The Harris Family

Our nephew just got home from his mission.

2012-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

Our nephew just got home from his mission. Yep he went to
Ukraine. So tonight we went down to Spanish Fork (David's parents house) to see
him. It's a little ironic that we drove so far to see him when he lives in
walking distance of our home.

The kids had a great time talking to him. Before we could all get into the
house the three of them were talking Ukrainian/Russian. It was really cute.
David and I plied him with questions about anything from food, to housing, to
baboushkas, to language, to statues. As the subject would change away from
Ukrainian things, our nephew and our two kids would go into the kitchen and
talk Ukrainian. They would come back into the living room and talk for a little
while and then go back into the kitchen and talk Ukrainian.

After a while we asked our nephew if all of our questions were bothering him.
His answer - "no you have asked the most meaningful questions anyone has asked
me so far. Everyone else just asks how was the mission?"

Changes

2011-06-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

We've had lots of changes in the last few months. All have been good.

Yes we finally moved into our new house in April. I have included some pictures of the house before we moved in. We also found some hats from San Fransico. We bought them a few years ago and were packed away in boxes for the last couple of years. The kids had fun goofing off with them while we moved.

The other changes that we have gone through are:

Katelyn moved back home for the summer. She also got her job back from Dimple Dell. She had to quit last fall when she went up to school. She is really glad to be working again. She might also work at Midvale Middle School. She will be a lifeguard and teach swimming lessons at both places.

Matthew got a good raise. He also got a change in his job description from Technition to Engineer 1. It sounds like they really like him as ES3.

Tania just started working at Dairy Queen in the South Towne Mall. Her picture in her uniform is above.

Sasha, we think, has a job at Smith's. He should start that job when we get back from our family vacation. Sasha also got his driver's license. He had to have his license for his job. We aren't letting him drive by himself yet.

We have been attending our new ward. We are really enjoying it. It is a little hard not knowing anyone but the ward has been very good about introducing themselves to us. We are even remembering some names. We are keeping really busy in the ward.

Father's Day

2011-06-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the Laurels decorated ties for their dads. We are so proud of the dad's. They all wore them to church.

Drivers License, misc. conversations & the house

2011-03-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hooray!! Tania has good enough grades to get her license. She is even going to make the honor roll. Sasha has good enough grades to get his license but he is not eligible for another month.

So today David took Tania to get her drivers license. He actually had to take her twice because Tania did not wear her contacts or bring her glassess. She couldn't pass the eye test without them. When they got back to the DMV they ended up talking to the same person from the first time they were there. After Tania's eye test, the DMV offficial wrote some words on a piece of paper and asked Tania to read the paper. He wanted to make sure she could really see the letters correctly or so he said. The words were "I must kill moose and squirrel". The DMV official said that he had to hear the saying in the native tongue.

David had a great time with the official but now he had to explain about moose and squirrel and why one of his best friends has a nickname of moose and squirrel.

Earlier this week as I was driving the kids home from school, when Tania mentioned that her friend makes it a habit to ask each of her teachers "How are you doing, my favorite teacher?" We kind of laughed about it but we talked about what a difference that might make with attitudes of teachers toward them. I encouraged them to try saying the same thing to each of their teachers to see what would happen. I haven't heard anything back yet. I'll let you know if the kids notice a difference.

This next comment is for Brent M. In answer to your question if the kids ever appreciate anything. At the beginning of the week, David took Tania to Bountiful to see her friend's dance performance. It was a very long and gruelling hour and half for David. He really doesn't enjoy stuff like that very much. When they got into the truck to come home, Tania actually thanked David for taking her to the performance. It was very sincere and very appreciated.

This comment is for Wendy. Our friend Wendy has her son write down something he is grateful for every day. I thought we could at least tell each other what we were grateful for at the dinner table on Sunday. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to start this little idea. Last Sunday was the first time for us to say what we were grateful for. I was pleased to hear what Tania was grateful for. I don't think Sasha was really comfortable. I hope next time he will be more comfortable. But at least after dinner Sasha was quite willing to give out hugs. He was in a great mood. I like to think that our grateful talk put everyone in a great mood. It was really nice.

Tania's room. This picture makes her room look purple but it is really very pink! It should match her new bedding very well.

Laundry room

More laundry room. The countertop was supposed to be completely installed the other day but apparently the installer was talking to his wife when he cut the top. Oops, he cut it wrong. So now they are making a new top.

We have our new fridge and our double ovens. My children laugh at me because I have wanted double ovens so badly. The pantry door is still covered with a film. Once the film is removed it should look really cool.

2011-03-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

This is Tania after she spent a couple of hours cleaning the new house. Obviously, we need to have her work on the house we are living in.

There have been some fun times as the house has been built. Quite often we go see the house when it is dark outside. We had to bring flashlights with us since we didn't have any lights. The more we went to see it in the dark, the more hiding in closets, hiding behind walls and standing quite still in a dark room occurred. So as we had more hiding, I'm sure you can guess, we had more screaming and jumping as people jumped out of their hiding spots. It has been so bad that I have had to lead the crowd around before they would go anywhere. Of course that really didn't help because I new something would happen and just walked on by whoever was hiding. I must admit, I might need hearing aides after Tania has screamed several times in my ear.

The outside of our house is really looking like a real house. Tomorrow they are going to start working on the driveway.

Cabinets in the mater bath.

Our kitchen.

More kitchen

The family room.

The kitchen's new hardwood floors.

Our stairwell and front entry.

They lined all of the inside doors to paint. It was really kind of bizarre looking.

2011-02-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

Katelyn wanted me to post pictures of the house from the last couple of days so here they are. Putting on the stone.

One of our walk-in closets.

Kids bathroom

2011-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

There are times we have to take pictures of our house after 5:00. We can't seem to get a good picture during the day because of all the vehicles in front of our house.

The stucco with color should be going on tomorrow. Hopefully, we will start painting inside sometime this week.

We also have tile in our shower and around the bathtub.

I haven't taken pictures of the doors and the trim work but all the inside doors and most of the trim work is done.

2011-02-20T11:01:00.000-08:00

In order to carry a taser, you must be trained on how to use it. As part of the training you are tased. I'm not sure why. I mean, they don't shoot you with a gun before you can carry a gun for work so why do they tase people before they can carry a taser?

So David underwent training several years ago. When they tased him the recorded the experience and we have a copy of it. Members of our family have requested us to put the video on the blog. So I have attached the video.

Sasha

2011-01-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

So Sasha has changed during the last few months. To help you understand what I mean, I will start with the beginning of the school year. He absolutely refused to do a homework assignment. There were two reasons he wouldn't do it. First he had to get up in front of the class and second the subject was himself. Once he found out he could just give his speech to his teacher, he went in the next day to complete the assignment.

Then, last fall Tania and I noticed him doing something that he would never have done a year ago. We had someone looking at our house so we went to dinner at Subway. Sasha and I finished before Tania so he threw away our garbage including all of the napkins. Tania needed a napkin after that and suprise of all suprises, Sasha actually went up and asked for a napkin from one of the employees. Anyone who knows how shy Sasha is will understand why Tania and I were surprised.

Just last week he had another assignment where he had to get up in front of the class. When we asked him how it went, he said he aced it. He also is getting extra credit because he volunteered to give the first presentation. I think I about fell off my chair when I found that out.

On a different note. It is very easy to scare Sasha. While in Arkansas at Christmas time, my mom rented a house for us to use. So one night when David was driving the kids to the house, he asked the kids if they had heard the axe murderer at night. (He had our niece and nephew with him and thought he would scare them.) Everyone kind of laughed at his comments. Once they got to the house Tania, Sasha and our niece went downstairs to watch TV. Matthew in his great maturity, snuck around to the back of the house and made some noises. Well Sasha got up to look out the back door and Matthew jumped up infront of the door. Apparently, Sasha jumped really high and screamed really loud.

Then the other day David and I came home while Sasha was vacuuming. He had absolutely no idea that we had come into the house so I poked him and said "boo". Once again he jumped and screamed. It was so perfect. Sasha is always trying to scare us. So we have now gotten even with him.

Our domestic kids

2011-01-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

It has been really nice having our domestic kids home from college during the Christmas season. It has been so nice to have some really good help around the house. Both kids have been very good about volunteering to help cook meals, bake goodies and clean. Matthew thoroughly enjoyed making cheesecake and chocolate pie at my parents house. He also made dinner last night. Katelyn has been more than willing to make treats. She has also taken out the garbage when it was full.

I'm not sure that the kid taking care of our animals while we were in Arkansas really appreciated taking care of all their animals though. We all ready had both of our labs, but Matthew and Katelyn also brought home a rabbit, 3 frogs and yes a snake.

The rabbit is cute but I don't want it staying in my house for long. And I really don't want the snake in my house. Below are pictures of the rabbit.

More House

2011-01-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

Footings for our covered patio.

Our roofers are very anxious to get going. Our framer had to hold them up for a little while so that he could finish some nailing on the roof and they all most didn't let him.

Update on our new house

2010-12-28T21:38:00.001-08:00

We are finally moving on the house again. Our builder forgot that we were putting the heating vents for the basement under the cement so we had to wait a week and a half for a part. Then between Thanksgiving and the weather, we got really behind schedule.

Vents in the basement.

The basement floor has finally been poured.

We've started framing - a little bit.

Framing after just a couple of days.

A little of more than a week later.

The kitchen, dining and family room area.

The back door off of the dining area.

The window in the family room.

Today's changes.

