8 Month Update

In case anyone is still following I thought I would post some updated pictures and let everyone know that things are GREAT as a family of four.
September has been a whole month of adjustments. Kallie has started Daycare and she would rather not be there but once she is there she seems to do alright. Kaiden has started grade one and thus far he enjoys it. I am teaching grade one full time and I enjoy my days but I am VERY busy. Kaiden and I are at the same school now (different classrooms of course) and I love being at school with him everyday. Darryl continues to work shift work and my comment about that is we all LOVE his 4 days off. I have no comment about the 4 days/nights that he works. lol!
We have had Kallie through all the doctor appointments, tests, immunizations, etc. and everything is great! Her speech has developed amazingly well. Our daycare worker cannot believe how well she talks. We are still going to have her speech assessed later in the year. Kallie is still on the small side but nothing that is alarming. Today she is 27 months old and weighs around 26 pounds and is wearing about a size 2 for clothes. Her feet are the smallest. Her foot is only a size 4. Isn't the saying "great things come in small packages!"
For those who don't know, we moved into a different neighborhood in June. It was a crazy month but now everyone is settled and it was worth the work.
Kaiden is currently in swimming lessons and in hockey which keeps our evening/weekends busy too.
Well enjoy the pictures. They were taken in April and we have another picture appointment in two weeks. I thought I'd better share these ones before the next ones are taken.

God Bless,

The Decks

Back In Canada!

We're home and we're loving it!

Our flights were on schedule and the travelling was a good as could be expected. Having to spend the night in Toronto worked out to be a good thing as everyone stretched, bathed, and slept for awhile.
Kallie was a pretty good traveller. She slept for a bit on each plane and was easily entertained. On the two Air Canada flights we told the flight attendants that we had just adopted Kallie and were heading home and they were very good to us and her.
Landing in Saskatoon was the best feeling ever! It is hard to use words to describe how excited, happy, anxious, relieved, and loved we felt. We were welcomed home by many family members and friends. Thanks to everyone who took the time to come to the airport!
The first few days have been great. Kallie sleeping schedule adjusted the quickest. She naps for about 2 hours in the afternoon and sleeps for 12 hours during the night. We consider ourselves quite lucky that she is such a terrific sleeper. Our challenges are more with the food. She doesn't seem to care for the milk or bread here. Our meals don't appeal to her she would rather eat baby food. It is getting better as the days pass but we are hoping that soon she will prefer to eat the same food as us. Now that we have real bath toys and a light in the bathroom her baths are more enjoyable. She realized yesterday that she can 'scoot' around in the tub and get to the toys at the other end, she was very impressed with herself. Today there weren't even tears at bath time.
Kaiden hasn't been able to adjust as quick. The first morning he was up at 4:30, the second morning he woke up at 5, this morning was just before 7. Slowly we think his body is getting back to Saskatoon time.
Since we were pleasantly surprised to get a GIRL that was 18 months old we weren't really ready at home. Thanks to our fantastic family Kallie came home to some age appropriate toys and some very cute clothes. We truly feel blessed!
Our few days at home have gone so well that we've had some of our family visit. Grandma (My Mom) and Grandpa (Darryl's dad) were big hits for Kallie right away. What is it about grandparents???? We have had a few Aunties and Uncles and throughout the week we hope to get the rest of the family here to visit.
Kaiden has been anxiously waiting to play with his cousins. Today his Auntie took him for about 6 hours so that he could play with his cousins. He had a blast!
Well since leaving for Ukraine in mid December our lives have done a complete circle. We are now home and a family of four. We want to thank EVERYONE for following our blog/adoption journey. Now that we are home we have completed one chapter of our lives only to begin another. Thanks again for all the support! God Bless!

Love,

Darryl, Jeremy, Kaiden, and Kallie

WE"RE COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!

Hello All!

It is official!

We are coming home to Canada!

After a few errands today, we have the passport and visa in our hands. This means only 1 more sleep here, 1 more bath here, 1 more supper here, and the list goes on.
We find it difficult to use words that would accurately express how excited we are to be coming home. We left home 59 days ago with the anticipation of adopting a second child. Yes, we've had some trying times, but the addition to our family makes it all worth while.

We have met 3 couples here that are from Canada who are adopting children. The one couple from P.E.I became our friends, and we still have contact with them. Another couple we met at the SDA and have e-mailed a few times and followed each other's blogs. The last couple we met at the SDA as well, and they are flying back to Canada with us tomorrow. Interesting how life works, eh?

As most of you already know, once we arrive home Kallie needs some time to get adjusted before we are bombarded with visitors. As much as Darryl, Kaiden, and I want to get caught up with everyone, Kallie needs some adjustment time. We believe that she will do quite well, and that we will be able to have a few visitors our first week home. Please don't be offended we miss all of you, but Kallie needs some time. Of course the airport is a different story.

