Last weekend in Kyiv. First weekend with our daughter!

The last three days have been a bit busy for us.  Sorry I haven't updated the site, but playing with Dasha was higher on our priority!  But, I will revisit the last 3 days as best as I can recall.

Saturday was an at-home, get to know each other kind of day.  It was trying, but overall a good day.  Dasha was pushing all of the limits more than I could believe this little quiet, innocent little girl could.  No or Nyet was a joke to her.  Telling her NO just made her laugh and do whatever it was again.  We didn't want to be the mean guys yet, so we distracted her to something else as best as we could.  We stayed at the apartment all day, except for a walk to the grocery store.  Dasha walked almost all the way.  She wanted to be carried for a little, but it had nothing to do with her being tired, just wanted the attention. 

Saturday night, Kendra slept with her about the first hour.  Then Dasha was on her own.  More of what she is used to anyway.  Dasha slept through the night without any problems, and slept until about the same time as when we were awake. 

Sunday was a new kind of adventure for Dasha.  We went to the Kyiv Zoo.  Their zoological standards are a bit different than ours.  It was sad for a lot of the animals, but Dasha enjoyed seeing them.  Inside the zoo, there is a small petting zoo.  Small goats, small sheep, little pigs, etc. are all running around in there.  For the entry fee of 3 UAH each (about 60 cents US) each person gets a cup of vegetable scraps.  The goats and sheep love this.  It scared Dasha but she was definitely interested.  She would hold a handful of food for them until they got close then she would toss it away from her.  Here's a photo:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/126_petting_zoo.jpg

We spent a couple hours at the zoo with our driver Vitaly in tow.  Actually, we were in his tow.  He took the three of us around the zoo and explained things to Dasha so she could understand.  Admission was about $10 US for 3 adults and Dasha.  What kind of attraction can you get into in the U.S. for that?  Maybe a park! 

We left the zoo with plans to get some more money exchanged.  I had almost run out of grivna.  We exchanged some money then went to a toy store to get Dasha something to do.  The toy store we went to had small shopping carts just her size.  She went through just like a pro.  Very choosy on what she wanted.  We figured she would want everything, but no.  She picked out a small ball, we found a different kind of puzzle, coloring book and colored pencils and erasers.  By this time, she had caught on and was trying to start putting stuff in the cart.  So, it was time to hit the door. 

We then went across the street to McDonalds for lunch.  We thought "what kid doesn't like McDonalds?".  Well, we found one.  She would eat the fries, but wanted absolutely nothing to do with a cheeseburger.  She dipped her fries in mayo just like a typical Ukie after she saw it done.  She liked the mayo, enough that she just wanted to lick it out of the little container directly.

We then went to the grocery store to pick up a couple things.  Mostly milk and some fruit.  Dasha ate 4 bananas on Saturday, so we were out of fresh fruit.  We didn't find bananas, but they had oranges.  We got home to find out that the "milk" that we bought was actually kefir.  Not milk at all.  More of a drinkable yogurt.  http://www.answers.com/topic/kefir has a good description of it.  I can't stand yogurt, so I then poured it out.  Dasha saw this and started sticking her hand in the sink to grab some of it to suck off her fingers.  I shoo-ed her away.   But, I think this is something that they have had before at the orphanage.  She was probably thinking I was crazy for pouring out something like that.  We just don't have anything to keep it in.  Like the milk, it comes in a bag, and we only had one empty 1 liter water bottle. 

Sunday ended nicely.  Dasha went to bed with mama in tow.  Kendra was only in there for about 15 minutes and Dasha was out.    She slept through the night and was just waking up when we got up today.

Today we had to go to the "Clinic of the Oil Industry of Ukraine" to get her immigration medical exam done.  There are two clinics that are allowed and this is one.  Everything went well there.  Dasha is a normal healthy 6 year old.  Not that we didn't already know that, but the doc. confirmed it. 

On the way there this morning, we passed by a PIZZA restaurant.  My eyes caught that quickly.  It is very close to our apartment, so my mind was on pizza since I saw it.  After the med exam, we were dropped back at the apartment.  We later walked to the pizza place for lunch.  Nobody there spoke english, but they did have an english menu.  Pizza was very good.  Dasha did like it too.  That's a plus. 

Dasha just went to bed.  That means I can turn off the Tom and Jerry video that we have seen at least 15-20 times.  Guess what's on...  The Simpsons, in Russian!  Kind of funny to see this.

Tomorrow is the last of our legal work. We will go to the American Consulate at about 11am for our Immigration appointment.  This is required to get Dasha's Immigrant Visa.  Without this, she will be turned away at the border in Detroit.   We will return later in the day to pick up her completed visa.  Somewhere in between, we will go to the KLM office in Kyiv to pay for and pick up Dasha's airline ticket and make the changes to ours.  Thanks to AOL Instant Messager and my mom, we spoke to the NWA adoption fare specialists in the US.  I was here in Kyiv online with the instant messager and she was on the phone with NWA.  With this setup, I didn't have to call the U.S. and be put on hold while paying $5 / minute.  I also didn't have to speak with someone here in the local office that speaks broken English.  We have reservations, but just need to pay and pick up the tickets. 

If all goes well, we will leave here on Wednesday afternoon.  We will fly to Amsterdam and stay the night there.  Then we will leave Thursday morning heading to Detroit.  We leave at 8am Amsterdam time, arriving in Detroit at 10:30 am Detroit time.  It is like an 8 1/2 hour flight.  We will then go through customs in Detroit.  Once we clear customs, Dasha is officially an American Citizen!  We will then fly to Grand Rapids, arriving at about 1pm. 

Last bit of good news for the day is that I just got off the phone with the Mercure hotel in the Amsterdam airport.  If we can get a room in this hotel, we won't have to try to get a Netherlands visa for Dasha tomorrow too.  There are only 33 rooms available in this hotel, and it is the only one "inside" the customs area.  This way we will not have to go through customs in the Netherlands.  They had one room left for us!  It is now reserved.  With barely any time left on my cell phone, I was frantically talking fast to the operator at the hotel.  I finished the phone call with probably about a minute of international time to spare.  The call cost about $8 US, but was well worth it.  I can't believe it, the final things are coming together!

Here's a few more photos:

Getting ready for the zoo:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/126_getting_ready_for_zoo.jpg

Family at the zoo:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/127_at_zoo.jpg

The orange.  She loves fruit:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/128_orange.jpg

Ready for the day on Sunday:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/129_ready_with_skirt.jpg

Helping Mama do dishes:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/130_helping_mama.jpg

Chowing on her new favorite, pizza!:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/131_first_pizza.jpg

Nap time.. isn't she cute:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/132_nap_time.jpg

Coloring book:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/133_coloring.jpg

Finally, the next "Got Milk" ad.  But, it's a milk-like substance:  http://files.blog-city.com/files/N04/78305/p/f/134_got_milk.jpg