Meet Eli....

Here is our little guy.... again, he doesn't like getting his picture yet, but as soon as he can understand English and we can bribe him like we do Jake then I am sure his attitude toward the camera will change ;)

So... is he not ADORABLE!!!! can't wait for you all to meet him in person... but be forwarned, he is a little shy at first, but once he gets past that he is all personality!

We will keep this one short, I want to make sure the pictures get loaded... we are back in Kiev until tomorrow, we will go get our plane tickets tomorrow and then head back to Preluky for one more night... we should be taking him out of the orphanage on Tuesday, then coming right back to Kiev... our plans are to fly home on Friday! we will arrive late on Friday night---- (for a while we thought we might be able to get out of here on Thursday, but there are NO flights leaving on Thursday, can you believe that!) Anyway, we are excited to be in our last few days... now we are off to Fridays again!!!! Chicken fingers and honey mustard here I come!

One week and counting!

First off, Mom you had us all rolling, if you didn't read my mom's comment on the last blog post you have to... it is hysterical... actually Kenny and I were thinking about souveniers and we thought we didn't need to buy you one, that we would just let you have Eli for a month... isn't a new grandson enough of a souvenier???? imagine a month with a 4 year old has to be easier than a month with an 8 year old!!!!

So, today we visited our little guy again, and let me tell you- he really is all about testing his freedom with us... when the room "mamas" are around he is all business, doing exactly what he is told... minding, behaving, when he gets us alone, he is a holy terror! Galya even taught us to say "Mama scazala..." like in Mama says no, or mama says come here... it is suppossed to be very intimidating... well not so much, he just turns and laughs and goes right back to what he is doing... yep, we have a little handful here... We gave him a granola bar for the first time today, he loved that, and he can't get enough of the juice boxes, he literally starts drinking and doesn't stop until it is all gone. We also tried on some of the clothes we bought him today, he got so excited, and didn't want to take them off, maybe he really doesn't like wearing Minnie Mouse clothing! We will visit Eli again tomorrow morning and then we are headed back to Kiev for the rest of Saturday and Sunday, we will return her to Preluky on Monday for hopefully just one more night... if all goes well Monday and Tuesday we will be able to take him from the orphanage for good on Tuesday night and head back to Kiev!

Last night we taught Galya how to play Sequence, and after a few games she really got the hang of it, actually too well, she beat us both 3 in a row! Beginners Luck! Then we started in with the Sopranos---- we had some difficulty with the season 1 disc so we ended up skipping to season 2... intense show! we have that on the agenda again for tonight!

We haven't commented much on the Ukrainian lifestyle... a few things that we have noticed. First, everyone eats icecream ALL THE TIME. I mean at any point there are 20 people on the street eating icecream, doesn't matter if it is 8 am or 8 pm... it is all the time... the same goes for drinking beer... come to think of it Angie and Todd would fit right in here, people are short and drink beer all the time (Love you guys!) However Angie's fashion taste- you know the sweatpants!!!! would certainly not fit in here... the women are dressed up ALL THE TIME... we were told to dress simply so not to bring attention to ourselves, well dressing simply does bring attention to us... the women of all ages are seriously dressed as if they were headed to a night club.... the more clevage the better, this includes the children, pre teens and teenagers! and the heels!!!! wow! and they walk EVERWHERE in 3 or 4 inch heels with straps going half way up their legs! Oh, also, it is not important at all for your clothes to match... they rarely do, and that isn't just in the orphanage, and for the hair, well Kenny swears there was a clearance sale on Clairol Pink hair color, since almost every hair style has a bit of pink in it! As for the guys it is all about the Adidas and Nike shirts, the tighter the better, and sandals with SOCKS! yep, have to wear the socks with the sandals! Shorts are very rare... and Dolce and Gabana is the choice knock off designer brand for everyone! Yep, Kenny and I stick out like crazy as the American Tourists! And another thing... driving, you know street signs, lines on the road, stop lights are all just "suggestions" you can really do whatever you want, even drive and park on the sidewalks! Pedestrians don't get angry, they just get out of the way! And the bike riders, seriously, not sure how they stay on the bikes... the drivers whiz by them within inches going 50mph or more and they don't even wobble... me, I would be lying flat on the road! And the dogs and cats, they just roam around everywhere, they know to get out of the way of cars too... Kenny swears he saw a bobcat walking the streets yesterday, I didn't see it, but I actually believe that he saw it!

