One long post about our last two days

Hello everyone!!

First thank you all for the wonderful replies to our post yesterday and our introduction to the newest Hollis. Your encouragement and support has left us in tears… good tears, which we seem to cry a lot of these days.

So to go back and give you the recap… yesterday (Wed) we woke at 3 am and finished packing up our stuff to leave Kiev. At 4 am the van arrived with Irina, and the Dickinson family. We all crowded into the van for the 7+ hour drive. The first hour or so we were all very talkative, but then things quieted for a bit while we settled in for the drive. Or perhaps we all quieted so that we could pray for our lives on this crazy drive!!! Irina told us reassuringly that he was not driving fast, that this is just the way all people drive over here… and I believe her… I also believe that the typical driving is completely crazy and terrifying to the passengers!! It did not help my fear that every mile or so there was a memorial to some one who died on that road… I was convinced that it was a former passenger of our driver!! Needless to say I was grateful to get out of that van and arrive in Izmayl!!!

When we arrived we headed to the courthouse to pick up some papers, then went and got a quick bite to eat, then went to our apartment. Izmayl is much different then Kiev… much smaller, very few modern conveniences and not much to see. It is a rarity that our apartment has internet (which wasn’t working last night and we were very upset, that is the one luxury that we don’t think we can do without… it is our connection to the kids and everyone at home!!) so we were very thankful when a nice man came by today to get it up and running for us!

After getting settled we headed to the orphanage with the Dickinson’s and Irina. The orphanage is on the outskirts of the city. We met with the Principal of the orphanage, he is a very kind man, and it is obvious he cares a great deal about the children. The facility is nice in that the grounds are clean and the buildings are kept up. There are 70 kids in this one facility. We heard about Alina’s history. She was born to a single mom and left at the hospital. She has been at this particular orphanage since birth, so they have good medical information on her. Overall she is very healthy.

We went downstairs to meet the kids. We walked into the room and Alina was standing there (with those bows!!) and was very outgoing. They said to her (in Ukrainian) ‘Alina go say hello to your mamma and papa”… she came over and gave us both a big hug. Todd and I absolutely melted into a puddle of tears… she was all smiles. She is an amazing little girl… very friendly, very active, interested in everything and loves to cuddle and give hugs. The nurses said she is very smart, she is going on the potty, she can drink out of an open cup, she dresses herself. In her group, she is the leader, giving instruction to others (Meggie will have some competition!!). They said that she keeps up with her age appropriate peers, and that if it wasn’t for the facial features, you wouldn’t suspect her to have Down Syndrome, she is just that advanced!!

We went to the grocery and got some food for dinner, which we ate with the Dickinsons. At this point the day had been a whirlwind. Early morning. Crazy drive. Meeting our children. Dinner was the first time we had a chance to let our minds adjust to what was going on. We were thrilled and thankful for the children God has placed in our lives. Opposing all of that joy, though, was disappointment and frustration with our living conditions (coupled with the drain from the drive down here). In my opinion our apartment complex would be a “housing project” by US standards. That may be typical for here, but it was very unsettling for us. No lights between buildings at night. No lights in the entryways or stairwells (fortunately we were both on the first floor). And the internet…it is more than a convenience. It is our lifeline to our family (that includes our friends – you are our family, too). We felt a bit empty at the end of dinner and we prayed for God’s strength and understanding and asked him to help us in any way he saw fit. Anne, Meghan Dickinson and I went to the internet café and posted on our blogs and Skyped. That helped. We held on to the hope that the internet would be fixed today (Thursday).

So, today we met Alina for the second and third times. She remembered us right away and ran to great us. She gave big hugs and then was off and running!!! She may be more active than any of our other children. Amazing. In the morning we showed her pictures on the camera, which she enjoyed. We also let her play with a flashlight, which she waived all around, giggling at the lights on the wall. Noah and Caleb will appreciate this in her. And, of course, she ran around in Anne’s shoes and mine. In the afternoon we took bubbles, which are a favorite of hers. She also really liked the Viewfinder with random Disney images. Alina looked at pictures of the family in a book we made for her and pointed to Anne and I both. She growled at Joie, so that poor dog may never get a break between her and Meg. The biggest hit of the afternoon was swinging her around and overhead. She’s a daredevil. Our children love physical play! And by the way, when Anne asked her if she had to go potty she walked over, turned around and tugged at her pants, and when Anne pulled them down she sat and went. Yeah! When she left for dinner we were excited by how much she had bonded with us.

Okay, so here’s the tough part of the day. The internet guy fixed the internet, so we were pretty happy. Still, we had Irina take us to the new hotel in town that has internet (the only one). Rooms start at 290 grivnas ($35) and go up to 600 ($70). We really didn’t plan on using the hotel, since we had the internet and had grown close with Wayne and Meghan and their kids. Still, we looked at the rooms. I would say they are on par with Embassy Suites or better. That, coupled with the fact that the cab rides to the orphanage would be cheaper (4 times per day), made the hotel cheaper for us than the $30 we were paying for the apartment. It was a hard decision, especially since we felt we were abandoning the Dickinsons, but in the end we decided that the hotel was the way to go. The biggest upside of the hotel is that we have internet 24/7, which is the single most important thing to us right now in terms of accommodations. We plan on spending time with Wayne and Meghan outside of our orphanage visits and will hopefully be able to let them use our internet regularly.

So that is the update on the last two days… we are off to get some sleep. Good night!!!