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.

Just 2 Pictures!

PICTURE DAY!

Hello Again,

Well if everything goes as planned this is our last Wednesday night in Dnipro WHOOHOOO!!!!
We had a bit of action today so overall we are feeling ok. Today we took Kallie to get her picture taken. The whole 30 minutes was an experience for her and us! Her first car ride and off of orphanage property with us. She was very reluctant as you can see from the picture. Her hands were in fists almost the entire time. She was a real trooper though. No smile for the photographer and hardly any tears.

When we were coming home from the grocery store this morning Kaiden mentioned that he can't wait to get home and have apple juice, mashed potatoes, and great grandma's perogies. I said that I was really looking forward to a Tim Hortons coffee. Darryl just wants to be HOME! As you can see, we all have our own reasons for wanting to come home.

The weather here is very spring-like. Right now it is raining. There is hardly any snow left. I guess we are going to enjoy 2 springs this year.

TTFN,

The Decks


Kallie's first car ride.

Some Firsts for Kallie and Us.

We've had a better day today! We got to experience some 'firsts'. We went shopping this morning and we bought Kallie her first sleeper. (it's pink!) We also bought our first pack of diapers for us to use on her. She is right between stage 3 and stage 4 so we decided to buy stage 3 for now. We only bought a small package, 16 diapers since we have to pack lightly until we relocate to Kiev.
When we went to the orphanage Kallie was on her way to the Nurse's room to get a needle. We believe she was getting an immunization because there was big line up of children at the Nurse's room.
After her needle we asked (using sign language) if we could take Kallie outside for 10 minutes. They said yes! We took her jacket, mitts, toque, and extra pants and tights. They got her all dressed up for us and we headed out. Kallie seemed very unsure of what was going on. We tried to get her to smile but she wasn't comfortable enough. We put her down to walk and she wouldn't go by the snow. We tried to get her to touch the snow but there was no way. Eventually she walked on the snow but that was as far as she would go. I set her down on a piece of playground equipment and she fussed right away. We believe that this was possibly her first time ever outside. We ended up staying out for 15 mins (Oooopppps!) Her little nose turned pink and she had a nice colour to her once we came in. Kallie experienced a first and so did Kaiden. This was the first time he was allowed to play outside since we've been in Ukraine. He made snowballs and jumped around the entire time. Oh what a feelin! We are hoping that we can go outside for the rest of our visits. It sure helped past the time and gave us something new to look at.
Of course we snapped some pictures but she was exactly smiling in any of them. We are sure that soon she will love the outdoors like any other kid. Having a big brother that loves to be outside she really doesn't have much of a choice.
We have started a countdown - only 7 visits to go and she is OURS!

Love,

The Decks

The Waiting Continues

Hello All,

From talking to some family members back home we hear that it is VERY cold there. Sorry about your luck but it is the only good thing we're missing. All three of us are getting tired of the waiting. Kaiden summed it up perfectly on the way to visit Kallie yesterday, he said " I love my sister, but I don't like the visits anymore and I hate that we have to be away from home for so long!" I replied that is exactly how mom and dad feel too!

It is getting hard to post because we feel we are posting re-runs. Once you start with the re-runs the ratings go down. We wouldn't want to lose any of our fans now! LOL

We have had a slow couple of days. Our meals have been horrible. We were doing ok until the past three days. Three days ago we bought tuna to try (in a can), it was so bad nobody ate it. Thank goodness for the peanut butter. Yesterday we bought ground beef and made meatballs. Well it wasn't ground beef! Who knows what it was but I sure didn't eat any. Then today we boiled perogies that we thought were potatoe SURPRISE they were orange inside and tasted a bit like sourcraute (sp?). Needless to say those went in the garbage pretty fast. I know some of you are laughing at this point but it is not funny!

We have talked to our travel agent in Saskatoon and we needed to pick a new day to fly home since we aren't ready this Wednesday. Our facilitator here thought that we could just cancel our flights and then leave them open ended and book new flights once we have Kallie's passport. Our travel agent was not allowed to do that with our tickets. Therefore we picked a day mid-Feb that we hope to be ready to come home. If we have to make another change we will have to pay another change fee (it's about $600.00) so here is hoping that we made a good decision.

