First Winter as a family

Hello everyone,
This is our first Christmas as a true family, we are enjoying the first snow and the first holiday season as a family. It's been 8 months since we have been home, we are learning alot from each other! We had our first Thanksgiving and now our first Christmas is approching. We are loving life and looking forward to Christmas! Alina has spent Christmas with us in the past but Tatyana has never been here for Christmas. This year will be the most special for all of us, since it is the first Christmas as the Quinnams. I hope all adoptions go as well as ours has, yes we have our ups and downs, but we have love and that conquers all! God had a plan for all of us and his plan will work according to what he wants, so love all children, God will take care of the rest. God Bless you all. The Quinnam's.

Follow up

Hello everyone, Alina had her follow up exam with the surgeon. They took an x-ray, did there exam and said she is healing very nicely. Yeah! However still no activities for at least 6 more weeks. No swimming for another week or 2. The doctor said he doesn't need to see her again, unless something happens. That is all for now heading home now, the visit lasted longer than expected. God Bless.
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Going home

Hello everyone,
This morning the doctor removed Alina's chest tube they took an e-ray. They came back and said everything looks good she can go home! YEAH! We will have to come back in a couple of weeks for a check up. Thank you all so much for all your prayers, and most of all thank you Lord for watching over and protecting my little girl! God Bless
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Waiting

Hello everyone,
We are still waiting to have her chest tube removed. We think the doctor got busy, because he never came around today. Hopefully he will take it out tomorrow! Alina was in the play room all day on the computer. Tonight is my last night in the Ronald McDonald house. I will be staying at the hospital for the duration of her stay. Yippy! Hopefully we will go home soon. To see Alina now you wouldn't know anything was ever wrong with her. Hope all is well with all of you. Remember God is with us all, he will always show us the way! God Bless and good night.
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Lonely

Hello everyone,
Today Alina is doing great! She is walking around and begging to go home. She had the epadurmal and catheter removed today, tomorrow she is suppose to have the chest tube removed and then moved to a regular room. The surgeon said he will probably release her tomorrow, so now we are just awaiting the decision of the nurology team. The doctor said he feels she will get to go home on Tuesday. Tonight Tanya is back home with poppy and mommy is all alone. I miss her already! She of course called me just a bit ago telling me she misses me and said she homes I come home tomorrow. I told her maybe Tuesday or Wednesday she said Tuesday please. How funny! On a good note poppy is not lonely anymore, he is happy to have her home. She said she was swimming and poppy to. Dave said he didn't plan on swimming but since she asked him to he did. Alina looks great acts great. So its great. She will need to take it easy for a while, which will be hard for her. Well I guess I will read for a while before bed, so have a great night and God Bless!
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Progress

Hello friends,
Alina had the IVIG done last night. This process took 10 hours and was successful. She had a bad reaction to it the first time, but she was very sick at that time. They are talking about possibly removing the epadurmal(didn't spell right), the catheter(not right again) and the chest tube(if it stops draining) tomorrow. She walked around tonight, and is using the potty herself. The nurses are amazed at the progress she is making. Not me of course! I would be surprise if she wasn't making progress so quickly! She is praying more often now. Through out the day we pray together. She asked me tonight if it would be ok if she prayed to God in russian, I told her God knows all languages. She looked surprised and said oh good. She is so funny! Tanya is doing good, she will be going home with grand mommy and grand daddy tomorrow evening. We look for Alina to get moved to a regular room possibly tomorrow then hopefully Monday or Tuesday we can go home! As I mentioned before once she is moved to a regular room I have to leave the Ronald McDonald house. We are all ready to go home. This has been some year already. We are all stronger people from this experience. Thanks again for all the prayers, please continue! Lots of love from the Quinnams
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Alina

Hello everyone,
Alina is making good progress. They moved her to a regular room about 4pm then at 5pm they moved her back to PICU. They forgot they needed to do the IVIG. When they did the Plasma Feesias the good bullets come out as well, so they need to put them back. Unfortunately she had a bad reaction to this process the first time, so they are taking it slow and trying to dedicate her better. I don't know if they started this process yet. We had to come back to our room to do laundry before sun down. (We are out of clean clothes)
Alina might get to go home on Monday. Tanya will go home with grand mommy and grand daddy on Sunday. So I hope we do go home soon, I don't like not having my family together. I will update more later. God Bless
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Alina

Hello everyone,
Yesterday Alina had surgery. It went good. She is such a strong young lady. She was in a lot of pain, and still is but we prayed and the pain has eased up some. Thank you to all who have been praying for Alina. God has been with her the whole time! The way she is dealing with everything is amazing. The doctors say if she does well we can go home some time next week. Yeah! We will keep you updated. God Bless!
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Alina's trip to the hospital