2010-12-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Tania's cheer

Christmas

2010-12-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

We went to Arkansas to visit my parents for Christmas. My brother and his family came from Atlanta too. Both families went to Pea Ridge. A civil war battle sight. My mom used to volunteer at the museum.
Katelyn and her cousin, Ashley, displaying their bows.

Our Christmas dinner. We prepare as much food as we would for Thanksgiving so it is a great feast.

After dinner the kids were tired. We had them sit on that side of the table so that they couldn't leave the table.

Our new home

2010-11-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

This is our lot. We bought it last April. Katelyn is standing at one side of the lot and Tania is standing a the other end. You can't see Tania very well but she is over by the fire plug and lamp post.

They dug the hole on Wednesday.

Poured the footings on Thursday.

Put the walls up on Friday and poured the walls on Friday.

Moving day. Yes, we sold our house and rented the house next door. The kids thought it would be fun to go for a ride in the atv trailer.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they installed the initial plumbing, added the window wells, sealed the cement and started filling the garage and sides of the house with dirt.

Sasha's video

2010-11-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Sasha made this video in school. It's really fun to watch.

Snowbird and Car Repairs

2010-11-17T17:35:00.000-08:00

My sister came to visit so we took her to Snowbird to ride the tram. When we arrived at the top of the tram, we decided to hike down to the chair lift to go down the mountain. It was a short hike but as you can see we had a good time.

Tania and Sasha had to change a tire for their Drivers Ed class. Since David wanted to change the brakes on the truck, he killed two birds with one stone. I'm not sure what all happened but as you can see the kids got quite dirty.

Save a Child Concert/Silent Auction

2010-10-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Check out the blog http://saveachildevent.blogspot.com/ for updated information on the silent auction and raffle items.

Clear the roads!

2010-08-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Yup, Tania passed the driving test. She now has a drivers permit.
As we walked out of the DMV, David suggested that Tania drive home (he was kidding)so I piped up saying if Tania was driving I was walking. Tania agreed.

For those of you trying to get your kids to pass the test, a fellow Ukranian parent let us know about a website called I Drive Safely. You can pay $15.00 to take a practice test with 100 questions. The kids can take it as many times at they want within 25 days. Tania said that this really helped her pass the test.

What a kid will do to get out of mowing the lawn!

2010-05-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Sasha jump over a sign at Buttercup Park and fell. The doctor thought he had a broken elbow, the radiologist thought he had two broken wrists. We get to see a specialist next week to find out his opinion.

Either way, Sasha is enjoying the attention he is getting. Apparently, after they finished with the doctor the second time he insisted they stop to show his friend Michael. He was with Michael when this happened and Michael just happens to live across the street from Buttercup Park.

It was good that they stopped. Michael's mother was worried about Sasha. She had him put some ice on his arm after he fell, went upstairs for a minute and when she came back down Sasha had left to go home.

Poor David did not have a good day yesterday. He turned on the sprinklers and everything worked. He went inside for a little bit and he could hear water running. He looked out side and the water pipe that goes to our garden had broken. There isn't a valve to shut this line off by all the other valves, it has a hand turn valve right by the garden so he had to shut down the whole watering system so he could fix the break. He had to dig down aways to get to the pipe, as he was digging he dug into a nest of ants who then bit him on his legs and arms. He fixed the pipe, turned on the water and the pipe broke in another spot. I was there when the pipe broke the second time. It sounded like an explosion. We will be fixing that pipe tonight - what a fun Friday night.

Anyway, with the sprinklers, the ants, some strange news from work and taking Sasha to the doctor twice - what a day.

Friends

2010-05-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Just another comment. It always amazes me the friendships you develop after being associated with people who have adopted or are think about adopting from Ukraine. There is just such an automatic bond with anyone who has been involved with this activity.

I talked with someone on the phone last night who will be leaving for Ukraine soon and the feelings that come out from that short phone call have been amazing. You hope that all will go well for them and you hope they will have an easy experience while they are in Ukraine and you are thrilled that they are going through this process. There is also a willingness to help with anything to make their trip easier.

I am always amazed and grateful that I have been able to meet such wonderful people since we have gone through this process. Everyone has been such a big help. Just having someone to talk things through when things are tough has been wonderful. It is always much better to talk to people who have gone through the experience because they understand more about what you are going through.

I know this is probably sappy but I know that many of you reading this feel the same way.

Language Skills

2010-05-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a kids day. Tania had Dosha and Sveta come to our house and Sasha went to a birthday party for a friend at school.

Since Dosha and Sveta were over, I decided for lunch we would go to Crown Burger and then run a few errands. After we had ordered our meal, I told the girls they had an option. If they spoke English they could sit at the same table as Katelyn and me or if they wanted to speak Ukrainian they would need to sit at a different table. They chose to sit with Katelyn and me.

We all got a chuckle though when we picked up our food, we didn't get enough straws and Tania was left without a straw. She pointed at Sveta's straw and asked if there were any more of "those things". Sveta in her deep Ukrainian voice (I wish you could hear her voice, writing this down just does not give it justice) said, "Tania you should know that word by now". Tania was a little embarrassed but she also laughed at herself. In reality, I think she was just having a moment and she really knows the word straw.

Later that day we were on our way to meet Bill and Leslie at the movie theatre to see the movie Iron Man 2. After the movie Bill and Leslie were going to take Dosha and Sveta home. Well we ended up taking two cars since we had the three girls and Sasha and two of his friends wanted to come also. You would think that since we are now a family of six we would get a vehicle that could hold 6 people but no we just keep our two little cars. We do have a truck that can hold six but it isn't very comfortable.

Anyway, I called David to see what route he was going to take to the theatre. Sasha answered his phone and I asked him if his dad was there. He told me "he is in the wheelchair". I could hear David in the background laughing and correcting Sasha. He was in the drivers seat not a wheel chair.

Sorry to bore you with this account. We got such a giggle about both events. I had to write about it.

Apologies

2010-03-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday both Tania and Sasha were in trouble. David decided that they could not watch TV or play on the computer until they apologized to me. Apparently, David got home from work yesterday and sat down with both of them and explained what they had done wrong and what they needed to do to fix the problem.

Through all this I was at work. This is my busy season and I spend more time in my office than I do all other places combined. So I was with a co-worker going over my inventory of work that has come in and what has yet to come in when I noticed my cell phone ringing. Once I finally went back to my office, my cell phone had 47 missed phone calls! All from Sasha.

Sasha did get in touch with me and we had a really good conversation and he did apologize to me. In the back of my mind though I kept thinking he just apologized so that he could get back on the computer.

So I ended up going home for dinner. This is the first home cooked dinner I have had with my family during the week for quite a while. Anyway, Matthew announced that the dishes in the dishwasher were clean and needed to be put away. Usually, during the non busy season, I empty the dishwasher before I even start dinner so that as I am cooking I can put the dirty dishes in the dish washer and then after dinner everyone takes care of their own dishes and quite often David and I will finish up the few remaining dishes. I know I should have the kids do more but oh well. (We do make the kids do more when there are overly loud burps during dinner or Ukrainian is spoken at the table.) So to get back on topic, I sat there and said I was really to tired to think about doing dishes. So Sasha quietly got up from the dinner table and started putting the dishes in the dishwasher away. Even after the dishes were put away, David and I both thanked him and told him he had done more than his share and that we would finish. He insisted on helping with the dishes until they were all taken care of.

I think Sasha was truly sorry and I am a proud mother.

On a side note. Matthew made the best meat loaf that I have ever had for dinner. He is home on spring break from Utah State. If he can't make it in the world of mechanical engineering (his major), he can surely make it as a wonderful chef. The only problem with Matthew's cooking is he is a terribly messy cook. He takes after his Grammy (my mother).

One of my teenage memories is trying to help my mother cook Christmas dinner. It was hard though. I cleaned off a spot for me to work and I would turn my back and my mom would have taken over the spot. I did this a few times before I could actually work on the food item I was trying to make. I don't remember what I was trying to make but I do remember the cleaning up after my mom.

Many of my mother's friends have commented on how my mother is a messy cook. So it is not just me. She loves to have a spotless house but when she cooks look out.

Sumy School

2010-03-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

Just to let everyone know. This is the e-mail I receive from Marina regarding the school.

Hi, Julie. You probably know that this school shares the territory and the dormitory together with another boarding school for gifted children who didn't have there own building. And as the orphanage now has only 37 children and there are about 200 children in the other school, it was decided to move the orphanage to another town - Romny whch is in our region but the conditions seem to be worse there. So that's all the situation - the territory and the building were given to another organization. Children are going to stay in Sumy until the end of summer if nothing changes.

Sergei is already in Romny, because he had some problems - bad company- here. So to avoid them he was moved to another place.

All the other children are fine. I go to school at least once a weak, trying to teach Pasha and Lena. But it seems to be not a very good idea as for English. My lessons don't work as I'd like. The kids like me to come, to entertain them. They like attention, I sometimes bring delicious things to them. But they know they will learn the language quickly in the USA (I think you noticed that by your kds), so no additional efforts are applied. And that's quite usual with all the children, I think. And I just love coming and seeing them.

Sumy School

2010-03-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

Tania talked to Antonina this morning. It sounds like they are keeping all the kids who are in line to be adopted until this summer. I am not sure who they are moving out in the next few weeks. I think I will e-mail Marina tonight myself and try to get more information from her.
.

Sumy School

2010-03-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

Tania just told us that she received an e-mail from Marina. Marina said they are starting to close down the Sumy school. Sergei has been moved to another school. It sounds like they are going to move some more kids in a couple of weeks.