This coming weeks seems pretty uneventful. We will contniue to visit Kallie everyday and that's about it. The action doesn't start up here until Tues. Feb
3rd. We are praying that then the ball rolls smoothly.

Love,

The Decks




OPEN WIDE!!!



Kallie's Orphanage



Pretending to be Uncle Jody in a Jeep!



Kaiden enjoying the indoor playground.



Kaiden is standing beside a Santa that is made out of LEGO.

Getting Caught Up

Well we don't have anything new to report so we thought we'd take this opportunity to share a few things that we haven't mentioned.
Many people have asked how Kaiden in keeping busy. Between the outings in our day we brought things to keep him busy. We keep some 'things' a surprise and then when we is bored we get something out. Today was the day that we brought out our gameboy! Yes a gameboy. Even though he is only 5 and we're not fans of him spending too much time with "screens" our son has a gameboy. It is not the new Ninetendo DS so that makes us feel better. When he saw it he was shocked! "Where was that?" We told him that it was hidden. Grandma bought him an early Christmas present which was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game and the kid is in heaven. He said thank you several times. When I asked him how the game was he answered, "This is the best game EVER!" Yes we believe that this toy should be played in moderation, but here in Ukraine moderation is different than it will be in Canada. Tonight he went to bed looking forward to playing his new game tomorrow. We believe that this was very good timing on our part. We still play UNO a lot - yes I am winning a few games. We also watch disney movies together. As of today, we have 7 children movies left. Kaiden has also started reading the Dolch Sight Words. We are all happy that he knows about 100 words already. We have told him that if he works hard on his words he can have a sleepover at Auntie's house (my sister) sometime when we get home. We sure hope that her and her husband will agree to this. They got a Wii for Christmas and he is looking forward to playing it with his cousins. (Yes! more screens!)
A few days ago we were running to an appointment and right as we were passing Darryl saw an Akzo Nobel (Darryl's place of employment) flag. When things are so different here it was weird seeing something so familiar.
Yesterday after court we went to Mcdonalds for lunch and after we left we were in another fender bender. Can you believe it? This one was even less damage than the first accident we were in. The two front corner panels of the cars kissed. The 2 drivers got out and argued a bit and then the other driver got back in his car and took off like a bat out of h***! These Ukrainian drivers!!!!
We have talked to our facilitator in Kiev and she is trying to guess on a date that we can travel home. From yesterday's post you all know that it depends on the amount of time it takes to get Kallie's passport. We need to cancel our flights for Wednesday (that was our scheduled day to come home BOO HOO!) and re-book at the same time. She told us that we would probably be ready to fly home on Feb. 17th. That's really far away right now! We are strongly hoping to be ready by Sat. the 14th. Which is still 22 days away! We will have to decide in the next couple of days. Our travel agent will be getting back to us about the fees to change our flights and how we should go about changing them.
We have posted new pics and hope you enjoy them!
Take care,

The Decks

Kallie trying on a new pair of pants and her boots. A perfect fit!


Kallie smiling for the camera!

Our Family of Three Becomes Four!

It's official!!! We are the PROUD parents of Kallie Frances Deck.

Our facilitator arrived at our apartment around 9:30 this morning to go over the court process. At 10:45 the driver picked us up. We went to the orphanage first to get a representative from there and then we were off to court. We arrived about 30 minutes early. The process began right on time. We were in court at 12:00 noon. The judge was a woman, the translator was a woman, the social worker was a woman, the prosecutor was a woman, the representative from the orphanage was a woman, the secretary was a woman, the jury was 2 women, Darryl was the only man in the room (Kaiden is a boy). Some of the questions that were asked of us included 1.Is your home big enough to accomodate a second child? 2. Do we have medical insurance?, Would Kallie be covered? 3. Why we don't have any biological children? 4. What would we do if we were to have a biological child now? 5. How big is your mortage and how long until it will be paid off? After 52 minutes the judge asked for a 3 minute recess to overloook everything. We were called back in and it was approved! We have been granted legal custody and we were given permission to change her name.
Now we have a 10 day wait. BAHUMBUG! We understand that in this region they don't count Sundays in the 10 wait so that means another delay and we don't get to pick up the final court's decision until Tues. Feb. 3rd.
Our facilitator hinted today that it would be easier to do the paper run (Birth Certificate, Passport documents, etc.) without Kallie. That means we wouldn't take Kallie out of the orphanage until Wed. or Thurs. that week. We'll have to wait and see!!!
Another delay that we could encounter is with Kallie's passport. Apparently we have to get the passport done here in Dnipro. We only go to Kiev to get the Canadian Visa from the Canadian Embassy. The past couple here (they're from France) having been waiting 8 days and still don't have their child's passport. Time will tell what kind of wait we will have. We know that our tentative plans of flying home on Feb. 7/8 weekend are unrealistic. Once we have talked to our facilitator more we will be able to get a better idea of when we'll be flying home. (this was the "downer" of the day!!) Today marks 5 weeks that we've been in Ukriane and we are getting very anxious to be back at home!
We did not go visit Kallie today because the day was just too busy! We will be back on track tomorrow with our visits.

