adoption journal

Adoption Journal

Welcome to our Adoption Journal

January 8th, 2002

We started off our trip, by having one of friends, Patti Norman, take us to the airport. Patti picked us up at our house at around 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and off we went. We were flying out of O’Hare airport; our flight was to leave that day at 4:30 p.m., so we figured we better get there early. We got to the airport at noon and she dropped us off at the KLM door with our luggage and we said our goodbyes. We immediately found the ticket counter for KLM and proceeded to check in. We were allowed to check two bags each and also have two carry-on bags each also. We checked all four of our bags, with our heaviest bag weighing 67 pounds, just 3 pounds shy of the limit. We had a brief scare when the ticket counter agent told us that one of our carry-on bags was going to be to big for the overhead compartment. This particular carry-on contained one of the most valuable personal properties that I own, my pillow. Kris is always giving me a hard time about having to go everywhere with my pillow, and trust me, I took enough grief in the first place before we left our house. My first thought, was that the pillow was going to have to go into the garbage can, and then I would never hear the end of it again for the rest of my life. Luckily, after assessing the situation, I realized that all we had to do was to zip the expanded section of the bag down to the normal height that was allowed and we, or I should say, then I would be ok. Catastrophe avoided. We looked at the time, and noticed that it was lunchtime. We figured we should get lunch out of the way before going through the security checkpoint. We both had a cold sandwich from the deli at the food court, Kris had a Chicken wrap and I had a ham and cheese sandwich. I think I was a little nervous about the flight because I didn’t really have much of an appetite for my sandwich. I only ate half of my sandwich and I noticed Kris had only ate half of hers as well. I tried a bite out of her sandwich from the half that she didn’t eat, that’s when I realized, I wasn’t nervous but that my sandwich was just really terrible. I devoured the last half of her sandwich and we chatted for a while, and then headed for the gate area.

We got to the gate area after going thru the security checkpoint. Going thru security went pretty well, we weren’t detained or made to take off our shoes like we saw others forced to do. We settled in at the gate and prepared for our 3-hour wait to takeoff. It’s always good to be early and believe me…we were.

I panned the gate area and noticed that besides us, there were only two other people in the gate area. I will affectionately refer to them as “Cheech and Chong”. Cheech and Chong were going to Amsterdam, and you all know what you do in Amsterdam. About an hour passed and more people started coming into the gate area. There was a woman sitting in the gate area wearing a fur coat. Cheech and Chong spotted her and made her their next victim. They started talking to her about her fur coat. They asked what kind of fur it was? She told them it was Rabbit fur. I had to get a kick out of the next sequence of

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questions. Can I touch your Rabbit, one of them asked? What do they feed the Rabbits to get their fur so soft? What nationality are the rabbits? She politely kept answering their questions and told them they could touch the fur, and she wasn’t sure about their diet or their heritage. She told them she had gotten the coat in New York and it was a Donna Karan and also quite expensive. This led to their final question. Donna Karan huh? I wonder what she feeds her Rabbits?

I only had one thought going thru my mind while listening to this conversation. Please don’t let them be sitting near me!!!

Time passed slowly and they finally made the boarding announcement for our row. Luckily Cheech and Chong were not near us.

The flight from Chicago to Amsterdam would be 8 hours. The seats were very cramped and the only thing I could imagine was trying to do this on the return trip with an infant, toddler or small child. I thought it wouldn’t be easy, but an experience I couldn’t wait for because that would mean we would have our child.

The grueling 8-hour flight came to end and we landed safely in Amsterdam. Both Kris and I didn’t sleep much on the flight and it was now 7:00 A.M. local time. Our bodies were still on Chicago time and that meant it was now Midnight to us.

We would have about 4 hours before our next flight and they would not be fun ones either. We walked around briefly and stopped at the food court to get something to tide us over. We weren’t real hungry, but felt we needed something in our stomachs to hold us over until our next meal. They had a McDonalds in the Airport, everything looked normal with the exception of the McKroket Burger.

What the heck is it?

We made our way to the gate area and waited for the next 3 hours to pass. We both started to get very tired and uncomfortable. The chairs in the gate area were hard plastic, with no possible way of getting comfortable in them. I don’t know how, but time finally passed and we were on our way to Kiev. Hurray!

We boarded the plane and sat down in our seats. A gentleman soon took his seat next to us and I said hello to him. He looked like an American to me……but guess what? He wasn’t! After I said hello, he smiled and probably thought to himself….Crazy Foreigner!

The flight attendant came around later in the flight offering a sandwich. Meat or Cheese she asked. I chose meat and then looked on the bottom of the package. Minced Lamb and Cheese was my choice. I


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don’t think I have ever had that was my thought. Not sure if I ever will again either!

We landed in Kiev and deplaned quickly. We stepped into the Kiev airport and was promptly met by Alex. Alex was our guide designed to aide us thru customs. He was very high energy and quickly and accurately helped us thru what I would never want to try and do by myself. We’re IN!!!

January 9th, 2002

We're not in Kansas anymore!!

Well, we made it here safe and sound. We had a long plane ride from Chicago to Amsterdam (8hrs). Then after a 3 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam, we boarded the plane for Kiev, Ukraine. We arrived at 2:30 pm local time, which is 8 hours ahead of Chicago CST time.

January 10th, 2002

Our meeting at the Adoption Center

Our day started off pretty normal. After a restless nights sleep, we woke up at 6:00 a.m. and started getting ready for the day. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then met our party in the hotel lobby sharply at 8:00 a.m. We were joined by another couple from Texas that had traveled to Ukraine looking to adopt two boys. I was pretty relieved to find out they were adopting boys, since we already have 4 ourselves. If they would have wanted a girl I would have had to look at them as the

competition. Bill and Linda Schaake are their names and they are a very nice

couple. It was nice to have someone here that can understand what we are experiencing and be able to talk to us about it in English.



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We met Bill and Linda in the lobby of the hotel along with Anastasia and Julia (Pronounced Yool - ia), they work for Sense Resource Center, the agency we used for this adoption. Today we will meet with the local adoption center personnel in Kiev. We were accompanied by Anastasia from Sense Center. We looked over several photos of children in different regions and decided we will travel today to the region of Lutsk, which is approximately 325 miles west of Kiev. We left Kiev at 3:00 P.M. headed for Lutsk. Lutsk is the capital city of the region of Lutsk. We were originally going to take the train to Lutsk, but due to the train schedule not running from Kiev to Lutsk on even numbered days, we had to hire a Car and driver to take us to Lutsk. Conditions on the road were very icy, and took us over six hours to get to Lutsk. We finally got settled into our hotel room around 10:00 p.m.

January 11th, 2002

We Visit the Orphanage

Day Four

One note about the hotel – I think in a subtitle somewhere it is actually named Camp Ukraine. It certainly reminds me of something like that . . . . there are no towels, it’s supposed to be clean, but it’s somewhat off the mark there. No queen size bed – just two twin size cot like beds (which surprise us by being kind of comfortable). The bathroom is pretty gross – but we have discovered that we really do have hot water – if you allow it to run for about 10 minutes between 8pm and midnight – it gets pretty hot.

