Adopting Natasha: Independent Adoption from Ukraine

Yesterday I incorrectly told you how to pronounce Kharkiv. I gave you the word for "good" or "ok" or "well". It seems like every other words is har-it-sho. I have gotten quite good at the sentence. When I try to buy something without my translator 3 things happen. The clerk looks scared like they should know English but all of it just flew out of their head. Or the clerk looks me in the eye and starts speaking English. Or the clerk starts talking Russian to me like I am deaf... they talk really loud. (grin)

71% of this region speaks Russian. And I have been trying to use Russian with Natasha, my daughter-to-be (court date for adoption is currently set for Tuesday). However I found out on Saturday that Natasha is speaking Ukrainian. Oops..

On Saturday we (translator, me, mother, friend) woke up and took the morning slow. We went to breakfast and I feed the dogs the rest of my breakfast. Three dogs are starting to recognize me as a food source. I walked around the grounds of the spa and admired some statues. The pregnant ladies are always out walking. A lot of them wear fur coats and hats. There was one with an orange hat that wanted to practice her English on my friend Jannie.

At 1200PM, Slava our driver picked us up and we all piled in. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were -1 C. But on Saturday it was 1 C. What a difference 2 degrees makes. I actually got too warm. Slava took us to the place where Natasha was found. I even got a picture of bus 24. Slava drove us around the area and played tour guide. We were on the hills of Kharkiv where the city had started. The hills were called Crane Hills. He showed us the old apartment buildings which were built in the 1970s. These are HUGE buildings. We also saw many industrial parks for vegetable processing, tires, sunflower seed oil. Each of these parks employed at least 10,000 people.

More of this Feature • 22-Oct: Home • 08-Nov: Home • 26-Nov: Kiev • 27-Nov: Kiev • 29-Nov: Kharkiv • 30-Nov: Kharkiv • 01-Dec: Kharkiv • 02-Dec: Kharkiv > 03-Dec: Kharkiv • 04-Dec: Kharkiv • 05-Dec: Kharkiv • 10-Dec: Warsaw • 13-Dec: Home Related Resources • Adopting from Ukraine • International Adoption - Index • Meet Natasha (photo) • Natasha at Home • Single Parent Adoption

Kharkiv is also known as the Boston of Ukraine. There are many Universities and research facilities. Then Slava found us another wonderful place to eat lunch at. Lunch is around 1300. We had Chicken Kiev, tomatoes and cucumber salad. It was yummy. (My translator thinks the word yummy is very funny sounding and fun to say. She had never heard the word before.)

We went to an internet cafe for a while then went to visit Natasha. I had decided since we over-stimulated her yesterday we would keep things simple today. We would only stay one hour and would not bring food, toys or anything else.

We showed up and all the girls greeted us. By the way these children have worn the same clothing since Tuesday. Everyone tends to wear the same clothing over and over. As always the other girl, Luba told us to please sit down. As always we sat on someone's bed. I said hello to Natasha and she started saying Mama. While I am in the room she constantly wanders around the room saying Mama. Every time she says Mama I say Natasha.

Anyway Jannie and I sat down and started folding paper into boats, hats, cranes, boxes etc.. Luba and Slevlana the older girls wanted to know how to do it. I showed Luba how to make the crane. I also folded a paper airplane that crashed. It was much quieter then Friday. Natasha was not screaming. Tasha can up to me and ask for water. She had a small jelly jar in her hands. She took me down the hall to where the nurses where and they showed me the water pitcher. I poured the water into her jelly jar and she was happy. Tasha then went through Mama's purse. She loves the zipper. She found a bag of M&Ms which she tried to open. Finally she brought it to me to open. She was not really hungry. She just wanted to give everyone something. She only ate 4 M&Ms.

When we started putting on our coats, Natasha got upset again. She wanted to go home with me. She did not cry but her voice was very pitiful. Natasha decided to keep my little Ukrainian dictionary and I let her. She was holding onto it very tight when we finally left.

We had dinner with fewer pregnant ladies Saturday night. I guess some of them graduated from the spa?? I then tried to change tapes in my camcorder and discovered it would not come out. My friend and I operated on the camcorder and found the tape had broken. UGH!! Anyway the surgery was successful and the tape was removed.

The court date for adoption is still Tuesday and I still don't know when I will be home. It all depends on several factors.

More Later
Angela W.
Kharkiv, Ukraine

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