Tomorrow is court!

Hello Everyone!
Just a quick message today to remind all of you that our court is tomorrow. We have to be at the court house in 13 hours. We are excited and a bit anxious. We know it will be a busy day and that this is another hoop we have to go through to get home. After court is over and we are back at the apartment we will let you all know how things went.
As for today, our visits with Kallie continue to be fun. She actually hesitated to go back to the worker yesterday. We are unsure if it is the worker she didn't care for or if it was that she would rather be with us instead of with them.
Until tomorrow,

The Decks

So much to write!

We have so much to write today we don't know where to begin. First of all, the move has turned out to be great! The grocery store is very close and we've already check out the mall. The mall is HUGE! We believe that it is so new that it isn't complete yet. There are many empty stores and lots of construction going on. At one end of the mall was a skating rink. We were able to watch some kids skate. No helmets worn here! There is a big water fountain in the middle of the mall that we watched for several minutes. Kaiden threw in a few coins and made some wishes. One wish was for Kallie, he wished, "That Kallie will be my best sister ever!" We are unsure if that wish is for her or him but whatever. There were many familiar stores like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Peacock, Cooper Lee Jeans, Esprite, and you won't believe it ALDO! Yes, they have an ALDO shoe store. I couldn't believe it! Now if only I could convince Darryl that downsizing to one suitcase isn't necessay and I could spend a few hours shopping! No luck yet! We rode on the escalators a few times and walked all aroung looking for the indoor playground but we assume that it isn't open yet. We didn't even find a children's clothing store. It was all ladies or mens clothes/shoes. On the main level there is large grocery store that had a lot we could buy. For those of you reading that don't know, Darryl has a severe nut allergy. When we buy food we have to be very careful. In this particular grocery store there are a lot of labels that are written in English so we could read ingredients or allergy warnings. We were able to buy more spices, Hienz Ketchup, Salsa, and a few other things. When approaching this mall we saw a McDonalds sign. We thought that we had it made with a McDonalds in walking distance, only to learn very quickly that it is under construction and the restuarant is just being built! Shucks!
We forgot to mention that in this new apartment, we have 2 English t.v.channels (CNN & another news show) and a piano that Darryl and Kaiden plunk away on. After getting caught up on some current events we realize that Russia still has turned the gas off for parts of Europe, and that birds took down a plane in the States. Thank you CNN!
With the landline in this apartment we've been able to talk to Darryl's sister, Darryl's sister-in-law, my sister, and my mom! It sure is great to chat with our family! Thanks guys!
Now to talk about Kallie! Since moving we visit Kallie later in the day. Yesterday we believe she realized that something was different. Today she was the best she's ever been!!! When we arrived she was in the 'playpen' with 7 other kids. Once she saw us she wanted out. The worker went into the next room to get Kallie some clothes and Kallie started to cry because she was ready to come to us. The worker quickly returned and took Kallie to the chage table. She talked to Kallie and Kallie was talking back to her. This is the first time we've heard Kallie's voice!!!!! Then Kallie said "Papa!" That is what they call Darryl here. The worker asked Kallie to say Mama. Kallie answered, "Papa!" After a bit more talking from the worker Kallie said "Mama!" We were so proud of her, I even had tears in my eyes! Throughout the visit she said Mama and Papa several times. Darryl would rather be called Daddy, but right now Papa will be acceptable. Kaiden believes she said "brother" today too! LOL We took crayons and a colouring book today and she seemed to enjoy it. Her crayon grasp isn't exactly the best but I hardly corrected her! HaHa! Near the end of the visit I got out the cell phone to check the time. After modeling how to use the phone Kallie was a pro! See the picture below. (We know that the Aunites don't think that light blue is Kallie's colour but we don't have control over her wardrobe yet!)
Well we only have 2 more visits until court and then the big countdown will start!
Thank you to ALL for the prayers, messages, and comments, we appreciate the support!