Well, what a day. We went to the Inspector’s office. There was a French couple there too that we had seen at the NAC yesterday. (Was it only yesterday – the days blur into each other – I am very thankful for the gift of a special journal from Patti before we left – I am filling it furiously everyday with 4-6 pages). The Inspector was very friendly and we waited only a short time to get the letter of authority to see the children at the Baby House. We walk next there – a few blocks (everything is only a few blocks



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in the small town!). We are escorted into a large room – it is beautiful.. Our interpreter tells us it is the nicest orphanage he has ever been in – most are much poorer and shabbier. The room has a beautiful parquet floor with a large oriental carpet and there is a nice Christmas tree (the Ukrainian Christmas was January 7th). They tell us we can see two girls. The director is a very animated man who is very friendly to all three of the couple sin the room. The orphanage doctor comes in with the file of the girl we will see first – Valentina. The doctor is a woman who says she has been a children’s doctor for 26 years. She reviews the file with us and then we are ready to see the baby.

An aide/nurse brings her in. She is in a cute sleeper outfit with a mismatched hat on her head and about four layers of onezies and sleepers under the outer sleeper. Her hands are still cold though. She is just precious. She has the huge eyes typical of the orphan babies – she will “grow into them” some once in America with a different diet/care – but many Ukrainian people seem to have very large eyes (and the girls/women here are strikingly beautiful – there skin is almost translucent and they are very pretty). The baby was born October 25, 2000 and was likely a month or so premature. She is able to sit up be herself and is crawling. She can pull herself up and support her weight on her legs – probably in a walker she’d be scooting all over. She is VERY playful and interactive with us. As the aides go in and out – they all call to her “Valya” and she squeals with laughter. The Director comes back in and tells us the he loves all children, but this little girl is special. She is an orphanage favorite.

We get to play with her for about an hour while we talk about this enormous step we have taken. It’s so scary. We decide we will “wrap her up and take her”. She has to go then to eat, but we can come back over the weekend to visit her for a few hours each day.

Whew! One decision made, and now begins the task of the paperwork. We trek through the town to various notaries, back to the inspector, back to the orphanage director's office, the notary again, to court to file a petition to adopt and request a court date next week (most likely Wednesday – January 16th), and then to the money exchange place again. In the midst we do stop at a small restaurant and have an INCREDIBLE lunch – we were certainly hungry, and the food was marvelous. We plan to return again (not that there would be an immense selection of other places if it wasn’t so good!).

We’ll write more later.


Adoption Journal

January 12th, 2002

Saturday in Lutsk

Welcome back!!

(Click on any of the pictures below to see an enlarged view)

First, a huge thank you to those of you who are checking in, signing the guest book and sending us

emails. Email Us!! (Please)

We have moments of immense homesickness and your words touch us very much. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!

There are apparently no apartments to rent here in the greater Lutsk metro area so we are cheerfully signing up for more nights here at Camp Ukraine. (officially Hotel Sweetiss - or that's what it sounds like anyway). Sergey is wonderful about seeing to whatever we want. He has asked the hotel staff to please clean our room and give us clean sheets every day (usually only done every 3-4 days here otherwise - you can all imagine how really not great I thought that was). Much to our surprise, the maid actually brought two towels for us too (again, not the norm here). She knew we were Americans and we were very touched by her consideration.

We walked around town this morning for a bit and then went for our hour with Grace.

We brought all the toys with us this time. She had a lot of fun playing with us and the toys. She is actually pulling herself up on the chairs and creeping around the edges. She is a very happy baby. She




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even "watered" Daddy's pants leg for him. Very funny. And we thought we wouldn't need to wash our clothes while we were here.

After our hour with her we went to the internet cafe to retrieve our email and update the web page. When we got there they told us there server was down. So we tried a different internet cafe which was much nicer. Brian went to Plan B for the website and got it all to work - hence the pics and words you are all viewing.

We went back to our favorite cafe for lunch and had the same waitress. The food is very good - again. Not spicy or too bland - very tasty. From another waitress we got directions to a Catholic Church we wanted to scope out for Mass tomorrow. We weren't sure if it would be Orthodox or Roman or Ukrainian Catholic since all three flavors can be found here in Ukraine.

We walk and walk and walk. The town is picturesque with its old, ornate buildings and cobblestone

streets. Most people walk everywhere - cars here get old fast and people can get where they want via bus or walking. Finally we get to the church. Jackpot! It is the Roman Catholic

Church of Sts. Peter and Paul which was built in 1616. There is an organist playing a huge pipe organ in the back balcony and a few people are kneeling in front. I had read in my touristy Ukraine travel book that it was okay to take pix in Churches usually as long as you didn't disturb the worship services. Brian went to it . . . . .

there was an old confessional, detailed paintings and sculptures. There was a picture collage in one of the alcoves (kind of like a class RE project on poster board) of Pope John Paul II, probably in honor of









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his visit this past year to Ukraine. Also, since we are only about 60 miles from the Polish border, and he is from Poland, he may have some special significance here too. Sergey inquires for us, and we find out that Mass is at 11am tomorrow.

After leaving the Church, we head down the street toward a castle (yes, a REAL castle) we had seen from the town square.

Wow! It was built in the 1400s by a Grand Duke Loubert who was Lithuanian and married a Ukrainian princess. There had been a wood castle standing on the site for years prior, but Loubert had this one built of brick and stone to replace it. Complete with towers, gates and until the 1800s even drawbridges. There is apparently a descendent of Loubert living in Russia that wants to buy it back, but he can't come up with enough money. Much of the castle has been restored or is being restored. We bought a ticket for the equivalent of 20 cents each and went up in one of the towers. Really neat.

There was a bridal party there getting pix taken and Brian snapped one of them too. Then we wandered back to the orphanage and spend another hour with Grace. She is lots of fun to play with and we are really enjoying her. She loves the V-tech phone we brought for her. She has four teeth - two top and two bottom and is drooling up a storm. She likes the lights and sounds of the phone, but gumming the antenna is just as satisfying.

After our hour, we head over to the "Lutsk Universal Store." Think flea market style kiosks in a three









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story building - only selling all new stuff. They have everything from fresh baked bread to electronics, clothing (even underwear), makeup, appliances and furniture. We bought only two coffee cups today so we can have soup/coffee/tea without using the sippee cups. Ukraine is famous for its ceramics and we were happy to have these little mementos - imagine our laughs when we get back to the hotel room and need to pick the "made in China" labels off the bottom of the cups! We did see some beautiful real Ukrainian ceramics, but didn't buy any today.

After the store, we just decided to call it a day and come back to the hotel room. It's amazing how draining this experience is. We aren't really doing anything overly strenuous, but just the emotion of each day takes its toll. It's great to have this laptop to work on in the room - even though we can't get phone access from here, it makes the "upload/download thing" much easier and faster when we go the internet cafes. We can get all the pix and words ready and then just add them to the site when we go out - and we can check for email then too.

All for today. Hugs to all of you and special love and kisses to our boys. We can't wait to get back home to you.

January 13th, 2002

Sunday in Lutsk - Old New Year's Eve

(Click on any of the photos below to see an enlarged view)

Here we are again . . . . we didn't have any internet access today - which is why you didn't see any postings from yesterday. You're getting Saturday and Sunday all at once.

Once again, a day filled with much of nothing. We went first to see Grace at about 9:40 till 10:45.

