tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32773223479105516342024-12-18T20:31:34.801-07:00Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-47150855266755785142009-03-29T08:49:00.008-06:002009-07-21T17:46:41.873-06:00

It was the most amazing 24 hours of our lives. Forgive us, but this update is going to be a long one...Friday was the day we were to take Brooke from the orphanage. We had a lot to do and a long way to drive, so Yuri picked us up at 7:30 AM. Our first stop was the court house to pick up the final court documents. We didn't want to worry anyone, but the last week and a half have been a bit scary

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-37615221917611138242009-03-23T06:51:00.000-06:002009-07-21T17:26:54.884-06:00

Sunday was bitter cold and snowing ... again. :-) For most of the morning, we were in the big play room where the kids can let off some steam and get out of their cramped little room. It's also a nice respite for the caretakers who can sit back and watch the kids play. This time, some of the older children from a different room joined us to play. Ira (the girl who played with Brooke on the

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-3262531914140911582009-03-22T00:48:00.003-06:002009-07-21T13:52:59.378-06:00

Saturday was a departure from our normal routine. We arrived at the orphanage as usual at 9:00, but the caretakers told us not to take our shoes off and wanted to talk with Yuri. She was very animated and talking quite loudly with him. Uh-oh ... what had we done wrong? Turns out everything was OK. We still have to learn that people may sound like they're angry here when they're not ... it's just

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-40900818289118905902009-03-18T06:36:00.005-06:002009-07-21T13:24:22.417-06:00

Monday was our day in court ... the day we'd been waiting for and the day we officially became Brooke's parents! It started out with sun and blue skies ... always a good sign ever since we've been here. Kristi wasn't nervous, but was very excited. While I too was excited, I was also a bit nervous because I would have to speak before the court. Neither Kristi nor I have ever been in a live court

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-61054013240163835282009-03-12T06:44:00.003-06:002009-06-18T22:07:53.996-06:00

The past couple days have been a bit different ... the care takers had us spend nearly the entire time there alone with Brooke. We think they're trying to help us bond even more together and show the other kids that we're Brooke's parents and not their mommy and daddy. We love playing with the other children, but always want to be sure that Brooke gets the most attention and doesn't feel like

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-22943521205807561052009-03-08T09:22:00.008-06:002009-06-18T21:35:31.486-06:00

We had freezing rain here yesterday on top of the snow making the roads and sidewalks incredibly slippery. Walking to dinner last night was an adventure. At one point we were on ice so slick that even standing in the still we slid toward the street. At one point, a cute little old babushka came out of one of the stores, looked at the ice, then looked at us as if asking for help. We held out our

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-5803861619506099642009-03-05T03:30:00.004-07:002009-06-18T20:46:37.614-06:00

We wanted to show you some video and pictures of Kharkiv. It's been very cold and snowy here. The video shows us driving from downtown Kharkiv, South through the city and some countryside, and then turning off on a main street into the village of Zeloni Gai where Brooke's orphanage is. We wanted to show you the houses and streets in the village.Svobody Square in downtown Kharkiv. Our apartment

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-4537804100518481562009-03-04T03:29:00.000-07:002009-05-11T16:22:31.579-06:00

We've been settling into a nice routine here in Kharkiv. We see Brooke in the mornings, come back and eat lunch, I go to the Internet cafe downtown and work 4-5 hours in the afternoons and evenings, then we go out for dinner. Sunday we did laundry using a very small washing machine in our apartment. It only holds about five pieces of clothing and each load takes nearly two hours. Things are just

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-5439091996692883482009-03-01T11:07:00.001-07:002009-07-21T13:56:06.462-06:00

"Dobre utra deite!" we announced when we first arrived. "Good morning, children!" Of course they all looked up with smiles and giggles while Brooke laughed and ran straight for Kristi. The caretakers said that our Russian is getting better.Apparently Brooke came to this room three weeks ago from another house in the orphanage. Two of her previous caretakers came by to see her and say hello to us.

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-31832271896006496012009-02-28T12:31:00.003-07:002009-05-11T14:22:19.852-06:00

Finally a day where we could just relax and enjoy our time with Brooke. The baby house is located in the small village of Zeloni Gai which means "Green Forest" in Russian. We arrived there a little before 9:00 and all of the children were watching cartoon on TV ... it is Saturday morning after all! Brooke saw us and immediately started laughing and squirming on the lap of one of the caretakers,

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-45068568742942913692009-02-27T11:44:00.010-07:002009-05-11T11:49:18.607-06:00

Yes, that's our little girl's name! We wanted to wait to tell everyone because until today, we still weren't sure if we'd really be able to adopt her. You see, HIV is a big problem in Ukraine (21% of all HIV cases in Europe are from Ukraine). If Brooke had tested positive for either HIV or Hepatitis C she could not have come back to with us to the United States. But thankfully her tests came back

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-8255395647949144072009-02-26T10:09:00.010-07:002009-05-11T11:08:02.631-06:00

Don't worry, we won't write every day! A lot is happening here at the beginning, but things will slow down soon. We also wanted to post a couple photos of Svitlana so you all could see her. She is absolutely beautiful! And of course, she had to blink for the one family photograph we took ... LOL!Today we had to leave at 7:15 AM to get to the baby house by 8:00. We're staying in downtown Kharkiv,