Has anybody else heard anymore about the school?

A day with Sveta and Dosha

2010-02-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

Sveta and Dosha came to visit yesterday. When Bill and Leslie came to pick the girls up, all three came down with makeup like this. We had a good laugh at them. They looked like little street urchans.

2010-02-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

I thought that I would finally post some of these pictures from Christmas.

Sasha loved eating the turkey leg.

In some ways, Matthew and Sasha are a lot alike.

Katelyn and Matthew wanted to have a little fun opening Christmas gifts. So they gave Sasha a skirt that they purchased from DI. They picked out the skirt because after we had gone to dinner several nights before Christmas, Sasha drove home with Katelyn, Laura and I. David and Matthew called him and told him that he was in the girl car so he must be a girl. He did get a much nicer present from Katelyn and Matthew.

Likewise, Tania received a vase from Katelyn and Matthew. It's name is Fillmore. Fillmore is now proudly displayed on our shelf in our kitchen.

Stray Dogs

2010-02-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

We sent Sasha out to sweep the back steps. Apparently he is in a very good mood because he is outside making dog noises. Matthew came upstairs and said "We have a stray Sasha outside."

David was laughing at me because I was laughing at both of them so much.

Grades

2010-02-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

We are really proud of Tania. Her grades have really improved since the first of the school year. Her test scores have gone up. Which shows that she is understanding English. She is working hard on her homework.

We wish that Sasha would be be as interested in his grades.

Buy A Church?

2010-01-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

So Sasha and I were driving home after dropping off Artem from soccer practice when we drove past the Roseboro chapel. Sasha knows that I would love to move and that we have been looking at lots so we can build a house. We drove by the chapel and Sasha said that we should buy a church and live in it. He said that the cultural hall could be our living room. We could play basket ball and have a cinema in there. I said that it would be great for going to church. We could just get up and we would be there. The bathrooms would be a little weird with the shower situation and stall for the toilets though. Sasha said we could just remodel the bathrooms.

I got a kick out of this idea. Where did he get this idea? Strange....

Later Katelyn and I went to the grocery store. When we got back Tania was watching the movie "The Sandlot". Wendy -- "Smalls" in this movie reminded me of your Alex.

Shhhhhhhh, We are evil, evil, evil.

2010-01-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

Why are we evil? For two reasons.

First, I made soup for dinner tonight. I had bought some dried soup last October while we were in Arkansas visiting my parents. It's really easy to make. You just add water to the dried ingredients along with some canned chicken and enchilada sauce. So I started the soup while Tania was at dance. She never new that I added chicken. When she sat down at the dinner table she asked what was in the soup. I just said "I don't know, it came in a package." So Tania continued eating and ate a whole bowl of soup. It's amazing. If I had told her that I added the chicken, there is absolutely no way she would have eaten the soup.

The second reason we are evil is because after dinner, Tania was talking about getting together with Dosha and Sveta tomorrow night. She said that Dosha and Sveta had to ask "the" Bill and Leslie if they could go. David then said "If "the" Bill and Leslie agree to let the come then we should do something else". I think Katelyn was going to really lose it when David said "the" Bill and Leslie. We are having a hard time teaching both kids the appropriate use of "the". Usually we do try to correct them, we just had to have a little fun tonight.

Car Repairs

2010-01-14T07:35:00.000-08:00

Since I read Wendy's blog about how frugal she and her husband are and about how James fixes their cars all the time, I thought I would add my little tidbit.

Matthew's car broke down last weekend. We originally thought it was the water pump. David called his friend who is very handy with anything mechanical for advice on how much this would cost us.

Luckily, our friend retired last spring so he has a lot of time on his hands. He said to come on over on David's day off and they would fix it. Well yesterday was David's day off so he took the car over to his friends. They took about an hour to diagnose the problem and realized that it was not the water pump but it was another part (I don't remember what it is called).

Now we decided the cost of a water pump would be around $300.00. The part we needed was only $75.00. So great we have saved a lot of money. The downfall on all of this is that if it had been the water pump they would have finished fixing the car yesterday. The cheaper part was in a much more obscure part of the car so they had to practically take the whole thing apart. Needless to say they are still working on the car today. I am so glad our friend has a heated garage.

Also, Matthew looked up on the Internet the estimated time it would take to replace this part. GM estimated it should take 16 hours. So we figure that if we had taken the car to the repair shop we would of had to pay about $1,200. in just labor. Thank goodness our friend and David are going to be able to fix the car.

Science Fair

2010-01-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

Katelyn had us help us with her science fair tonight. She is measuring how well people take tests when they listen to music. Tonight Sasha, Matthew, David, Katelyn and I took an ACT sample test. There were four sections. The first section was quiet. Actually there wasn't any music playing but it wasn't very quiet. The second section had music with 71-90 beats per minute. The third section had 91-110 beats per minute with the last section having 111-130 beats per minute.

Matthew is a very quick reader and test taker. He finished every section before anyone else. Sasha was usually the second person done. David and I were always the last. After each section we would compare answers. By the time we were done David was pretty confident that he had done really well so he proposed that the person with the most correct answers get to win something. So we decided that the winner would choose where we go for dinner on Friday night.

By the time we were correcting the tests, we were laughing so hard. David was getting disappointed because he didn't do as well as he thought that he had. I was thrilled that I had the most correct answers.

The best part of it all though is how well Sasha did on the tests. The tests were the type where you replace a word or a phrase with a more correct word or phrase. It wasn't an easy test.

I was really proud of Sasha's ability and willingness to participate in our little activity. He has been speaking English for just over a year and yet he enjoyed helping Katelyn with her project.

Oh and I think we will go to Chili's for dinner.

What are we doing today?

2009-12-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

Everyday David and I get asked what are we doing today?

Since a year ago today, was the day we went to court for the kids, we thought that we should celebrate. So last night we were asking the kids what they wanted to do. We talked about what we should do tonight and what was going on Saturday, Sunday, Christmas day, Dec. 27, which is our nephew's homecoming, and soccer and dance for next year.

So what questions do I get as soon as we get in the car this morning? What are we doing today? What are we doing tomorrow? When do we go to Grandma and Grandpa's?

I think I need to get both of them a calendar and so they can write down everything that we have planned. Then I can tell them to refer to their calendars.

By the way, I really didn't intend for our first anniversary with the kids to be undercut by the "what are we doing today?". We are glad that they are with us.

Rita

2009-12-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Last spring Tania had been talking to Rita since the Straders were in Ukraine adopting Sveta and Dosha. Rita convinced Tania that she wanted to be adopted here in Utah. So we went to Nannette's and convinced her to bring Rita over during the hosting program.

It was wonderful to have Rita visiting during the hosting program. Sveta, Dosha, Rita and Tania were best friends back in Ukraine. We spent many nights driving kids all over the valley so that the girls could be together. There were many long phone calls made to Rita. When Rita went to stay with the Lawrence's, Tania was able to get their phone number and calls were made to Rita at the Lawrence residence. When it was time for Rita to leave, Tania knew that the Lawrence's wanted to adopt Rita and that they were leaving in November. Rita should be back by the end of December, maybe first part of January. Excitement filled the air knowing that the four girls would be together again.

Yesterday when I got home, Tania asked me to log her onto the computer. I told her I would and that she needed to read something on the Internet. I brought up the Lawrence's blog and had her read about Rita. I decided that was the best way to tell her about what was going on. She read their post and I stood by to answer questions about things she didn't understand. By the time she finished there were tears in her eyes, which of course made me cry. I suggested to her that she stay up late that night and call Rita. She said that she would like that. She then had a very solemn call to Sveta and Dosha.

Later, she was asking what was for dinner and I reminded her that she had volunteered to make dinner the day before. Matthew had made dinner Monday night and Tania was kind of complaining that she didn't like what Matthew had fixed. Why didn't Matthew fix something that she liked? So I suggested to her that she should make dinner so that she could have something that she liked. So she said "OK I'll make dinner tomorrow and it will be eggs." So Tania made eggs for dinner Tuesday night. I think that was kind of therapeutic for her to cook dinner and get her mind off of Rita. I had to leave for while to help with the PTSA fundraiser but when I got back home things were still rather solemn and more phone calls were made to Sveta and Dosha.

Tania stayed up late and called Rita. David said they talked in very even tones. She didn't sound sad or mad. I think Tania was very concerned. This morning Tania told me that she didn't talk to Rita for very long. Rita needed to get to school. Rita wasn't able to tell Tania why she didn't want to be adopted but Rita did say that she didn't want to travel any more. Tania also talked to Antonina, who was Tania's caretaker in Ukraine. Antonina was very disappointed that Rita had decided not to be adopted. I'm sure that Antonina expressed her opinion to Rita very strongly.

We are all very sad that Rita has decided to stay in Ukraine.

On a different note, our fundraiser has not gone very well. The PTSA president decided to sell TAG 10's this year. The kids have had a very difficult time understanding the concept of the TAG10's which has made it hard for them to sell anything.

TAG10's are sheets of 10 tags. You register the sheet on a website so that you can follow the progress of the tags. The goal is to encourage acts of service. When you perform an act of service you give the person you have given the service a tag. That person hopefully would then write about their experience on the same website. They should then do an act of service and pass the tag along. The website keeps track of five acts of service per tag. It is rather fun to go on the website to see what has happened with the tags. If anyone is interested in purchasing a sheet they are $10.00 a sheet.

