Update for the end of April

Hello everyone!
I apoligize for not posting anymore. Right after my last post, we got incredibly busy running around doing the last of the paperwork before we could take Sara out of the orphanage. We didn't have time to go to the internet cafe. When we finally got home to Canada, our computer was down for a week.
About 4 days before we took her out of the orphanage, we had to take her out for a passport picture. This was her first time in the "masheena" (car). You could tell she was a little worried . As we climbed into the car she scrambled onto my lap. She began to wimper alittle and our facilitator, Alexander talked to her and assured her everything is alright. He was great with her and a big help many times. As we bumped along the road, her eyes became saucers. She looked around at all the people and cars in amazement! We all had fun watching her. When we entered the photo place she began to cry. I think she is scared of doctors because everytime she saw someone in a white lab-coat she'd cry. I think she thought she was at a hospital. Again, Alexander talked to her and calmed her down and we got great pass-port pictures. We also had to do some shopping for her. We bought her some clothing , a couple of pair of shoes and an umbrella stroller. I had brought some clothes from home and I always seemed to be drawn to size 2 or 3yrs. Which is what I brought!! It was totally meant to be! She is exactly the size of a normal 3 yr old. She is not behind in weight or size at all. I also prepared gifts for all the caregivers. Alex suggested money instead because they appreciate this very much. I had brought lots of little thankyou cards and wrote "Thankyou for everything", in cyrillic. They appreciated this very much. A couple of days before we took Sara out, we had missed our morning visit because we were trying to obtain her new birth certificate. We later found out that Sara had a tantrum, screaming, "Where is mamma & papa?!! I want mamma & papa!!!!". She had been waiting for us to arrive. At this point she has definitely attached to Papa first. She sometimes pushes me away. Philip felt very bad for me. When she does this, Papa scolds her by telling her ,"No Nastya! Mamma cry! and then she will come and give me a hug. But sometimes I could tell that she was doing it so she would not disappoint Papa. It hurt alittle, but I understand that she can only attach to one person at a time. Right now it's Philip. Plus, this is exactly what I had prayed for before. That our child would attach to him first. I was afraid he would take it to personally if she pushed him away for to long. He doesn't have my tremendous patience and optimism. I'm very happy that she attached to him first. He is loving every minute of it and can't understand why she is so attached to him so much and not me.
We had also gone to the travel agency to book airline tickets with "aerosvit airlines". We were to board the plane in Donestk and fly for 1 hour to Kiev. We were to leave on Saturday evening at 8 pm.On Friday afternoon, we visited with the Orphanage Director. We brought her the orphanage donation and a gift for her. She thanked us many times. We had a small conversation and I complimented her on a well-run and beautiful orphanage. She gave us the pictures she promised to give to us. Those were the pictures we saw of her just before we met her in the office. We had did this instead of tommorrow because she would not be in on Saturday. This was Easter weekend here. We had our Easter the week before. We would be picking Sara up the day before the Ukranian Orthodox Easter. Alex had told us that Sara's name Anastasia, means "resurection". So its seems so appropriate to leave on this day. On Friday evening Philip and I were busy packing all our suitcases as much as we could, as we knew the next day would be very busy. The next day we would be finally taking Sara out of the orphanage!! WOOHOO!!! I picked out an adorable mint green dress with pink and purple felt flowers on it. I had a pink Winnie-the-Pooh spring jacket and a white embroidered hat with silk ribbons running through it. It was complete with pink leather "mary-jane" shoes.
On Saturday April 22, 2006 we first went to the passport office to pick up your new passport at 11 am. We then went to the grocery store to pick-up a bag full of lolli-pops for Sara's groupa. We had already given them 3 bags of necessities ( clothing, tooth-brushes, socks, toys, band-aids, gummi-bears and girls hair accessories) during our many visits and we wanted to give them one last treat. I will never forget the many times they screamed, Mamma mamma!!! when we would arrive on a visit or the hugs I got and their little faces looking out from behind the second-floor windows as we got out of the car. They were all beautiful and healthy little boys and girls. We finally arrived at the orphanage just after 12pm. The caregivers said you had just eaten lunch. One of them suddenly brought her out into the childrens "dressing-room", in her arms naked. We are not allowed to bring any of there clothes. She began to dress her as I passed her the clothes, one by one. When Sara was all dressed they said she looked like a doll and Sara insisted on looking in a mirror! Before we left I asked them some questions about her schedule and Alex translated for me. They also gave me the booklet that we had left for them to write farewell messages to Sara. Some of them also wrote down their address's. Now it was time to say good-bye, so I took some last pictures of her bed and where she ate etc. They were all saying their good-byes to Sara and a few of them were crying which made me cry too. It was a very touching moment that I will never forget. We are very very grateful that Sara was so well taken care of and so loved. Afterwards we went to our favourite restaurant, "Silvers" for one last time. This was Sara's first time in a restaurant. She started to cry alittle as we entered but Alex explained where we were and she relaxed. She ate some fresh veggies, apple-juice and bread. She was great. She was quite amused at how the waiter kept appearing with plates of food! When we got to our apartment she went exploring while one of us took turns watching her and finishing packing. Sara just loved flushing the toilet and turning the lights on&off! Next thing you know our driver Leo arrived and the boys were loading up the car. We told Sara it was time to go bye-bye and she ran to grab your jacket. We had a 2 hour car drive to Donestk. Sara was restless in the car and also slept part of the way. When we arrived Leo and I exchanged addresses. We had become good friends and we were very sad to say goodbye. We were all in tears as we hugged. We will never forget him. He really did take good care of us out of the goodness of his heart. I hope he knows that he helped make our trip wonderful.
