July 10, 2010

Well, we are home now! It's been two days since we were back in the US and we all are a bit jet lagged and weary. Today we did manage to go for a bike ride and a dip in the Animas River so we are getting back to normal!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good thoughts over the past few weeks. We could feel your presence with us as well as God's guidance and grace. We'll be home here in Durango for a few weeks before our next journey which takes us to San Diego for just plain fun stuff on the beach and Sea World. Hope to see you all soon. Jeff, Tami, Thomas and Vika

July 6, 2010

Today was our last day in Yalta and we thought we would share some pictures of our hotel "The Hotel Bristol". We all had a hard time getting up today, as you can see from this picture of Vika snoozing in our room! The next picture is with Tami and the kids on the balcony as well as a picture with the view FROM our hotel balcony. If you look carefully you can see the golden arches just below the street light. We will spend some time on the beach today and then head to Simperopol for our flight back to Kiev.

July 5, 2010

Today we had our last guided tour of our trip which took as to Alupka Palace and Gardens. It is a one of a kind fortress built in the 1800’s by a man who was the richest in Russia at the time, even richer than the Czars. The mountain behind us can be seen everywhere from the grounds and is 1,234 meters high. He also had connections to England and attended Oxford so you can see British influence in the design of the palace and gardens. It is built entirely of stone that you will find BENEATH granite and was designed by a famous architect from London. It has withstood numerous earthquakes in this region because of its unique design and the composition of the natural grout which holds the stones together. The gardens that surround the palace were entirely planted at the time the palace was built and it is the largest “artificial” garden in the world. They actually transplanted soil 11 meters deep from the mountain tops above the gardens and put them on rock so things could be planted and grow. This might not seem like much until you see that the gardens cover over 100 acres and this was done in the 1800s!

We had a great tour of the inside of the castle which housed the British delegation during the treaty of Yalta. This palace was not harmed during the Nazi invasion however many of the paintings and historic library were burned. Hitler had planned to make this his palace and central headquarters before being killed in the war. Luckily for all of us this never happened!

We left the palace taking the “old Yalta road” that led us by numerous sanatoriums, hospitals built for those suffering from TB and cancer in the 1900’s. The unique climate and fresh sea air made these places perfect for people to recover. Many of them still operate as retirement facilities and have usable trams that take people from the apartments to the seaside. We also saw the famed “Swallow’s Nest” from the road as travelled by.

The tour ended by noon and we spent the afternoon on the beach with jellyfish once again all around us! We still enjoyed our time in the sun then headed back to the hotel for a quiet last evening in Yalta.

This will probably be my last entry until we return home and I’ll add more pictures then. We spend the first half of tomorrow in Yalta then drive to Simperopol for our flight to Kiev. We get into Kiev at 9 p.m. and the fly out of Kiev the next day at 5:30 a.m. for the return flights home. This means we have to get up at 2 a.m.…I mean, what’s the point of going to bed!

Thanks to you all for following along and for your prayers. See you all when we are back over the pond! Peace, Jeff

July 4, 2010

Tami’s Fourth of July Reflections

Today we visited Lividia Palace, former palace of the last Russian czar, Nicholas Romanov. (Ukraine was part of Russia at this time.) The Palace was also the location of the Yalta conference where President Roosevelt, Stalin and Winston Churchill met at the end of World War Two. We saw President Roosevelt’s bedroom as well as many historic photos and rooms involved in the conference. There is a room dedicated to each of the main world leaders who were part of the conference and when family members from those leaders come to Yalta to visit they always bring some historical item to add to the room. These rooms dedicated to Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin were an amazing collection of history that was awe inspiring to see. You also can see the round table that the world leaders gathered around for the first time as well as the table where Roosevelt and Stalin discussed using the atomic bomb against Japan. It was very interesting to make both a Russian and American historical connection in one place, especially on the day America celebrates her independence!

Our second stop for a tour today took us to "Fairy Tale Village," an amazing park dedicated to fairytales throughout the world in all different cultures. Each display is carved out of wood by hand and there were many children in the park with us to see this interesting collection that winds through a gladed forest at the base of the mountians that sit above Yalta. You can see pictures with some of the kids favorite fairy tales--and them inserting themselves into the stories!

