MCINTOSH UKRAINE ADOPTION

Heartbreaking News

2008-08-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well everything was going pretty good. Jolynn, Brianna, Caleb, and Reece went back to Wisconsin after court. Kathren has attached to everyone. She kisses and hugs us all. She loves lala ( baby). We had court and our 10 day waiting period was up on Thursday August 21st. We got our papers from court and were off to get our birth certificate. It is quite a process. We had to go from Berdanske to Zaphoriah to Pology to Marispol back to Zaphoriah and back to Berdanske. It is 2 hours between towns. It was to do with where she was born and where her original birth certificate made and where it needs to be registered at. The region is closed on Monday August 25th for their independence day. Here is the bad news. We need to get Kathren a passport and the Ukraine has started a new passport system. The Ukrainian people need to get new passports. They use their passports like we use our drivers license. They are way behind on making passports and now they have closed the factory because they are going to move it. It is in Kiev currently. I don't where they plan on moving it. They plan on reopening it on September 3rd. I have had experience with them to know what they say and what they do are not necessarily the same thing. There is no guarantee. If they do open on the 3rd, I don't know how long it will take to get the passport. They are currently saying 3 to 10 days. Jim and Haliey are probably coming home on August 29th without Kathren. Unless we know for sure we can get a passport early to next week. Haliey needs to start school and Jim needs to get back to school. If they come back without her, we are hoping that the lady helping with the adoption can get the passport and bring her to Kiev so Jim will just need to do the physical and the embassy and be on their way back. Maybe he can fly out on a Sat. get there Sun. do the embassy and physical on Monday and be on their way home on Tues. and be back to work on Wed. Please pray that we get a passport soon so our family can finally be all together. There are some old passports you can get next day, but they are not legal and they are very hard to get. We are praying for a miracle.

Meeting our daughter

2008-08-03T03:31:00.000-07:00

Well we finally found the internet to get you all up to speed. We had a good flight and all the kids traveled well. We got to Keiv on Saturday about 2:00. We had a very nice apartment in Keiv. We took the kids to see some of the main interests in Keiv like the underground mall and the nice parks and markets. We ate a McDonald's the first night. It didn't go too well. Haliey wanted a cheeseburger with just ketchup. She got a bun with cheese and ketchup, pickles, onions, and mustard on it. Jim didn't get anything in the first order. Then he ordered again and got an all ice coke. We found a market and I cooked after that. We did eat at Fridays before leaving on the train for Berdyansky.

The train ride went well. Jim, I, Caleb, and Reece in one car, and Brianna, Haliey, and Irena (our translator) in the next. We had to change trains in Zaphoriahia. We got here at 3:00 on Wednesday. We had to do paperwork before we could go to see Katerina. It is a little different process here. Partly do to being in a different region, partly do to her being older and in a boarding school, and partly because things change here all the time. We finally got to see her on Thursday about 3:00. When they told her I was going to be her mamma, she came right to me. I thought she would be shy. Not so! We went and got the kids and came back to see her again. She gets excited to see us and comes running. We see her everyday from 9:00 to noon and again from 4:00 to 6:00. She loves everyone. Of course the baby is a big hit. She also really likes Haliey and sits on her lap alot. Everyday she runs to meet us when we come and hugs a different person each time. She loves to run and squeel just like Caleb. They both run and play. We brought her bubbles which she loved and Brianna gave her a big stuffed Minnie Mouse.

It looks like we are hoping to get court a week from Tuesday which would be August 12th. It is summer here too and a lot of people are on vacation. Our translator is good for hunting people down and getting them to do things on their time off. Our judge is on vacation and she is looking for a different judge so we can get out of here as soon as possible.

Our apartment is small but close to the orphanage so we don't have to take the bus. It is close to the sea also. Jim, Brianna, Haliey, and Caleb went swimming in the sea on Friday. They loved it. We are no where close to the internet or the grocery store. We will try to update when we can. This is a town of 300,000, which they think is small so there is not access to the internet like in Keiv or Zaphoriah

On our way back for caleb's sister

2008-07-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

We found out on July 2nd that we have an appointment with the SDA on Monday the 28th of July. Not alot of time to get ready. Our paperwork was summited on June 23rd. Will updated later with the rest of the story.

FINAL DAYS COUNTDOWN

2007-01-06T02:19:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us to make the Friday flight. We are on flight home for Friday Jan 12th. We cannot wait. It has been very difficult to get on the internet as the children are off from school and tie up the computers playing games.

Caleb is doing well. He says some things in English. I told him "turtle" and he said it. It gets difficult to entertain him for two hours at a time without much to play with. The attention span of 2 year olds isn't much with the same couple of toys for 3 weeks.

Our current plan is to leave here on Wednesday by taking the overnight train to Kiev. We should arrive there around 7:00 am. We will probably go to a flat to freshen up and then off to the US Embassey and to get Caleb's physical. We will hopefully get to bed early so we will be ready to get up early to be at the airport by4:00 am. I will be too excited to sleep so I am not too worried about oversleeping. Then we will heading back to US soil.

