Update from August 17th-19th

Dear All,

I am sorry I haven't updated in a long time--we had computer problems! I wanted to blog so much though :) Well, here is a update with pictures from August 17th through 19th. I will post more pictures and updates very soon. :) Enjoy!!!

Haylee for the rest in the Ukraine



August 17th update

On Tuesday, we got up early and ate leftovers for breakfast and finished packing what we needed to. Miss. Irina, our translator and the cab driver picked us up around 7:30 to 8 am. We drove to Kiela, around 1 ½ to 2 hours from Izmail and waited about 5 hours to get Joshua’s birth certificate. The cab driver dropped us off, and we waited with our luggage for the blue van to come—a older man who drives a old blue van around Odessa, etc.
While we waited, we got some juice, water, popsicles for Naomi and I, cheese, crackers and chips for our lunch. We played outside with Lily, then when the van came, we rested in the van and ate lunch.
Finally, we got the birth certificate for Joshua around 2 pm., and headed for Odessa. (It took around 5 hours to get there). We stopped about a hour to Odessa and had a bathroom and food stop.
There was an apartment near the Black Sea that we had hoped to stay at, but the landlady rented it to people who were okay with paying more—we were sad and upset at first, because the landlady had promised us that we could stay in it, and broke her word, but it ended up turning out just fine!
We then went to a older apartment—the lady knew that there would be 4 kids and 1 adult beforehand, but she changed her mind when we got there—we think she changed her mind because she saw that we had 2 special needs kids with us…oh well.
We ended up having to stay at a hotel for the night…it was nice…it used to be a theater but they made it into a hotel. We ate at a café for dinner and had a good night.


August 18th update

In the morning, Naomi and I watched the little ones while Daddy went to the store to get something to eat for breakfast and to get some more minutes for his Ukrainian cell phone.
We ate our breakfast and at 10:00, we got in the van and drove to meet Miss. Irina to get Lily’s passport. It took a while because the driver got lost, but it ended up being okay because it did not affect getting the birth certificate at all. I went with Miss. Irina to do some things, while Daddy, Naomi and the little ones stayed in the car while a man re-did the ID number so we could get the passports that day.
Then, we drove to the passport place and Lily and Joshua got their pictures taken for the passports and the lady worked on them.
We then went to a Georgian café which I remembered I had liked last time, but they ended up not having the things I liked and it was expensive and we hardly eaten anything…we won’t eat there again! Then, we went back to the hotel and packed all our stuff up—we were going to go to a apartment in Odessa near the beach (another one). We drove there, and brought all our luggage there.
Then, we drove to the 777 B store—(nearby). We did our shopping for the week we will stay here at the apartment near the beach and went back to our apartment. Miss. Irina left to go back to her family until we leave for Kiev, and we settled into the apartment. It is very nice! It has 4 beds—2 big and 2 small and a kitchen, little porch and bathroom. There are 3 floors in this apartment, and we are on the 2nd floor.
Naomi likes the kitties that live near our apartment and played with them, but broke out in a rash from them, so she has been leaving them alone! We had beans and rice for dinner (one of my favorites) that I made and after the little ones were put to bed, Naomi and Daddy watched “Cars” movie while I blogged. Around 11:30 pm. to 12:00 pm, we went to bed.



August 19th update


We had a good sleep and woke up around 7:30-8:00 am.
We had breakfast, cleaned up, etc. We had a snack of yogurt, and headed to the Black Sea beach around lunch time (12:30 pm., maybe?)
We had a good time, except alot of people were un-appropriate which we were not comfortable with so we decided that we would come later in the day when we came again to avoid most of the people. Lily loved the water, and was with us older girls most of the time and got totally soaked.
Joshua did not like the water, and started crying when his feet touched the water. So Daddy and Joshua sat on the sand on a blanket and watched us. We had a fun time and walked home (it is about a 5-10 minute walk to the beach). We rested, watched “Benji (the first show), etc.
Naomi made rice noodles (I am allergic to wheat, so we eat rice noodles) and hamburger for dinner—Naomi cooked because I was not feeling good (I had some kind of stomach bug). It was good! Naomi and I watched “Benji off the leash” show, but Daddy went to bed early (around 8:30 pm….the little ones went to bed earlier) and after we watched the movie, it was around 10:30 pm. We went to bed and had a good nights sleep.