Also if anyone knows of a school organization that might need a fundraiser, we would be willing to sell our extra sheets to them at our cost.

And on another note, Sasha doesn't understand why I help out at school. Remembering back to last September when I helped with Reality Town, Sasha asked if I was getting paid to help. I said "no, I am just volunteering." He thinks I am crazy to help at school and not get paid.

Boo

2009-12-05T18:58:00.000-08:00

I had to add this picture of Katelyn and Boo sleeping. Boo loves to be touched and really doesn't mind people putting their heads on him.

Jean-Marc and Monique

2009-12-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

Jean-Marc and Monique came to visit us for two weeks. A great time was had by all. We took them to Temple Square, Park City, Moab, Las Vegas, Festival of Trees, our Ward Christmas dinner, Gardner Village, Quilted Bear and the Gateway Mall. We also had some of Sasha's friend over for dinner so that Jean-Marc and Monique could meet them. The boys didn't stick around Jean-Marc and Monique very much but we really didn't expect them to hang out with the adults.

We went to dinner on our last Tuesday night together. We had a great time laughing at Sasha.

Monique cooked us a French meal.

The trip to Park City.

Park City again.

Jean-Marc and Monique brought a map of France so we spent an evening talking about different places in France.

P.S. Katelyn thinks I am a slow typer.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T17:52:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. David's brother, sister and I take turns hosting Thanksgiving. I was supposed to host Thanksgiving last year. Going to Ukraine became more important than having Thanksgiving, so last year we didn't host Thanksgiving. To make up missing last year I hosted year. Also, we decided that it was an important year to have Thanksgiving since we had Jean-Marc and Monique visiting from France and this will probably be my father-in-law's last Thanksgiving.

This is Jean-Marc holding a great nephew, Sam. His mother, Tricia (our neice) is sitting in the chair talking to her sister-in-law, Jaime. (Jean-Marc and Monique loved all of the little kids. I wish we would have taken more pictures of the little ones.)

Monique is playing with with Jaime and Michael's youngest daughter, Cambry.

This is Jean-Marc, Monique, my mother and father -in -law, sister-in-law (Delores), Tricia with her husband Jared and our brother-in-law (Earl). David's sister, Earl's wife, Mary had surgery the Monday before Thanksgiving so she was unable to come to dinner. Also, David's brother, Delores's husband, had to work so he wasn't there.

This is us just talking before dinner. Jean-Marc is handing off Sam to Sam's father, Jared. Monique and I are talking. Helen and Grant are having a great time watching everybody.

David - Draper's policeman of the year

2009-12-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

David received Drapers Policeman of the Year award. Of course, he doesn't like to smile for the camera.

I had to add this picture. We love our dog, Boo. One of the many things that make us laugh at him on a regular basis is when we give him an object to hold in his mouth. He will proudly display his prize. He will come close to you to show you his prize but not close enough so that you can take his prize away from him. He will not chew on it. He will prance around the house with whatever it is he has. Now this is an almost 100 lb. dog prancing with his head held high. This can last for as long as 20 minutes. I hope you can visualize this and understand why we laugh.

Ukrainian hosting program

2009-12-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have decided that if you need more of a social life, just be a part ot the Ukrainian hosting program and your whole life will change. Now I'm not saying that our social life is boring (and we still haven't hosted) but we were sure busy driving kids to see their friends. It was a lot of fun to see all of the kids together.

While the hosting program was going on, we were able to get several of the kids together. All of the kids were thrilled to see each other. It was amazing that our house is still standing though. The noise level was probabaly at the highest level it has ever been.

This is a rare picture of Pasha. He did not like to have his picture taken.

Rita and Tania

Rita and Sveta

Dasha, Lena and Tania

Rita, Dasha, Lena, Sveta and Tania

Katelyn's play

2009-11-19T07:06:00.001-08:00

As many of us have discussed, it is always interesting when there is a new event to attend. Tomorrow night we are going to Hillcrest's play "Curtains". Both the kids do not understand what a play is. They have both asked if it is going to be like the fundraiser that we went to for band last year. That was the band and orchestra's Marti Gras. We had dinner and the two groups performed while we ate. After dinner we were able to dance to their music if we wanted to. Of course, we had both kids up dancing for one dance.

Anyway, try explaining a play to kids that really aren't trying to understand what a play is.

BREAKING NEWS

2009-11-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

BREAKING NEWS! Tania actually ate HALF A HAMBURGER tonight! She is now eating pepperoni, hotdogs, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches that are fried and HAMBURGER. Maybe in six more months she'll move onto some other type of meat.

For those of you who don't know, Tania is an incredibly picky eater. She won't eat any meat except for what is listed above. She will eat potatoes except funeral potatoes because they don't have potatoes in it (according to Tania). She will eat salads. Her two favorite fast food places are Wendy's and Subway. At Wendy's she will eat the chicken nuggets and at Subway she gets a pepperoni sandwich. If we go to a sit down restaurant, she orders a salad and french fries. She will also eat bread, chips, candy and of course fruit.

School Pictures

2009-09-04T07:58:00.001-07:00

Today the twins are having their school pictures taken. Through out the week I have been telling both Tania and Sasha that I would like for them to dress a little nicer than just T-shirts for their pictures.

Shasha was all worried that we were going to make him dress up in something like a suit. Tania kind of understood why I wanted them to look nice.

Yesterday, I had them look at the family picture on the wall and at their school pictures from last spring. I told them I just would like for them to look nice for their pictures.

So, last night we went shopping for some clothes that were school picture quality. Tania was pretty easy because she already had a shirt she just needed something to go under it. Sasha on the other hand needed something but of course he didn't want to go shopping. Sasha ended up giving Tania instructions on what type of shirt to get. Guess what color the shirt is. You got it. Black. It is a very cowboyish looking shirt. And of course Shasha has to roll up the sleeves.

To complete the outfit Katelyn had to run to the store last night to get gel for Sasha's hair. (We think Sasha will be the next Ukranian Zak Efron.)

Tania started getting her hair ready last night. It's a good thing school doesn't start until 9:30 on Friday's or she would never have been ready on time.

We will see how their pictures turn out. Someday soon we need to get a new family picture for the living room.

2009-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 28, 2009

I’ve been trying to get to a computer for the last week. I thought that I would let everyone know things have quieted down on the Harris front. We are in Alaska on vacation and I think this is the best thing we could have done with the kids. They are really enjoying themselves. I thought I would start with Tania and Sasha’s birthday though which was three days before we left for Alaska.

First, we took the kids to a car show at Ardell Brown’s. It was a fundraiser for a special needs park. Sasha and Matthew were fun to watch. Sasha has a love for Mustangs and there were quite a few Mustangs. Matthew just has a love for old cars. It was fun listening to Matthew tell us about the different cars. He could tell us what cars were really rare and how certain cars had been changed. The caretaker for the cars was there also and it was quite interesting to what he has to do to take care of the cars. Katelyn picked out what she thought would be David’s favorite car. Later we found out she was right. Just before we were ready to leave, one of the owners of the cars started his car. Sasha practically ran to see the car running. It had that low loud rumble the old cars that have some power have.

We also had a birthday party for them. We had some family come and some friends come. Anna, Shelby and Bailey came for Tania. Michael and Jake came for Sasha. Bailey, Michael and Jake all go to the same school as Tania and Sasha. We also had a friend of Katelyn’s come. Laura is almost our 3rd adopted child.

We had the kids open gifts after dinner. It was different from our older kid’s birthday. Katelyn and Matthew were always willing to show everybody their gifts. Tania and Sasha didn’t really show off what the received. They looked at their gifts and then put them aside. I must say we were tickled because Sasha would leave his friends for a few minutes and come back and look at his gifts. Once Michael and Jake left, he really spent some time looking everything over. We gave Tania a camera and she was excited. She giggled when I said that she really needed her own camera since she was always using mine.

After all the birthday celebrations were over, we had to start getting ready to leave for Alaska. Tania didn’t really get too excited about getting ready to go but Sasha was really concerned about how we were going to get there and about how all our luggage was going to fit on the plane. You see when we go to Alaska, it is not just a matter of packing clothes. Along with clothes and food, we always bring up something strange. This year it was rocks for our driveway and tile pieces that we were not able to order from Home Depot in Juneau. In years past we have brought up saws, electrical boxes, and stereo equipment just to name a few strange items.

We always take up the maximum amount of weight in each piece of luggage and with the airlines charging for each piece of luggage, we had to be even more careful. Of course Sasha did not understand why we were so worried about the weights and the pieces of luggage. But he thoroughly enjoyed helping pack everything. We packed our rocks in plastic totes. David started to weigh the totes but Sasha thought that was fun so he became the weight official. We always pack a cooler full of food and this year because of the number of people in our group we took even more food then we normally would have taken. This year we also tried ordering food from Costco in Juneau and sending it up to Gustavus so we didn’t have to buy as much food at the grocery store in Gustavus. (Half a gallon of milk in Gustavus is $5.25.) Since we needed use the maximum amount of weight we made the kids share suitcases. None of the kids wanted to share a suitcase with anybody else. We were rather surprised that it was an issue. I mean who cares if you had to share a suitcase, so we told the kids they would just have to deal with it.