We arrived at Ruby Mumorial Hospital on Wednesday May 27th at 11:30am. Alina was admitted, first she was put into a nice private room, but once the doctors examined her she was moved to the PICU unit. The doctors felt she needed to be monitored. Later that day they told us they were gonna try a treatment on her called IVIG I think. Sorry I don't remember any way, this did not work. She had a reaction to this that was not good! Well of course I panicked and started crying! They decided not to go through with the process and said they would get back with us tomorrow. On Thursday the 28th after much deliberation they decided to go ahead with the Plasma Freesias. They put her to sleep to insert an IV in her groan area. It would be painful for her so Alina and I decided putting her to sleep would be best. 1 hour later they woke her up and she was so funny, she kept saying I didn't feel anything, I don't remember anything. They gave her some medication and then started the first Plasma Freesias. This procedure went very well. She didn't feel a thing. She was very strong. On Friday she was a different Alina. She was energetic and looked better. She kept saying how great she felt. Wow 1 treatment sure made a huge differece. When the doctors came in they were surprised to see this child who was so sick the day before look so good! You should have seen there faces! The whole staff is just great, they bring me coffee and they bring Alina anything she wants. The medical student who is also working with Alina even brought her a Wii to her room! She is very spoiled. The staff all love her. They keep telling me how great she is. Yes I know how great she is, she is a wonderful daughter. David and Tanya came down Friday night, I was fortunate enough to get a room at the Ronald McDonald House. I will be staying there for the duration of Alina's hospital stay. David and I talked and we decided that Tanya will stay with me. She missed being with Alina and I, and we missed her. On Saturday the 30th Alina had her second Plasma Freesias done. This time David was here for it. He had to leave at 3:30pm to head home. He had to work that night. The Ronald McDonald house is across from the hospital within walking distance. Tanya and I take walks everyday and eat at the hospital. The girls watch tv, play in the play room and just spend time talking together. Sunday the 31st. Grand mommy, grand daddy and Aunt Melodie came to see Alina. This made her very happy. This was the first time she met her Aunt Mikkie! Aunt Mikkie brought both the girls gifts, and mommy too! Alina is getting around great at this point you can't tell she is even sick. The doctors want us to consider surgery. They want to remove her Thymus gland which involves cutting open her chest. There is a 35 to 85 percent chance that she will be cured! I talked with Alina about this and she wants to go through with it. I have to admit I am concidering it. The thoght of her being disease free is comforting. Well see. I will ask a bunch of questions and go from there. Alina deserves a great life and I know the Lord will watch over her! I do ask for your prayers! We are all doing ok. We are just taking one day at a time. I will continue to blog. Thank you Jesus for you guidence and love! God Bless the Quinnams
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Hospital

Hello everyone,
On Wednesday we had to put Alina in the hospital in Morgantown for her illness. Alina had a plasma transfer done yesterday and is doing very well. She will get this process done every other day. We are going to be here until at leaste next saturday, after that maybe surgery! We will keep you informed. Please pray for Alina. God Bless
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Update

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to let everyone know the girls are doing Great! They act just like sisters! Since we have been home we found out Alina has Myasthenia gravis. The cause of Myasthenia gravis is a breakdown in the normal communication between the nerves and the muscles. There is no cure, but treatment can help relieve signs and symptoms. She is doing well for now. Prayers are needed for her though. I am very proud of the strenth that my girls have. Thank you to all who followed our journey. Summer is coming so we are sure the girls are in for a real treat! God Bless from the Quinnam's
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Update

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to let everyone know the girls are doing Great! They act just like sisters! Since we have been home we found out Alina has Myasthenia gravis. The cause of Myasthenia gravis is a breakdown in the normal communication between the nerves and the muscles. There is no cure, but treatment can help relieve signs and symptoms. She is doing well for now. Prayers are needed for her though. I am very proud of the strenth that my girls have. Thank you to all who followed our journey. Summer is coming so we are sure the girls are in for a real treat! God Bless from the Quinnam's
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1st week home

Hello friends, we just wanted to let everyone know that our first week home its been very busy, but very good. The girls are doing Great! We are all very happy and grateful to have had this experience. We are all looking forward to a great life. Thank you all for following us on our journey. God's timing is everything. If we can give any advice to those of you wanting to adopt, just let us know. God Bless you all. The Quinnam family!
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Another night

Hellow friends, as I blogged earlier we will be spending another night in Kyiv. Delta has put us all up in a new hotel, which has a restaurant. I think we are the first customers! Delta also paid for our dinner and will pay for our breakfast. We have enjoyed talking with all the other American families. The bad news is our connecting flight is from NY to Reagan Natl. And its a later flight. 5 hour lay over we will arrive at 10:30pm friday the 13th. That's a good luck day no problems tomorrow! Also just a tid bit neither of our girls has ever spent the night in a hotel, so this is cool! So we will let you know if our plans change. God Bless!
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Not coming home yet

Hello everyone, up untill now we have had no problems. We we are stuck in Kyiv airport amoung a mob of people. Our plane's right engine wouldn't start. So it looks like we are spending another night! we are suppose to fly tomorrow but who knows for sure! As soon as we find out whay is going on we will let you know. Would someone please call Dad and let him know not to pick us up! Thank you
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Going home

Hello friends, we are happy to report that after 6 wonderful weeks we are coming home! We spent an hour at the embassy and received the girls visa's. This whole trip has been a wonderful experience that I would do again in the future! God has opened all the doors and we just walked through. Really the whole process was great. We have heard of many families that have been here since December and others since January. So we are very fortunate! Every adoption is different some have complications. We did not. Everyone was very helpful. I can't tell you enough how great our team was, so we want to say thank you to our facilitator Angelina, assistant Olga, Oksonya in Kyiv and our driver Nick also in Kyiv! I recommend them as your team if you are looking to adopt! Our adoptions happened so quickly because of all the hard work of our team! We would be more than happy to talk to anyone who has questions about the process. We want to thank our family and friends for e-mailing and calling us. Sometimes it got a little lonely. A big thank you to Mom and Dad for taking care of things while we were gone! My sister Jamie who is so excited about being an Aunt that she called us almost everyday and e-mailed everyday! Thank you Sis Julie and Mel for your constant e-mails and comments! Thank you all for your prayers. And most of all we thank the Lord for making our dreams come true and for being with us the whole time! Follow your dreams but remember to be patient. God's timing is purfect. Everything happens for a reason. God Bless! The Quinnam Family David, Freda, Alina and Tatyana
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Expensive day