Now it was just me, Philip, Sara and Alex waiting in the airport. Sara was exhausted and restless. All she wanted was Papa. She cried on the plane and slept for 20 min. The driver that drove us to Lugansk was waiting for us in Kiev. By this time it was late at night. He drove us to our apartment that Sasha had booked for us. We had to walk up 6 flights of stairs. Sara was passed right out and I put her right to bed. We were all exhausted. Alex stayed the night and explained that the next day he would be translating all the paperwork for us. Philip & I didn't sleep very much because it was our first time with Sara inbetween us. We had a great first day together. In the afternoon Sara had a nap. When she woke up, Philip, Sara and I and Alex went to a restaurant and then we walked down the Main St. of Kiev. They block off this street every Sat. & Sun. Lots of people walk and have a nice "leisure-time". There are also some musicians and exotic animals to take pictures with. Philip, Sara & I had our pictures taken with 3 little monkeys. Sara just loved it! Sasha had also come to visit before we went out.
That evening we said our goodbyes with Alex. He was leaving to be with family. Although he said he would like to come and see us before we left. He made such a difference in our stay in Lugansk. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! We are really going to miss him.
On Wednesday we were with Sasha all day. First we went to visit the Canadian Embassy. We had to finish filling out the Sponsorship papers and papers for Sara's visa. A picture is needed for this and we had to get Sara's picture edited to a pure white background because it was beige. After Philip & I signed some papers, we were told to come back at 4pm and everything would be ready. While we waited we went to a near-by fancy restaurant. Philip had to help feed Sara and keep her busy. All she wants is Papa. I finally sat back and laughed. I said to Philip, "Now you know what I went through with our 3 kids at home, when they were little. All they wanted was mamma, mamma, mamma!! Philip's response was," Ya, but I don't have as much patience as you!" He said this with exasperation! Oh well! I said, laughing. Afterwards we finally received Sara's visa that needs to be signed infront of an immigration officer at the airport in Canada. This means we could have come home any time. We arrived in Kiev on March 27th. We found Sara at the NAC on the 28th. We met her on March 31st. We went to court on April 11th. We took her out of the orphanage on April 22nd. We received her visa on Wed. April 26th. The whole process took 4 weeks and 3 days. WOW! Thats pretty good actually. We ended up leaving on Sun. April 30th. On the Friday night before we left, we had dinner with Sasha at the italian restaurant we went to everyday. Its attached to T.G.I Fridays. We like it alot better. Food is great, english menus and the waiters speak english. We had a nice dinner and one of the other facilitators joined us. He came with us to our apartment and we gave him a gift in appreciation for all he had done for us. Thanks to him we have our Sara today! We hugged each other goodbye. We are so glad Sasha was our facilitator. He seems to be very well connected in the NAC.
During the week we were getting the opportunity to bond with Sara. We have been calling her Sara-Nastya alot. She repeats "Sara" all the time. She hadn't been eating to much because she has a runny nose and a cough. Plus this must be overwhelming for her. She likes to eat bananas, peach yogurt, tea biscuits or animal crackers, bread, apples, sweet tea, cucumbers and soup. I haven't figured out how she likes her kasha (oatmeal). She is also learning some english words very quickly. Philip has also, sort of, stepped aside alittle, so Sara & I can have some bonding time together. He doesn't want it to be too hard on her when we get home because I will be the one at home all the time. By the end of the week she wasn't pushing me away hardly at all. We had alot of fun together. Especially when I mention the bath. She loves it!On the first bath, she couldn't whip her clothes off faster! She was like a fish in the water! It was great! We also got in contact with the lady from Ottawa, Canada a few times on the phone. We had a very pleasant time with her and her sister on the first couple of days in Ukraine.She had adopted alittle boy from Kiev. She was accompanied by her sister on her journey. We decided to meet at T.G.I. Friday's and spend the afternoon together. We were dying to meet each others children!
I will tell you all about our meeting and our flight to Toronto, Canada on my next post!
Take care all!!