Love,

Jeremy, Darryl, & Kaiden

NEWS!

Hello All!

We've had a good day here in Ukraine! It's Friday and everything has gone according to our plan.
We moved today. We are in an apartment that is quite a bit nicer. It has a new fridge, washing machine, and microwave. The apartment is cleaner and well taken care of. We are up on the 7th floor which makes me feel more safe. It is unlikely that someone can enter through a window now. (Unless it's Spider-man Kaiden added!) Being on the 7th floor also has it's disadvatages when the elevator isn't working. Seven flights of stairs might be okay for Kaiden and I but when Darryl has to haul the heavy suitcase up it isn't ok. Thankfully another man hauled the second suitcase. When we leave here going down won't be as bad. There is a nice big grocery store that is very close by it also has toys and clothes. It was nice to browse around for awhile today. We believe that there is a mall about two blocks away that we plan on checking out tomorrow. We have heard that it may even have an indoor playground for Kaiden!
Now that we have moved we visit Kallie from 4 - 6 pm. She seemed to realize that we were there at a different time. It was quiter at the orphanage, most of the staff must be done by then. After a good visit we came back to the apartment and had supper. Having a change in our routine will be good we think.
Svetlana has left to Kiev for the weekend. Kaiden's comment was ``But why is she going, I like when she is here!`` I think we are a bit more at ease when we have someone around that knows the language and can answer all of our questions.
Now that we have moved we have a phone in this apartment. Our family has been experiencing great difficulties trying to call us on our cell phone. Now that we have this land line we will e-mail that number home and hopefully it will be easier to get a hold of us.
In the conclusion of this episode we will mention the news that everyone has been waiting for. We have a court date! If everything goes as planned we will be going to court on Wednesday January 21st! (That`s only 5 days away!) If there is a problem with Kiev getting our paperwork done we will go to court on Thursday the 22nd. Either date means that we will get Kallie out of the orphanage to live with us full time on Monday February 2nd! YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!
Thank you for the prayers!
The plan after the Feb. 2nd is yet to be determined!
Have a great weekend!

Love,
Darryl, Jeremy, & Kaiden

This is Kallie trying on her new mitts, toque, and scarf!

We posted the events from our day earlier.

A Busy Day with NO NEWS!

Hello back home,

We don't have much to report but since some of you need your daily episode of this Soap Opera (someone even called it The Young and the Ukrainain) we thought we'd post something. Nothing to report with Kallie since we didn't get to visit her today.
Our day started at 9 am and we went to look at a different apartment. Our current apartment is very far from the orphanage and it isn't very nice. The other apartment is much closer to Kallie and quite a bit nicer. The second apartment cost $20 more a night but we won't be paying the driver so the price is very comparable. Therefore we have decided to move. On Friday we will go to the new apartment.
After looking at this apartment we had to go to the Social Worker. Then we had a meeting with the Chief of the Social Department. She signed the papers and then we headed to the court. We needed to submit our application to adopt Kallie. They only accept applications on Mondays. Svetlana was patient yet persistant and they accepted our application. YEAH SVETLANA!!!!! Now we wait for Friday at 4 pm when Svetlana will meet our judge and get a date. (We are praying for a quick one!)
Tonight at midnight Svetlana is leaving for another city in Ukraine beacause another couple has court on Thurs. She will return to us in Dnipro Friday morning around 8 am.
Tomorrow we are visiting Kallie and then packing up for our move. It will be extra work but we believe that in the long run it is worth it.
Our friends from P.E.I we able to take their daughter out of the orphanage today. We are so happy for them and hope that their last few steps go smoothly and quickly. We know how anxious they are to return to Canada.