Hello everyone, we started our day at 7am. First we went for the girls medical exam. We had to wait for a while, there were a lot of families who had adopted. Alina received 2 shots and Tanya received 1. The cost there was 300. American dollars. Then off to the American embassy to applied for Visa's. You have to go through security of coarse. It to was packed. This time I spoke to some of the American families. Some had been there since December another since January. Adopting just 1 child each. the clerk was very helpful she asked us questions and helped us fill out some of our paperwork, then told us the girls have an interview tomorrow at 2pm. Hopefully at which time they will receive visa's.(Hopefully) She did ask when we were flying home I told her Thursday not knowing for sure if we can get tickets for the girls. Well it was time to pay. 1500. American dollars. Wow! Ok time to get airline tickets. Well we went in talked with the clerk and YES we have tickets. We will be arriving at 9:20pm Dulles. The girls are so excited! We were very hungry so we had lunch and now we are gonna go get hair cuts. (Maybe) we will let you all know how tomorrow goes. God Bless
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Kyiv

Hello friends, well we made it to Kyiv. Nick picked us up at the train station, hooray for that. Then he took us for breakfast. We ate at MacDonalds. Then he took us to get airline tickets. They were closed! We walked all around Kyiv David took lots of pictures. Our apartment is nice and there are several restaurants and shops within walking distance. Tomorrow will be a very busy day and we will have to let you know rather or not we will be flying out on Thursday. We have to be ready to leave at 8am off to the doctor visits. The paperwork needs to be turned in by noon. I think we will be doing visa's then to but I'm not sure. We will also try to get plane tickets hopefully we can. We are settled in and we are all tired from all the walking today. We will turn in early I think. So until tomorrow. God Bless
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Last train trip

Hello friends, we are on the train to Keiv. Nick Angelina's husband and Surgey there son was so kind to help us board the train. No stress on me they wouldn't even let me carry a suit case. How great is that! This train is a lot newer then the others we have been on. This time we are a family traveling. Olga came to the apartment to say goodbye and brought us a gift. Angelina brought us a goodbye gift also. This trip has been very pleasant hardly any stress. We are looking forward to going home, but we are excited about coming back to Ukraine in the future. We do have an apartment here now thanks to our daughter Alina! Its very small but it will work. Everything is great with the Quinnam family hope the rest of you are as happy as us! Lots of love to you all. God Bless!
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Moving day

Hello friends, yesterday was a great day. We all went to the out door market, David needed to get some pictures and Alina needed some clothes since she didn't bring any. Both the girls needed new boots. There is a lot of water here and the girls boots were not good. We had an Ukrainian hot dog it was interesting. They come on a cresant of some sort, they are topped with mustard, ketchup, onions, and carrots. It was ok. The girls wanted to go to the fun center so they did. We had a nice evening. Today we got everything packed up. Angelina is meeting us at 12:30 for lunch. We have to catch the train at 7pm. I see a problem with the train. We have 6 suit cases! Yes 6! Hopefully some one will help us load the train. It has been confirmed that Tanya's passport is in Keiv. Angelina is suppose to give me all paperwork today at lunch. Tomorrow we will try to get the girls plane tickets. If we get them we will fly home on Thursday. Yeah! The girls are excited to get home! Today is womans day so all women and girls will celebrate! It's real big here so big women don't work tomorrow either! Happy womans day! We will update you later. God Bless
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Final

Hello friends, I am happy to report that our adoptions are complete! We will receive final paper work tomorrow from our facilitator that is needed for Keiv. As far as our girls are concerned they are Quinnam's now! We have reached the point now where our children are our children! We are leaving on sunday for Keiv will arrive on Monday. The girls have there doctors appointments on Tuesday and visas on Wednesday then leave on Thursday! If all goes well we will be home on Friday. Now keep in mind the time issue comes in play depending on your facilatator! To adopt 2 children within 6 weeks is very fast! Our team has worked very hard in getting things done very quickly! We can't complain at all on the timing. We know for a fact that another family has been here for 6 weeks adopting just 1 child. We will keep you informed but hopefully we will be home next weekend! Today was a very fun day! We went out to eat then to the fun center then home. The children seem very happy being together and being with us! Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us! God Bless! The Quinnam's
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Family reunion

Hello friends, this morning I was a mommy! I was able to make breakfast and help my little girl get ready for the day. She has been asking about her sister since the first day we saw her. So today we had a shopping trip planned and Dave and I thought we would stop by to see Alina and give her the option of joining us. As you all know we have been giving Alina time to be with her friends without us hanging around.(I am hoping that us not being around she will miss us) so we stopped by and Alina comes running giving her sister a big hug, and then momma and poppa. She squeezed me tight and said I missed you! Yes my plan worked. LOL! So I said we are going shopping to get gifts for the family would you like to go. She couldn't say yes quick enough. So we went to the post office to buy stamps(just as a collection thing) and David purchased 6 pre paid envelopes to give to Alina's friends so that they can write. Then off to the gift shop. This was the place that I was looking for. It had the authentic Ukraine made items like eggs, dolls, jewelry etc. The jewelry some was made of wood but mostly the jewelry was made of real stones not plastic like back home. I picked out a hand full of bracelets they are beautiful! The lady at the shop was glad to see us, we bought a lot of items! Now off to the fun center. First we ate then we played. The girls had a great time! They get along so well. When adopting 2 children from different places you just don't know how it will work out. Now our girls had the opportunity to meet and spend 4 days together thanks to the hosting plan through Frontier Horizon. It was a confusing time since we had 4 children at one time, but Alina and Tanya got along. I was a little concerned because Alina is the reason we started the adoption process, and Tanya was adopted first. Alina understood. She is a great child! Well back to our day, we had to take Alina back to the orphanage for the last time. We said our goodbyes and back to the apartment. Another day comes to an end. Tomorrow we pick up Alina Hope Quinnam and our family is complete.(For now) we will take a train on Sunday to Keiv. We have a flight scheduled for Thursday, and Angelina is sure we can keep it. We have to get tickets for the girls yet.(Just when you think your doing good on money) So hopefully we will be home next week end. This journey is one I am honored to have taken. My advice to those thinking of adoption is do it. The experience is incredible. We will blog tomorrow we have a busy day. Until then God Bless
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Our first day

