Friday 15th

Dear Friends and Family,


(Bill writing)

We had lunch with our driver and translator today. It was another interesting culinary experience! For some reason, the driver thinks I like beer, so he brought some sausage from home that the locals there eat with beer. It was very strange looking, but I tried it. I didn't like it, but Kelly had some, and said it was "OK." I asked our translator to ask why it was very dark (it was as dark as pumpernickel bread), and he said in Russian "because it is made from horse meat." That wasn't exactly on our things-to-do-before-we-die list, but we can now say we've had horse.

Our translator has told us that we need to enjoy Donetsk, because we are young. She grilled the driver on places we can go, and we've agreed to a short list of activities: the circus, a botanical garden, an upscale mall, a regionally famous restaurant, and a beautiful monastary that is 2 1/2 hours away. Even though the driver has two jobs (cabbie by day, security guard by night), he seemed eager for the extra hours, so it looks like everyone is happy, including Bill, who is being hit hardest by the cabin fever.

I was humbled by our translator today. She said that I could pass for Ukrainian. She went on to say that she had a friend that I looked an awful lot like. I said, "Handsome fella, is he?" to which she laughed and said "It is woman!"

Say...speaking of our translator, does anyone wonder why we had her in town? It's because we had our court date today! And...we're (almost) parents! We've just got to make it through the mandatory ten day wait period before it's official. We have to obtain plane tickets, but we will fly home as early as December 28th, depending on the flight availability.

We were expecting a different experience than that of an American court, of course, but it was surprising nonetheless. We had a judge that was known to be quirky, and indeed he was. He definitely enjoyed his place of power and was very theatrical and comical. There were two jurors in the room, and he often had side jokes with them. He also made fun of me for not speaking when he expected me to. I also showed some serious breaches of ettiquette, for which the judge was quick to chastise me. I rested my foot upon my knee while sitting, which happens to be a gesture that is considered very rude in Ukraine (crossing at the knees or at the ankles is the norm). I also spoke to the judge, saying "Da" ("yes") to some of the questions, instead of speaking in English to the translator. Lastly, I shook the judge's hand when we were done, with noticeable displeasure showing on his face. I also embarrassed Kelly by handing her her secret stash of toilet paper from her purse when she was standing and getting misty eyed. Luckily, Kelly kept her composure the whole time, and must be why the judge thought we could be parents to these two boys.

The "courtroom" was a small room that was actually the judge's chambers, and was tightly packed with the proud parents-to-be, our translator, the inspector, the social teacher, the two jurors and the judge. When we were asked to stand, there was only room to stand and then take one step forward.

The judge was very thorough, and our appointment took one hour (they usually take much less), after which the judge and jurors deliberated. We already had a good feeling, because during the process everyone was relaxed, and the judge was making jokes, such as "Now you're not going to only feed these kids Pepsi Cola and chips, are you?" and "you're going to learn how to make borscht, aren't you?" When we were let back into the chambers, the judge spoke so fast and with a lot of legal jargon, that we got to a point where he told us we could leave and neither of us were quite sure what the outcome was. Out in the hallway our translator told us the good news.

We've been holding out saying their names until we made it through court. The oldest is named Artur, and we've decided to honor Kelly's father by naming him Lawrence Artur Woods. The youngest is named Artem (pronounced Art-yoom), and will be re-named William Patrick Artem Woods. (OK, Pat, you can finish those stockings now!)

Kelly is crying even as this is being written--it's been a very emotional day for us. We are going to open a bottle of Ukrainian champagne to celebrate today's success, but We still need everyone's thoughts and prayers, as we can be over-ruled if any family members show up during the 10 wait period.

{Friday 15th}

Since it's been two days since the last post, I'll write about this morning while I'm sitting here. When we got to the orphanage, the social teacher told us to go up into the theater, where we found a play in progress. There was a troop of ladies performing a puppet show. It was very cute, because the kids all sang along at certain parts. There were several occasions where the leader asked for volunteers to get up and recite little poem snippets, and Lawrence tried hard to get selected each time, finally succeeding on the last opportunity. We have no idea what he said, but we were beaming with pride. William was allowed to leave his classmates and sit with us, where he was a handful, to say the least. At the end of the performance, each kid got a gift bag with a Santa on it; they were each excited to receive a small stuffed animal toy, 4 juice boxes, a box of cookies and a BIG candy bar. William kept his in his grip the whole time he was playing with us!


Peace and Love,

Bill & Kelly