Futbol..Colds...and LOTS of pictures....

Hello again everyone!! So I am again sorry for totally slacking on the blogging. This last few days have been a little slow going. I experienced my first professional futbol game and I must say I am officially a soccer fan!! We only got to watch the last half of the game because the ticket line was CRAZY long and took FOREVER but the wait was so worth it!! Here are some pictures of the game....

 Here is the amazingly huge and beautiful stadium 

 This is the view of the ticket lines as we walked up...crazy long and full of TONS of ticket scalpers!

 This section had super cheap tickets and we didn’t know why until we got inside and we quickly figured out why...it’s where all the SUPER enthusiastic fans sit!!

A picture of of the actual game... 

A different picture of the same crazy fans but this time they all had their signs and scarfs waving.... 

The other crazy fans across the stadium who set off flares and almost started a small fire!!!

And finally no soccer game is complete without fans running onto the field only to be tackled by security...I’m being totally honest when I saw this was so AWESOME!!!:)

  So as you can see the game was absolutely wild but sooooo.... fun!! And the crazy part was the stadium was only a 1/4 full...it can hold 80,000 fans, and it was nowhere near sold out which makes me wonder what a sold out game looks like! We will definitely be attending more futbol games when we get home!!:) As much fun as the game was I could tell I was coming down with a head cold, by the time the game was over my nose was running like crazy and I was sneezing up a storm...so I spent most of the rest of the weekend in bed taking some Ukrainian cold meds and watching movies on my computer. 

  Sunday was Ukraine's Easter so it was a fairly quiet around our neighborhood and I only got out of bed to go to our visit Sunday since I spent the whole morning and afternoon sleeping and was feeling better and was missing our sweet little guy. Monday was a typical day of a visit and doing homework for me and celebrating Beth’s birthday.. 

  Today I think has been the hardest day for me yet....we arrived at the orphanage around 9:45am to find the nanny and doctor/nurse (not sure if she was a Dr or nurse) talking near “Aaron” in the playroom for his groupa...and I immediately new we were not getting our morning visit in. (The last few days he’s felt warm when we’ve had him and hasn’t been as playful as usual so I have been expecting this.) So the nanny who is so sweet wrote down “T” with a degree sign and then an arrow pointing up to let us know his temperature was up. So we asked if we should call before we came for our afternoon visit and she said yes. So long story short we asked our facilitator to call for us and she was told by the director of the orphanage that he wanted “Aaron” to rest for the rest of the day.. Which is what made it so hard, normally at home if Ryan isn’t feeling good we'll lay on the couch and snuggle and just hang out and today that’s what I wanted to do with our little guy but since he’s not “officially” ours I don’t have a say in getting to snuggle.....So today instead of our visits we did a little bit more exploring off of another metro stop and then hung out at the apartment. 

  I know you all are waiting for some fun stories about our visits but the last few days have been kind of quite and boring...sorry no exciting stories today..hopefully I’ll have some tomorrow if we can visit our little guy. But before I go here are some pictures of Saturday's visit!! Sunday and Monday pictures are still on our camera!!:)

               Books and Blocks...what more does a boy need..?? 

           Giving loves to the picture book we brought for him...

                    

    Playing with the little fox stuffed animal we found in the room..

          Playing with daddy and the fox toy...love his little smile!!

    Holding tight to the fox..he was loving on it!!

I know you can't see it but he has a HUGE smile and is laughing at daddy.....have I said how much we love this kid!!!!:)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! More posts coming soon!!!!:)

Things that make me laugh a little...

Hi everyone! So for this blog post I decided to switch it up and do a little blog on the things that make me laugh here in Ukraine! So enjoy the pictures and hopefully you’ll get a little laugh out of it too!!:)

 We were told that ALF was a big show over here about 5-6 years ago....this made me laugh since it was big for us back in states about 15 years ago!!:) 

It’s a mobile Dunkin’ Donuts!!!!.....Ok, ok, I know it’s not Dunkin’ Donuts but the colors match and that's what it reminded me of!