Hello everyone, we are pleased to say that we had a really good day today! We arrived at the apartment around 10:30am got our things sorted out, then Dave and Tanya went to the grocery store. First time as father and daughter. We have to shop differently now having a child in the house. David bought eggs for the first time thanks to Tanya. He let her pick out some of the groceries. Have been looking for some sour cream since we arrived but couldn't find it, well Tanya picked it up. She came back they had puroggies and this container of something, Tanya was excited about this container David said I don't have any idea what that is. Judging by how she was acting I said I bet its sour cream! David opened it sure enough its sour cream! This made us happy. Ok next we had lunch then off to the out side market. Tanya came with a couple sets of clothes, but that's it. We needed to get some things like tooth brush, brush, under pants etc. Just to get us through for the duration of our trip. We walked around and found a few things, not much. Of course it was mud puddle central! We then went and found the Italian restaurant that has an english menu so we could order for ourselves. We were out exploring for several hours. We came back to the apartment started long over due baths, and yes washed our stinky clothes did some name lessons. Ok Tanya has to learn how to write her new name, well she has to learn to say her name also. She only ever new Tanya, which is only a nic name, so we had to start from the beginning. It's all working out! We think she is adorable! She keeps asking about Alina so I think we are taking her to see Alina tomorrow. Hopefully Alina won't mind. Tanya is excited to see her sister! Hopefully that feeling will last. LOL! In any case things are going well for us. God Bless
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Concrete

On my train rides and travels threw Ukraine I am amazed how much concrete their is most all building including small houses are made from concrete some other interesting things I have noticed is fences most of them are precast concrete some are painted up very nice also most of the electric poles are also made of concrete as well as most usual things. We are now on the train back to Gorlovka I must say I am a little sad to be leaving Novamiragrad and the kirovagrad region it seem to have a strong agriculture base but now all the fields are plowed waiting for spring. The city of Kirovagrad is fairly large and quite nice we spent the day traveling around the city doing the paperwork stuff with our driver from Novamiragrad he drove us most of the time we were their a few weeks ago. His taxi car was made in 1974 I think he said it was a russian made Fiat. I really enjoyed riding around in it, it reminded me a lot of when I was a young teen and I would ride threw the fields and woods with my friends daryl and mark the sad part is the pot holes and ruts back then where not as severe as the ones here. One stretch of road was really bad and I asked how often they repaid the road thinking his reply would be never but he said once a year but the main "highway" more often. The drivers do their best to avoid them when possible which means some time leaving the road their has been many times driver will pull off onto the sidewalk and around some trees to avoid the really large ones. Before we left freda realized our driver had not eaten all day so she invited him to dinner were ever he wanted he suggested a pizza parlor so we ate their and afterward he took us to a mall with a bookstore so we could buy some books to teach the girls english from their native language. Their was many to choose from especially for younger kids I have not seen such book in the US and that kind of stuff seem expensive on the internet. This is Tanyas first trip on a train and she seemed fairly excited. Our train left at 9pm and we settled down made our beds and she fell asleep quickly. The car we are in is different than the others it only has 4 cabins and the rest of the car is a snack bar.
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Finally ours

Hello everyone, well we arrived at Kiragrad at 3am and headed for Novamirgrad. We arrived at our hotel around 4:30am just to take a nap. We got up at 7am because we had to leave by 8. We picked up the inspector then went to the boarding school. We signed a bunch of papers then we got Tanya, but that was just the beginning. We have been riding in the taxi for the last 9 hrs just running around doing paper work. Well we did get train tickets for tonight at 9pm. Olga really pushed to get things done today so we could go back to Gorlovka! David and I did get some books that teach english, they look good we'll see. We are looking forward to taking Tanya shopping. She brought a small suit case with her, a coat, hat and boats! We don't know what she has in her suit case we will look tomorrow once we get settled back into our apartment. Then we will pick her up some things. We are sitting in the train station where we will be for the next 2 1/2 hours. We did find out this is Tanya's first train trip! Hope she can handle it. We will miss Novamirgrad and Kirovagrad. We hope to visit some time in the future! Today is the beginning of a life filled with love and happiness for all of us. What was once a dream is now a reality, we are truly blessed! Have a great day God Bless!
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Train trip

Hello everyone, today David and I are leaving Gorlovka taking a train to Novamirgrad to pick up our daughter Tanya! I like the sound of that. I have to say I have been waiting many years to be a mom and now it is happening I am filled with many emotions right now! David and I feel truly blessed and we are excited to finally be parents. We will keep you informed. Thank you for your prayers God Bless!
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Wet day

