The Computer Is Fixed!!!!!

Kari:
Many have called and asked how Ashley is doing. Since she got to Kiev, Jim says that she has not wavered and is ready to come to Colorado. I think the hardest part for her was saying goodbye to her girlfriends. We have told her she has lots of girlfriends already waiting for her in Colorado, Tatum, Allie, Stephanie, Abigail, Jocelyn, Jill......Tatum and her friends were great when Olga was here this summer, and I know they will help Ashley feel welcome and a part of their group. And she also has some Ukrainian/American girlfriends waiting for her, Nadia, Julia, Anya, Mari. All of these girls were adopted within the past six months. I can't wait for her to meet all of these sweet young ladies!


Jim (with the long version):

I woke up this morning and the first thing that popped into my head was that I should be on a flight home right now! I was optimistic, though, that the computer was back in Kherson and our paperwork would be moving again. Oksana called at 8:30 to let me know that she was told the computer “had to be in Kherson today – it’s 99% certain”, and that she’d call me at 5:00pm with an update. Right at 5 she did call and gave me the good news that the computer was in fact in Kherson. Our files have also been electronically transmitted back to Kiev, and that they expected the Passports to be back in Kherson to receive their “Kherson Region” stamp on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. I also talked to Valentine today and we’re going to take our documents into the Consulate office on Monday. He said that “Washington” needs to do some background checks on the kids for various reasons and that it will take a day, and that they can’t start until they get the passports because they need the photo. But I’m hoping they can do that early since we’re bringing the docs in early. We also have extra copies of their passport photos with me, so I think we should be able to get our visas the same day our passports arrive in Kiev. I was filling in Leslie on all of this and Ashley must have picked up on it because she was staring intently at us so I included her in the conversation and Leslie translated. Her only question was “When do we go to America?” I told her probably next Friday, but maybe Thursday. She was happy with that. She’s really enjoyed her time here with Eunice, Kevin and Leslie. She laughs a lot, and loves playing games and taunting everyone (in a fun way.) I think this visit has helped her get even more excited about her new life. She’s lived with a bunch of Americans for a week now and has had a lot of fun.

This morning we all went over to help Leslie move some boxes into her new apartment, and we took some things she was storing here as well. She’s a missionary who works with kids so she has a ton of games/activities/materials for her to use to interact with them. We brought in a bunch today, and there are even more lined up for tomorrow. I was very happy to be able to help her set up her Vonage and wifi – I got my computer geek fix for the week. We went to lunch at a Ukrainian café with Leslie and Eunice, then back to Eunice’s. I did a little work in the afternoon while the kids watched Scooby Doo (the movie). It cracked me up listening to Ashley singing, “Scooby Doobie Doo, where are you?” Both her and Josh were laughing their heads off during the movie.

We are working on lining up someone to give the kids English lessons next week for a couple of hours during the day. Eunice has two people who said they could do it.

After dinner we went to Eunice’s church for game night. Josh made sure we brought “Pit”. We played that most of the night with two kids from America who have been here 3 years. They are brother and sister, 7 year old boy, and I’m guessing 6 year old girl. She had beautiful long red curly hair and Ashley kept stroking it several times while we were there. One time Ashley decided she wanted to sit out for awhile, so we told this little girl to give Ashley ‘the look’ to make her keep playing. She gave Ashley her best puppy dog look and begged her to keep playing. It worked! Josh was kind of quiet at first, but soon he and the boy were off playing together, then they came back and wanted to play Pit as a team. They had a good strategy going and won a few hands. Then they played hide and seek. This boy’s mom told him that this was a good chance for him to practice his Russian, but he just said, “No, he can understand my English.” When we got back to Eunice’s, both kids were hungry so we had some meat, bread, cheese and bananas before going to bed.

Josh’s tooth bothered him a little in the afternoon and tonight, but nothing an ibuprofen couldn’t take care of. I’m really glad we took him to the dentist here.

I also talked to Rolan today and was glad to hear about Tanya.

Tomorrow we will help Leslie move, and that’s all I have planned for now.