Trying to explain our flight plans to Tania and Sasha was another interesting experience. I had to purchase the tickets four different ways in order for us to have the cheapest flights. We had sky miles with Delta Airlines, mileage with Alaska Airlines and a $50 companion fair ticket with Alaska Airlines. Even though Delta Airlines is partners with Alaska Airlines you cannot get tickets to fly into Gustavus. We can only get tickets to fly into Juneau. We could from there get ticket to fly into Gustavus on the Alaska Airlines jet or we could have them fly a little Cessna airplane from Juneau to Gustavus. We chose the Cessna. We also had the challenge of getting Katelyn and Tania home in time for girl’s camp. The whole point of this is when we all flew together from SLC to Seattle on Delta and then from Seattle to Juneau on Alaska Airlines. When we got to Juneau we split up. Tania, Matthew, Katelyn and I took the Alaska Airlines jet into Gustavus. It was a long flight of about 12 minutes. David, Michael (our nephew who came with us) and Sasha flew in the Cessna to Gustavus. These puddle jumpers only hold 6 people. We all arrived in Gustavus at the same time and I really wish that I could have seen Sasha. Apparently, he was all smiles during the flight over. They hit a little turbulence when they first took off and that scared Sasha little bit otherwise he was really excited.

Our friends picked the boys up first, so they rode over to they rode over to the Alaska Airlines terminal in the back of our friend’s truck. Sasha and Michael thought that was great fun.

Since then, we have been fishing. Tania was quite excited to catch a fish off of the boat dock. All the kids have caught several double ugly fish. I don’t know what they are really called but they are ugly fish. One fishing trip Sasha caught 52 fish. He also caught an eel. Of course they haven’t brought home any fish that we can eat yet.

On Thursday, we started to clean up our lean to. We got four feet of snow in one day last winter. The poles apparently had disintegrated at the base and the whole lean to fell over. There were a lot of exposed nails in the broken boards so David told Sasha that we need to pound the nails down in each of the boards. We did not want anyone stepping on any nails. As the other kids came out to help, Sasha told them to give him any boards that had nails because he was in charge of taking care of the nails. He was having fun cleaning up the mess and he felt important to have specific job.

Yesterday, we had 7 yards of rock delivered to our house. It is much cheaper to use rock for your driveway instead of cement. Unfortunately, the driver didn’t spread the rocks out very well so we had to do it by ourselves. David and I were quite surprised because Sasha and Matthew were excited to move all the rock around. We asked them if they wanted to return some borrowed items to our friends, it would have been much easier but they both turned us down. Distributing the rock was much more fun than returning borrowed items. Today Matthew and I, at least, are sore from working so hard.

Today we hiked to the plane wreck. It was a large military plane that crashed back in the 1950’s. We have hiked to the plane wreck many times in years past. When we first started going there much of the cockpit was around. People have since taken bits and pieces of the plane. Most of the cockpit is now gone. The boys and Katelyn really enjoyed climbing over the plane. It really did my heart good though when we heard Sasha yell out “be careful Katelyn”. We couldn’t see what they were doing but it was so nice to hear the kids have concern for each other.

We then went to the lodge. As soon as we got there we saw a whale in the bay. We hurried down to the boat dock and just watched. We think that there were probably two whales but we are not sure. While we were on the boat dock, Sasha found a watch.

From the boat dock we walked down a trail and saw a small black bear. We had to laugh at Sasha though. Sasha was more interested in his newly found watch then the bear.

We also hiked along the trail another and David got the boys started scarring each other along the trail. Katelyn got a good video of Brady scarring Tanya. I will post these pictures below.

July 1, 2009

David told me I had to write about Sasha’s fire. We have two ways to heat our house. We have a wood stove and we have a propane gas heater that they use in the large RV’s. We mostly use the wood burning stove because wood is in abundance here and therefore, cheap. Anyway yesterday, Sasha brought in 7 pieces of 2X4’s. He literally stacked them one on top of the other with a few pages of an old Field and Stream magazine laying flat in between each of the boards. David said it looked like a layered cake. David saw this and about had us all in stitches. He took the boards out and proceeded to teach Sasha how to build a “happy fire”. David’s words not mine. He also told Sasha that a fire needs oxygen to be a happy fire. To get oxygen into the fire you wad the paper into a ball, then put card board over the paper and then put little sticks over the cardboard and then put larger pieces of wood over the little sticks. We must place everything with air holes so that air can flow through the fire and then we will have a happy fire.

We also burn our garbage outside of the house. We had steak last night and Sasha put his fat scraps in a box and went outside to burn it. I think he took some wood from our big burn pile and started a fire. He was being so diligent with his fire. He decided it was much more important and exciting then to come in to eat chocolate pie. He was quite serious about his work.

July 13, 2009

As a final note, Tania did call me “Mom” to my face while we were in Alaska. It really did make my heart jump. Tania has called us mom and dad to other people but not to our faces. Sasha just calls us “huh”. I think it is hard for them to realize that we are truly their parents. Tania does keep in touch with her biological father and Sasha keeps in touch with the couple who hosted them in France. I think that it is confusing to them as to who are really their true parents. As time goes on, I believe that they will understand that we have really taken on that responsibility and their biological parents were just unable to take care of them.

It has been harder for the kids since we didn’t know the kids before we adopted them. I watch the blogs of the Keller and the Lawrence’s and I can understand some of the turmoil that they have gone through. Sometimes, I really wish that we had been able to host Tania and Sasha before we adopted them. I think that they would have been more ready to be a part of our family if they would have had something to look forward to in Ukraine.

2009-07-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Tania's first time making cookies.

Tania opening gifts on her birthday.

Sasha opening gifts.

Bailey, Tania and Shelby

More gifts

David putting swimming goggles on one of the dogs. David, Matthew and Katelyn love to dress up the dogs.

This is our lean to that collapsed. Luckily we built the carport last summer so our car wasn't under all of this mess. Unfortunately, our next door neighbors had parked their car under the lean to. It did'nt come out very well. All the windows were smashed in and it had lots of dents.

Sasha is trying to pull out one of the poles from the lean to.

Sasha with the pole that he pulled out of the ground.

Katelyn asked what this was. David told her it was the first Atari game paddle. It really is just a piece of junk that we need to get rid of.

Sasha is helping David install our countertop.

Sasha was helping take the price tag off of the tiles. He thought it would be funny to put the tags on David's back.

The countertop is done. We did install a sink but I don't have a good picture.

Everyone enjoyed taking pictures of Sasha especially when he was asleep.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sasha.

Tania fishing off the boat dock.

Sasha , Tania and Brady fishing. I'm sure that Matthew, Katelyn and Michael were there also.

Tania caught a double ugly.

Tania is trying to move a yellow flower closer to us. It is in a very beautiful pond.

Katelyn on the wrecked plane.

Tania came in from fishing. She cried "I peed my pants." She really tried to jump over a little stream and missed. The tide was coming in so when they were walking out to the river to fish the stream was small. When they decided to come home the stream had grown. The tides up here have extreme changes.

The tide was really low this day and for some reason David had an itch to climb this ladder. The ladder reaches down to the boat dock and goes up to were you can park your car to get to the boats. It is probably 30 ft. high. The problem was since the tide was so low there was a big gap between the boat dock and the bottom of the ladder.

2009-07-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is our house all cleaned up. Please notice the rock that has been distributed around the driveway. The rock will help lessen the amount of sand that everyone brings into the house. It is amazing how much sand gets on the floor even when you have people take their shoes off before they come in the house.

A moose that we saw on this trip. There were notices all around town about the moose that would charge people. Of course, the area they were talking about is right about where our house is.

This is my all time favorite picture of the trip. Sisters. Need I say more?

2009-06-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Both Tania and Sasha need braces.

I must admit I will be glad to be done with doctor and dentists for a while. Both kids have had a root canal.

Sasha has had two fillings taken care of. Tania has 6 cavities and I'm not sure where we are with the fillings. I just know that we are not done.

Plus they both need to have their wisdom teeth removed and to have teeth removed to make room for their other teeth. Next month Sasha will have a total of 8 teeth removed and Tania will have 7 teeth removed. Tania would have 8 removed but she had already had a tooth removed in Ukraine. She told us that a rather large woman (to put it nicely) just twisted her tooth around until it came out. She didn't have anything to lesson the pain. Apparently when she had cavities filled there she also did not have anything to take care of the pain. She told me that she didn't have a shot before the dentist filled her cavities.

2009-06-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

We went 4-wheeling just before Matthew's jaw surgery. Both Tania and Sasha were excited to go but Sasha was a little worried about snakes. As soon as we pulled the 4-wheelers off the trailer and hit the road, David found a little snake in the road. Of course he had to bring it back for all to see. The kids named the snake George. Matthew wanted to bring the snake home but I would not let him.

Matthew holding George.

Sasha holding George.

David found an even bigger snake!

Sasha looking for George after we let him go.

Tania and Katelyn are ready to go.

Tania and Sasha were all tuckered out.

This is the tree Tania killed. We are not sure what happened. David and Tania were out riding and David realized that Tania was not behind him. He went back to look for her. Tania was standing on the dirt road and the 4-wheeler was on top of this tree. Luckily Tania wasn't hurt but the 4-wheeler didn't fair quite as well. I am glad we made them wear helmets.

2009-06-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

Dasha, Tania and Sveta reunited.
Sasha thought it would be fun to lie down on the people movers at the airport.

Poor Tania always has to sit in the middle of the car. On the way to the airport they were playing jello.

2009-06-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

One of Sasha's rare smiles (they are getting more frequent)

Sasha getting a haircut.

Both kids on the computers.

2009-06-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

I need to vent a little bit. All of these pent up feelings come from having a fairly difficult month. After I read the Keller's blog and of course Wendy's blog I just thought that I would air some of my feelings.