Hello everyone, today David and I went to an out door market. It was a semi warm day, the snow turned into packed ice and water puddles. Big water puddles! Here in Ukraine there isn't much on the way of drainage systems, and the pot holes are huge pot holes. If your not careful when walking through a water puddle you might have it come up to your calf. They are deep! We managed through the slush and water to the out door market. They sell everything from food to clothes to house hold items well you get the point it was big! We walked for a while and enjoyed the time out of the apartment. We went into an indoor market which sold a lot of different meats, eggs and cheeses. I personally didn't like the smells. Piles of liver, hearts, pig feet etc. Not my thing but it was interesting non the less! We had a good time. Well we are back in the apartment watching TV nothing else going on. We appreciate the phone calls we are getting on our Ukraine number and the e-mails. For those of you who want our Ukraine number ask any of the family we would love to here from you and my e-mail is the same if you would like to e-mail! God Bless
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Normal life

Hello! I have not posted any comment lately probably because I have became a custom to life here so all the different things are now normal plus I can not remember what all I have wrote about before and don't want to bore you with repeat info. The day we went to court for alena was a big holiday here it was mans day or I think formerly military day it is a day when all males are celebrated they had a special program at alena orphanage that we got to watch. Unfortunately freda did not show me the special attention I deserved as a male and said maybe on fathers day in america now that I am a father. Went shopping today and I find that there is a lot of selection at the shopping centers here aspecialy clothing. We had Olga with us today but yesterday me and freda explored a little bit on our own and it is very difficult to find interesting shops on your own when you can not read most of the signs. Went into an appliance shop, unfortunately we can not fit a refrigerator on the airplane because some of the fridges had a lot of "bling". Most of the stores her have heavy store security so their is some one watching your every move and with the prices being lower than the US I almost feel like I am stealing.
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Shopping day

Hello friends, today we went shopping! Yeah! After being on our own for the last 5 days not including court or the couple of days Alina was with us, we were ready for a day out. We went to what Olga called a department store, it sold a little of everything. We told her we were looking for gifts made in Ukraine to take back for our family members! We found some but its hard finding souvenirs believe it or not! She told us this sunday she will take us to a shop that sells nothing but souvenirs. Hopefully we can finish up then. Of course there were a couple of things still on my list of things I wanted for myself that I was able to find today a BIG purse made in Ukraine and a cool hat! Yes love it and they were cheap! Here the women wear nice hats and carry large leather hand bags. Now I look like a Ukrainian woman! Not really but I don't stick out as much! When we were in Novamirgrad David asked about some sandwiches that street vendors were selling, Olga said her grandmother made really good ones and she would have her make some for us. Yes today she brought us 2 bags full! They are stuffed with potatoes and another kind with cabbage. They are really good, but so many! We did go see Alina today the social worker talked to Olga she told her she was worried about Alina. Alina is not acting like herself and she wanted Olga to make sure Alina wasn't changing her mind about leaving. She said Alina needed to be with us we are good for her. While Olga was in with the social worker Dave and I were in a room visiting with Alina. I was unaware of the social and Olga's conversation but I knew something was a wrong with Alina so being me I asked her do you want to go home with us? Do you want us as parents? I told her she didn't have to be with us if she didn't want to, and we would leave. The choice is hers! Well holding my breath she said yes she wants to be with us and yes she wants to go home with us and she has not changed her mind. Good glad that's all clear! Before this was a dream she wanted to come true and now it is and now she just wants to spend her last days with her friends. Its sad for her to never see them again. I completely understand but Dave on the other hand still wants to go see her. Daddy's! So she gave us a time frame that we can visit. I say let her be alone with her friends, but we will probably be going to see her during the time she gave for David's sake. Olga came in to the room and told me of the conversation with the social worker I told her that I already asked Alina questions about what she wants but, so there's no confusion please ask her again. She did and the answers were the same, she just needs time with her friends. We will be leaving on Monday to pick up Tanya who is waiting for us. I had Olga to call and check on her. She said she is waiting patiently but hurry up! How funny! Well nothing left to report on so until tomorrow have a good day and God Bless!
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All is well

Hello everyone, yesterday and today are down days. Yesterday Alina was with us but all she wanted to do was stay at the apartment and watch TV. So we did, although I read a book instead. Today it has just been Dave and I alone! This morning we cleaned the apartment which was fun for me. That's what I do when I am bored. I looked for laundry to do but we didn't have much. David and I then decided to go out. It is snowing again and cold but we have cabin fever! We walked around a little not to much to see where we are, but we went into a store that sold washers, refrigerators, hair dryers etc. It was a nice store but nothing we needed. We found a park that had a tank in it, so Dave climbed the hill and I took a picture. There is also a statue of a man who Gorlovka was named after so being tourists I took David's picture by it too. Alina wanted to go to school and hang out with her friends so we backed off. Dave and I understand she probably will never see her friends again and that reality has set in for her. David is having a tougher time with this then me. He misses her so much and thought once we got here they would always be together and she would show him around town. He has dreamed of this happening for a year now. Me well she is pre teen now I expect her not to want to constantly hang out with her old folks! Out of all seriousness I think this is hard for her, this is something she wants very much, but she will miss her friends. You all know she is a social butterfly! I hope we can go get Tanya soon we know she is counting down the days, she on the other hand could care less about friends, she just wants to go home! Olga is going to take us shopping tomorrow, yeah! So hopefully we will have something neat to talk about. Hope all is well with everyone and we hope to be home soon. Time goes by slowly when you not busy! I miss my little Basil very much! God Bless
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Alina