We remembered it was the fourth of July when we got out Jeff’s laptop at “Uncle Sam’s” pizzeria (see the sign to the right), which is located in our hotel, the Hotel Bristol. Our hotel was used originally for guests and visitors of the royal Romanov family. Today we seem to be the only Americans around and it was a little sad for me not to be celebrating the country I love more and more the longer we are away from her! I find myself humming under my breath the song, “God bless America, my home sweet home. “

We spent the evening in Lenin Square where a carnival is set up for tourists. It was a really fun atmosphere with many well to do Ukrainians and Russians enjoying themselves on Holiday. At the base of the statue to Lenin you see in this picture is a fountain and pool, and in the pool vendors haves set up these large inflatable balls that the kids could get into and then run around the pool in! All for only 20 Grevnas (abour $2.50). The kids also rented these pedaling tricycles, did some bungee bouncing, had a snack at Mc Donald’s, and I bought a flashing neon toy shaped as an Eagle for my own little light show.

July 3, 2010

July 3, 2010

Today was just fun in the sun! We spent the first part of the day at the beach…which we discovered is not sand but small black rocks. A bit hard on the feet but fun none the less. The beaches are separated by concrete peers and so we had a great time jumping off the peers into the sea. We also found a great little stand that sells homemade bread wrapped around sausage…one of the kid’s favorite Ukrainian dishes, so we enjoyed those for lunch. Like Lenin’s Promenade, the beach area is filled with merchants selling trinkets and food for beach goers. You also can pay to go to a private beach where you get you own chair and umbrella. Some of the beaches even have private cabanas and there are jet skis and motor boats to rent as well.

We took some down time after the beach which was good because it pretty much pours here every afternoon around 3:30 p.m…much like Colorado! It is clear in the morning and the clouds build in the mountains that tower over the ocean, then sends them back towards the sea to dump some moisture on us. We watched from our balcony as the warm rain descended. For dinner tonight we headed to a café recommended by our translator Nina. They had great borsch soup that the kids love and the chicken Kiev and dumplings were outstanding traditional fare enjoyed by all of us!

For the late evening, we took a boat trip out of the Promenade along the coast all the way to “the Swallow’s Nest,” a castle that is famous in Yalta and one the kids wanted to see. It actually is very small and now is a restaurant however it is still a stunning site to see from the ocean. It was getting dark during our trip so our pictures are not great, but the views at dusk were stunning. We also had many dolphins join us alongside the boat. We headed back to the hotel after our boat ride and had some good family time of reflection and prayer before heading to bed. We all agreed it was good to have a day of just plain fun and relaxation!

July 2, 2010

July 2, 2010

Today we headed for fun in the sun and a little vacation time after some pretty intense days visiting the kids’ birth home and orphanages. We flew out of Kiev on a regional jet similar to the ones you fly from Durango to Denver, only this one is with the Ukrainian Airlines Aerosvit and it will take us to Simperopol, which is the capital of Crimea. Crimea is actually an independent republic of Ukraine and the flight here only took one hour.

We have a new translator and driver here and we learned from them that Crimea was under Russian rule for 350 years prior to 1954. In that year Russian and Ukrainian leaders were having a party celebrating Ukraine and Khrushchev, who was very drunk at the time, proclaimed, “I must give Ukraine a gift. I will give them Crimea!” Crimea then became a part of Ukraine which clearly some people like and some people don’t. There is still much Russian influence here and this peninsula (which is really like an island because it is connected by a small piece of land to Ukraine) has been ruled in the past centuries by many empires including the Cossacks and Genghis Khan. There are 111 different ethnic groups who live in this region and many of them came here looking for rest as the unique climate and mineral waters are known to bring healing. This is why the Russian Czars made this their summer home as many of them had TB. The region is lush with lots of fields of lavender that give the countryside a sweet fragrance.

Our first stop of the day was the Cliff Monastery and Bakhchysaray Palace. The monastery (pictured above and with Vika to the right) is literally built into a cliff and sections of it are more than 1000 years old. It is Russian Orthodox and at one point more than 1000 monks lived in the caves and walls of the hills. Many healings have happened here and there is an icon of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus which is almost 1000 years old and is believed to bring blessings on your household.

Just down the road from the Monastery is the Palace which was built by the Khan families and the added onto by the Czarina Catherine who became a Christian when she came to rule Russia. It is fascinating to see an Orthodox Christian Monastery and then a Palace with mostly Muslim roots (see below picture in panarama) literally right next to each other. We got a wonderful tour of both places and learned much about the history of this area. The palace and monastery are built into a valley that is literally hidden until you drop into it, thus making it very strategic for whoever ruled this region.

We left the palace and headed for the coastal region of Crimea and the town of Yalta. After arriving in Yalta we could see why it is called, “The Russian Riviera.” The mountains are 1800 meters high and drop down drastically all the way to the Black Sea.

