Thursday, September 29

Hi everyone. We have been in the orphanage city for 7 days now visiting Connor.
He is getting more comfortable with us every day. His caretakers tell us that he waits for us to come visit him and he is expecting more individual care from them now. We started visiting him twice a day from 10 to 12 and 4:30 to 6. We think he has put on some weight since we have been coming. We are giving him juice and fruit. He loves bananas and says "nana". He says words but hasn't really spoken any english yet. He runs to us when we come visit and he gives us kisses and hugs! We can't wait to get him home to meet everyone!

We hope to have a court date next week. Hopefully early in the week. After the court date, there is a mandatory 10 day wait until we can take Connor to Kiev to the American Embassy to finish his paperwork so he can come home with us. The 10 day waiting period is a new law that just was passed and the court systems are trying to work out the specifics of the new laws/procedures. We are not sure of the purpose of the new procedures. It seems like they just want to keep foreigners in country longer to contribute to their economy. It is frustrating and especially since we have been here 3 1/2 weeks already. We of course always felt lucky to live in America but once you are out of country for as long as we have been, you start to appreciate it even more. In Kiev we had more freedom to walk around and go to the internet cafe. We haven't had that here and it has been harder. We have to rely on our driver who doesn't speak english. Our translater has been busy with paperwork so we have been stuck in the apartment for basically a week except when we visit Connor. Today we went out to the shopping areas without our translater because she had to go back to Kiev to do some paperwork. The problem is that all the sizes are different and we can't even figure out how to get Connor a jacket. Oh well, we are hoping that things improve here. It will be nice when we finally have hot water. We have not had it in 8 days. A real shower sure will feel good. Especially since we smell like diesel fuel from riding in the car. The air quality isn't good and traffic is bad because there is basically only one way to get to where you are going and that is through the heart of down town.

Not to complain too much....We just miss home. Of course it is all worth it because we are getting Connor. He is such a joy. It is just great to see him laugh and smile. Thanks to everyone at home for the support and prayers.
Christine and Darren