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-34717089477947042132009-02-25T11:04:00.001-07:002009-05-10T07:28:07.971-06:00

Wow, what a day! We hardly slept last night, but had to be up at 3:00 AM to meet Serge in front of our apartment. Then we were driving halfway acroos Ukraine with Serge in his BMW going 150 miles per hour on a beat-up two-lane highway toward Kharkiv. That's not an exaggeration either ... he really was going that fast. Serge is a great driver, but needless to say we just had to sit back and trust

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-77788537445312887322009-02-24T09:20:00.002-07:002009-05-10T07:28:38.697-06:00

We had most of today to relax a bit ... it was so needed after the travel and the high emotion of seeing Svitlana's picture and profile yesterday. We finally got a good night's sleep. We went down the street to the store and bought some juice, a breakfast bread, and some bottled water. Then we came back, had breakfast, got our showers, and watched a couple episodes of The Office on DVD. Thank

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-21317317884280865912009-02-23T08:07:00.003-07:002009-05-06T14:59:44.955-06:00

Hi everyone. We met with the Ukraine State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children's Rights (SDA) today. We had a different driver, Yuri, who is a young man in college. He picked us up this morning (in his BMW no less!) and when we got in, there was another couple in the car. At first we didn't say anything because we didn't know if it was another Ukranian couple or what ... although

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-86318086709647656532009-02-22T08:41:00.021-07:002009-05-06T09:09:19.623-06:00

Well, we're here! We're tired, but we're here. We flew through customs with no problems at all (thank you for your prayers). And although two of our flights had minor delays, there were no problems making connections.The driver who picked us up at the Kiev airport, Nicolai, was such a blessing. He spoke good, but broken English, and of course, I know very little Russian. But I found out quickly

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-61909056273231340192009-02-22T00:35:00.004-07:002009-05-06T09:09:51.340-06:00

One step closer! The flight from Chicago wasn't bad, but we didn't get much sleep. I went through both laptop batteries and Kristi watched two lame movies as we passed the time. When we first arrived, it was VERY quiet in the Dusseldorf terminal. No music, no TV, and absolutely nobody in the waiting area where we are. Felt like a library. To entertain myself, I acted like the people in the signs

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-37630398823260735562009-02-21T13:33:00.004-07:002009-05-06T09:06:50.086-06:00

We made it in. It's cold and snowing here on and off, but shouldn't be a problem. The main brunt of the storm went North of Chicago and the news is reporting how bad it could have been had it not changed direction. ;-) We used our miles on United and got to fly first class from Denver which was great. We were supposed to fly business class to Dusseldorf on Luftansa, but for some reason United

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-12949961938080898652009-02-21T06:09:00.006-07:002009-05-06T09:06:41.352-06:00

We can't believe the day is finally here! This is the last step of a 12-year journey and 15-month process. Don't know if you all listen to Rascal Flats, but our theme song for this entire journey has been "The Day Before You." The best line says, "If you're the reason for all that I've been through, then I'm thankful for the day before you." That's exactly how we feel ... although the road's been

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-81256426247999375262009-02-11T21:45:00.006-07:002009-02-11T21:57:50.200-07:00

Very excited! We just received our Ukrainian / Russian Phrases for Children booklets and CD today. I just found these last week after I couldn't find hardly anything at major bookstores on the Ukrainian language. They primarily speak Russian in the East, North, and Central parts of Ukraine, but they speak Ukrainian as well, and in the Western part of the country, they speak Ukrainian almost

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-43058147853065348952009-02-10T06:31:00.000-07:002009-02-11T21:45:10.907-07:00

It's been a while since we posted, but that doesn't mean nothing's been going on. Quite the contrary! It's amazing the amount of work and detail it takes to get ready to leave the country for a month. I'm working extra hard to get everything ready at work so I can leave for a month. Kristi's been making checklists, coordinating with our adoption agency, and pulling together everything we -- and

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-16773089946913856722009-01-13T17:01:00.002-07:002009-01-26T12:55:18.210-07:00

We have our travel plans finalized. We depart on Sat, Feb 21 from Denver, go through Chicago, Duesseldorf, Germany, and then on to Kiev. We're scheduled to return on Mar 22 from Kiev, through Frankfurt and then direct to Denver on Lufthansa (great to have a direct flight!) Of course we may be able to return earlier or we may have to stay later ... it will just depend on how things go once we're

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-20850503988252526552009-01-05T19:38:00.000-07:002009-01-11T09:31:18.049-07:00

We just received our appointment at the Ukranian State Department on Adoption and Children's Rights (SDA) on February 23 in Kiev! Our adoption agency recommends that we get there at least a day before to get some rest before the appointment, so we're planning to leave on February 21 and arrive in Kiev on the 22nd. We've chosen a single-trip option which means that we'll be living in Ukraine about

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3277322347910551634.post-11338203291193307972009-01-01T08:10:00.000-07:002009-01-12T20:04:06.171-07:00

Kristi and I decided to start a blog to keep our friends and family updated on our upcoming adoption from Ukraine. Most of you know our story already, but I thought I'd just quickly get everyone up-to-date. We've wanted to have children for over 12 years now and tried most everything possible to have a child biologically (a very emotional journey). But in December of 2007 we realized that God was

Eric and Kristihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17454603528114938470noreply@blogger.com0