The last month in particular has been difficult. Our oldest child, Matthew, had jaw surgery last month and the recovery period has been a little more difficult than we had expected. David and I took turns sleeping on the couch in the living room while Matthew slept on a reclining chair. Sleeping was not very comfortable. But Matthew was in pain and we had to do whatever we could to show our concern for him.

Tania then started acting up. We don't know what set it off. We think part of it was hormones and we don't know what the other part of it was. David and I for a week and half we didn't know what kind of mood she was going to be in. Most of the time it was not a good mood. At one point, she said that we didn't like her. Where that came from we don't know. Over a weekend she got a little better but when she went back to school she was miserable again. Then on Wednesday evening David and I were asking her what whe wanted for dinner and she could barely answer us. I finally told her she could go to her room is she couldn't talk to us civilly. Tania tried to hide a little smile from me but it didn't work. I think she was glad that we were upset with her. The next morning she was still grumpy and I told her that David and I had had enough of her attitude and it needed to stop. She came home from school that day and you could tell she was trying to be better.

Let's see then there is Katelyn. She had pneumonia at the beginning of the month. She also had AP tests which was difficult to get ready for since she was sick. Then her friend at school was apparently molested by her uncle when she was a little girl. Her mother finally reported the incident and now she is probably going to be arrested for withholding evidence. So Katelyn has been worried about her friend. Then to top it all off her "boyfriend" in Colorado broke up with her. So everything has been a little dramatic at our house.

On Monday, (which is when I started this entry and really set me off) Tania and Sasha just got invited to a swim party for the kids from Ukraine and of course Sasha did not want to go. I just don't understand him sometimes. He never wants to do anything and yet he complains that it is boring here. We have made suggestion after suggestion and everything is boring. We have made him just go to some things and he ends up enjoying whatever it is that we do, but it is like pulling teeth to get him to do it. This is just the last event that has kind of a part of the rollarcoaster ride that we have been on.

On a better note, Sasha has really been coming out of his shell. The other day he was mowing the lawn and making some of the strangest noises. We haven't figured out what he was doing but he was happy. Then one night we were watching Napoleon Dynamite. At the very end of the movie, Napoleon dances as part of Pedro's election to be class presidents. I looked over at Sasha and he was dancing along with Napoleon. It was hilarious. We have also realized that we can't sit by a lot of people when we go to movies in the theatre. Sasha likes to talk and it's not a whisper. Also, the whole family went bowling the other night and Sasha took over watching the score board. We had our own commentator with us. (By the way, his english has really gotten better over the last couple of weeks.)

We have also found out that Katelyn is thoroughly enjoying EFY. Tania went to YW last night just because she wanted to go.

Things are looking up today. We will see what happens tomorrow.

I also thought I would add some pictures

Some events of interest

2009-05-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would post a few events that have happened lately.

A few weeks ago we purchased a new patio set. Our family loves to eat outside. The first weekend it was warm enough outside we decided to set it up the furniture. Of course the furniture came in some very large boxes. We thoroughly enjoyed eating outside for the first time this summer. After we finished eating, Tania and Sasha discovered that they could play with the boxes. While I was taking care of the dishes, Sasha came inside and informed me "I have a house". David cut out windows in the boxes. Sometimes the kids put the boxes next to each other like a double wide trailer and sometimes they stacked them together to make a second level.

The other day I was cleaning out my flower pots. I didn't get a chance to clean them out before we went to Ukraine last November. I started emptying the pots and Tania came out to help me. Soon she had Sasha out helping also. Tania ended up sweeping the patio while Sasha and I empied the pots and then we filled the pots with new dirt. Now if this had been my domestic children, they would have lasted about 10 minutes. It was so nice to have help.

It has been nice having help cleaning the house also. The imported children are generally much better about cleaning. Since Tania and Sasha don't complain (Tania actually looks for more cleaning) Katelyn and Matthew are much more willing to help.

2009-03-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

2009-03-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

2009-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

2008-12-31T07:13:00.000-08:00

They are coming home!. All the visa work and medical exams are complete.

They arrive home at 6:31pm Jan. 1st. They fly in on United flight #6360.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us through out this whole process. Both of our employers have been very good and understanding.

We really appreciate all the love and concern shown to us by our friends and family. Many prayers have been said. Our names have been submitted to many prayer rolls. We can't thank you enough for all that you have done.

2008-12-30T17:25:00.000-08:00

Well today it became official. Our family has grown from 4 to 6. We are all excited. They were able to get the new birth certificates and passports today. When David went to pick up the kids there were a few tears shed. Luckily lots of the kids have left the orphanage for the holidays. I think that made it a little easier on the kids. David thought it was a good thing I was not there. He thought I would have shed a few tears myself. I think he is probably correct. It was hard enough to leave when I did.

The clan has arrived in Kiev. David called me at 4:00 this afternoon to say that they had arrived. I would imagine they are all very tired.

2008-12-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

The bus stop in front of McDonalds. It was always full of people.
The little old ladies were selling cigarettes. They were selling the cigarettes individually not by the pack.

More crowds.

2008-12-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

Our apartment in Kiev

2008-12-29T20:11:00.001-08:00

The sign at the entrance to the orphanage.

Stained glass windows in the main building at the orphanage.

2008-12-29T20:04:00.000-08:00

Pictures in the orphanage.
Street sign to the orphanage.

The front entrance to the orphanage.

Murals in the main building of the orphanage.

The opposite side.

2008-12-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

Parking in Kiev

2008-12-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

David in front of the church.

David shopping at the market

2008-12-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

2008-12-29T19:54:00.000-08:00

We spent one morning taking pictures of the monuments. All these monuments are within walking distance of each other.

This park has the monument pictured below.

This monument is the aviator the orphanage is named after.

2008-12-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

David was enthralled with the old cars, trucks and buses.

2008-12-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

The New Year's tree all decorated.
Instead of Christmas trees they put up New Year's trees. This tree was in the town center. They cut section of trees and put them in slots.

2008-12-29T19:40:00.000-08:00

Marina and the kids after court.
Waiting for court

After court we went to dinner. As an appetizer they served this toast that was coated in oil. We then put this stuff in the bowl on top of the toast. After we ate it we found out this is pig fat with salt and garlic added to it. It was really good but we nearly got sick thinking about how much fat we ate.

2008-12-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

The kids classroom.

2008-12-29T19:35:00.000-08:00

And more Tania pictures

2008-12-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

More of Tania's pictures

2008-12-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

The day before court the boys had a competition. It was mostly relay races and then tug of war. We had Tania take some pictures because she was sitting in a better position than we were. She then asked if she could use the camera over night. She was able to get some good pictures of her friends. Dosha went to France the day after we had court. So I think Tania wanted to get plenty of pictures of her friends.

2008-12-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Sasha2, Victor and Sasha at the concert where Tania danced.

Victor and Sasha

Posha played his flute at the concert also.

The dance teacher getting the girls ready for the program.

Tania and Dosha are having a great time.

2008-12-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

The basketball game of the year.

The bruise of the year.

David is ready to play.

2008-12-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

Sergei is taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.

I left Sumy last Monday night. I took the overnight train to Kiev, went to the US Embassy on Tuesday morning and flew home on Wednesday. Yes, I was home for Christmas. Our biological children were in Arkansas (at my parents house) for Christmas so I went to my in-laws for Christmas. I am glad we sent the kids to Arkansas. They were surrounded by my family and had a great time. They came home on Friday.

Sasha and Tania are doing great. They have both been to see our apartment in Sumy and think it would be great to live there. I can't wait for them to get to the U.S. We aren't sure when David will be able to get home with the kids. We were hoping there might have been a slim chance they could come home on January 1 but we have since learned the US Embassy is only open for twp hours on December 31. We know for sure that the Embassy is closed on the 1st and 2nd. We are afraid it will be closed through the 7th since the Ukraine government has declared the 1st through the 7th has a national holiday. So it might be a while before they are home.

On Christmas day David returned the kids to the orphanage by himself. He barely missed the bus stop at the orphanage because they installed street lights and it looked different. So when he went home the kids were worried that he wouldn't know where to get off the bus. They had to walk him to the bus stop and through many hand signals he was able to convince the kids he would be fine.

Tania has been getting ready to leave her friends. David, Tania and Marina went shopping for gifts the other day. She had a list of people she wanted to give gifts. David was happy to oblige.

We asked the missionaries. There are no missionaries in Kremenchuck. All three missions are getting smaller. They are trying to make the members run the branches so they don't need as many missionaries. Plus they are having a harder time with the visas. They used to last for two years and now they last for a year. So after a year the missionaries have to leave the country for a while and get a new visa.

2008-12-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

Sasha 2 had some interesting pictures on his phone. Sasha 2 had been taking pictures of all of us.

This is in the group room. We were watching Fantastic 4 inUkrainian.
The caretaker had just rehung the curtains after they had been cleaned. Sasha and Sasha 2 helped her rehang them. The caretaker also had Sasha clean out some of the cobwebs in the ceiling.

2008-12-28T10:39:00.000-08:00

Tania with her gerbil, Sally, Natasha (she is a girl from the ward- she helped translate for us) and Sasha

Tania cross-stitched this pillow

Tania's friend Dosha, their dance teacher and Tania

Tania, their other caretaker, and Sasha

2008-12-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

Our new family members

Sasha, Veeka( a sustitute translator) and Tania

The boys playing Greedy

Tania with her caretaker

2008-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Sergei playing frisbee. This was about 4:15rin the afternoon. It gets dark really early. On the shortest day of the year it was dark before 4:00.