Your daily soap will be continued on Friday (with excitment of course, so that you will tune in on Monday.)

From Ukraine,

Darryl, Jeremy, & Kaiden

Nothing is new

Hello All!

We are just posting a quick note to say that everything is the same here. We are spending time with our new daughter and still waiting for a court date. All the paperwork is complete we are heading to the court tomorrow morning to find out when the judge will see us. We are praying for a quick date. Once we know the date we will post it as NEWS!
This morning on the way to the orphanage we were in a car accident! Nothing to serious - we were just rear-ended. The metal bumper on the Lada took the hit pretty good. The other car had a plastic bumper - it wasn't as good! The other driver paid our driver $300.00 greevna (about $50.00 Canadian) and that was that! We are very fortunate that nobody was injured.
Hopefully we will have GOOD news tomorrow!
We have to admit that Mother Teresa Staff are great supportors of out blog! It is great to here from all of you so often. Of course we appreciate all the comments from our friends and family too!
It is four weeks ago from today that we left home.

Missing All Of You,

The Decks

WAITING

Things here in Ukraine are progressing nicely. We have been able to collect many of the documents that are necessary for court. On Monday morning there is a meeting with the social worker and after that we hope to know more.
Our visits with Kallie continue to be terrific! She is giggling and babbling more and more. We found out today that she will turn down a banana to get another cookie - she'll fit in our family just fine - right Grandma Shirley?
Svetlana took some time today to read us a few of the details regarding Kallie's first 18 months of her life. We love hearing these things and the more we know the more we want court to hurry up and get here! Right now the three of us are ready to look forward to a countdown to come home. We know that our flights have to be changed to a later date - but WHEN!!! We have been away from home for 26 nights and sometimes it is hard to keep waiting. All in all, we are hanging in there preety good. We have to admit that Kaiden has been absolutley fantastic. (We hope this doesn't jinx us) His behavior when Svetlana is around or when we are in meetings or waiting in the car has been outstanding. We've spend a lot of time explaining things and he just goes with the flow. We thought him being sick might push him over the edge but not so far. Svetlana has made a few comments about what a good boy we have! Last night they even hugged each other good night. We are sure that those of you who know Kaiden's true colours are shocked just like we are. If he can keep up the good behavior we have no problem playing Uno and watching the Disney movies as his rewards. I think we enjoy these things as much as he does.
Svetlana has commented that it has been a VERY long time since she has seen such a young, healthy, cute girl - like Kallie be adopted. She said it is like we have won a lottery! Our comment back was "You're right! We do feel we have won a lottery!" This great feeling makes the waiting here possible.
As for health, Kaiden seems to be over the worst. He no longer has a fever, he just has a cough. Darryl on the other hand might be just starting with the bug. Hopefully we caught it soon enough and the medication will wipe it out before it gets the best of him.
We went shopping today and we bought Kallie her first outfit. It is a pink two piece (hoodie & pants). It is quite cute for what we've seen here, we hope it will fit.
Our friends from P.E.I get their daughter out of the orphanage this week. They are scheduled to fly home on Jan. 22, or earlier if possible! We were hoping that we would be back in Kiev with Kallie before they head home but as time passes we realize that it is highly unlikely. We guess they will just have to venture out to the prairies to meet Kallie and so we can meet Audrey too!
As January progresses most of our family and friends have returned from their hot holidays. Now that all of them have gone and returned we would like to do the same!
We will try and post some pictures tonight it will depend on the connection. It is very windy here so we'll see.
Thank you to all those who have tried to call tonight (this morning for you) sorry that is was hard to get through or we had a bad connection. Please try again we would love to talk.
Thanks for your comments, thoughts, and prayers!

Love,

The Decks












Kallie checking our her new shoes!

Kallie giggling!