We will try to blog again before leaving here on Wednesday or Thursday in Kiev if we get a chance.

Yesterday we purchased the toys for the orphanage that they requested. We are hoping to have a party for Caleb and the children on Tuesday. We will take juice, fruit, and cookies. We are planning to give them the toys then.

Love to you all

Jim & Jolynn

COURT IS OVER- ON TO THE NEXT PROBLEM

2006-12-29T04:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we woke up about 8:00 and the phone rang to tell us that we have court at 10:00. Talk about short notice! We were very excited and got ready quickly. The court is only about 1 1/2 blocks from our apartment. The judge was very nice. He asked a couple of questions and then left to make his decision. Caleb James McIntosh is now officially ours. We have to wait for the 10 day waiting period before we can take him.

With the shutdown here for the holidays, we will not be able to take him until Jan. 10th. We will take the overnight train back to Kiev on the 10th and arrive on the 11th. We have a full day of things to be done at the U.S. Embassey before we are cleared to leave. The earliest we can leave will be the 12th of Jan. That brings up the next problem. No room on the plane. I called to get our tickets changed and get one for Caleb and they informed me we can get from Amersterdam to Chicago, but we cannot get from Kiev to Amsterdam. I am still working on this problem. I am very anxious to get home. The women at KLM told me they would not have a ticket for us until Jan. 16th!!! I need to get home!

Caleb was wonderful today. He met us at the door this morning with a big smile on his face. He loves to climb on and under everything. It was nice, so we went outside today. He gets so dirty. I bet the caregivers don't really appreciate us taking him outside all the time, but there is nothing to do inside and he loves to run around. The fresh air does him good. We started giving him drinkable yogurt with vitamins in it. He loves it.

Our translator left last night. We are officially on our own. She will be back on the 10th to get our final paperwork and help us get the train back to Kiev. Please pray for some kind of miracle that we get plane tickets out of here before Jan.16th.

Thanks to everyone who leaves comments for us. We look forward to hearing from people back home. We miss you and we can't wait for you to meet Caleb!

Love
Jim & Jolynn

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2006-12-25T02:01:00.000-08:00

Well today is Christmas. Caleb came to me this morning with a big hug. It was a wonderful Christmas present! Today the weather isn't too cold. Yesterday was colder. We went to the museum on the island here. We waited about 40 minutes for the bus in the cold and when we finally got there, the museum was closed. We went to eat at nice cafe. I think that was the best meal Jim has had since we've been here. I thought I would make something nice for Christmas dinner, but they do not have the same things we have in the United States. I am not for sure what we will end up with for dinner. It is different here since no one celebrates Christmas today. It is just another Monday.

Tomorrow Caleb's group, as well as the other children, are putting on a program at the childrens home. He was in the program, but will no longer participate as he is too busy with us and he will not cooperate. His group asked us to get some white turtleneck shirts for their program as they do not have enough. They are also asking us to get some toys for his group. What I think they really need is shoes. Brianna raised money at school for the orphanage. We will use the money from that to buy toys. We will buy shoes along with the shirts. The orphanage is also requesting for a small refrigerator to put medicene in. We will have to do some shopping.

We are thinking of our family today as they celebrate Christmas without us. I know it is hard on them too. It sounds like we may get a court date on Thursday. Please pray this happens for us. If we get the court date, then our 10 day waiting period will be over their shut down from Jan. 1- Jan. 7. During the shut down, nothing can be done anyway. Our waiting period would be up on Jan 7th and we would be ready to head to Keiv on Monday Jan 8th which is the first working day after the shut down. Then we would be on the final stretch towards coming home!

We love you all--Merry Christmas!

Jim & Jolynn

everything here is sssssllllllooooooowwwww

2006-12-21T02:00:00.000-08:00

Well things are progressing at a snails pace, but atleast they are still moving. We did more paperwork yesterday to find it was done wrong so we can redo it today and of course pay for it again. I don't know if we get a court date by the end of the year or not. I will probably end up coming home before Jim. He will have to stay. Only time will tell which also moves extremely slow.

Ivan is getting more daring everyday. He likes to do things himself. He likes to run around without holding our hands now. He also lets us know what he wants to do and what he does not want to do. He has been pretty good so far, but now he is testing the boundaries of what he can get away with. I showed him pictures of his family today and told him Brianna and Haliey are his sisters. He puts his fingers on their pictures. He already likes them. He also likes his grandmas and the dog.

When we did paperwork yesterday, we had to come with a name for him. We chose Caleb James. His name is Ivan in English, but that is not how it is pronounced in Russian, so he has to learn a new name anyway. Speaking of names, we are having a problem with our last name. On some of our documents, like Jim's birth certificate, his last name is spelled "McIntosh" which is correct; but our marriage license is "MCINTOSH", yet our passports are "MC INTOSH". Since there is no consistency, the government over here is having a problem with it. It seems there is problem with everything we do!