Hello everyone, well today was the last of our court trials. Yes we do have 2 daughters now! After court we went out for a celebration lunch. Afterwards we rushed off to the orphanage because Alina was in a play. Today is Man's day! All men and boys of all ages are honored. So the concert/play was in honor of the men. We took pictures and short video clips. Everyone had a great time including Dave and I. The director got up and danced with the children, this is a cute side of her! Andre was the man of honor, he too was very funny. The play was over at 4:00 so we thought we would go ahead and leave. Alina was gonna watch a video that we bought her with her friends and we know her days are numbered with her friends. So we came back to the apartment so I could change, then walked to the grocery store for some drinks and snacks. Now we are in the apartment resting. I will start some laundry though. Have a good night the worry is over (sort of) and the wait begins. God Bless
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Cold and White

Good evening everyone, Dave and I slept late this morning. We were very tired for some reason. We went and picked up Alina brought her back to the apartment for awhile. We had lunch then went out for a walk through town. Alina wanted to go into a clothing store so we did. This store had very good prices! We bought Alina a shirt and jacket, I got a warm dress coat and David got a pair of pants, shirt and a nice warm coat. All for 400 greivnas or 50. American dollars. Very cheap! My coat from home is a waist coat with NO hood. My Ukraine coat goes to the middle of my legs and has a hood, and yes has fur! Not real fur but nice none the less. We then took our findings back to the apartment and went back to the grocery store for some groceries. Then we came back to the apartment and I prepared dinner. We took Alina back to the orphanage at 5:30 so she would be back at a good time. We have court at 10:00am in the morning. We will be picked up at 9:20 then go pick up Alina and meet Angelina at the court house. Hopefully things will happen quickly! We don't know yet what we will be doing about the children. At some point we need to decide rather to split up or wait out Alina's 10 days then travel as a family to Novamirgrade. We will let you know at a later time. God Bless
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Snow day

Hello friends, we had a good nights sleep. We got up had coffee ate breakfast and then got ready to go see Alina. We went to the orphanage about 10am David stayed in the cab while I ran in to get her. Then hurried up and when we got to the guard shack he won't allow Alina to leave without a note. So Alina runs back up to the orphanage to get a note! She comes back and we're off! It is snowing here and has been since yesterday, everything is covered. The roads are slippery but our driver didn't mind, he still drove fast! Once back to the apartment we went inside for Alina to look around, then we bundled up and headed out to explore. Its very cold and white but we went out anyway. We found the fun center where I took Alina the very first time I was in Gorlovka. This time they had more arcade equipment, many are the same as JayDees. We spent some time there played and had lunch. Then headed back out into the blizzard. We stopped at a store that was like our dollar store, but much smaller. Then we stopped at the grocery stop for a couple of things. Here you go to the store just about everyday. You can only get what you can carry, its only a couple blocks walk, but when you are carrying big bottles of water it gets heavy. We had help today so the bags were light! We will take Alina back about 7:30 tonight. Hopefully the cabs can drive in the snow! Alina says Hi to everyone and wants to go home as quickly as possible! Me too. Have a great day. God Bless!
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Gorlovka

Hello everyone, sorry it has taken so long for us to update you on our day. Our train arrived at 9:30am by the time we arrived at our apartment it was after 10:00am. We didn't have our coffee yet and we needed to get some things from the store and let's not forget A BATH I needed one! So we had coffee, then walked about 5 minutes to the grocery store. Once we returned home David started lunch and I got a bath. David made us spaghetti it was very good. We haven't cooked a meal this whole trip! The apartment is very nice, we stayed here before but I am not used to the way some things work here so I worry a lot here! They use gas which we do not have so I am afraid of the gas stove. I know ha ha my sister is probably laughing right now! When the pilot light went out in the water heater unit, what do I do PANIC. David goes to look at it I freak out and tell him don't touch anything, then I say I have to get out of here I can't take it! Come on what a sissy right! Why am I over reacting! The land lady comes over she is very nice, shows us to fix the problem and says not to worry. Well I think that is what she said I didn't understand a thing she said, but her body language told me this. This apartment has a washer so I was able to do 2 small loads before sun down. Its a very small washer I will do some more tomorrow maybe. We are very thankful to have a washer! Ok finally we are off to see Alina. Today we are on our own sort of. Olga some times Angelina other times need to call us a cab to and from for obvious reasons. The cab arrives and now to the orphanage. Alina greets us outside in the cold without a coat hollers mommy poppy! Very warm welcome! I scold her for not having a coat on, (how rude) then we go inside. I asked her if her class was there she said yes and we had her ask if we could give gifts to the class. Of coarse we could we went up and pulled out our goodies(now our suit case is much lighter) and handed them out. Some of the children were still at camp so the teacher said when they came back she would give them their gifts. That's nice. We went back down stairs to the sitting room with just Alina to spent time with her. She poked fun at her momma and won't let me take any pictures of her because she had a pimple. Ok my little girl is growing up. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Now tomorrow we get to pick Alina up in the morning and she gets to spend the day with us. We plan to walk in town and see what's there. Hopefully Alina will have a good time! Well until tomorrow. Thank you all for being such a big part of our forming family. God Bless!
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Our daughter

Hello everyone, we are happy to say that we are proud parents of Tatyana Grace Quinnam. We are at the train station now and should board about 9pm. We are off to Gorlovka for Alina's hearing. It is hard leaving our daughter behind, but by Ukraine law we have to wait 10 days to allow family members to come forward and contest the adoption. We are not worried, no one has ever went to the boarding school to see her. Well we are very drained and very tired, so I will say goodnight for now. Oh yeah by the way I had to turn my phone off for court and now its asking for a pin number. We hope to figure it out soon, but until we get it worked out don't waste your money trying to call. We will e-mail you all when you can call. God Bless!
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The big day