Daddy & Kallie

We have a lot to report today. No! We don’t have a court day yet, but things are progressing!!! We will try to enlighten all of you about our day here. First of all, Kaiden was still under the weather so I spent the day with him at the apartment while Darryl was out and about. Kaiden and I tried to keep busy with UNO, War, Crazy 8’s, a movie (he watched Mulan twice today, that is his new favourite movie – Thanks Mike & Jen!), hockey mini sticks, Addition Pirate Game, reading his sight words, volleyball with a balloon, Connect Four, and a kindergarten workbook. Kaiden’s fever came and went throughout the day he has a sore throat and cough still. That wraps up our day. Darryl on the other hand was busy the entire day!

The plan was for Darryl to meet the driver at 7:15 and head to the orphanage to get another blood sample of Kallie’s and take it to a lab. He didn’t take the bag of snacks & toys because we were under the impression that Darryl would do business in the morning and we would visit Kallie this afternoon. Once Darryl arrived at the orphanage things changed. A nurse from the orphanage went with the driver to deliver Kallie’s blood and she told Darryl to stay and visit. Even though he was unprepared he managed to spend the entire 2 hours with her. I was jealous but happy for him at the same time. Apparently Kallie went to him when the worker brought her out but she was looking around for Kaiden and me. We look at this as a good opportunity for them to bond. Darryl returned Kallie to her group at 11 and then had to wait around at the orphanage until 1 for the driver to return. At 1:10 our facilitator Svetlana arrived at the orphanage. She met with the Chief Doctor for about 30 minutes. After that Darryl, Svetlana, and the driver made several business stops until getting back to the apartment at 4:30. Darryl and Svetlana went to the market to buy some groceries. Finally at 5:15 we began making supper. Darryl ate supper at 6 pm after going the entire day on only 1 piece of bread at 7 am. Darryl’s quote at supper was “This was the best meal we’ve had in Dnipro. I figured it out! You have to go the entire day without eating, for a meal to taste good!” LOL

Having Svetlana here is a big relief! She has an appointment for us tomorrow at the Notary Office. We will get as much done as we can the next two days (Sat. here is a working day since there was just a week of holidays). Once our paperwork here is done we sent it to Kiev and then shortly after that we will have a court date. We are still hopeful for Jan. 20th. We will keep you updated.
The Decks

Visit #8

Merry Christmas from Ukraine!

It is Christmas Day here but things are pretty routine for us. We woke up at headed to the orphanage for a visit. The temperature was still pretty cold this morning, but the view was beautiful! The trees were covered in frost and they were completely white. There are many trees in this city and they were all thickly covered! Even our driver had to comment how beautiful the morning was. We all took time this morning to enjoy nature’s touch.

As we passed the river, we saw that there were fishermen out fishing - even on Christmas Day. (Darryl believes that these men here are crazy to be out on the river ice fishing since the river is so wide and the ice isn’t that thick! Our driver has told us that each year 1 to 2 men fall through the ice and die.)
Our visit with Kallie was FABULOUS!!!! She was excited to see us and she didn’t have any attitude. We were able to enjoy her laughing and babbling. We believe that she has a noise that she makes to call us. It isn’t mommy or dada but she was making a certain noise to call us. We played a bit of Hide and Seek and she loved it. We took the leather slippers that we bought her to try on and their too big! We bought size 12-18 months and they don’t fit. The shoes measure 12 cm and that’s too big. We don’t think that we will be able to exchange them so they will have to do. One problem – the boots that we bought Kallie are even bigger! We are starting to think that she has really small feet. We plan on measuring her feet in centimetres soon.

As for Kaiden, he is still not 100%. He woke up at 3:30 am and was burning up. We gave him more Tylenol and he came to bed with us. At 8 am we gave him Advil and he is coping. He voice is more crackly and his cough is worse. While Darryl was using the bank machine this morning I told the driver that Kaiden was sick. He asked if he had a temperature/cough/ running nose? I answered the best I could with the language barrier.

