Getting Close

We are getting close to finishing up in Ukraine so we needed to get back to Kiev for a few appointments.  We rode the overnight train from Odessa to Kiev and overall it was a fun experience.  Sasha was far too excited to sleep so consequently I did not sleep much either but the train I think would be fairly easy to sleep on under normal conditions.  What a great way to travel!  Go to sleep and wake up at your destination.  Just not with a very excited boy on his first train ride.  :)  Once we arried in Kiev, we took a cab to Karen Springs' apartment.  She is a missionary here in Ukraine and has her 'hospitality house' which she welcomes adoptive families into as a way to support them during their adoption process.  It was very warm and welcoming and is such a great ministry.  You can check out her blog at karensprings.blogspot.com and hospitalityhousekiev.blogspot.com.  She does some amazing work here for orphans and we were very grateful for a place to lay our heads for a few nights.  Today, we moved to another apartment, went to the US Embassy to apply for Sasha's visa and went to the hospital for his medicals.  It all went very smoothly.   He still seems very happy and wants to know what is taking so long to get to America!  I tend to agree with him!!  Tomorrow, we hope to find a bookstore to pick up a few books in Russian for Sasha, go to the SDA to get his one and only baby picture, and just walk around Kiev a little more.  We have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by Karen's aunt and uncle and are very excited to be able to spend Thanksgiving with some Americans.  I haved moved apartments over 10 times in the 9 1/2 weeks I have been here and am really looking forward to getting home and putting my suitcase away for a while.

The Catacombs of Odessa

Before we left Odessa to head back to Kiev, we took a tour of the catacombs of Odessa.  It was very impressive, sobering, amazing, and depressing all at the same time.  Our guide said there are about 3000 km of passageways under Odessa, making it impossible to install a subway system now.  This compares to about 150 km of passageways under Rome and about 300 km of passageways under Paris.  There have been instances where sections of road have caved in due to increased vehicle weights and houses have fallen into the catacombs due to increased weight of buildings that have been built.  Limestone was mined to build the buildings of Odessa.  When building a specific building or house, a hole would be cut in the ground of the courtyard area so the stone could be brought directly up where it was to be used.  Sometimes, the hole would be left and the people living there could store their wine down in the hole or could go down in it to escape the summer heat.  Often the passageways are layered one on top of the other up to 5 layers.   They have been used for smuggling, hiding places for criminals, hiding places for treasures, and a place of refuge for the citizens and the resistance during WWII.  The resistance originally thought they would be in the catacombs for 6 months but ended up being there for 3 1/2 years.  The one (of many) groups fighting the Germans that we heard about on our tour began with about 69 men and only 6 survived the war.   There were about 80,000 Jews in Odessa before the war and only about 500 survived.  The evil humans are capable of is just unthinkable.


This is part of one of the kitchens that the soldiers used.  They would have their kitchen on one of the lower levels so that the smoke from the chimney of the stove would dissipate on the upper tunnels and not above ground where the Germans could see it.

This is one of the sleeping areas for the men.  It had a waterproof barrier and then rushes on top for the men to sleep.  This is also a blurry view of Helen, our tour guide.  She was kind enough to give our tour in English and Russian so we and Sasha could understand.

This is where some of their weapons were stored.  Sasha thought the guns were cool, of course.

These are two of the saws that men used to excavate chunks of limestone.  I can not even begin to imagine using these to cut through rock!

This is one of the wells.  It sat directly under a villagers house and the occupant of the house would send messages to the men in buckets.

At times, the city was being so heavily bombed, that school rooms for children were built into the catacombs so the children could still learn in relative safety.  These are desks and benches built out of the limestone.

This is the infirmary where wounded soldiers were brought.  Our guide said most of the wounded did not survive because the conditions were so cold, damp, and unsterile in the catacombs.

Here is their washroom where they washed themselves and their clothes.  Living in the tunnels gave them a certain smell so the Germans brought in dogs to sniff people out in the city who had been in the tunnels.  The men living in the tunnels would wash thoroughly before venturing out in the city streets.

Odessa, Ukraine

We are really enjoying our time in Odessa.  We have walked around downtown, gone to the ballet at the Odessa Opera House, gone to the circus, played at a park - several times, and gone to the Black Sea.  Sasha has enjoyed most of it.  :)  This is our last week here and we hope to tour the catacombs of Odessa and maybe hit the zoo.  Here are a few pics of our life here in Odessa.

                                                      the beautiful opera house

                     

 These are the Potemkin Stairs and are considered the formal entrance into the city from the port.  They are designed to create an optical illusion so that from the top looking down you only see the landings and the stairs are invisible and from the bottom looking up you only see the stairs and the landings are invisible.  Pretty cool.  

                                                       This is the one walled building.  :)

                                                        Ali and me at the port of Odessa

                      

  This is the Mother's-in-law Bridge.  It is the longest, tallest, and narrowest bridge in Odessa.  If several people stand together and jump at the same time, you can feel the bridge moving.  It was quite unsettling!  Couples put the locks on it as a token of their love.

                         
                          Sasha looking at the locks on a heart sculpture at the end of the bridge.

                               Sasha had so much fun jumping on the trampoline at the park!

                 I think he is really tired of me taking his picture but he actually asked me to take this one!

This is a water station that people can come to and refill their bottles with drinking water.  I am still a little dubious about this water so will just continue buying ours.