Hello everyone, well today is the big day. It is snowing here and its very beautiful! Today is the last day we will see Tanya for a couple of weeks. We are sad about that but we are happy to see Alina. We are sure she misses us like we miss her. We will be glad once we can always see both our girls! David and I will have lunch before court today, we don't know if we will have time to eat before we catch our train. We will try to let you all know how court goes. We have court at 2pm. We will update you later.
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Adoption Process

Dear readers,

This is Julie writing - I thought some of you might be interested in the details of the process David & Freda are going through during this adoption journey.  Here is a brief outline of the basic steps they must take for each child, as I understand it.  I'm sure there are additional steps between these that I do not know about!  (They have pretty much finished steps #1, #2 & #3.)  Some of the steps will be done simultaneously to help speed up the process:

1. Appointment on February 4, 2009 at the State Department for Adoption (SDA) in Kiev, Ukraine, to request a referral for two children, Alina & Tanya.  This referral allowed them to pursue the adoption of these girls.

2. Travel to the child's region where a government-appointed inspector (similar to our child advocates), had to document their first meeting to make sure the child is comfortable with them.   :)

3. Get approval from the director of the orphanage, the local city official over adoptions, and from the child. These approvals must be cleared with the SDA in Kiev.  Normally, a "disconnect" paper needs to be obtained from any existing siblings.  Alina has none, Tanya's sibling's whereabouts is "unknown", so I'm not sure how that works.

4. Have a "trial" set with the local court in the town of the orphanage where the judge must approve the adoption.  At this point, I believe they become the legal parents of the child, but they may not have custody until after the next step.

5. Enter a 10-day waiting period.  (This is a legal requirement that is usually imposed by the local judge to allow for a final notice to known relatives, etc., although their whereabouts are often unknown.  In Alina's case, both of her parents are deceased.  This 10-day wait can occasionally be waived for medical purposes, if applicable, but from what I've seen, it usually isn't.)  At the end of the 10 days, they can pick up the official court papers, complete more paperwork at the orphanage, and then...

6. Take custody of their new daughter!!  Praise God!!  Now they will need to

7. Get a new birth certificate with their names on it as the parents!  This is done in the city each girl was born.  They will also need to take care of any property issues the girls may have.

8. Travel back to Kiev.

9. Both girls must have medical physicals.

10. They will each need a new passport with their new names.

11. They will have to visit the US Embassy for more paperwork.

12. And once all this is done, they get to FLY HOME!  We can hardly wait!!  The girls will become US citizens when they arrive on US soil!  (Ukraine requires them to also remain Ukrainian citizens until they turn 18.)

Please join me in praying that these requirements don't drag out, and that they are able to keep the same pace they have had so far!

I haven't received the photos that Freda tried to send me, I will post them when I get them!  

In the meantime, please leave comments for Freda & David - I know it will be very meaningful to them!

Pre trial

Ok we went to court. Today the trial didn't last very long, he had us state our name, address, place of employment. He said we made enough money to support a child. He asked the social worker if she objected, she said no. He asked the guardian counsel inspector does she object she said no, so he said this is enough to have the actual trial tomorrow at 2pm. Tanya will be there tomorrow as well as others, so it will take more time. After court we went and picked up Tanya and took her out to eat. Now she is in our room with us. We will take her back at 6. She is so cute, she is always looking at me smiling, so I asked Olga to ask her why she is always looking at me smiling she says because she likes me very much, and because I am very beautiful! I don't think I have ever been told I am very beautiful. Love is blind I guess. Well this is all we have to report for now. Tomorrow is the big day, we won't see Tanya for at least 10 days, we miss her already. God Bless!
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Olga retuns

hello everyone, last night I told you that we had some problems with some paper work. Olga headed off for Kirovagrad at 6am she just returned at 12:30pm. She said she got the paper work taken care of and SDA faxed over the conclusion. Tomorrow the originals will arrive by train for our actual trial. David and I were very happy to hear this. Thank you for your prayers! When she came to us she had a bag from Andre, in this bag there are 4 stuffed animals and a letter. Andre is a 15 year old boy who likes to talk about America. Now I wish we could take him home to. He is running out of time. So for those of you who are looking to adopt a young man Andre would make a good son! But you have to hurry once he turns 16 this won't be possible. He is determined that he will go to America. He asked us for our address and phone number so once he arrives he can contact us. How sweet is this! We will let you all know how court goes. Olga feels everything will go good! Talk with you all soon.
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Shopping

Today was spent mainly shopping. Me being one for a good deal I loved the out door market. In Keiv we went to some street vendors next to sda building that was geared for souvenirs for tourist I bought a wool Soviet soldiers hat the guy threw in a Soviet pin for the front of it I tried on many styles of hats their that would get strange looks in the US but you see many men wearing here. I asked our driver In keiv if I wore the hat with the Soviet pin if I would be laughed at or would they think I was cool he laughed and said most would probably think I was cool! The market we were in today was not geared for tourist probably because they don't have tourists here. Their is one hotel in town here. It has stores on the first floor a cafe/bar/dance floor on the second and rooms on the third. One is ours the americans the other is our ukrainian facuilitator, an Italian couple here for adoption and a business man from spain here for a leather plant. So I am sure the lady that runs the place has a time interpreting. During the week it is very nice here the cafe closes at 11 but on the weekends the bar stays open till 2 and the dance music is very loud.
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The day before