She was in the cute sleeper again with all the layers under it. We





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decided they must have one outfit they sleep in and the workers wash the daytime outfits each night so they can be worn again the next day. Either that, or this is her "visitor" outfit. It is quite obvious that

the orphanage workers love these children. From the room we play in with Grace, we can hear them singing and laughing with the babies. Each time we've popped our head into their room to ask for something using sign language, the women have been holding or playing with the little ones. I would say that all of the kids in the room are under 2.

Grace was very happy to see us again - but honestly it was probably more just happy than us, really.

She's very much fun to play with. Her hair is like most orphan children's hair - similar to that of a chemo patient whose hair is regrowing. Not soft, kind of stiff and

wiry. Lots of hats until the diet and nutrition improve the health of her hair!

After our time with Grace, we had a taxi pick us up and take us to the Church. It was pretty full and there was a choir in the back balcony with the organist. Mass was celebrated by a Bishop, two priests and 6 alter boys. Lots of incense and holy water sprinkled from a short handled broom. Although it was all in Ukrainian, it was still the same agenda, and I found myself saying in my head the words of the priest for certain parts. Communion was very different. Everyone went to the end of their pew and knelt in the center aisle, facing the center. The priest walked along and placed the host in the mouth of each person. Then you got up and went back into your pew. Other than that, it was much the same - except there was no heat and it lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes.

After Mass, our goal was to go to the internet cafe and upload Saturday's news and pix - and get our email. Everyone would have had a chance to see the pix of Grace, and we were hoping to have lots of email. Unfortunately, the internet place was closed for celebration of the "Old New Year" - it would be New Year's Day tomorrow according to the "old" calendar followed in Ukraine.









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Much of the country still celebrates it even though they now use the same calendar we use.

The whole downtown was bustling. There was a stage in the town square with folk singers and a brass band and balloons for the kids. Then they had a procession (not really a parade since everyone walked and there were no floats, just the band, the singers, a guy dressed like Father Time and another guy dressed like St. Nicholas.) It was neat to see this part of Ukrainian culture.

We went and lunched at our favorite cafe and then wandered a round down town some more. We also bought a package of Pampers (the real thing) for Grace. The orphanage usually diapers the children with cloth diapers then a plastic rectangle fastened with a rag tie to keep it all in place - very bulky and prone to leaks. When we were there this morning, the Aide had told

Sergey that if we wanted we could bring some "pumpers" for the orphanage for the baby. We had to have both Sergey and the Aide repeat themselves several times and finally the Aide grabbed a pamper left for another baby by the prospective parents and showed it to us. OOOOOOOH, pAmpers! We got it.

So, we headed back to the orphanage with our pampers around 3:40pm. They were just getting up from their naps and going to have a snack. The Aide took the pampers and put one on Grace and then brought her out. She then brought out a small piece of what seemed like an apple cake and a tiny cup (like you'd use for espresso) filled with what seemed like cold, watery chocolate milk - and a dish towel to use for a bib.

Gracie loved the cake. We broke off small bites and fed them to her. We made big efforts with the









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cup, but it was sloppy. Grace is about as developed as an 8-month old so she needs to have bottles - or maybe a sippee cup. She really liked whatever it was though and slurped up about half the cup - or probably less than that since a lot of it ended up on the towel.

She was lots of fun again - she crawls all over and then pulls herself up on the chairs and bounces up and down. She'll love being in an exersaucer I think - she can bounce and scoot around all she wants. Before we knew it, it was 5 and time to hand her back.

We stopped at the gas station mini-mart next to the hotel and got more Coke and bottled water. Another raucous night for us.

Tomorrow (Monday) we will go to see the judge in the morning. Sergey should be able to get a feel for how he will rule on the 30 days delay, and if there's anything we can do to get it waived. Sergey will point out medical conditions and that we have a letter from our Pediatrician that says she should receive immediate American medical care (I think it would be hard to find any child in the orphanage that couldn't benefit from US medicine and nutrition!). We'll see.

One more note before we close tonight - for Tom and Patti from Kris - you would be so proud of me . . . . . if you could only see where we're staying, what I'm eating, and how cheerfully I'm handling it all. I've got a whole new perspective for sure. My hoity-toity-ness has gone undercover (or at least I'm trying to keep it there).

Miss you all.

January 14th, 2002

Monday in Lutsk - A day much about nothing!






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Hi again from Ukraine! If you had checked Day 5 pictures and hadn't been able to "enlarge" them, try again - Brian fixed it. For those of you that haven't checked or don't know - we are eight hours ahead of the Midwest and seven hours ahead of EST. We get up and out and generally check our email by 9 or 10AM here - which is the middle of the night earlier to you all. Then we check again throughout the day - and lastly around 6pm our time - your mid-afternoon. We LOVE hearing from all of you - it is our lifeline!

Today, we filled the hours with NOTHING! We went first to the courthouse to see about Sergey talking to the judge about the 30 day delay. One quick note for those of you whom I haven't emailed details to . . . . . . The country of Ukraine has a law that is designed to protect against "hurried" adoptions where the child is quickly whisked out of the country, possibly illegally. For this, the judge is allowed to impose a 30 day waiting period from the court date of the adoption until the child may be removed from Ukraine. Like many Ukraine laws, this has a "gray" area where the judge is allowed to waive the delay, or exercise his/her discretion on a case by case basis. This is implemented on a judge by judge, region by region case and while is typically waived, it is not absolute.

In the region of Lutsk, the most recent American adoption had the 30 days imposed. However, we have obtained the advice of the Orphanage Director, the Inspector, and the knowledge of our Agency, and have at least a glimmer that there may be a waiver. We had thought to find out today, but in what we are finding to be the Ukrainian way, the judge only worked part of a day because of the optional "Old New Year's Day" holiday. Sergey is supposed to speak with him tomorrow morning again. Hopefully our prayers will be answered and we will be able to come home with Grace next week. If not, we will complete all other paperwork in the few days after court and then go home to America. We would have to return for about 5 days in mid-February to pick her up, get a US visa for her and come home. God will guide us.

After the visit to court and another trip back to the Inspector, we went to the orphanage for an hour and a half.

Today they let us feed Grace lunch. It was a very watery soup, cold beets, fish (bone in, we had





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to pick off the flesh) and kind of an oatmeal mush. It was VERY gross to us, but she seemed to like it and ate most of it. They gave us a SERVING spoon to feed her with. Picture putting such a large spoon into an 8-month old's mouth. Very messy. She liked it though and it was fun to feed her and watch her gobble things up. I think they are all very hungry, and I don't know that anyone takes as much time as we did to feed each one of them.

We stopped at our lunch cafe and had lunch and then back to the internet cafe.

We managed to upload Sat and Sunday and then surfed around ESPN to check on the first round of the NFL playoffs. We can't get any American sports here. Go Bears - beat the Eagles! Too bad about Tony Dungy. And Spurrier off to Washington. Didn't expect him to leave the South.

After Internet (we were there a long time) we went back to the orphanage. Sergey has left us at various points today to accomplish paperwork filings. He went again now to the Inspector's office (waited 45 min) to get her report that approves our adoption of Grace Valentina Fislar. Our paperwork is on its way to Kiev tonight - our Sense office translator, Anastasia will meet the train in the morning, get everything legalized/translated and back to us in Lutsk Wed for court. We played with Grace for an hour - good thing the fashion police don't inspect this orphan girl!