We had chicken spaghetti for supper and Sasha added some ketchup to his.  Gross!!!  But he ate every bite.  What a funny boy.

We are definitely ready to be reunited with the rest of our family, but Ali, Sasha, and I are having a great time.  Sasha is a bright, funny, sweet kid and we are truly blessed that he is a Selman!

One Week with Sasha

One week ago today, I was packing up my apartment in Balta preparing to leave the next day after picking up Sasha from his orphanage.  It was a day filled with excitement, anticipation, and a little bit of nervousness about how it would go.  We left early Friday morning, picked up our adoption decree from the court house, picked up a social worker so she could go with us to the orphanage, and headed out to Pishanna.  Sasha seemed happy to see us and not fearful or sad at all to leave everything behind.  He changed into the clothes we brought for him, we filled out even more paperwork, and off we went.  As we were driving away, Sasha looked back at the orphanage, waved, and with a smile said, "Bye bye."  We drove straight to Odessa to apply for a new birth certificate and a passport.  We now have the birth certificate and are waiting on the passport.  It should be in today or tomorrow.  We have taken him out for pizza, which he did not really like, have gone to a park down the street a few times, which he does seem to like, and have played games in the apartment.  He loves the iTouch we brought him and he is spending too much time on it but I have decided if it is keeping him happy while we wait to go home, I can live with that.  We have worked on some English flashcards and the alphabet and he is picking up some words just in conversation.  We will get a lot more serious about it though once we get home.  We are staying in Odessa for another week and will then go back to Kiev to get his medicals done and to apply for his visa.  So far, Sasha has been a joy to be around and seems to be a happy, easy-going, sweet boy.  He is eating well, enjoys just hanging out, loves his showers, and once he gets to sleep, sleeps well.  He has enjoyed Face Timing with Scott and Jocelyn and Ellie Grace and has even 'met' his grandparents through Face Time.  Sasha will show J and E his flashlight and they will run get theirs to show him.  He will show them an almond and they will go get an almond.  It goes on and on with all of them laughing all the while.  I love modern technology!  We are very blessed to be this sweet boys parents.

Transportation in Ukraine

In Kiev, there are many types of expensive cars (Aston Martins, Bentleys, Jags, Ferraris, Maseratis, etc), some I have never even heard of, much less seen before.  But nice, fancy cars do not impress me so I have no pictures of them at all.  :)  Out in the villages, it becomes so much more interesting.  There are cars here too, but typically much older, boxier cars.  Vanya says they are Russian cars.  Then there are bicycles, and horse drawn carts, and tiller drawn carts, and people walking everywhere.  Hitch hiking seems to be quite normal and not a big deal at all.  It is all very interesting to see.

                                                                   an ambulance

       An example of the trailers that the cars pull behind them.  Sometimes they are full of cabbage,
                                                               beets, or cows even!

Bicycles lined up at the orphanage that the workers ride to work.

                    The horse drawn carts look like Little House on the Prairie until the driver pulls out his cell phone!

     There are these tiller-looking things that they use to pull their carts too.  They haul crops and people.

                                             A cute little guy on his way home from school.

                                           A horse all hooked up and waiting for his driver.

                   Here is a car with one of the carts hooked up behind it.  And a fun motorcycle.

                      Ali just really liked this car.  This is the style that they use to pull their carts.

Open Air Market

Yesterday, Ali and I wandered through the open air market of the village where we are staying.  There were fresh flowers, rose bushes, clothes, shoes, toys, strollers, hardware booths, kitchen wares, produce, meats, fish, you name it.  It was unlike any shopping experience I have had before and very interesting.  We got to see elderly men playing chess in the midst of it all and a woman bartering for some fish with her live chicken under her arm.  Truly a different world from Wal Mart!


                                              Booth after booth of fish.   Lots of fish....

                                       Men playing chess.  Maybe their wives were shopping?

                                                            Fruits and veggies.

                                      Little straw brooms.  Sure wish I could fit one in my suitcase!

                              Lady bartering with her chicken.  Ali and I felt kind of bad for the chicken!

                                                                   Hmmm.....

10 Day Wait

We are in the never never land of the 10 day wait.  Ukraine allows 10 days after an adoption court hearing for biological family members to come forward, or anyone else I guess, to object to the adoption.  It makes perfect sense but it is hard to just exist in this limbo.  Sasha is our son now, but he has to stay at the orphanage.  We visit but can not take him with us.  It is a strange spot we are in, but necessary.  We are enjoying visiting with him and the other kids.   The plan is for us to pick him up Monday at the latest.  We gave him a Timex watch after court last week (and had set the time for him) and I noticed today that he has learned how to set the time himself.  We would say it is 2:15 in the afternoon but he had it set to 14:15.  He is a very bright boy!  Sunday, Ali had a great time playing soccer with some of the older boys.  They were unsure of her joining their game at first but have since asked her to play again.  Today, a group of volunteers came to the orphanage and put on a mini-carnival.  There was singing, dancing, bubbles, face painting, clowns, cotton candy, a trampoline, and a lot of love for all of the kids.  It lasted for hours and the kids just loved it.  There were smiles and laughter and so much fun.  I am so glad we could be there and see the joy on the kids' faces.  I pray that each of the kids will one day know the love of a family and the love of their Heavenly Father.