Well that is it for today... a few business things... Paige- so excited about the primary color dump trucks!!!!!! exactly the look I was hoping for ;) no really, we sent you and mom and Beaven some emails... if you don't get them please call us tomorrow at the apartment in Kiev or at the other number I gave Dad, we might need some help with our plane tickets, it seems as if some of our emails aren't getting through... and tell Clay we are so excited he got a hit!

Again, all our love, we miss you all.. can't wait to be home!

Oh- one final note... Eli learned to say Jake!!!!! :) and he can point him out in the pictures! Jake your little brother can't wait to meet you!


Kenny and Shannon

Real quick post tonight

sorry, we were late getting to the internet cafe and only have a few minutes left... we spent most of our time again trying to get a picture to you all, we have tried emailing it to both mom and Paige, hopefully they will get it and can share. We bought Eli a few things to wear today when he gets to leave the orphanage, not much of a selection here, really doesn't fit in with my Gap and Abercrombie taste ;)

Other than that last night Kenny and I took up our Rummy game again and guess who is in the lead now... yep that is right!!!! I have taken control... I made it to 2000 first, he doesn't believe me when I said we were playing 2000 Rummy. And then we watched Napoleon Dynamite... OK, who thought this movie was good???? we just kept waiting for there to be a plot... oh well, hopefully our movie choice will be better tonight, OK, only a few more seconds... got to go, love you all and will type more tomorrow!

Kenny and Shannon

Oh well...

we have been trying for the last 1/2 hour to get a picture loaded on here, unfortunately the picture is too large and the computer doesn't have any photo editing software for us to resize it... at least not that we can figure out in russian!

Today we were able to take Eli on a short trip to get his passport picture taken... he was so concentrating on sitting still like the photographer said that he wouldn't smile... but he looked cute anyway!

Other than that we had a good visit with him, however he is getting more and more upset every time we have to leave him there, he is ready to be gone, as are we!

Beaven- Kenny says that he is sorry he missed your dress fitting ;)

And as for what superhero he likes, right now it appears he likes Minnie Mouse and Flowers since he is often dressed in girls clothes... as I said, no gender specific clothing at this place!

We tried out a new resteraunt today, it was really nice... you would have never known it from the street... they had the best garlic rolls... better than any I have tasted in the US...

Last night I finished my book... wish I had the sequel to read right now, and Kenny watched Caddy Shack... We also took a nice long walk... we also stopped by the grocery and found Kenny some Nutella to eat and me some bread and cheese, so that was dinner for last night...

One other bit of good news, Galya's trip yesterday went great and it appears we are on schedule to get out of here next Friday... that means we are in the single digits of nights left to stay in the Ukraine... we can't wait!!!!! and less than a week until we are able to take him from the orphanage for good!

That's it for now, we are going to go back to playing with the pictures to see how we might be able to get them to you all.

All our Love,
Kenny and Shannon

All by ourselves!!!!