God bless her, she wear's 4-6 layers, none of which match and most of which are a size or more too big for her. It's a wonder she can crawl around.

Back for a quick stop at the internet and exchange some money and then - we are too nutty - tried





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a new cafe for dinner. The name is Cafe "cry" phonetically - it means "homeland". We had the BEST dinner. Wine and veal cutlet, beer for the guys and stuffed chicken cutlet. It was super. The place was much fancier than our usual place, and it was top notch. All - for the three of us - for $24 total including tip. This meal in Chicago would have been over $100 easily. The food is so good here in Ukraine. (As Brian quickly noted, this was "my kind of restaurant" - the other place is good but a little more family style than I like.)

We got back to our room about 8pm - late night for us. We spend the night watching more lousy TV (Russian dubbing and bad music videos). We also sit and I write and Brian adds the pix we take throughout each day. Hope you all enjoy. It helps us to feel that we are in touch with everyone in this way. It will be a good thing to share with Grace when she is older and for us to look back upon. They will be good memories although they are sometimes tearful in the making.

God Bless.

January 15th & 16th, 2002

(click on any of the photos below to see the enlarged view)

We have much to tell today. Not much about Tuesday, which was more of the busy work and nervously awaiting our court date this morning. We were told to be at the judge's office/courtroom at 10 am this morning and that we would be first. I think we were first in adoption cases for families with last name beginning with "F". As in, we sat on the wooden bench in the hallway from 9:15 until 11:05 and we were about the 4th or fifth case!

It was okay to wait, but nerve-racking - gave me a chance to say a few more decades of the rosary. Finally we go in and we sit in this office. Everything in Ukraine is either centuries old or certainly no newer than 1950. Except for this judge's office. It was almost as if we stepped into 1990. Beautiful flooring and window treatments, nice modern desk and accessories. The judge is about 40 and is the best dressed, best groomed man we have seen in Ukraine. Could be in a Mercedes commercial. He asks us to have a seat. Sergey has hired a certified interpreter named Anastasia (Stacy in American terms) with a diploma from the University as is required for court, but Sergey is allowed to be in the room with us too.




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The judge asks each of us basic questions - age, occupation, address, why we want to adopt, etc. We have to stand when we answer him. He talks, interpreter translates, we answer, interpreter translates back to him. The judge flips back and forth through all of the many pages of our dossier documents that make up our file. Finally he says that he sees that we have a letter from the orphanage doctor citing that for such-and-such reasons, this child should be allowed to leave the country urgently, and he knows we would like him to waive the 30 days waiting period. He says he would like to help us, but he would like to talk with this doctor. He tells us to go get her and return to his court room.

We feel there is a glimmer of hope then. I pray The Memorare like a mantra again (for those of you suffering through my "Catholicism's" - this is a special prayer to Mary in times of desperation). We head to the orphanage and fortunately the doctor is there. She agrees to come with us right away, but she says she is nervous because she has never been asked to testify before.

We return to the courthouse, but the judge is hearing another case right then so we are told again to sit on the wooden bench in the hallway. There is no heat in these hallways. We sit here for about an hour. Finally, we are summoned inside again. The judge asks to see the doctor's license and then asks her some questions. She goes on and on (makes me more nervous) and finally he says okay, okay. (I think he was tired of hearing her talk!). He shuffles his papers again and then asks us to stand and that he is ready to rule.

Here we take a deep breath and stand up. Our legs are shaking so bad, it is hard to come to our feet. He then begins by saying our names and that he is granting our petition for the adoption of this child. Then, "in the case of her last name, it shall be changed to Fislar" "in the case of her first name it shall be changed from Valentina to Grace Valentina" (they don't have middle names here), "in the case of her birth place it shall be Lutsk", THEN the important words "all parts of this adoption shall be for immediate execution." This means he has waived the 30 day wait. We both start crying and hugging each other and Sergey and the doctor. We say to the judge "spaseeba" - thank you - over and over. He tells Sergey we may come back in the afternoon to pick up the official typed decree.

We cannot put into words the feelings that were rushing through us. It was quite overwhelming. We



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had been told that in the region of Lutsk, no one knew of anyone who had the 30 days waived. Sense had not been to this region for any previous adoptions either. We know that it was only because of all of the prayers that were said on our behalf that this ruling was made. Many thanks to all of you! I felt kind of like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life when the voice in the stars tells Clarence the angel, there are many prayers going out tonight for a man named George Bailey, and we need to see about helping him. We were surely "helped."

After court, we made the rounds to the passport photographer (who will go to the orphanage later in the afternoon and take the requisite pictures for us), the office of Vital Records, another Records office, and then finally lunch (about 3pm), which by the way - was the best restaurant we have been to

yet. We go to these offices to make sure where they are, and that they are open tomorrow (there are many random hours and days kept by many offices here). We should be fine. After lunch we try the judge's office for the decree - they say come back after 5 so we head to the orphanage. Grace is in a playpen, and she recognizes me as I walk in (no, not just wishful thinking - she really did!).

We play for a little, and then the photographer comes. Imagine trying to get a baby to hold her head so we have a picture of the right ear and front of her face. The photographer does not have a point and shoot camera either. He has Brian holding the flash box out toward the wall be hind her, a nurse holding her, and Sergey and I trying to get her attention at the right spot. When we get it, only then does this guy start trying to focus. By the time he's ready, she of course has tired of that spot and is squirming and we start all over. It took quite awhile before we got these all right.

Then we leave, and check back at the judge's office. The secretary says so sorry, but you will need to come back tomorrow at 10am since it is not ready yet (she types it, makes lots of copies, and then the judge has to sign it). Sergey says that is still okay and that we will be able to still get everything done tomorrow, asking for lots of favors to hurry things as we go along. We have to get a letter from the Orphanage saying we have permission to apply for a passport and take this child to America, take her original birth certificate from the Orphanage and have it reissued and changed to new parents (that is law here) and then get this new one "legalized" (think notarized by Registrar type person), pickup the passport pictures, go to the passport office (thank goodness it is Thursday tomorrow because this passport office only works on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and get her passport by the end of the day. If we can accomplish all of this, we will pick her up and leave for Kiev on Friday morning.






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After we leave the courthouse, it is now about 5:30 and our day is almost over by our terms. We head

to our usual internet cafe that closes at 6:00. It takes us 10 min's to walk there and we get to spend all of 20 minutes catching up on emails and whatever relevant news of the world. We have to admit that the relevant news to our world is our website and ESPN and right now that is about it. After we finish up and leave the IC (internet cafe), we head back to our hotel. This hotel up to this point has been quite an adventure. After speaking with our interpreter from the university, she informs us that we are staying in the nicest of all places in Lutsk. We start talking between ourselves and come

to the conclusion, things could be worse. We have about a 15 min walk from the Internet Cafe to our hotel. We make our usual stop at the gas station on the corner near the hotel. We are quite the "Americans in Ukraine" as we have to get our normal dose of Coca-Cola. They do have Coke and Pepsi here, but from what we can tell, Coke is obviously more popular. We have the gas station attendant get us 2 cokes and a couple of ice Cream bars. We get back to the room and eat our ice cream bars and split our Coke. We stick our leftover coke in a bag and hang it outside the window so it will be cold in the morning. We keep looking for the wet-bar in the room, but I think they must've forgot to put one in our room. We end our day in the room by watching TV. The usual - Music videos and the BBC world news, they seem to do the trick, although I guess the NFL is not that important in the whole scheme of what is going on in the world.

