shared with us that she adopted a child several years ago and that her daughter is going to have surgery. Darwin told her that we would pray for her. She asked if we were Christians, we said yes and she invited us to church. It is a small church that is very alive spiritually. The worship time was great, and the message. They asked Darwin to share his testimony and about why we are here. It was a wonderful time.

After the service Natasha took us out to a very nice lunch. She has many tips about things to do in Kerch and good places to eat. It was a real blessing from God.

We are leaving soon to get together with Oleg. Today we want to talk to him about a middle name. The adopted kids always choose a middle name to put on their new birth certificate.

New Apartment

We found an apartment that will cost less than half that the hotel did. We will be able  to do our own cooking. There is air conditioning and two bedrooms, kind of. We will be sleeping in the living room, the room  with the AC. Our facilitator doesn't like AC as much as we do. :-)  We can stay in this apartment until July 22nd. We will have time to find another one.

We met Oleg for lunch and then went shopping for flip flops, shorts, and a T-shirt. We paid attention to the price and got something more reasonable. He has definite ideas about what he likes. We looked for a long time for a certain pair of shorts And finally found them! We were going to go with him to watch him do a different trampoline thing but he wore us out. We sent him on his way with a little money in his pocket so he can jump with his friends. 

Oleg seems to be getting more and more comfortable with us. We can make ourselves understood a little bit. Darwin is doing so well with Russian. I am progressing a little. This is kind of an odd time in our relationship with Oleg. We aren't his parents yet, we won't be until after the court date, 10 days before we can come home with him. He hasn't even signed the paper yet saying he wants to be adopted yet. He will do that on Monday. We can show him love, we can try to teach him little things but we can't really tell him what to do and what not to do yet. It is so fun to see him enjoying things he hasn't been able to do before. He was a little disappointed that we wanted to go back to the apartment after a day of shopping. He dealt with it OK and we can look forward to time tomorrow.

Our internet access isn't working yet, but our phones can be mobile hot spots.  Our landlord has called the ISP and they told her and her son that they need to come to the roof of the building to connect us up.  Once we have a regular connection we'll post pictures.  This could happen later today or even tomorrow. Hopefully by Monday.

Looking for apartment

We are going to look at an apartment this morning. We might be off line for a few days!

Busy Day!

This is the time in the adoption process when we spend as much time as possible with Oleg. We met him for lunch and took him shopping for swim trunks, he wanted to go swimming with friends. While he was swimming we went to the notary to have a document drawn up petitioning for the adoption. Notaries are lawyers here. That took quite a while. Then we met Oleg at the pool. Then the show began. He was jumping in the pool, splashing other kids, throwing girls in the water. He wanted me to get pictures of it all. Then he moved to the pool with the diving boards and wanted more pictures. He is very athletic and was in constant motion!

For dinner we went for pizza. Oleg was very hungry and was impatient waiting for the pizza to come. He talks pretty freely, in Russian. Our facilitator is so helpful! It is a challenge thinking of questions to ask him so we can get to know him better. He really likes electronics so we let him play Angry Birds on my tablet. Kids everywhere know about Angry Birds. After all the activity Oleg ordered an energy drink with his pizza. I don't think he really need it!

After pizza we went shopping for shorts and a T-shirt. The shop we went into had very little for kids his size. He found something he liked, he is very particular. We went to pay for it and discovered we have to pay more attention to price. It turned out these items were very high quality, from Italy. $90 for shorts and a T-shirt!

On the way home we walked through a tourist area and there was a trampoline thing Oleg wanted to jump on. This kid loves to jump and he has never been able to do these things before. It was fun watching him, laughing at his antics, and taking pictures.

Today we are meeting him again. We will see what adventures are in store for us!

A Happy July 4th!

After a 20 hour train ride we arrived in Kerch at 1:30 pm. The train was not too bad. It was overcast and cooler so we were able to sleep pretty well. We found a hotel and then went to see the inspector. She went with us to see Oleg at the orphanage. He is 14 but small for his age. He is very cute! We had a great time talking to him. We showed him pictures of our house and answered questions about where we live. He wants to have parents all to himself. That is what he would get with us. He asked us about what happened with the girl we were going to adopt. He knew we had been at another orphanage. We told him that we have been praying for two years about adopting a child from Ukraine. We thought it was going to be a girl but God led us to him and we are very happy about that. Oleg is happy about possibly coming to America. His favorite sport is soccer and he loves the beach. You should have seen Darwin trying to describe and act out playing baseball.

Nothing is definite yet but Oleg sounds very positive about being adopted by us. We both really like him and think he will fit in well with us. As the days go on we will spend as much time with him as possible to get to know him. Because it is summer he has a little more freedom to be away from the orphanage. If all goes well he will sign a paper soon saying that he wants to be adopted by us. Tomorrow we will start the paperwork here. All that will lead up to a court date.

The hotel we are staying in for now is close to the Black Sea. It is beautiful. We are going to try to find an apartment so that we can do our own cooking. Apartments are usually cheaper than hotels.

We will post pictures of Oleg when the adoption seems more certain. We appreciate your prayers!

Our Time In Kiev

Sorry it has been a while since we posted. We have had a busy time the last few days. A mission team of 4 from Kentucky stayed at our facilitators apartment one night before going back to the states. We met them at the International Church in Kiev. It was great to go to worship and hear a good teaching in English. After church we went sightseeing in Kiev and then came back to the apartment and had pizza delivered for dinner. It was fun getting to know the people on the team. They had been at an orphanage ministering to the kids.

Yesterday we met Tim and Christina Emerson and their two cute kids in town. They are missionaries from our church. We had lunch at TGI Fridays and then spent the rest of our time together walking around the city more. It was great to see them! After they left to go back home we met up with our facilitator and another couple that is adopting for some shopping and then headed back to the apartment.

Today we had our final appointment at the adoption center. It went very well. We will pick up or referral to go see Oleg tomorrow and will board a train to Kerch. If all goes well, we will spend almost all of the rest of our time in Kerch. If Oleg says yes to the adoption we will spend time with him almost every day, work on paperwork, and wait for a court hearing. We will keep you posted!