Once we returned home from our visit we made Lipton’s chicken noodle soup (from home) for lunch. Then Darryl headed out for a few groceries and I stayed home with Kaiden (Yes! The stores are open on Christmas Day!) Darryl wasn’t gone 3 minutes and there was a knock on our door. Our driver, his wife, and his dog were here. They had been to the pharmacy and bought some medications for Kaiden. There are about 5 different packages for different symptoms. Imagine getting instructions in Ukrainian for medication purpose and dosage – CRAZY! They also brought a humidifier, jams, honey, fruit, and tea leaves. Once they explained everything to me they left. They weren’t out the door 3 minutes and Darryl was home. What timing!!! We appreciate what this couple has done for us and feel like someone is looking after us. They even offered to keep Kaiden tomorrow so he doesn’t have to go out in the cold. We don’t think that will ever happen though. One of that packages that they brought is Neo Citron (sp?) and some little round beads (like candies) to soothe a sore throat/cough. These two things we may use. As for the other medications, I think we will just use our Tylenol and Advil.

We believe that as of tomorrow, it will be business as usual here in Ukraine. Hopefully our facilitator will be here and we will get some idea about the court date.

Thanks for your thoughts & prayers!

The Decks

Sorry there are no pictures toady - we were too busy playing!

Visit #7

It has now been one week that we’ve been visiting Kallie! We must say that the past week has gone by rather quickly (but Darryl says not quick enough). We want EVERYONE to know that we appreciate the blog comments and the messages. They really brighten our day and we thank you for that.

Our visit today was a bit different. Kallie seemed frustrated with us. After about one hour she didn’t seem happy. For about a half an hour we tried different things but she didn’t really come around. We didn’t want her to get too upset so we ended the visit about 20 minutes early. Yes this seems unfortunate, and it was hard to leave early, but we believe it was the best thing for Kallie. We really tried to get her to say Mom or Dada today but we were unsuccessful – maybe tomorrow. If the connection is good we will send a picture or two from today.

After the visit, our driver took us to the big shopping mall in Dnipro. It was huge! There were many shops on 3 levels. We quickly walked around and then we went to the grocery store in the basement. We finally found ‘the good perogies’. We’ve had a long week without them.

It was colder here today we think it was -17 this morning. Our driver told us that tomorrow it will be warmer????

Tomorrow it is Christmas Day here in Ukraine. We have bought 2 boxes of chocolates for the workers in Kallie’s room. Apparently, in Ukraine the New Year’s holiday is a bigger deal than Christmas.

Kaiden may be getting sick!!! His voice is crackly; he has developed a cough, and may be running a slight fever. We have already given him Tylenol – hopefully nothing serious develops!!!

We talked to our facilitator today and it looks like Kallie has to have one more blood test on Thurs. DARN! We think that we will know more at the end of the week when our translator joins us.

Until later,

The Decks

P.S. I think that if you click on the pictures they will go full screen. If we send them smaller it goes quicker.

We had an eventful day today! We showed up at the orphanage on time to visit Kallie. When the worker gave her to us she motioned that we were not to feed Kallie because she needed a needle/blood work! After a very quick 20 minutes the nurse and worker came to get Kallie and one parent. Darryl was elected to go with Kallie. After several tears Kallie was handed to Darryl to be comforted. This was heart breaking for us to see! After being held for 5 minutes they took Kallie away to feed her. We were directed downstairs to the orphanage office. After a great deal of confusion because of the language barrier we were off with our driver to deliver the two viles of blood to two different labs. We were disappointed that our visit turned out this way!

Lunch was at McDonalds. Yeah! for McDonalds!!! Then we headed to the mall to do some shopping for Kallie. We ending up buying her a winter coat – pink & white of course, a pair of boots –they might be a bit big- we had no selection for her small feet, and a mitt, toque, and scarf set! I was SO EXCITED to buy these items!

Tomorrow we hope to have a regular visit with Kallie.

Love,

The Decks

Enjoy!

Visit #5

Happy Sunday to all of you!

We had a great night last night. We talked to Darryl’s brother and his wife, Darryl’s sister, and Jeremy’s sister. After talking to these people our spirits were high and we felt great. Thanks guys!!!! Of course we must apologize to these people for rambling on about Kallie. It seems that if you ask us a question about her we talk on and on. For only knowing her for one week we sure have a lot to say.

Just to clarify – Kallie’s name rhymes with Sally! It is not Kaylee. I know that with names these days it is sometimes hard to tell what the proper pronunciation is.

Our visit went well today. We are sending one picture from today. She was wearing the pink and white dress again. We were able to get her gigling pretty good by tickling her.