We are very fortunate that Sense Resource Center has a minivan and we can ride in relative comfort.

The driver, Nikolai, who drove us here last Friday will pick us up again. We also need to go tomorrow and buy some clothes for her. The orphanage gives her to us with no clothes on her back so we need to buy enough for a few days - just enough to get out of the orphanage and out of the country.

Also one last word about something that I have neglected to detail for you all. The streets and sidewalks of Lutsk. It would be an American attorney's personal injury windfall. There are no snowplows, no snow blowers, and as near as we can tell not too many shovels. There is a 4 to 6 inch layer of ice and compacted snow on all of the sidewalks. This is even deeper and pothole filled in the streets. Where the ice is not showing through to the surface, it is covered with a powdery mushy dry



http://www.ivcgreyghosts.com/ukraine/room.jpg

http://www.ivcgreyghosts.com/ukraine/john.jpg


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snow - it would be slush if it melted at all.

To all those who told me I had to have Mukluk boots not my leather fashion boots, yes, you were right. I have switched to the Mukluks fulltime here in Lutsk. It is difficult to walk anywhere and we have seen many people fall. (We haven't yet wiped out though.) Occasionally we see an old woman with a metal pipe chipping away at the ice and then sweeping it with an old straw broom. Sergey says once spring comes, it takes about a month to melt. Despite the treacherous walking conditions (and I would guess that we walk about 5 miles each day), there are young women here who we see wearing very high heeled fashion boots. Brian saw this particular young woman and

thought you all need to see this.

All for tonight. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to think of us as we finish up the official things here and then on to Kiev and Warsaw. We are hoping to be home toward the end of next week if all goes well.

January 17th, 2002




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Here is today's agenda.

To give you an idea of what needs to be accomplished on this day, here is a small rundown.

First we would need to get a copy of the Judge's final Decree, we needed to get the court decree, take it to the orphanage and have them in turn give us a letter stating that we had permission to get a passport for Grace and take her to America. The orphanage also would then give us the original birth certificate, we would then have to take that to the office of vital records and have a new birth certificate made stating we were the parents. We then needed to take the new birth certificate and have it legalized. Next we would have to take a document stating we are requesting a passport for Grace and have it notarized. After getting the notarized letter, we would then have to go to the Passport Office in Lutsk. This office is ran by the Lutsk police, and the majority of the people that are on the Lutsk police force are former KGB. While waiting for the passport paperwork, we would also need to seek out the photographer that had taken Grace's photos for the passport, then deliver them to the Passport office. Once all of this is accomplished we would then be able to go the orphanage and pick up copies of all the immunization records for Grace and take her with us. NO PROBLEM you say? One last BIG PROBLEM, the passport office is not open to do passports on Friday, and they close at 6:00 p.m. If all this is not accomplished, we are stuck in Lutsk till Monday. God, please help us again!!

Well the first problem is that we have to start Thursday off by going to the Court at 10:00 a.m. (nothing else in town opens earlier either) to get the Judge's final Decree. We showed up promptly at 10:00 a.m. to find that we had good news and bad. The document was ready, but they had spelled Brian's name wrong (he thinks everyone misspells his name, no matter what country he's in). That meant that the whole document had to be re-printed and a dozen or so copies would have to be run off before being handed off to us. Luckily on this day, the printer and the copier were both working. By the time it was all said and done, we were walking out of the court house with the documents in hand, it was 11:00 a.m.

With documents in hand we literally run as fast as we possibly can to the orphanage. On the way, we see the office where the photographer keeps shop and decide to try and kill two birds with one stone by dropping in at seeing if the passport photos were done. He had promised them to us by Noon. We head inside and first his assistant tells us "He won't be in today". We can't understand her since she is speaking Russian, but can tell by Sergey's reaction that whatever she said it was not acceptable. Sergey tells her that he promised and she gets up and trots off to see if she knows where he could be. Almost





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nobody it seems carries a cell phone or a beeper, so it is nearly impossible to track anyone down. She returns to tell us she believes he will be back today sometime. Well, that is better than not at all we surmise and start high-tailing it to the orphanage again.

We get to the Orphanage and luckily the director is there to give us the Grace's original Birth Certificate. When we are there, the doctor at the orphanage tells us that all the children with Grace our now sick except her. She feels we should take her tonight from the orphanage, so we don't run the risk of her getting sick. We tell her that is no problem, and she tells us we need to be back by 6:30 p.m. to get her. Sergey decides we should hire a taxi to drive us to the office of vital records. When the taxi shows up, we make notice that is a Mercedes and hop in. By the time we reach the Vital records it is about 11:40 a.m. Sergey tells us to stay in the taxi and he will be back. He returns in roughly 15 minutes and tells us that the Director of the Office of Vital Records is not in, but hopefully she will be back soon. We wait. Our biggest fear at this point is that this person we are waiting for will A.) Not show up until after their lunch hour. or B.) Not show up at all. After sitting in the waiting area for over an hour, she finally shows up. She tells us that her lunch hour is from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Sergey then pleads our case to her and she accepts to stay and help us then go to lunch afterwards. Hurray!!! She gives us the copy of our New Official Birth Certificate and voila......we are officially now....in writing....the birth parents of Grace Valentina Fislar.

We then shuffle our feet to a different part of this building to get the Certificate legalized. Luckily this is done relatively quick, which is most unlike how all other of our requirements have been handled.

We head back to the taxi that is waiting for us, we had asked him how much to wait for us and his reply was that he would work for us exclusively for 10 "Greevna's" an hour. 10 "Greevna's" (Hryvnia is the correct spelling I believe, but that is how it is pronounced) is the equivalent of 2 U.S. Dollars. Can you imagine a taxi cab driver in downtown Chicago waiting for you for $2 dollars an hours, and in a Mercedes? Anyways, our taxi then takes us back to the Notary which will prepare the document and notarize it that we will then take to the Passport Office.

We get to the Notaries office, it is now 1:55 p.m., and they are on a lunch break. They should return at 2 p.m. We wait again. When they do return, it is now about 2:20 p.m. Sergey quickly explains what needs to be done and we get to leave there at 3:00 p.m. with document in hand. We are starting to run out of time.

When we show up at the Passport office, Sergey tells us to wait in the taxi and he will drop off the paperwork to have them start processing the passport, while that is in the process, we will go back to the photographer and get the photos for the passport.

Sergey is gone a very long time, it is now about 4:15 p.m. and Brian decides to try and find what office Sergey is waiting in to see what problems he has encountered. After checking several doors in the Passport office building he finds Sergey. Sergey tells Brian that he has been mislead and the Officer is telling him he is in the wrong building to have this done. He explains to Sergey, that the paperwork


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must be filed in another office, processed, hand delivered to the other office and then mailed to the recipient. Sergey again tells him there must be some other way. After many phone calls between the two offices, they tell Sergey that this can be done, but there is a catch. The catch is....the person that will prepare the passport will have to work overtime in order to prepare this form and in turn will miss her ride home. If we want this passport, we will have to agree to pay the taxi cab driver to take her home. Sergey again makes a crucial judgment call on our behalf. They are tough negotiators.

