Shari and Deanna

A sample of our nightly visits in the coat room. We try to teach her english words, and she can say a few. Please excuse the bad hair day, on both our parts!

Jon and Deanna

Deanna is trying on her new slippers! The kids wear them all the time inside and hers were worn through.

Stay Tuned...

I promise some new pics soon but we had to go to a different internet place today and there is no way to download. We're counting the days till court, and till Susie gets here. I can't send any individual emails today cause for some reason when I open a new window the typing is in Ukranian! It was hard enough to get the web page in English. I think we're making progress with Deanna. She is excited to see us each visit, and has been getting upset when we leave. She also gets very upset if any of the other kids come near us. They pick up on this and swarm around us when they get the chance. We get a kick out of them and have nicknames for most. We're not allowed to take pics of the others though. Promise new pictures next time. Email, we're bored!

I don't have any new pics now, we all seem to have the same clothes and coats on and we're in the same place at the orphanage. Deanna actually has had the same thing on for a week! We bought her some new slippers as hers had the toes worn through.
We have busied ourselves at a large outdoor marketplace they have here. It is very huge and one can get lost easily. They have clothing (mostly coats and boots) as well as toys, groceries, food, home decor, furniture. It is hard to negotiate though...no English. When you say i speak English they seem afraid of you. This hasn't stopped us from shopping anyway. However, most of the stuff is imported from China etc, rather than hand crafted, so its not that exciting.
We're just going day by day and making the best of it!

Hanging Out

Above, Deanna on her first phone call to Aunt Susie

Above, Jon and Roman by an old soviet statue, the view from our apartment and a street car.

Well we have now been left alone in the city. Roman went home and Yana is back in Kiev for now. We're just getting in to a routine and trying to venture out to a new place each day. Our court date is not till Monday the 11th so the whole process is delayed a bit. Hopefully no new problems. Deanna is getting use to us and is always excited to see us each visit. We bring her a snack of fruit or juice and she is quite piggy! She is not yet interested in learning english but has learned to say snack.

Hangin' Outside "The Orphanage" to be known as "The Green Building"

"The Orphanage"

Here are some pics of us at the Orphanage. Quite an interesting place. We walk to the orphanage in the morning, about a 15 minute walk. Then we are allowed to play with her outside for a couple of hours a day. We are pretty frozen after this. At night we have a driver take us back and forth. We get to play with Deanna in a coat room on the floor. Kind of boring for all of us. We try to bring toys and books but that is only interesting for a short while. Strange system, but whatever! We can't wait to get her in a different setting. At this point we are just thinking one day at a time, we still have a long way to go. We should be going to court next week. Then just the waiting period and then we're out of here! Thanks again for everyone's support.

Deanna Sophia Gutwig

Don't have much time right now, more pictures and info to come. All is well. We have offically decided on her name, Deanna Sophia Gutwig. We are on schedule, but probably not coming home any sooner than planned. There is a huge amount of paperwork and red tape. Thanks for all of the emails, keep them comimg. We really love getting them!

 Pictures from our first couple of meetings.  She loved make up, purses, and dressing up in everyone's clothes and stealing glasses!

Here She Is.....

We will try to give some information about our little girl. We're working on the final name we will give her and are waiting for Jeremy and Jordan's approval. She is 4 years old, birthday September 4. Currently she has an "orphanage" haircut. She has been at the orphanage all of her life, after being relinquished by her parents at birth, her mother was ill but with no drug or alcohol history. She was born with cleft lip which has been repaired but can be revised in the future to look better. She has a speech delay but if you spend one minute with her it is obvious she if very intelligent. She is very outgoing and affectionate with a darling personality. The staff all say she is a favorite and they will be sad to see her go but they are happy for her as well. The first day we met her she had my hair clips and jewelry on, as well as my purse. She's all girl! Can't wait to get her out of the boy clothes.

Will update when possible, we have limited internet access.

The Latest News

Well its been a very busy few days. We left Kiev at 2:00 am on Wednesday and drove all through the night on freezing unimproved roads, getting lost several times before finally making it. I really thought we were in Siberia. This is a real industrial city so not very attractive. After several hours of meetings with officals we were finally allowed to go to the orphanage. We then had to talk to the director, doctor, and psychologist before seeing the little girl. When we finally did, we knew right away she was the one. It was obvious she was smart as well as very outgoing and friendly. She took to us right away, and was calling us Mama and Papa by the end of the visit. I will explain in detail about her later, with some pictures, by the way her name is Deanna, pronounced dee ah na, and Jeremy and Jordan like that name so we may keep it. So, we will be in this town for a couple weeks completing the paperwork and going to court. We have visited the orphanage 3 times and will be back this afternoon. Finally we can relax a little and try to actually enjoy more things. Colder here though, freezing. More to come, but we don't have internet in the apartment so we have to go to the internet cafe, not as convenient.

Good bye to Kiev for now, we are leaving at 2:00am for the next stop. We have a driver and are taking a van to Dniprodzerzhynsk with Roman and Yana, our main facilitators to . I don't even know where we are staying but Yana will have that all worked out. We have really good people working for us, they run around and take care of everything and we just wander. Kiev is very interesting, everyone walks everywhere, very fast for miles and miles. If you need to cross the street you just step into traffic in front of cars, no matter how many lanes, talking on your cell phone or whatever and they stop for you every time. They don't even honk.

On the move

Today we have free time to shop and look around. Many of the shops are underground and you even have to go underground to cross the busy streets. The problem is the underground system is so large you get lost and come up on the wrong side of the street. And forget about reading any signs.....can't even recognize the words. Haven't even bought anything yet, except something for the boys. It is very sunny today so it should be pleasant walking. We are leaving tonight for the next region to visit the orphanage. Hope all goes well. Not sure where we are staying, so internet access may be limited, but will post whenever possible. Jeremy and Jordan know how to get a hold of us by phone. Will try to post more pics before we leave tonight.

Appointment Day

We had our appointment at the Adoption Center today. We are going to Dniprodzerzhynsk (don't ask me to pronounce it) Wednesday to meet the little girl we chose at the meeting today. On a down note, they have recently changed their policy (they can do whatever they want) and if we decide not to adopt her we may not be able to see any more children for 45 days. We'll try to remain positive and see what happens. Thanks again for all the emails, we really appreciate it.