Sasha playing frisbee

Sasha 2 - This was before he got to know us. The kids did not like to have their pictures taken by the strange americans.

2008-12-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

The top picture is Victor and Vlad. The next two are of Sasha and Sergei. The last is of Tania's roommate Dosha, Tania, and Marina (our translator)

2008-12-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

Friday morning we went to St. Nicholas day program at the school. Tania danced to a couple songs, some of the younger kids sang a couple of songs, the director spoke and a veteran spoke. The kids were then given some boxes of candy and a holiday card from the president of Ukraine. Just like in Utah, the kids were happy to give us their holiday card.

We spent the rest of Friday taking care of needed documents and getting passport pictures for the kids. Poor Sasha got really bored.

Saturday was an interesting day. We picked up the kids and thought we would have a day of shopping. We needed to get socks as part of our gift to the orphanage and clothes for the kids. David tried to exchange money. We tried at five different banks and no one would exchange our money. Marina finally loaned us some money. After lunch we were able to exchange some money and pay Marina back. We were a little worried for a little bit.

Sasha was in a hurry to go play computer games so we took care of his needs first. We really only needed to buy him a coat and some shoes. He probably needs a pair of pants but we will buy those when he is not around. He did not like us spending money on him. Tania had a great time looking for new boots. We were all so cold by time she finally picked out a pair. David, Marina and I started just pointing out boots and strongly encouraging her to pick something. Marina also told her we were all cold so she needed to hurry up and choose.

To warm us up, Marina took us to the place where her mother works. She bought us some hot foods, so we could warm up. After we warmed up we went to buy Tania a coat. We told her she had to make up her mind faster than when we were looking for the boots. We even picked out a pair of pants for her. She was quick.

Once again, Tania was extremely grateful. She had so much fun showing the kids at the orphanage her new clothes.

2008-12-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

We finally had court yesterday. Everything went well. Sasha did better than we had expected. Tania was wonderful. David had to answer most of the questions. I was thrilled that he had that opportunity instead of me. Even though he has had a lot of testifying in court experience he was a little nervous. I was nervous. Marina said she was nervous about translating for the court. It sounds like the judge asked the same questions that others have put in their blogs so I won’t repeat them. One of the witnesses talked to us afterwards. She was so touched that we were adopting the kids. She even asked the kids to write to her in a month.

WE ARE SO HAPPY THAT IS OVER!

As for the rest of the week it has been pretty uneventful. We have been spending more time with the kids. Tania has a gerbil that she loves to play with. The other day she put the gerbil down Sasha’s shirt. (Doesn’t that sound like a typical teenager?) Sasha handled it all very well. When Sally, the gerbil, went down his sleeve he was very patient and gently helped Sally out of his shirt.

Earlier this week we bought Tania some shirts. It was amazing to see how appreciative she was. These kids just don’t have a lot of material items. It really makes me grateful for the things that I have.

Wednesday afternoon the whole city of Sumy did not have any water. It finally came back on Thursday morning. We didn’t sleep well that night. We were so worried that if there wasn’t any water they might cancel court. We have had lots of water issues while we have been here. There is nothing like being in the middle of your shower and all of a sudden there isn’t any water. The hot water is supposed to come from the city but if you want to take a shower in the morning it is sometimes at the most warm.

Weeks updates

2008-12-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 12, 2008
On Friday, we went to get Tania’s blood test results. We got Sasha’s yesterday and everything came out negative. We got to the clinic and were told that Tania tested positive for one of the tests but wouldn’t tell us for which test. (They were tested for HIV, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B&C and only the HIV and Syphilis test are required for their VISA’s to come to the US) We then went to the orphanage and picked up Tania and the school nurse. We ended up going to two different clinics. Tania had her blood drawn at one of the clinics for HIV. We thought that she could get a Syphilis test at the third clinic but when we got there they said the only place to get a Syphilis test was at the first clinic. (We think we were at the communicable disease clinic for the second test but we didn’t dare ask any of the other patients to confirm our suspicions). So we went back to the first clinic. Since Tania and the nurse were with us they let us know that Tania had just barely tested positive for HIV. They said they thought the results may have been from a recent vaccination. Knowing how many times David has had false positive tests for various medical conditions, we really aren’t too concerned. We should find out Monday the results of the second test.
The clinic didn’t have a current number for any of the clinics. We found out that all of their phone books were out of date. We would have been surprised about this a few weeks ago.
That afternoon, we got together with the kids to show them our blog. Marina (our translator) had printed out a copy of it for us. The caretaker was interested in the pictures that we had posted otherwise it didn’t create much interest. But it did lead into a great conversation about what life in Utah would be like. We think they will go to school for more days in the US than in Ukraine. Tania perked up about learning how to cook. Sasha showed a little interest but I think he would rather do sports than cook.
Saturday,
Tania showed us some pictures that she had. She had a bunch of Sasha visiting the French couple. It really made us understand why Sasha was torn about coming with us. It did look like a very nice place. There were quite a few of both of the kids in the orphanage. I hadn’t realized how long some of the kids had been together in the orphanage.
Little things come out everyday about various issues. Today we found out that Tania’s friend, Svieta, regrets turning down her Utah adoption offer. She has been encouraging Tania to come with us. We are very impressed that a 14 year old can advise another to not make the same mistake that she did.
Tania informed us that Sasha called the French couple and told them he plans to go with us to America. That was a big step for Sasha. We were thrilled.
Later, we were watching a DVD and it was interesting to see how respectful the other kids are to each other and to us. One of the boys kept leaning forward so that Marina couldn’t see the TV and another boy would get him to move back. Time and again we see little acts like this among the kids.
We have been told by others who have adopted here that it is really hard to leave behind some of the kids when it is time to leave. We have grown very attached to three of Sasha’s friends. Victor, Sergei and Sasha 2. Even Marina commented on the way home about how much she enjoys the boys.
Sunday
In church Sunday they reorganized Branch and made a new Branch President. The mission president came to town and spoke. The missionaries still act as councilors; one of the missionaries was branch president. We’ve been here so long they might as well give us assignments.
Monday
We are feeling much better. Other than worries about our length of stay and charges it has been much more enjoyable. Both kids, but especially Tania, have been fun. Tania does not have HIV. She'd better not, she gave us each a kiss last night.
Thursday
Everything went well in court, both kids said yes. Now we are going through the motions to get everything finalized and get the twins home :)

YAY!

2008-12-11T10:04:00.001-08:00

Good News! We have a court date! Sasha and Tania are excited to be going to court and both have expressed their willingness to come with us to America. We are grateful, thrilled and excited. Its nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. More to come.

Updates (From Saturday and today)

2008-12-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday's:

Yesterday was a fun day. Our spirits were not very good in the morning but by the time we went to bed we were in much better moods.

We went up to the orphanage at 10:00. Sergei wanted David to play basketball with him. He figured since David was taller than the other boys they would do better. David tried to convince him that he isn’t a very good basketball player but Sergei still wanted him to come. Sasha said he didn’t like basketball and would not be there. But we went anyway. David immediately tripped over a bench that was painted the same color as the walls and really hit a door frame hard. If we can we will try to post a picture of the bruise. Otherwise, the basket ball game really should have been called Jungle ball. The younger kids hardly dribbled the ball.

In the afternoon we went to a concert. Lena and Posha sang a song while Tania and 5 other girls danced around them. They did a wonderful job. We felt bad for them though. The microphone cord was not long enough so they ended up stopping the performance and moving the microphone stand and starting the performance over. The girls did a good job adapting to a different part of the stage.

Dale is here visiting Lena and Posha. He and his wife are hoping to adopt them. Both of us were filming the song. There were many pictures take during the song. The caretaker, music teacher and dance teacher were also very proud of the kids.

After the concert, Dale, Lena, Posha, Oleg, Helen, Marina, the music teacher, Tania, Sasha, David and I went to dinner at a French restaurant. We were there for over three hours. We learned a lot about Lena and Posha. By the end of the dinner we were playing charades. We had some really hard words. Helen started us with the word distributor. We had other words such as fog, lunar rover, rain, director, constitution, cheese, deputy, and spiderman. So you will see that they were not easy words. We were all laughing so hard by the time we were done. I’m sure the other patrons of the restaurant were not thrilled with us but oh well.

We are hoping to have our court date on Friday. We are anxiously awaiting that next step of the process.

We appreciate all of your comments on the blog. It really helps us feel like we are apart of this world when we get comments. Thank you to everyone who has kept watching our blog.

Today's:

The other day we were looking at the Roger's and Milne's blog and we realized that we are in the same apartment. The couch, the table cloth and the dishes as well as the view out the window are all the same. Our landlord is Sergei.

It snowed here yesterday so it is getting colder. The missionaries told us that when it freezes they spread dirt over the ice patches in the sidewalk. When it melts it get really dirty. He didn't remember ever seeing a snow plow.

Our jeans are getting looser these days. Between walking everyday, climbing the stairs at least twice a day to our apartment on the 7th floor (the elevator has been broken for several days), and jumping around all of the puddles on the sidewalk we are getting plenty of excercise. Plus we haven't been eating much fried food. We go to McDonalds when we need an American fix.

We hope to get a court date today. We should find out later today.

Sasha is doing better. Tania is a gem. We can't wait to get a court date so that we can take them out of the orphanage.

We would like to say that we are very impressed with the people who work at the orphanage. They truly care about these kids. They have been very willing to work with us and help us as much as they can.

