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.