So today has been a pretty memorable day... we actually made it through the day all alone without our translator who had to go out of town to work on some paperwork. We slept in and grabbed a cab to the orphanage at about 10:30 where after about 10 minutes we were able to find Eli and his group out on a walk... Shana --- in answer to your question... Eli is in a group of about 12 children, all of which are boys except for 2... he is in the youngest group in this home... I think they start taking children at this home after they turn 4... I would have imagined if we wouldn't have come along that in the next few months he would have moved up to the next group.... It looks as if they have kids up until about 7 or 8 at this home... and yes the girls all wear really big bows in their hair! So, after we found Eli we did some more bubble blowing, coloring and walking, except today Eli just wanted us to carry him, he wasn't much in the walking mood... Oh, and we can't forget the snacks... he loves when we bring him snacks... today it was some fruit snacks, some grape juice, which when he finished he kept putting the straw in and out to lick off any last drop he could... oh, and some raisins... the kid loves raisins! After that we were able to get a cab back to the center of town to the resteraunt we normally eat out... we were able to order- well since the same waitress has waited on us the previous 5 times we have eaten there it wasn't very hard... we were able to say spaghetti et serum (which is spaghetti noodles with a little cheese sprinkled on it) and fries... which you say... frees.... oh, and a coca-cola light for me, which is diet coke... after that we headed back to the sanctuary of our room where Kenny did some work for a few hours and I started reading the book "Size 12 isn't Fat" that Beaven gave me... about 1/2 way done with it now... really fun good read! Then we decided to venture out to the internet cafe all by ourselves and were able to get set up no problems... I think we are starting to get accustomed to the Ukraine, only took us 2 weeks! Not that we want to stay here any longer than we have to :)

And... we were feeling a little bad for calling you all slackers but man, glad we did, you all came through... loved reading all the comments... bummer about the 5/6 girls losing in the championship--- but congrats on making it that far! and cracked me up what Jake was going to say in church... the people in the cafe started looking at me I was laughing so loud... oh and Mason- we haven't seen your friend, but if we do we will surely tell him hi for you! And... as for clothes, are apartment in Kiev has a washer so we lucked out in that department, we have done laundry 2x... otherwise we would have been out of options on how to wear things!

As for pictures, of course I have taken a ton... but no way to download them to the computer, but we have another idea, hopefully this weekend we can get them to a developer in Kiev, get them printed then scanned and posted... it is worth a shot, you all need to see how cute this little guy is! Speaking of pictures, either tomorrow or Thursday we will probably be taking him to get his passport picture taken, he will love that because it means another ride in a car outside of the orphanage!

That's all for today... again, we love and miss everyone dearly... looks like around 10 days and counting!!!!! We'd love to make it home for the first Red Sox tourney game next weekend!

All our Love, Kenny and Shannon

Slackers!

Only 9 comments, here we were so excited to be able to get to the computer 2 days in a row and we open up the blog with only 9 comments to read :) Do you know how desperate we are for American interaction! We get so excited when the commercials come on for the French Open because they are in English!!!! and then when an American Video comes on on MTV... Jake- we saw the Fergie video today and thought of you---- Yep, Jake has a bit of a crush on Fergie! Daddy says he has good taste!

So we have officially moved to Preluky for the next 5 days... we will most likely go back to Kiev for the weekend. We like our hotel room, it has an air conditioner which is a rarity that actually blows cold air! and it has a small refrigerator and a big bathroom... we are living it up now!

After getting moved in we took a walk, got aquainted with the area... we are just 1.5 blocks from a very small internet cafe... so we will hopefully be able to get on every day for the next few days to check in.... They only have 2 internet computers though, so no guarantees... the rest of the computers are used by a bunch of pre teen and teen age boys playing games!

We had our first afternoon visit with Eli today... it was cooler here and he had on some cute cords and a nice Minnie Mouse Sweatshirt ;) They aren't really concerned with gender specific clothes around here! We had brought him some bubbles and he enjoyed chasing them and popping them and then blowing them for daddy to pop as well! We also did some more coloring and just a lot of walking, he kept on trying to get us to walk him out of the orphanage- I think he is ready to leave- just like us! Leaving today was harder than normal, he really got upset... but we just keep on telling him we will be back tomorrow. We are on the down hill slide now... by our calculations we have been here longer than we have left to stay! Eager to get it down to single digit days!