We talked to our facilitator from Kiev today and now were feeling a bit down. Our translator will only be coming out to Dnipro on Thurs. Jan. 8th. There is no sense in her coming any earlier because of the holidays. Our facilitator told us that we would be lucky to have court by January 20th. This seems like a really long time away for us right now! Then of course we have the 10 day wait. If this is the way things happen, there is no chance we will be flying home on Jan. 28th. Time will tell!

Oh yeah! and for the record, I have been winning some UNO games lately. Although Kaiden still seems to win the most!!!!

Kaiden just interrupted, he wants everyone to know that “My sister, Kallie really loves me A LOT!!!”

Those going back to work or school tomorrow - we hope you have a great first day back!

Until later,
The Decks

Our 4th Visit

Saturday’s Visit

We’ve been forgetting to mention that the sun shines here! We are on our third sunny day in a row! We guess that is one perk over being in Kiev!

Not much is new here. Our visit here today was great again! Kallie was wearing blue for a change-not pink! It was busy in the visiting room today, there were four families visiting children – no one spoke English though. We believe the other families are all from Ukraine.
Kallie tried to show her Daddy who was boss today! When looking at a puppet book Darryl tried to turn in the proper way and she gave him ATTITUDE! It is just the beginning of her getting him wrapped around her little finger. She did less walking today so we were able to hold her more. She even cuddled me for a few moments (while sucking her thumb!)

Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

The Decks

VISIT 2 & 3

Thank you for all the comments! We appreciate them! It is wonderful to read them and it makes us feel close to home.

We have had an internet breakdown! Here in Dnipro we have to purchase a card with minutes on it and then activate the card and that gives us time on the internet. We bought our first card on Dec. 30 when we arrived here and then after we posted those 4 pictures we ran out of time. Yesterday was a big holiday here so the stores were closed therefore we were unable to purchase more time. Today we are back on track! The internet that we have here is dial up so the waits are longer and I don’t think that we will be Skyping anyone while we live here.
Now to more important things – Kallie! We have had two more visits and she is fabulous! She really isn’t hesitant to come with us, although it takes her a few moments to warm up to us. We have quickly realized that she enjoys holding on to our finger and walk up and down the hallways. Today she fell and gently bonked her head, there were no tears she just got up and kept on truckin! What a trooper! We are glad that she is tough since she has an older brother that sometimes isn’t so gentle. Kallie really enjoys the snacks we bring her. Today she ate part of a banana, a yogurt, and an arrowroot cookie. She seems to know eyes, ears, and mouth but of course not in English so when she points we are saying these words to her. At this point, we hear very little from her, aside from a few giggles and her congested breathing she’s pretty quiet. Oh Yeah! We know it’s not a good thing but she sucks her thumb! It is so cute- I had to snap a picture. Darryl gently removes her thumb and she doesn’t seem to mind. Once our facilitator joins us we will be asking if she uses a bottle or soother on a regular basis. Today I took one of the outfits that I brought (the Gap ‘I Love Mom’ one – for those that know) it is size 18-24 months and it was a bit big but it will definitely work. Our daily visits, that are from 1 am to 3 am your time, go by very quickly. It has only been 3 days and we think that we are ready to take her and that she would be fine. She seems to be adjusting quicker than Kaiden did and we don’t know if it is because he was older, or that he is just a different kid. Because she is fitting in so quickly it is going to be a long wait until we get her full time. We talked to one of our facilitators today and because we are in the midst of the Ukrainian Holidays things might be slower. We are hoping to learn our court date early next week – we’ll see. After court, we will have a ten day wait before Kallie will be with us full time.

Kaiden is doing well and really enjoys helping her. At times he gets jealous. It must really be tough having to share your parents!

The city that we are living in has over one million people in it. We live a 35 minute drive from the orphanage. There is no shopping, McDonalds, or Mario’s close by! We have a supermarket close and that’s about it. Our apartment is not near as nice as the one in Kiev but it is bigger. Here in Dnipro we don’t get to hang out with our P.E.I friends. We sure miss them!

That’s all for today! Kaiden is getting out of the bath and we are going to play more UNO before he goes to bed.

Happy New Year to everyone back home!

Love,
Darryl, Jeremy, & Kaiden