  

 This firetruck was going about 10...maybe 15 M.P.H. with its lights on.!!
 I hope no one was in real trouble! 

 Seeing the tractor roll through town made me feel like I was back home for a minute!:)

 There really are no parking lots here...so people just park on the sidewalk and pack their cars in tightly!! 

 Even Ukraine has an energy drink truck...here it’s the Non-Stop Energy Drink truck instead of Red Bull!!:) 

Oops......this is what happens when you fail to follow traffic laws...the drivers here are CRAZY (and that’s putting it nicely)!!!!

I have no words except.....Welcome to Ukraine!!!

Please don’t be fooled by these pictures above and below this writting...I was NOT excited about this rat picking me out of our group of 4 to take a picture with it!! If we were at Disneyland it would have been no biggy, but here these people dress up as random characters and stroll around the square waiting for people to take pictures with them. I DID NOT ask and was TOTALLY grossed out by this.......but everyone (David, Lee and Beth) seemed to think it was hilarious...hopefully all of you will too! 

 

That’s it for now folks. I hope you liked the pictures and i’ll update our blog later about our visits with our little guy. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...I’m off to take a nap before we head out for a fun evening at a professional futbol (soccer) game!!:)

Exciting little update...and picture..of course!!

Hi everyone!!! I hope this blog post finds you all doing well, David and I are doing wonderful!! We found out this afternoon (our time here in Ukraine) that we have a court date!!!! We are so excited and grateful to have gotten such a speedy court date. We know that usually a court date can take a while to receive, which makes us lucky to have gotten a date within the next 10/11 days. So hopefully soon I’ll be writing the post I have dreamed about since starting this process...the post introducing “Aaron” into our family and finally reveling his real/new name we’ve picked out for him!!!:)

So other then that bit of exciting news nothing much has changed...we are going to our visits twice a day and I am totally starting understand how exhausting the 2 visits a day can become. We have to take the metro (a.k.a. subway) to the orphanage and since our visits fall at high commute hours the metro is usually packed...a one way trip can range from 30 to 60 minutes depending on the time and how fast we decided to walk...so that means that our travel time ranges from 3 to 4 hours a day of just riding the metro and walking...our visits are 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening.....so that’s about a grand total of 8 to 10 hours a day of metro riding, walking and playing with out little guy....and it may not sound that bad but it is so exhausting and yet so worth every sore foot and body part I may have from all the walking. Our little boy is doing amazingly well and showing what some love and affection can do for him!! Each day he is excited to see us and we can’t wait to break him free of his orphanage. But for know we just visit and enjoy our time we have with him!!:)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and here are some more pictures!!

Trying to get to the camera! 

Having fun with mommy.! 

Surprised by the music coming from my phone.....he LOVES music!

Loving on daddy!

Mommy trying out the carrier we have....and it fits PERFECTLY!!:)

He loves his daddy! 

Covered in blocks and being silly with daddy!!

Playing catch up...

Hello everyone....once again I am so so sorry for not staying on top of my blog posts. Since we started our visits on Thursday we have been going to and from the orphanage twice a day and it’s almost an hour trip one way...so needless to say by the end of the day we are beat. And between the orphanage and homework I have been slacking on the blog. But hopefully after tomorrow I’ll be caught up and backing to blogging at the end of everyday!:)

The rest of last week was great...we did our visits and had a blast getting to see “Aaron” come out of his shell more and more. We can see that once he is home with us and in a environment with LOTS of love and affection he is going to just blossom! During our first visit we were told that he is a quite and content little boy....but after spending just 4 days visiting with him we can tell he is more then just quite and content...he has a silly side just waiting to come out. we’ve seen little glimpses of it and we are really looking forward to what life is going to be like once we get home. Each visit is pretty much the same....we pick him up and then head down stairs to the playroom where get to just play and hang out with him and enjoy him. In the afternoons we are joined by the Herrington’s while they visit with sweet little Ol-yah (a.k.a. Olivia)...who is such a doll! So all in all everything at the orphanage is going great!:)

This past weekend we went to church on Easter which put me in a homesick kind of mood.....but let me tell you this Catholic church we went to was BEAUTIFUL!!!! The mass was a done in english and was beautiful...it was a little different then what I’m use to but I just did what the crowd did and tried to fit in as best as we could. Sunday was the only day we have missed visits one because of church and the other because it was POURING buckets and their was no way we would have made it to the orphanage with any type of dry clothing...so we decided to stay in and stay dry. And that has pretty much been our last 4 days!:)

We hope everyone back in the states had a wonderful Easter Sunday celebrating with their loved ones and we miss you all!!!