Here is how the next day and a half looks for us. We have changed everything to Saskatoon time. At 3:00 a.m. on Friday the driver will pick us up to go to the airport. Then at 6:00 a.m. we leave Kiev and head to Frankfurt, Germany. We have 70 minutes from the time one plane lands and the next one takes off . At 10:00 a.m. we leave Frankfurt for Toronto! We land on Canadian soil in Toronto at 7:00 p.m. Friday evening. We then will go through Immigration and Customs since we have a 12 hour lay over and are heading to the Airport Hotel. Finally at 7:10 a.m. on Saturday we leave Toronto and head to Saskatoon. We will be arriving home shortly before 11:00 a.m. (That's ONLY 50 hours away!!!!!)

We want to THANK YOU ALL for praying with us through this journey. We believe God's hand took us through everyday, and we pray God's blessing on all of you.

We will post again once we are home and awake.

Enjoy some pics of our last days!

LOVE,

Kaiden, Kallie, Darryl, & Jeremy





Kallie after her bath.



Kallie dancing on the table.



Kids are in the famous hiding spot.



Kaiden pushing the stroller on the way to the grocery store (this is at 10 a.m.)

One Big Step Closer To Home!

Hello Everyone,

We are very happy to tell you that Kallie's passport has arrived! Yes everything is going according to our plan. Thank You for all the prayers!
Later today we are going to a travel agent here to print our e-tickets and buy Kallie's plane ticket.
Tomorrow we will go to the Canadian Embassy and get Kallie's visa. The people here are very confident that we are flying out on Friday. Until we have the papers/tickets in our hands, we are still a bit skeptical. Of course, we are thinking postively!
We believe that we will depart Kiev Friday afternoon and land in Saskatoon Saturday morning. We have on overnight in Toronto. Tomorrow we will post some details on our flights.
As for out time in Kiev, we are all doing well. We are Skyping our family regularly and trying to keep the kids on schedule. Kaiden is adjusting well. He has only been frustrated with his little sister a few times. He is looking forward to playing hockey and going to school. It is very nice that he will have the February Break to get re-adjusted to life.
Kallie is doing exceptionally well in our family. We have learned that she can understand us quite well. Her baths are getting better. Today she was in the tub for about an hour with very few tears. She likes to play with the empty plastic bottles and we introduced bubbles. She is still leary at first but definatley getting more comfortable. We are ruining her great habits already. After her being laid down and falling asleep by herself for a few days I (Jeremy) decided that maybe I should try rocking her to sleep. Well, wouldn't you know it, now she likes to be rocked. Oh well! I am catching up on the 18 months that I missed!
The stroller rides are good too. She actually fell asleep in it yesterday while we were out.
When it comes to being a 'Daddy's Girl' she already has that fiqured out too! Smart Girl! One of her favourite things is when Daddy reads her 'Old MacDonald Had A Farm.'
The only downfall at this point is the STINKY diapers! Yes, this is a new experience for us because Kaiden was already trained when we adopted him. I know that several of you are laughing that we have diapers to deal with but not to worry, she's worth every rank one!
I must apologize for my terrible writing for the past two months! I am SORRY! It is hard to believe that I am a teacher. When I think of all my colleagues that are probably correcting it as they read it, I laugh! With no spell check (it's in Ukrainian here) and when emotions are running high (not to mention the distractions I have here) I make errors. Now that I re-read my writing I'm embarrassed!
Well that's all for today. We will post again tomorrow (our last post from Ukraine)with our flight plans and to let you know that everything is READY FOR TAKE OFF!!!!

Love,

Kallie, Kaiden, Jeremy & Darryl

A Few Pictures

Our family of four leaving the orphanage for the last time.



Kallie first bedtime with us. We're on the train heading to Kiev.



Trying on the Pooh outfit.



Kaiden and Kallie playing Peek-A-Boo in the cupboards.

GOTCHA DAY AND MORE.......

YES! We have our daughter living with us! It has been a few busy, hectic, emotional, and great few days. Sorry for not posting, we were without internet our last few days in Dnipro. We will try to write one post and catch everyone up. Kallie is napping right now so this post is priority!

Svetlana arrived Monday night and we began everything Tues. morning. Our driver picked us up before 8 am and we were off. We went to the court to get the court order. Then we headed to the orphanage to get some papers. We had to go back to the courthouse. We went to a different office and had a new Birth Certificate made for Kallie. We stopped at the first Passport Department but she was done for the day and off on Wednesday. Each stop meant us waiting in the car. At around 5 pm we were back a the apartment. We knew things were getting done, we were just a bit frustrated at how long everything was taking.
Wednesday morning again we were off at 8 am and continued the paper chase. We went to the Notary Office first thing, then we had the papers legalized, we had to go to a Bank and close the account that Kallie had and donate the money to the orphanage. No passport headway today - we were disappointed again!
Then came Thursday morning and things were looking up. We headed right to Passport Department #1 at 8 am. Then by 9:30 we were heading to the orphanage to get Kallie and heading to Passport Department #2 where they would scan her. We returned Kallie at 12 noon and she would eat and sleep and then we would be picking her up and heading to the train station to continue our journey back to Kiev. Three days sitting in offices that have no lights or heat, or sitting in a car were longer than you can imagine. Poor Kaiden! But thanks to Gameboy, our son was a real trooper. Now we have a Nintendo fanatic! Svetlana has nicknamed him the "The GOLDEN Boy!". We were pleasantly shocked too, at how good he was through all those appointments. After being away from home for 53 days we were REALLY thankful to start the next chapter of our lives as a family of 4.