We get back in the taxi and drive across town and file the paperwork. It is now 4:45 p.m. and the orphanage closes at 6:30 p.m.

When we get to the second passport office, Sergey runs inside with all our official documents and a half hour later returns with a policeman that will accompany us to the main passport office. This is all starting to look like it might come together, but still many things must happen. When we get back to the main passport office it is now 5:40 p.m. We drop the policeman off with our documents to be processed. Sergey goes in the taxi cab to the photographer's shop to get the passport photos. We pray again that he is there. In the meantime Brian and I run.....and we truly did run...several blocks to a children's clothing store. We don't have any clothes to fit Grace, and the orphanage gives you only her bare body when you take her. Remember that we do not speak the language while picking out the clothes. We do sign language and point to certain items and point to our socks to describe how we want to buy socks. The end result is, we got the job done. We run back to the passport office and it is now 6:05 p.m.

At 6:20 p.m. the woman that prepared the Passport walks out and smiles and hands us the Passport..........We put her in her taxi, pay our taxi driver 90 Greevna's for his 7.5 hours of work and off they go.

We are now roughly 5 minutes from the orphanage, we hire another taxi to take to the orphanage to get Grace.

Finally we get our child!!!!!

After about a 10 min wait at the orphanage, the doctor takes us to Grace's room and has the caregiver's take her clothing from her. As they bring her in, she is obviously cold from losing her clothes, and crying. We quickly diaper and dress her and quickly she is all smiles again. Brian bundles her in his coat and we say our goodbyes to the caregivers and we are off.

When we get to the Hotel (Camp Ukraine), we finally feel like everything we have worked towards has


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suddenly been achieved.

You can say what you want.....But today was truly a miracle AGAIN.

January 18th, 2002

Friday - We leave Lutsk. Heading for Kiev.

Well, we woke up early on Friday as we prepared to leave Lutsk headed for Kiev. Thursday night was a

lot different than the previous 7 nights that we had spent at the Hotel Sweetis . Grace was very cute as she explored this new world of hers. I imagine she'd never been out of the orphanage since probably the day she arrived. She went to sleep at 9:30 p.m. snuggled in next to Mommy. Both Kris and I went to sleep then as we were both very exhausted, both physically and undoubtedly mentally.

Grace slept the whole night without any problems. We both woke around 6:00 a.m. this morning and prepared to repack our bags to check-out. Grace slept so well that we eventually had to wake her at 7:00 a.m. to feed her. Nikolai, our driver, was due to arrive in Lutsk at approximately 8:30 a.m. then we would pack up the mini-van and take care of a couple final obligations in Lutsk and we could be on our way.

Nikolai was very prompt and we were very happy to see him, I imagine its the feeling that Gilligan and the Skipper never got to experience, as I feel we were getting off "our Island". Luckily we were only shipwrecked for 8 days.

We dropped off a couple a miscellaneous documents and by 9:30 a.m. we were on our way. Goodbye Lutsk!! I felt a very empty feeling in my stomach at that point. I am not sure if it was because I felt we were leaving a place that we might never return to, or just that we haven't had a solid meal for two days. Either way you slice it, it was Bon Voyage Lutsk!

Grace didn't seem to mind the car right at all, she fussed briefly and then fell deep into a sleep in Kris' arms. The next five hours went pretty fast actually. We enjoyed seeing the scenery from Lutsk to Kiev. To give you some ideas of the types of things we saw on our way back to Kiev. Every major city that



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you approach has a monument welcoming you into the city . The smaller towns have a

sign telling you the name of the city you are about to enter , and then on down the road, you will see the same sign with a red line going across the name to tell you that you are about to leave

the city limits . You might also see a roadside Prayer Kiosk or a very

ornately decorated bus shelter . People walk everywhere they have to get to and from, and you might look off into a nearby field to see a person walking and their destination is not even



http://www.ivcgreyghosts.com/ukraine/You%20are%20now%20entering%20the%20city




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viewable to the naked eye. You'll see very large bird nests on top of telephone poles

(not really sure what bird is making these nests), Horse drawn carts are a more normal

site in this country and are put to good use. People are seen riding in the carts with what appears to be flour and other cooking necessities. Roadside stands are everywhere selling anything

and everything you can think of, like brooms , stuffed animals, car care products. Food

and drinks are especially popular and you can get an alcoholic beverage anywhere and everywhere no matter what time. There is a drinking age over here, but apparently if you have the right sum of money on you, the age roadblock can be lifted. Every so far you will also come across a roadside security checkpoint. Police will randomly pull you over and ask to look at your passport and check your vehicle over. Our trip from Lutsk to Kiev was about 400 Kilometers, which leads me to you that everything also is in the metric form, this can throw you off. Being American means you get used to being 5' 10" compared to X amount of Centimeters, you don't drive 60 miles per hour.....you drive 100 Kilometers per hour. Try to go to a restaurant and order a glass of wine and the question will be......How much wine would you like? 100 Grams, 200 Grams or 300 Grams? Baby clothes are not found in a 6 month size, they are a 62. 8-9 month clothing ranges from 72-80. One good thing is that an Hour is an hour....and not 452 quentiminions or something goofy like that.

Well, we arrive in Kiev and it is now about 2:30 p.m. Nastya (Anastasia) has arranged for us to stay at a flat that is owned by SRC (Sense Resource Center). We pull in and start to unload, we were told in the van that we would like this place. How could we not like it, remember we have stayed in Camp Ukraine







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for the last 8 nights. Kris gets out of the van with Grace and they go inside. When I start to walk in myself, I can hear Kris saying "Bri...come here....you've got to see this. This place is incredible." I start to look around, and notice we have a King Size Bed, Baby Crib, an incredible Bathroom/Shower, 1100 Watt Hair Dryer (our travel hair dryer is 600 watts), A Working Phone Line for my Dial-up connection, TV, VCR, Microwave Oven, Refrigerator (see I knew the wet-bar was here somewhere), Hot Pot, Brita Water Filter, Clean towels, and yes.....most of all, a Washing Machine and Dryer. How much does this cost a night you say? $60.00 USD a night, I think I have died and went to heaven.

Soon Victor and Nastya come over from the SRC office and welcome us back. We thank them over and over for all the great things everyone from their organization has done for us. Sense Resource Center is certainly a Class Act!!!

Kris asks Nastya if she can take to her to a place to get some clothes for Grace and some food to keep in the room. I will stay back with Grace while they run out and get what we need. I say my goodbye's to Sergey for all the incredible things he has helped us accomplish. I find it very hard to speak at the moment, while all the emotion over the last few days come back to me. People can say all they want about the other "independent" adoption programs of the world, but SRC is the only company I would ever to try and do an international adoption through.

January 19th & 20th, 2002

The Weekend - How many cheerios make up a meal?