Our day ended as we arrived in Yalta for the evening. The hotel in which we are staying is the Bristol which was originally the home for Czar Nicholas and his family before their palace was built, a palace we will see on our trip on Monday. Our hotel is on Roosevelt Way, named after FDR who was here as part of the conference at Yalta which ended the European end of WWII. We also are just a few blocks from the Black Sea and so we went to watch the sunset and the kids played in the water (see them at right).

The great news is that from the balcony of our hotel we can see…the Golden Arches! (See picture at right.) There is a McDonald’s on the Lenin promenade just across from Lenin’s statue which is hysterically ironic. There is so much commercial and capitalistic adventure in the promenade that if Lenin could see it he would be rolling over in his grave! Our night ended with a late night snack from Mickey D’s before heading to bed. We changed our schedule a bit so that tomorrow we can just relax and we are looking forward to playing in Yalta on the beach after the last four emotion filled days

July 1. 2010

July 1, 2010

Today began with our visit to Vika’s orphanage in Cherkassy. We found the place with no problem and it actually looks a bit more run down than last time we were here. We were met by Svitlana who is the assistant director of the orphanage. She embraced Vika and while Vika was a bit hesitant at first she melted into her arms. We then met Maria the director and spent some time with her. (That is the picture on the left.) She also was excited to see Vika and said we were the first family to ever come back to the orphanage with a child adopted from their and how great it was we had returned. Maria actually had been to the US in the last few years with a group of orphans. They had gone to Indianapolis with the help of an American benefactor and as a result several of the kids had been adopted by American families. Unfortunately it was very traumatic as she was accused of doing the whole trip inappropriately so she will not be doing a trip like that again. You could tell it was both a joyful and painful experience for her. We exchanged gifts and then had a tour of the orphanage.

This orphanage has also had some good updating and our first stop was Vika’s room. (At right top is Vika in her room today and at right bottom is her in her room in 2005.) We spent some good time their reminiscing and also visited the bathroom. Vika has a bit of a fixation with toilets and we think part of that has to do with the different kind of toilets in Ukraine! We also got to see their new gymnasium and Thomas and Vika had a good race across the gym on some hippity hops. We finished our tour by meeting the laundry lady who remembered Vika and they had a good embrace as we left. This trip was not quite as emotional as the one the day earlier because Vika did not remember much of her orphanage experience, at least not consciously. We also got to visit a classroom of kids today and they sang some wonderful songs for us.(See above photo. The other pictures above and to the right are Vika in her different rooms in the orphanage.)

(To the right is Maria, the orphanage director, with Vika and Tami in front of the orphanage.)

Before heading back to Kiev we went to the Cherkassy market and the kids each bought something to remember the city by. Both the kids got some pirogi (bread with sausage in it) and loved it. Our translator Luba bought the kids some books and games to help them learn Ukrainian and as we left town, Vika waved and said, “Goodbye Cherkassy! Don’t worry—when I come back I will know Ukraine!”

We headed settled in for the three hour drive back to Kiev and on the way were able to talk with the kids’ uncle in Kiev. We hope we can see him before we leave town later in the week.

June 30, 2010

June 30, 2010

(on the road to Cherkassy)

Today was one of the top 3 emotional days in my life. It was much more than we expected when we set up this trip and when we looked at what this day would be like. We began in Kropyvnya which is where Thomas’ orphanage is located. This city is about 2.5 hours south from Kiev on the Dnieper River, and about 30 minutes before we get to Cherkassy on that same road. Cherkassy is the city in which Vika’s orphanage is located and it was our home base for almost two weeks when we were here 5 years ago to adopt the kids. As we approached the city we were surrounded by sunflowers and Luba, our translator for this leg of the journey, told us that sunflowers are a major part of Ukraine’s rural production.

We were greeted with warm smiles and excited hearts at Thomas’ orphanage. His director Tatiana is a sweet woman who has a great heart for the kids. Unfortunately, most of the kids that would remember Thomas from his time there were on holiday in the Crimea (this is ironic since we head there next on our trip for some vacation time!) What is great is that since we were here 5 years ago the government of Ukraine has allocated more resources for orphanages and so each summer the kids can take a nice trip somewhere for vacation. This also has resulted in much better facilities. (in the photos above you can see what the orphanage looks like today in 2010 on the top and what it looked like in 2005 on the bottom.) Thomas’ orphanage got such a makeover that we hardly recognized the place. Both inside and out it has gotten a complete facelift. It smells better and you can tell there is much more pride in the staff. I have no doubt part of this has been due to the efforts of Tatiana. We were able to give her a nice gift from some people in our church to help buy some sports equipment for the kids and it was greatly appreciated.