We did go to observe the girl just as visitors to the school. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and looks a lot her brother. We believe they have the same mother and different fathers. Her name is Catherine and we will leave it as she will be older and will remember more being here.

As for daycare when we get back, we will probably put him in Rainbow or a structured learning program as he will have to learn English so he needs to be in a learning environment with children of his own age.

We miss our family very much. The next time we call home, remind me to get your email addresses. I'm not sure if that works from here, but we will give it a shot.

You should have seen Jim and I at the market yesterday. We are looking in our book to find out what meat we are trying to buy. The people are laughing at us. Now I know what it is like for people who cannot read. We can also not speak! We went to a restaurant with a English menu and tried to order orange juice and got a whole plate of thinly sliced oranges! We laughed.

Please pray that things start to move faster for us. We really want a court date as soon as possible, and we want to come home.

Love,
Jim and Jolynn

Our New Little Boy

2006-12-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

We have travel to Zaphoriah(?) which is the region where our child is. I know I have spelled it wrong, but I do not have the correct spelling with us. The internet is very close to the orphanage, but is extremely slow with all the children playing games on it. Why are they not in school? I do not know!

Ivan is doing great. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He did not want to go to us at first which is understandable for any child of his age. He knows only the adults that care for him. He has warmed up to us and looks forward to our visits now. He was upset one day because he had to go back to his group and he wanted to stay with us! Yesterday they told him he needed to get dressed and he said his mama was here. He is very bright and full of energy. We took him outside to play and he nearly wore Jim out trying to keep up with him. We gave him a car which he keeps in his pocket. He likes to roll it to Jim and I. We also gave him a puppy which he carries around and will not let anyone have.

We are currently on the paper chase. We are trying to get everything to the inspector so we can have a court date as soon as possible. Ivan has a sister who we will come back and adopt when she is available. We have to sign a paper stating we will do this, however, no one knows how to do this letter. Hopefully, our facilitator will find out how to do this today at the SDA as she has an appointment there. It is possible we will have this taken care of today. Please pray we get this done and get a court date soon. We are anixious to be able to come home.

Ivan's sister is in boarding school in the same region, but a different town. She was only taken away from her mother a few months ago and her paperwork is not complete to be put in the system yet. Once her paperwork is done, she has to be in the system for one year before we will be able to adopt her. She is around four years old. We are excited to be getting a daughter as well and Haliey willbe happy to know she will be getting a little sister too.

We miss our daughters and our family, but we are so happy to be getting Ivan. I know you all will love him.
We enjoy all your comments and will be able to leave blogs more frequently now that we are settled for a while. The only problem is the internet being so slow.

We love you all.

Jim and Jolynn

SDA Appointment Day

2006-12-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

We had our appointment at the SDA this morning. We have chosen a little boy who is almost three. We will be getting our documents to travel to the orphanage tomorrow night. We will be traveling by overnight train to the region. Hopefully, we will be meeting our child on Friday.

Our plane ride here went pretty well. It was a long flight without a lot of room. We made our connection in Amsterdam without any problems.

We have a nice apartment in Kiev with a wash machine. We went to the market and we are cooking most of our meals.

We went sight seeing yesterday. They have the most beautiful churches. We have learned some Ukrainian history also.

We will try to post more after we get settled in the new region.

Jim & Jolynn

The Countdown Continues

2006-11-20T07:50:00.000-08:00

We have been very busy trying to get things in order. We have made our travel arrangements. We will be leaving from Chicago on December 10th and will arrive in Kiev on December 11th.
I have been trying to make a packing list as I think of things we need to take. Our girls will be staying with my mom, so I am trying to think of things I need to take care of for them before I go. There is money to be put in their school lunch account, costumes to be ordered for their dance recitals, christmas presents to be bought and wrapped, and christmas stockings to be found so Santa can come to Grandma's house. Our daughter Haliey is 11 and she is dancing in the Nutcracker Fantasy in Madison on December 7th, December 9th and December 10th. She has a couple of dress rehearsals during that week as well. This is the week before we leave, so I know it will be very hectic. Our oldest daughter, Brianna, is 16. She is so much help. She helps take Haliey to meet her ride to Madison when it's not my turn to drive. She helps me around the house too. I don't know what I would do without her.

The girls are excited for us to go. They made a airplane with a paper chain hanging down from it. They remove a ring on the chain as each day goes by. They are a little sad that we won't be together for Christmas, but they are very excited that they will get to be big sisters.

We will try to post more often as time gets closer for us to leave.

Also a note to Joan Meyer, Jim is also from Dodgeville. His family still lives there.

We have a December appointment date

2006-11-06T10:35:00.000-08:00

This morning I called the SDA. They said we have an appointment on December 13 we will be leaving in 5 weeks.

Starting Our First Adoption Blog

2006-11-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Ukraine adoption blog. We are Jim and Jolynn McIntosh from Monroe Wisconsin. We started our adoption journey in April of 2005 and it looks like we are getting really close to getting an appointment date in December.