Pictures from the trip last winter.
Posted 1 year ago
From last year:
Just a few shots to give you a sense of the country side in Ukraine. Peter saw the pigs on his trip to Kyiv to meet Carol. The trip included stopping at a road side borscht stand for lunch.
Posted 1 year ago
I know we’ve mentioned the sorry state of many of the roads in Ukraine but just in case you think we’re exaggerating, this is the “pot holes ahead” sign just outside Sumy. I assure you the size of the holes are appropriately in proportion to the car on the sign.
Posted 1 year ago
Sumy city map
Just a google map of the location of our apartment and the orphanage in Sumy city. click on the link to see it.
Posted 1 year ago
From last year: A few shots of Sumy.
Even thought we’ve caught the end of winter and only the beginning of spring in Sumy we can tell this would be a very beautiful city comprised of tree lined streets. The people here are generally quite friendly with us and try to help us out (or at least don’t scowl at us). Unfortunately, this isn’t a tourist destination and we exhausted all the tourist activities within the first day.
Posted 1 year ago
Oscar and Kate, BFFs from the old country.
We were really lucky to meet Helen and Dave when we were in Ukraine. They were a few weeks ahead of us in the process of adopting their son Oscar. We spent a lot of time with them in Kiev and became great friends. As luck would have it, Oscar is only a couple months older than Kate and Helen and Dave only live about half an hour away.
Posted 1 year ago
Grown 10 cm in three months.
Incredible as it seems to us, the tiny little girl we met in Ukraine is growing incredibly fast. She spurted up 10 cm in her first 3 months in Canada! We used to be worried how small she was in contrast to her Canadian peers. Not any more!
Posted 1 year ago
For those of you who keep asking…
Kate has been doing really well since coming into our family in May. It certainly took her a few weeks to get settled in but she’s proven herself to be resilient and adaptable. We’ve spent the past four months introducing her to new places and new activities. Despite Peter’s best efforts to get her into sports, her two favourite activities are dance and gymnastics. Peter is still crossing his fingers for downhill skiing this winter.
Posted 1 year ago
Vladimir Putin wrecked my day
Addendum to the blog
This post was written on May 17, 2010 but due to technical difficulty in Ukraine, didn’t get posted. Here it is.
Today we woke up to barricades and militia men surrounding our apartment. My mother said she guessed that there was some big wig staying in our building. By the time we left for the embassy no local traffic was being let through so we had to arrange an alternative location to be picked up by our driver. It wasn’t with out some difficulty. We arrived at the embassy with only 10 minutes to spare before the deadline. On our way back to the apartment we had to walk most of the way and when we got there the guards would not let us back into our building. Babushka, Baby and Mama a very suspicious and daunting trio to be sure. Of course the clouds broke into a tumultuous downpour and finally one of the armed soldiers agreed to let us in the back entrance. Later when I had to follow the same process leaving the building, going to the embassy and returning I learned that it was Putin who wrecked my day. I hope that he is gone tomorrow so we can get to the airport with a lot more ease. BTW this is Day 100 for me
Posted 1 year ago
Many Thanks
We have many people to thank for supporting us while we have been away.
First to our companies, who were understanding when the length of our absence grew and grew. And in particular to Wendy’s FCT family who arranged for her to work from Ukraine and actually helped contribute to her sanity over this 100 day journey. Wendy also wants to thank Theresa for all the extra e-mail traffic she managed for her, you have been a superstar
To our dear neighbours, who looked after our lonely house and in particular kept the lemon tree alive whom they named Lazarus.
To Renee and Chris for the baby clothes for the orphanage, to Bobbi and Marilyn for the Makeup for the children’s caregivers, and the Dales for the lovely clothes for Zara and starbucks goodies for her homesick parents.
Wendy owes a particular debt of thanks to Medtronic who extended their travel loaner insulin pump program beyond 90 days. She actually had to use this back up insulin pump so without it She would have had to switch back to needles - a daunting prospect for her.
We also wanted to thank everyone who commented on our blog and sent us messages. Outside of seeing Kate this was the highlight of our day- reading messages from home. After struggling through Russian and Ukrainian, waiting for this indeterminable process to unfold and attempting to understand and adjust to our new life, it was so rewarding to hear from everyone at the end of day.
And of course the people we both have to thank the most are our families for all the support, encouragement and enthusiasm they have had in welcoming Kate into our family. special thanks go to Tom for helping out so much behind the scenes and Wendy’s mother and father. Carol for coming to be with Wendy, and Wendy’s father Frank for agreeing to give up his BFF.
Posted 1 year ago
The last few days have been fantastic. Yes, Kate is suffering from jet lag and is waking up at 3:30 AM in the morning all raring to get on with the day but the only person who really seems to be suffering is her father, the working stiff. Wendy is tired but her relief at being home with her daughter keeps a big smile on her face.
Kate is adjusting reasonably well. We’ve been trying to keep things simple for her but we have to keep remembering that every moment in Oakville is filled with sensory overload for a kid who’s just arrive from a Ukrainian Orphanage. Having said that, she is already trying to be just like her mother, within a day of her arrival Kate was into her mother’s closet to try on her shoes.
We’re slowly settling in and Kate is getting a bit more accustomed to her new home but there is no doubt she’s still very shy and anxious around strangers.
Posted 1 year ago
Meeting Kate- Adjustment and Attachment
We are delighted that so many people want to meet Kate now that we’ve finally liberated her from Ukraine. However, for Kate this is a very big change. She is used to a very regimented routine at the orphanage and we will need time to develop one at home. Our biggest priority for Kate is to get her eyesight corrected. The other challenge that we face is that she needs time to become attached to her parents. As a child in an orphanage she is programmed to seek affection and attention from every adult (female) that she sees. In order to facilitate this we need time to bond and before you meet Kate we will let you know how the program works. Please no parties just yet. We assure you that she will be the life of the party in the long term.
Posted 1 year ago
HOME!
We had small reception for Katie at the airport but she was in surprisingly good spirits after flying half way around the world. She looked at Peter with a bit of puzzlement for a few seconds but when the flash from his camera went off she remember exactly who he was.
We were excited to show Kate her new home and are happy that she loves her new room. The whole house is a bit overwhelming for her. She keeps repeating “mine? mine?” in befuddled and bewildered Russian. She showed enough energy to run around the house a little and then announced she wanted to go to bed. Wow. What a day.
Hi. In 2010 we traveled to Ukraine to adopt a child. This blog was a chronicle intended for our families and friends but I've left it on-line for anyone else who may find our experiences useful.
"Ivan" was the "working title" we started using for our prospective child. Our adoption process took twice the time we were told it would so we were trying to free Katerina from the isolation of an institutional orphanage to our family. And we were trying to get ourselves back home too.