Well the weekend came and the 3 of us didn't really do a lot of anything. We do know that Grace likes this new liquid food that she has never experienced before.......FORMULA. She still isn't eating a lot of anything else, except she does like Cheerios. We still haven't found the answer to the question above though. We went to the market and bought some touristy items and really hung out in the flat. We have seen some of the most incredible buildings here in Kiev. Unfortunately, we are experiencing Kiev in the winter and we are not able to take the stroller out and walk Grace around too much. Hopefully in a few years we can come back with Grace (during the spring months preferably) and let her see a part of her







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heritage.

On a down note: The Bears lost. I logged on to the internet at Midnight here in Kiev and listened to the game thru NFL.COM At one point when the Bears were losing I considered praying for some help. But I reconsidered, I guess I figured I had been properly taken care of this week and someone else out there needed help more than I did.

Not a lot we can get accomplished here tomorrow. Why you ask? Because it is Martin Luther King Day for US workers here in Ukraine too and the US Embassy is closed.

Well, that's enough for today, not a lot to talk about this weekend. We just really enjoyed hanging out and getting to know our little girl better.

January 21st, 2002

Just another Manic Monday......Wish it were Thursday

Monday would be a day where we would only be able to clear one hurdle. We would need to take Grace to a General Practitioner in Kiev and have her checked over to make sure she is current with all of her immunizations. Once she has been approved, we will be able to proceed to the US Embassy in Kiev. Normally we would be able to do both in the same day. Due to the US Holiday MLK Day, all US workers in Kiev are off today. We will go tomorrow.

Grace saw the doctor and he wasn't at all what we expected. I think we were expecting a more systematic Ukrainian doctor. One that would usher us in, look at her chart, listen to her breath and then send us on our way. He wasn't that at all. Luckily, we saw one of the more popular younger doctors at the clinic. He was very personable and gentle with Grace, showing her his stethoscope and letting her grab it before he would press the cold end of it against her warm body. After it was all said and done, he said she wasn't at the top of the growth charts, but was still doing fine.


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We got back to the guest flat

and it was now about 10:30 a.m.

Kris started packing things up, while I fiddled on the computer or was playing with Grace.

The weather here today was gorgeous and around 1:00 p.m. I decided I would walk a couple of blocks and get us a pizza for lunch. This would be the first trip either of us have taken by ourselves out into this foreign country without any interpreter. I know the words for Thank you, Hello and Goodbye, and "My name is Brian". With that said, thank goodness we were told that the pizza place has an English menu and all I would have to do is point to the item and they would ring it up. So off I go. Kris also asks me to go to the corner grocery/liquor store and get her a bottle of water. No problem right? Well, I get to the store and start to pick out a bottle of water. Here in Ukraine, most the people drink carbonated bottled water and mineral water is not as common but it is out there. As I get to the store, I began to rummage thru the bottles of water. I find one bottle that appears not to be carbonated, so I get it. As I am standing in line to checkout there is a girl standing in front of me that appears to be 14-15 years old. Sergey had told us that most students learn English in the schools. So I thought I could ask her if she could look at the bottle and tell me if it were carbonated or just plain mineral water. As she looks my way, I say to her (slowly) "Do you speak English?" and she replies in English "No". So I turned to the two young ladies behind me and ask the same thing to them and they both gave me the same answer - "No". Well at this point, I now have 3 people looking at me rather strangely too I might add. I point to the bottle of water and say slowly.......Bubbles? The teenage girl immediately grabs the bottle from me, I step back as the two woman converge on the bottle as well. After a brief deliberation, the verdict was brought down. "Nyet Bubbles!" the teenager says. I say back to her "Nyet Bubbles?" And then all three look at me and shake their heads No. No Bubbles it was.

I get the Pizza next and without any problems. I head back to the flat and we devour the pizza. Kris tried the water, NO Bubbles.........what a country!!





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On another note: This might be the last day that I am able to update the website, tomorrow we leave Ukraine and head to Warsaw, Poland. We hope to be home Thursday and I will put the finishing touches on this journal after we get home. Please know that we couldn't have made this trip without the support of our family and friends. If you sent us an email and we didn't reply, it wasn't because we didn't care. We loved every single email and guest book entry, and read everyone of them with great emotion. From the bottom of our hearts we thank you all!!!

January 22nd,2002

Tuesday - Leaving Kiev headed for Warsaw

Well, there is not a lot to tell you about Tuesday other than this was our day to leave Ukraine. We started the morning out by going to the US Embassy in Kiev. They made sure all our paperwork was in order so we could leave and go to Warsaw. Everything checked out fine and we were on the fast track out of town. I will try and give you a little explanation of why we have to go to Poland. The US Embassy in Kiev does not have the authority to issue visa's to the United States. Try and think of the Embassy in Kiev as a Jr. Embassy and only visa's are issued by the Sr. Embassy. In this case, the Sr. Embassy for Eastern Europe is Warsaw, Poland. We would then have to leave Kiev, fly to Warsaw, go thru a small interview process and have all our paperwork checked out again. After this is all done, a visa for Grace would be issued and we would be able to fly home with her.

We got back to the flat after the embassy, we would only have a short period of time to kill before leaving for the airport. Sergey and his wife came by to say goodbye to us. Both Kris and I were very touched that they wanted to see us one last time before we left. I have to once again tell you how grateful we are for the job Sergey did for us. He was able to accomplish things that I never would have imagined to be possible. The whole sense team has been great.

Nikolai shows up with Anastasia and we're now ready to head to the airport. We say our final goodbyes to Sergey and his wife and our finally ready to go.

On the way to the airport we are able to do some final sightseeing from within the van. The pictures I was able to take while in Kiev, were usually shot from a moving mini-van and not always the best quality. Some of the things we saw along the way were: The only Lenin Statue left standing in Kiev.


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When Ukraine gained their independence back in 1991, several statues of Lenin were destroyed. In the following picture, you see a big screen TV on the side of a hill

where a Lenin Statue once stood. I am not quite sure what this next picture represents,

but it stands in the main square in downtown Kiev. These are

photos of a couple small churches in Kiev, the golden domes are beautiful.

Well, we got to the airport and only had a short wait while we were waiting to board. The flight to Warsaw took about an hour an a half and Grace did pretty well. She fell asleep about halfway into the flight and woke up just as we landed. We were met by our Sheraton Hotel Representative at the airport and he arranged a taxi for us to the hotel. I can only say that when we walked into our room, we stepped into Western Civilization as we know it. The room is great. We even get American TV!! Fox News Channel......and it is not Fox News Channel "Europe" as we see so many things labeled. For example, we got a Wall Street Journal "Europe Edition" on the plane to Warsaw. We ordered room service and called it an early night......only one more night after this one and we leave for home. We can't wait!!!









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January 23rd,2002

Wednesday - Home is 5000 miles away.....but seems so close.

Wednesday started off pretty good...we got up early and went downstairs for breakfast. We had a nice continental breakfast and started to head back up to the room before going to the Embassy. Our appointment is scheduled at 9:00 a.m.