Here are some pictures I know you all have been waiting for!!:) More walking...

Being silly with Daddy!

Walking (kind of) with mommy...

More walking...

Concentrating hard while playing with his truck!!

Love at first sight...continued....

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been following behind on my blog. Life in Ukraine has been wild and so much fun. The last two days have been full of lots of excitement and completely exhausting, but so worth every minute!! 

Wednesday was the big day for us. We woke up early and prepared to go meet our little boy. On our way to orphanage I was a little nervous but more excited then anything. Once we arrived we were all (Beth, Lee, David and I) ushered into the directors office to being learning about our babies. David and I were up first, we were told all about everything in his file from medical to family to his personality. We asked a few questions and then it was Beth and Lee’s turn. During their turn the door open and their he was!!! The nanny brought him in and I couldn’t believe it...this was actually happening!!! He was little fussy and unsure of what was going on......so the nanny took him out and we finished up with the director. At first I was a little sad I didn’t get hold and love on hime but then we were told we could have a quick little visit in the playroom with him while our paper work was being prepared. Our quick 30/40 minutes visit was PERFECT!!!! He let us hold him and he played with us and smiled and we even got a laugh out of him before we left. So that was it...our first meeting....not what I have envisioned but absolutely perfect!! 

After doing some running around to the notary we headed back for our first official visit with “Aaron”. He was such a blast...we found his tickle spots and got him laughing and had fun just watching him explore the room. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day!!!

Here are some more pictures of our afternoon visit!!:)

Having fun with the drum...

Exploring the shelfs to see what he can find... 

More exploring...

 
A short little something from our first official visit!!:)

Love at first sight!!

So I have what you all have been waiting for......!!!!

Are you sure you’re ready for what you are about to see.....????

Really...really ready.....????

This post is going to be short and sweet........just a couple of pictures and a short video of clips from our first “visit”.....

ENJOY!!:)

Happy parents and happy beautiful boy!! 

love at first sight....

Holding tight to his papa’s hands!

Smiles before we go.....

I hope you all enjoyed the sneak peek...we will be going back this evening and I will have so much to share!!:) This day has truly been magical and we are so happy to share it with all of you!!!

Another day of making memories!!

Hi everyone....so I am playing catch up for yesterday!! We had a relaxing morning as the start of our day. Beth and Lee headed out to a breakfast date and to scout a church for Easter Sunday services....they found one that is right around the conner we are looking forward to mass on Sunday!! David and I had a quite breakfast at the apartment while I worked on some homework...exciting I know!:) The rest of our day was filled more walking and exploring. We walked into what looked like a very wealthy neighborhood and it was sooo beautiful. Beth and I both decided if we lived in Ukraine that would be the neighborhood we‘d live in! During our walks Beth and I discussed our hopes to come back in the summer sometime. We have only been here for 5 days and are already planning our vacation back for the future!!:) While out walking we received a phone to head over to pick up our referral for Aaron. So we headed to the DAP to pick it up and enjoyed some of the street vendors and all their souvenirs...we didn’t by anything....yet but we’ll be back to do some shopping!;) After all the walking we were all kind of wiped out and anxious to head to bed...so we had another wonderful dinner at the Irish Pub right around the corner from us and then cam home to head back to bed!!

So now it’s time to get up and dressed for the day David and I have been waiting for....we head out to meet our boy in less then 2 and hours!!! So make sure to check in when you wake up in the morning!! Pictures and videos will be up ready for everyone to see!!:)

I hope you all are having a wonderful week...our is about become soooo much better!!!!