Now for the important stuff!

We arrived to get Kallie at 3 pm on Thursday! She had just woke up from her nap. We handed over our bag of clothes, they dressed her and handed her to us! What an emotional time! This is a great blessing to be given such a precious child to call our own! We headed for the train. Svetlana mentioned the 'first class' tickets on the express train and it was great. According to me (Jeremy) a MUCH more pleasant experience than the overnight - not first class ride out to Dnipro! We left Dnipro at 5 pm. For the first 3 hours we played, we ate supper (we packed food from our apartment), had our first diaper change, and put on the p.j's. At 8 pm both our kids fell asleep and Darryl and I just enjoyed our time. At 11 pm we arrived in Kiev. A driver picked us up, took us to a grocery store (Darryl ran in to pick up a few items for the morning), and then to the apartment that we've always stayed in. Both kids were wide awake and ready to play. We took some time to get them settled and then we put them to bed. Surprisingly they both fell asleep fast. They slept right through until about 8 this morning. We got up this morning had a bite to eat and headed to the mall to buy a stroller. After purchasing a stroller we went and picked up some groceries. We came back to the apartment and had lunch. Kallie is having her afternoon nap and Kaiden is getting in some Gameboy time. It has almost been 24 hours and "knock on wood" things are going GREAT!
Kallie is doing remarkably well! The only time that we have had tears is when we put her in the bath. Kaiden got in the tub first, and as soon as she was getting undressed her bottom lip came out. We went really slow but she still didn't want to be in there. That must have been one of the quickest baths on record. Hopefully tomorrow or tonight she will be more calm about it. When we put her in the stroller she looked at us funny but once the stroller started moving she was fine. She has eaten everything we have given her. She has fiqured out how to turn the lights on and off and that is a huge novelty for her. We are looking forward to the next few days so we can learn more about her.

Now that we are back in Kiev we only have the cell phone. We now have high speed internet so we are able to Skype anyone who is available (so leave your computers on people). We have Mario's restuarant that we can eat at. If only we had our P.E.I. friends to join us the time would pass by more quickly!

As for our travel plans home, we need a lot of prayers! We have been told that if all the documents were completed properly Kallie's passport would be in Dnipro on Wednesday! Our driver will then take it to the train and send it to us here in Kiev. On Thursday we will go to the Canadian Embassy and get Kallie's Visa. That means that our plans of leaving here on Friday February 13th are very possible - with prayers of course! Then we will be back in Saskatoon on Valentine's Day! We have an overnight stay in Toronto.

No pictures today,SORRY! It has just been a bit busy! We are hoping that on the weekend we will get some posted.

Thanks for being with us on this fantastic journey we feel truly blessed!

Love,

Darryl, Jeremy, Kaiden, & Kallie Deck

We're Getting Excited.....

Hi People,

We are getting closer and closer to having our daughter full time. We are thinking that we will visit on Sunday and then again on Monday and that's it! Tuesday we will either being doing paperwork during our visit or we will be taking her out of the orphanage. We are allowed to take her on Tuesday but it will depend on how long all the errands take that day. It will also depend on our facilitator.

Yesterday we took Kaiden for a haircut. He just couldn't go another 3 weeks it was starting to look like we had two girls. The whole haircut was an experience. The hairdresser didn't understand any English. Kaiden was a bit nervous but it all turned out. From the picture below you can see that she did a great job, and our son is as handsome as ever!

We went shopping again yesterday and bought Kallie another outfit and some winter boots. The boots are pink (aaahhhh!) the outfit is orange - there wasn't a lot of selection. We bought the outfit in size 74 cm which is about 12 months and we are sure that she will only be wearing it for a couple of weeks. Oh well, that just means I can buy something to replace it sooner.

We have met another couple that is adopting a boy from Kallie's group. They are from Spain. They know a bit of English and we can chat a little. They have court next week.

We are hoping to begin the passport application on Tuesday after we get the court order and a new birth certificate. The passport could take up to 10 days to process. Then we need one day to get a visa for Kallie from the Canadian Embassy. Then we are Canada bound! We will let you know more about this process as we know more. If everything happens the way it should we will arrive home on the February Break. Kaiden will have a few days to adjust before school starts and with any luck he will be able to play in his first hockey tournament on February 21st.

Well it is our 46th day here in Ukraine and we are looking forward to the upcoming week.

Thanks for all the prayers, comments, messages, and phone calls those are the things that get us through each day!!!!!

Love,

Darryl, Jeremy, & Kaiden



Kallie is sad because it is our visiting time and we were staying in the room for a few moments to take some pictures of her room. Kaiden is trying to comfort her.



Kallie loves shoes! It is amazing what we use for entertainment when our few toys and books have become boring.