And finally- we finished Season 2 of Entourage last night---- we looked around some DVD shops in Kiev to see if they had Season 3... but no luck! Oh, and I am sure Kenny would like you all to know that he is currently kicking my rear in Rummy... and last night when we played Sequence with the Anezskos him and Jim beat Iris and I 7 games to 1.... Kenny was cheating! (he said I should take that off of here, but I am not going to cause he was!) Tonight I think we might start watching the Sopranos... we got a lot of nights to fill.

Well---- now it is your turn, tell us what is going on back at home! We will check back in often... Miss everyone...

All our Love
Kenny and Shannon

The BEST day yet!

Yep, that was yesterday for so many reasons!

First off it was my Nannie's Birthday! I am so sad I wasn't able to be there for her party! Missed you and thought of you often yesterday, sorry I wasn't able to get through to you by phone!

We visited Eli yesterday morning for about an hour and a half and it was by far our best visit yet... when we arrived he was already outside playing with his group... imagine, 13 - 4 year olds running around outside in just shoes, socks, underwear and a hat... Clay would have loved to hang out with this group! He saw us and caught me off guard when he didn't come right to us, but instead was more focused on telling his caregiver that he was leaving with us... so I am thinking he likes to follow the rules- that is a good thing. We took him to another outside area of the orphanage where there was a bench/table (well it worked for that purpose) and we pulled out the coloring book and crayons that we had purchased for him and they were a huge HIT... he is still a scribbler but he does hold the crayon correctly and would try to color near the lines! He also purposely changed colors... not that he was coloring anything the right color, but he knew without a doubt when he wanted a new one. About 30 minutes into our visit the other couple from Louisville who are adopting from the same orphanage walked by with their son... we were all able to play together for the rest of the visit... we threw ball a bit, Eli took more of an interest in the ball than he had in the past and even improved his throwing arm... initially when he threw he would have his hand behind his head so when he released it would hit him in the back of the head and bounce off, good thing it was a soft ball.... Speaking of ball--- Jake- Mommy and Daddy are proud of you for making the Champions team- can't wait to get back home and watch you play again! So as our visit came to an end I always get anxious to see how Eli is going to react, he often goes into shut down mode .... but as Tonya (the interpreter with us) explained to him that we would be back on Monday he started to get sad and she told him to give us hugs and kisses goodbye and he ran to me and gave me the BIGGEST hug I have gotten from him yet, it was so full of LOVE... Kenny and I were both so encouraged to see that...

When we arrived back in Kiev we took some time to relax and watched the Italian Job movie... they had a funny one liner in the movie about not messing with the Ukrainians! and then we played a game of Rummy- Kenny currently is kicking my tail! and finally made plans to go to downtown Kiev with another couple the (forgive me ahead of time I am going to butcher the spelling of their last name) Anesko's... they are in the final days of adopting Max- a precious 2 year old who we have gotten to share a flat with for the last 2 days...we went to FRIDAYS and it was REAL American food! We had the works, appetizer, dinner and desert... such a nice treat... menus in English, potato skins and real chicken fingers... and then once back at the flat and with Max down for bed we watched Bruce Almighty... a fun flick!

But we had one more treat for the night... Kenny and I set our alarm to get up at 2am to call home... there were several people over at our house working on Eli's room... so fun to talk to so many people...we can't thank you enough for doing this for us... we are sure Eli is going to love his new home and what you all have put together for him! What a FUN surprise it will be for all of us! Kenny and I have talked over and over again about how lucky we are... we have the best family and friends any two people could ever hope for. Thanks for all your support... we so look forward to getting to the internet to be able to read the emails and comments on this blog, it becomes the hilight of our days! so keep them coming ;)

Tomorrow we may be moving to Pryluky for 5 or 6 days... so that we can visit Eli every day until we get to take him with us for good! We will keep you posted! Miss everyone

All our Love,
Shannon and Kenny