We start to walk thru the hotel lobby when I notice a guy wearing a t-shirt and shorts. At first, I think to myself that this guy must be heading to the exercise room on the lower level. As I look closer, I notice his shorts say Illinois Basketball on them. I glance up at his face, as I do this I realize I know this person. He is Brent Walters, my cousin's husband. He says to me with amazement......"Brian Fislar!!" I stand there in total disbelief. Brent and his family, currently live in Zurich, Switzerland. Brent works for Caterpillar and has been on this assignment for almost two years. He explains that he is on business and has stayed this hotel before and it is one of the nicest is Eastern Europe. We stand there talking for a few more minutes and discover that we were both on the same elevator the night before. He thought he had recognized me when he got on the elevator, but didn't want to stare in case he was wrong. What a small world!!

After seeing a friendly face so far from home, it was time to then head to the Embassy. This went pretty well. We got to the embassy around 9:00 a.m. There were about 7 other couple from the United States that also had adopted. We all stood together in a group and shared our experiences over the last couple weeks. We all came to the same conclusion. There's no place like home.

We finished our paperwork and are told to comeback at 3:00 p.m. to pick up our visa for Grace. In the meantime, we decide that since it is a nice day, probably in the forties, we will bundle Grace up and put her in the stroller and see some of the sights. We discover an old Catholic Church, St. Alexander, that is right across the street from where we are staying. When we enter the church, we notice the old pews,

and the ornate decorations. This church is beautiful!

This is a statue of a man in Poland that lead the farmer movement prior to World War





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II, his name is Wincenty Witos.

Well, this is it for today, we now prepare to leave tomorrow, it is now about 25 hours until we land in Chicago. We will leave Warsaw tomorrow morning at 6:40 am. This is 11:40 p.m. Chicago time, we will have a stopover in Amsterdam for about 2 hours then have an 8 hour flight to Chicago. We hope to land around 12:45 p.m., then we expect to be detained up to an hour in customs once we get in. It will be so nice to get home. This has been an incredible experience, one that we will live with for the rest of our lives. Once again, I want to thank everyone that gave us support on this trip. I can't wait to get back and speak with everyone and say thank you in person.

It has now been almost two weeks since we first were introduced to Grace. It is unbelievable how much she has changed in such a short period of time. She has truly flourished with so much personal attention. I truly fell in love with her from the first moments we laid eyes upon her. We are truly blessed.

Goodbye for now.....say one last prayer for our safe return.

We love you all!!

Brian and Kristen Fislar

January 24th,2002



Adoption Journal

We made it home!!!! God Bless the U.S.A.

Well, we started off our morning by getting up at 2:30 A.M. to prepare for our flights home. 2:30 A.M. is the same as 7:30 P.M. Local Chicago time for us. Our flight is scheduled to leave at 6:40 A.M. and we will fly to Amsterdam and have a 2 hour layover while we wait to depart for home. We are scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 12:45 P.M., that means we only have 16 hours until we make it home. Emotions are running high for both us. This is day we never thought would get here, or this is the day we thought might get here and we might be returning home with our Grace only to have to return 30 days later to get her. Luckily, as you all know by now, our many prayers were answered and that didn't happen.

We got to the airport in plenty of time and had a small wait before we would board the plane. When we finally got on the plane and was waiting to takeoff, a couple walked by and asked what Grace's name was. When we told them, the man exclaimed, "Ah Grace, a blessed child!" This couldn't have been more true we thought.

Our plane departed Warsaw headed for Amsterdam on time, we fed Grace a bottle and she fell asleep. She had to be tired we thought, she got up 4 hours early today. We were hoping she would make it thru this flight by staying awake and then sleep a good majority of the 9 hour flight home. She slept for about an hour an a half and woke up just in time to land in Amsterdam. As usual, she woke up very happy and smiling. Well, the first leg of our quest is over. I have to tell you, the landing in Amsterdam was the first I had ever experience. I kid Kris a lot about her being a nervous flyer, I usually am not bother with takeoffs, landings or turbulence. This time as the plane was making its final approach, the wind was playing games with our aircraft and I was nervous. When I told Kris I was nervous, it didn't having a calming effect on her, go figure.

The next two hours seemed to drag, Grace was fidgety so that added to our wait. Its been a while since I was able to take advantage of the typical announcement you hear while waiting to board your flight. "People traveling with small children, or just needing a little extra time boarding the plane, may do so at this time." Hurray, that's us!

We get to our seats and get situated. We had requested bulkhead seating, this gave us quite a bit more legroom. After everyone gets on the plane and gets situated, it is now about 5 minutes after our scheduled departure time. We hear an announcement being made. Since this is an international flight we hear the announcement first in Dutch, then we would hear it in English. I guess we should have





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known it was not a good announcement, when after the Dutch announcement was made, there was a grown from a good majority of the people. The English announcement is now being made........"Hello Folks, this is your captain. We have a small delay right now. Our ground crew has informed us that we a cargo light that is staying on. We can't depart without this light being off. Technical help is on their way and we'll try to get the problem resolved. Thanks for your patience and we'll keep you advised." When I hear this, the first thing that comes to mind is the Saturday Night Live character played by Gilda Radner, Roseanne Roseanna Danna hit it right on the head when she used to say......"ITS ALWAYS SOMETHING!!" So we wait. The captain comes back and makes another announcement about 20 minutes later telling us that they had found the problem. It was a faulty switch and they are now free to pushback from the gate in anticipation to depart.

We finally get in the air and we are homeward bound. To give you a quick rundown then you can use your imagination. We tried everything to get Grace to sleep, but to no avail. The 9 hour flight seemed more like 30. Grace managed to fall asleep twice for a total of 45 minutes. The minutes crept along. We made a lot of new friends with our fussy child. Thank goodness for headsets, as I saw a lot of people putting them on when Grace was not happy.

We got to Chicago about 45 minutes late. After going thru customs and Immigration, we were cleared to get our baggage. Amazingly enough, all our bags showed up and we were set to find our friends that were picking us up. As we walked thru the double doors that lead to everyone's reception area, I could see Tom and Patti Norman. From far away, I start waiving my hands in the air so they see us. As we get there, each of us hug and embrace one another and are overjoyed with the fact we are back. Grace is excited to meet Aunt Patti and Uncle Tom and smiles from ear to ear despite not sleeping at all lately and probably is exhausted. Tom gets the van and we load up and are finally headed for home. It is now 2:30 P.M., If we don't experience any traffic we will be able to get home just in time to see Tim, Matt and Mark get off the school bus.

Traffic flows rather well and we make it home at 3:15 P.M. When we get out of the van, our neighbor Joanne Carnagio is at our house. Several neighbors have decorated the house inside with streamers and balloons and put "Its a Girl!" signs all over the yard and inside the house. It was a very nice feeling to get home to such a warm reception. All our relatives and friends have been absolutely wonderful.

The bus arrives down the street at around 3:45 P.M., Mark and Matt are the first to get off the bus, Tim is towards the back and gets off almost last. We hear some voices saying, "They're Back....They're Back". Both Matt and Mark begin to run in our direction and we immediately give them all big hugs and tell them how much we love them and missed them. Tim trailed the pack and eventually got to us, getting the same warm hugs and kisses routine.

It was great to get back home and have the boys meet their new sister. The rest of the evening was a blur, as we were running on adrenaline. Grace finally went to bed about 7:00 P.M. and both of us ran out of gas at 9:00 P.M. We call it a night.


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Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives!!

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gate area

cheese sandwich

cold sandwich

carryon bags

fur coat

security checkpoint

kind of fur

ohare airport