December 9, 2008

2008-12-09T05:34:00.001-08:00

The other day we had a long talk with Tania. Whe told us about her family situation. She has a pretty good relationship with her father but she wants nothing to do with her mother. Apparently, her father has quit drinking and cleaned himself up quite a bit. Unfortunately, he does not have the income to take care of her and Sasha. He has recommended to the children that they go to America. He feels it would be good for them.

Sasha is still on and off. He has days when he likes to be around us and other days he seems to ignore us. We do think he is getting better though.

We still don't have a court date. We are anxiously awaiting a date.

It has been nice being able to go to church. We have been going to family home evening on Monday nights and that has really helped us keep our spirits up.

We made brownies to take for a snack today. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. We don't have anything to measure with. David tried to buy something to measure with but he couldn't find anything in the stores. We are also taking juice. We hope the kids enjoy it.

We are wondering if we have seen Bill Murray filming Ground Hog Day 2. At least our days feel alot like the movie.

New Updates, with pictures!!

2008-12-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after we wrote our last message, we ran into Oleg. He told us that Tania did not like Sasha's middle name of Joseph and so he is going to be called Alexander Max Harris instead. (Katelyn will be happy.)

At the orphanage we played Greedy with the kids again. Our translator requested that we play it again and then when we got into the dormitories the boys requested it also. The boys also asked us if we could leave the dice with them. We told them it was fine with us but they had better make sure the caretakers approve first.

It was funny while we were playing one of the caretakers came up to get two of the boys. Apparently they were supposed to be doing homework. One of the boys tried to hide from the caretaker for just a second. The adults got a chuckle out of this. I don't know if the boys did. Tania and Sasha had already finished their homework.

When Oleg came back to apartment he told us that he had liitle more work to do on the medical documents. Apparently, they have to be stamped with a round stamp. Unfortunately, the students stole the stamp about a month ago and the orphanage has not ordered a new one. So he is hoping that the doctors office will have a round stamp so that the paper work can continue on. He his hoping to have a court date by next Thursday or Friday.

And of course Sasha has brought up visiting the French couple again. Sasha is about the only person who likes the French couple right now.

We have figured out the picture situation finally so we are including some pictures.

Monday, December 1 (GREAT NEWS!!!!)

2008-12-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Sasha had to make a decision. When we got to the orphanage and Tania told us he had talked with the French couple again and they weren't being very helpful. Tania does not like the French couple.

The pyschologist, the inspector and Oleg went into a room together and Sasha agreed to be adopted. Oleg reminded him that it was going to be very important that he say yes at the court hearing also. Sasha said that he would. Both kids then had to go into a different room and write a letter stating they would like to be adopted. Oleg said that when Sasha was done he was a changed boy. It looked like a load had been taken off his shoulders. They both came downstairs when they were done and they both looked very happy.

That afternoon we spent a while picking names for them. The kids from Sumy like to get American names. It was hilarious. The kids decided they would like to keep their Ukranian names for their first name but would like American middle names. Sasha decided on Alexander Joseph Harris. It was funny, we made up a list of boys names and he ran off and conferred with his friends, then Tania came and crossed off a bunch of names. We had four names to choose from and ended picking Joseph.

Tania is going to be Tatiana Vicki Harris. We are not sure why she likes Vicki so much but her friends did help her to decide. (She almost picked Esther -- Mom I sure you would approve of that name), Sasha came close to picking George.

We played the game Greedy with Sasha's friends afterwords and got to know Sergei, Victor and another Sasha a little bit better. I think the kids had fun.

News From Ukraine

2008-11-30T14:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday morning we flew into Dusseldorf. Because we didn't have our boarding passes to Kiev we had to go through a passport control check. We then went downstairs and we knew we were no longer in the United States. Everyone was dressed in black. There were very few people wearing jeans. They were all dressed up. We got our boarding passes and then we had to go back through a passport control check again. It was really bizarre.

On Wednesday we went to our SDA appointment. It was originally scheduled for 3:00. Oleg called us about noon and said that our appointment had been moved up and he was on his way to pick us up. On our way to the SDA, Oleg got a call saying our appointment would be at 2:00. So we waited aroung the building for about an hour and half. At 2:00 they let us stand in the stairwell to wait for our apointment. My feet were so cold by this time, I would slip my foot out of my shoe and put it on the radiator to help me get warm. It was fun watching everyone else who was trying to adopt. There was a big commotion about adopting babies, I think. Anyway, all of the facilitators were on their cell phones and jabboring with each other over something that was frustrating them. We finnaly went into our appointment at 3:00. David said a few word and that was it we were done.

Thursday, Oleg brought us to Sumy. We were supposed to meet with the inspector and we of course ended up waiting there for about an hour and half. Once the inspector signed all of the documents she needed we took her to another office to have her documents signed. She wasn't sure if anyone would be there to sign the documents. Luckily there was. We had to have these documents signed before we could see the kids.

As we walked into the orphanage, Tania and Sveta were walking around outside. We all recognized each other and Tania was thrilled to see us. She had been calling Oleg regularly to when we would come. Inside, Tania kept calling Sasha by cell phone to get him to our meeting. Finally, she called him again and the inspector told Tania to tell him "the inspector said to get to the meeting." He finally came.

More to come later.

More News!!

2008-11-29T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hello from Katelyn, yet again.
My parents tried updating the blog on their own, but said that the directions to get in were all in Ukrainian, and they couldn't understand how to do it.
They have been meeting with Sasha and Tania everyday. Oleg, Helen (Helen is their translator), and the school director have all been talking to Sasha to convince him that he should be adopted. He still is not sure he wants to be adopted.
Their new translator Marina, says they do not look American, they look Ukrainian, so they are happy their attempts to camouflage have worked. :)
They also wanted to pass on the fact that they have met with Lena and Pasha, and were able to give them the gifts, and they loved the pictures received. My parents will send pictures when they figure out what they are doing.
They were also able to give letters to Maria, who was excited to get them. She wanted to know how the boys were doing, and my parents were absolutely thrilled to meet her.
They showed pictures from the concert to the director of the school, and he got a little choked up. They think he misses the kids. They have given Tania pictures to show her teachers, so they can all see how the kids are doing.
Pictures mean everything to these kids, and they were all so excited to see the pictures of their friends. My mom said "I think they are more important then gifts to them". I really liked that :)
Hopefully we will continue to hear more good news :)

News from Ukraine!

2008-11-28T12:43:00.001-08:00

This is Katelyn (again) I'm doing just a quick update :)
I received a call from my parents this afternoon. They arrived safely and are doing well, but are very frustrated. Tanya is very excited to be adopted, but Sasha is not so sure, he has a few concerns. It is making us all nervous, but hopefully after spending time with mom and dad, he will become more excited about being adopted :)
They are going to try to find a place with internet tomorrow, and update this themselves, we will see how this goes, and they can fill in all the blanks of what is happening.

We're off!

2008-11-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

This is Katelyn, just writing stuff up for my parents :)
We dropped them off at the airport bright and early around 5:45 AM. (We left home at 5:15)
They are currently on their way to Düsseldorf, or wherever they were flying out to from Chicago. :)
They are anxious to get there and meet the twins. I'm excited for them as well, and hope they have a fun journey :)

5 MORE DAYS UNTIL WE LEAVE

2008-11-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that we are leaving on Monday. After watching all of the blogs, I understand how most people have said the whole process is like a roller coaster.

Monday we got a call from Ellianna. Oleg had talked to the kids about us coming to adopt them. Tania is ready for us to come and get her. Sasha is not so sure. Ellianna asked if I could talk to the people Sasha has been visiting in France for several years. She thought they were willing to help. The couple in France had a friend of theirs who speaks english call me and we had a fun conversation about why we would like to adopt the twins.

OnTuesday Ellianna called back and said apparently Sasha is fine with us adopting him but he is really dissapointed in not being able to go to France for Christmas. He would like to say goodbye to this couple. Our english speaking contact is now getting e-mails from both Ellianna and me. I wonder if she realized what she was getting herself into.

Ellianna and I have been trying to find out when Sasha would have been going to France. We really don't want to disappoint him but as I am sure most of you know, timing is everything.

Matthew did get us set up with webcams today so that if anything Sasha can talk to his friends through the web. Of course, it will be nice to have while we are in Ukraine also.

I hope we are as lucky as the Carr's and Evenson's and have internet where we are staying.

More pictures

2008-11-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

2008-11-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

These are some of the pictures Nanette gave me of the twins.

I can't wait to meet them.

David has been trying on his coats to see which coat would be warm enough and would fit in with the black decor in Ukraine. The kids and I have been having fun watching him get ready for our trip.

2008-11-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

WE HAVE OUR DATE!!

Our appointment with the SDA is November 26.

More to come.

November 8, 2008 :D

2008-11-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

We are the Harris Family. We are trying to adopt twins from the Sumy orphanage in Ukraine. We were going to host a child this last fall but Nanette showed us pictures of twins from Sumy and we were hooked. As I am sure everyone knows, Nanette has her way of inspiring you to do the right thing.

In July, we started our homestudy. In September, at first we were told to slow down the process for our paperwork since we would not be able to submit our dossier until December. Then all of a sudden we were notified the Ukraine was going to open adoption slots in October and we needed to have our paperwork completed by October 15th.

The SDA received our paper work on October 23rd. We are just waiting to receive a date to visit with the SDA.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped us with this process. There are many people who have helped us with paperwork and let us know about the whole adoption process.