There was one boy who was a roommate of Thomas’ and did not go on the trip with the other kids. His name is Alexander and he and Thomas spent some time throwing a football together. We brought three footballs and pump to give to the orphanage and Alexander got one of them. He had never thrown an American Football but he picked it up pretty quick and they had a great time. We had a marvelous time touring the orphanage but the best part was that Tatiana had been able to get a hold of Vika and Thomas’ grandparents and arrange for us to visit them. What was even better is that their great grandmother is still alive and she is the one who cared for them as babies. We set off for the village of Zorivka which is where Thomas and Vika lived before going to the orphanage. It also is where Vika was born.

(In the farthest picture up on the right is from 2005 in the director's office-Tatiana is on the far left-with all the people it took to do paperwork for Thomas' adoption. In the photo below that is in front of the orphanage today with our interpretor Luba standing to the right of Tami and Thomas' orphanage director Tatiana to the right of her. The others are staff at the orpanage. The next photo down is Luba on the left as we sit in the director's office again today.) It took about 45 minutes on rough roads to reach the village and Thomas recognized a few places as we entered the town including a swimming lake and a fishing pond he used to visit with his grandpa. We also passed a cattle farm where Thomas and his grandmother would work together and where Thomas had a pile of cow poop dumped on his head at the processing plant! This is a memory he would just as soon forget! The village is very primitive and there is much poverty in the area. Livestock wanders freely and many people can be seen with goats and cattle walking along the road. There are much more bicycles than cars. Our translator for this day and tomorrow is Luba and she shared with us that many of these villages have suffered in the change of governments over the last 30 years. The rural villages used to produce much more food and be much more full of life and vitality than they do now. It sounds a lot like the United States and how much of the population and economic vitality has shifted from the countryside into the cities and suburbs.

After stopping to ask several locals we arrived at Thomas and Vika’s grandparent’s home. I cannot even begin to describe the power of the emotions for all of us. Even our translator was weeping as the grandparents embraced the children and wept because they were so happy to see them. They also embraced us and thanked us for taking care of their grandchildren. They also were able to bring the great grandmother out of the house and she clung to both of the kids, holding Vika on her lap and kissing her and stroking her face. She kept telling us that both the kids were too skinny and we needed to feed them more! She also asked if we had a cow so we could give them fresh milk every day! (Below left is Vika with her Great Grandma and below right is Thomas hugging her with their Grandmother the one standing in the green.)

Also present was the kids’ middle uncle Slavic and his daughter Viktoria who is Vika’s age and has the same name. It was fun for the kids to meet another cousin. We also were able to meet Vika’s godmother and some neighbors who all remembered the kids and were eager to embrace them. Tami and I had been worried how the family would respond to us but they seemed genuinely thankful that we were parents for Thomas and Vika. The family even found some photos to give us of Thomas as a baby, along with a wedding picture of Thomas’ parents. Thomas’ father died when he was two and so it was good to get a picture of him. We were not able to find out any information about Vika’s father. (Below right is a family photo with Grandfather, Thomas, Uncle Slavic and Grandmother from left to right in the back. In the front is Vika and Viktoria. Below that is Thomas shaking hands with his grandfather and his grandmother is standing at right.)

We did discover that Thomas and Vika’s mother died in 2008 and the family took us to her grave to pay our last respects to her. (That is the picture below.) It was hard, but good for us to go. Out of respect for the kids I will not share much more about the rest of this visit as it was very personal for them and emotional. I think both the kids have much stronger connection to their heritage and we were able to get phone numbers and email addresses or addresses for most of the family and other we met today. This will enable us to send pictures back to them and do our best to keep in touch. We also got a phone number of the kids’ uncle in Kiev and hope to see him before we leave the country on July 6.

Thomas’ orphanage director accompanied us to the village which was very helpful and we will forever be grateful to Tatiana for making this part of our trip so meaningful. We dropped her off back at the orphanage before heading into Cherkassy where we stayed in the Hotel Dniepro. Tami and Vika stayed in the room and actually went t bed early while Thomas and I joined Boris (he will be our driver for our entire stay in the Kiev/Cherkassy region) and our translator Luba. Luba has been doing translating for tours for over 30 years and she said she has never been a part of day like this. You could tell the experience wiped her out as well as us! We debriefed a bit over dinner before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Thomas had a rough time getting to sleep after all the excitement for the day and stayed up and did some good processing about our day. Tomorrow we go to Vika’s orphanage for another day that is sure to be emotional and full of powerful memories.