Wednesday, 16 May Wednesday at 11:00 AM was our scheduled appointment with the SDA; the State Department of Adoption and Protective Rights of Children. This is the first official step in our adoption activities, and without their approval, we would be headed back home without Masha…so it’s a very important step. We got up early on Wednesday, made a cup of tea, checked email and uploaded the Tuesday blog entry. We showered and dressed for our SDA appointment (skirt and blouse for me, slacks and a shirt (no tie) for Mark. Our driver Sergei picked us up promptly at 9:30, […]

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Tuesday, 15 May Mark to Christine: “Hey, honey, what time is it?”Christine: “It’s 3:15”Pause…Mark to Christine “Hey, honey, what did I just ask you?”Christine: “You asked what time it was.”Mark: “Uh, what did you say?”Christine: “3:15.”Mark: “Oh, OK, Thanks.” We’re a little zoned out, but I think we’ve made the transition to Ukraine about as well as can be expected. we spent Tuesday in Kiev, getting a feel for the city. We went to bed around 9:30 on Monday, dead tired. We both woke up about midnight, and decided it was time to put the sleeping pills we brought to […]

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Monday, 14 May Sunday and Monday pretty much ran together….It’s Monday evening in Kiev as I draft this, and Mark and I are both running on about an hour and a half of sleep since yesterday morning. Around 11:00 on Sunday morning, the Maxwell clan stopped by to see us off, and Mark’s parents came about 11:15 to take us to the airport. After many pictures, the guys piled all the luggage into the car, and we were off! We arrived at the Fort Wayne airport a little more than an hour before our flight, checked our bags, and breezed […]

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We are all packed and ready to go! We just have a couple of last-minute items to wrap up, and we’ll be on our way to the airport…..The last few days have been incredibly hectic, but they’ve also given us many opportunities to gain perspective. Friday morning, we spoke to Masha on the phone. Special thanks to Lena Statsenko, my friend and Russian teacher, for getting up at an ungodly hour to come over and translate for us on the call. It was wonderful to hear Masha’s voice and to be able to communicate with her!! We did encounter a […]

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In the midst of my scurrying and hurrying to get ready to leave this weekend (yes, this weekend!!), my wonderful sisters-in-law organized a “baby” shower for me!!!! It was so great to see so many friends and family members from different areas of my life come together to support Mark and me as we step into this new adventure! In preparation for this, we went to Target about a month ago to register….it’s actually kinda hard to register for a 12-year-old baby!!!! As many of you know, for a traditional baby shower, you can register for diapers and bottles and […]

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