Hello everyone, well its the day before court and first thing this morning Olga was running around trying to get some paper work straightened out before court. Yes things have gone very good for us, so I guess its time we have a little set back. We decided to go to the open market. Its close by and it seemed to be a big one. Olga says this is where you can get really good deals and they have everything! David wanted me to buy a pair of Ukrainian boots, they had many to choose from. I found a pair that we all liked. Then we decided I needed a new outfit for tomorrow. So I got a shirt and skirt to go with my boots. I like it very much. David bought a hat and a pair of shoes. Then we went to see Tanya. She was in a play so we were happy to see her in action. Afterwards we took Tanya to a late lunch, we waited a long time for lunch but it was ok. We were at the restaurant at our hotel. After lunch Olga rushed off to get more paperwork. We went up to our room where Tanya listened to the I-Pod for awhile, and she looked around for a while. I noticed she was getting bored so we went down stairs to the store. Its a grocery but it has a lot of different things including toys. Well Tanya's eyes lit up when she saw head bands. She has one in her hair everyday, then there were some clips and other stuff. What she flipped out about was a cheap barbie that had pretty dresses. We said yes this made her very happy! She is very easy to please. (So far) we played with her barbie and ate sunflower seeds, then it was time to take her back. The assistant director met us down stairs to give Olga paper work she needs for tomorrow. Tomorrow morning at 6:00am Olga will head off to Kirovagrad to get the birth parents documents of some sort, fax this to SDA in hopes to get the conclusion for court! So here is what we need everyone to do. Pray! This is very important and I believe in the power of prayer, so everyone can help us out by praying. Thank you and have a great night.
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Dryrless

It is hard to believe their is a country anywhere in the world that does not have a dryer Ukraine may have one but I have not been able to find it. Went to a store the other day that had some appliances and their looked like a washer dryer combo, I got excited but it was a washer with a separate spin compartment. We washed some clothe in th bath tub and wringed them out by hand and hung to dry. Wash and drying clothe is a several day task. I asked our facuilitator if their is laundry mats or dryers here and she said no. Their is a lot of concrete here the buildings are made of concrete houses, fences and even the electric poles.
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Not sure yet

Not sure of subject yet but killing time before bed. We noted boys smoking in the bathroom it is located out side the school as we left one day we asked tanya how the kids got smokes she told us and said she did not smoke or drink but she liked sun flower seeds so today we bought a few bags of sunflower seeds and spent the afternoon eating them. I thought my brother jon might be interested as he is fond of sunflower seeds. Sun flowers are a big crop here and that is the oil used here for cooking. Sounds like most of the farm land is owned and operated buy the government the soil is as dark and rich as freda said. I have not seen such dark soil in US. The town we are in it is common to see flocks of chickens running around outside houses i saw a poor chicken the other day that found his fate to a small pack of stray dogs, freda said it was ok cause they need to eat too but wouldn't be ok in US. Most of the dogs running around here are small compared to gorlovka a guess small town small dogs. Yesterday was a holiday here. It was 40 or 50 days from the day they celebrate as the birth of christ and is the day that mary took the christ child to the temple it is said that it is a day u should refrain from physical work. Tanya said it is also the day that winter and spring fight and who wins determines the weather. It snowed yesterday but melted by days end and today is cold so I am not sure who won.
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Another day

Hello friends, today we ran a couple of arands. First thing this morning we went to pay on our room for four more days, then we went to the bank since we spent all our money on our hotel stay. The exchange rate two days ago was 8.25 this morning it was 8.05. It changes all the time. We got our money and headed for the internet cafe in hopes to put some pictures on our blog. We were unsuccessful because I couldn't remember our password and even if I did we can only send pictures through the main computer. So we asked the lady to e-mail a couple of pictures to Julie. Hopefully Julie will receive them and she can post them for us. They consist of Tanya and Dave Tanya and myself and Tanya writting her consent for adoption. The same applies for Alina. Her and poppy and her and mommy, then her writting her consent for adoption. After this Olga needed to make a quick stop at the court to speak with the judge. Now we are off to get Tanya. We picked her up and took her to lunch, then we took her to get her picture taken for her pass port. Then she wanted some things from the store like: sunflower seeds, gum and candy. We took her back to the boarding school just in time to catch a play that the younger children were putting on. We spent time eating the sunflower seeds then we headed for home. David and I just finished some laundry. Yep we washed our clothes in the tub with some soap powder. At least we can pretend that they are clean! I don't know if we will go for dinner yet, maybe, maybe not. Tomorrow we want to explore the open market. We might find some good deals. Tanya is already saying I would like a camera, I would like an I Pod and so on. These are the first english sentences that she has learned. We told her when we get back to America we will get her something for her birthday and some of the other things at Christmas time. I do want to have her a birthday party when we get home because her birthday is on Monday and we will miss it! She will need a lot of things so for you who want to get her something she wears a size 1w shoe at least that is what her boots are and size 6 pants. Her 8s are to big. I don't know if they make 7s that might be good to. This is just for those of you who were asking about her sizes. Well we will talk to you later. Phone calls and e-mails are welcome! God Bless!
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Just thinking

Hello friends, today was a very relaxed day. We went and picked up Tanya took her for lunch. We were at the restraint for an hour and a half, then went back to the boarding school. The one thing I noticed was the children had nothing to do. They don't have a wreck room. Children need to have ping pong and other activities to do! I told Dave maybe we can go and buy some kind of craft and invite the children to do a craft night if you will. They either watch TV or play outside. Today it was cold and snowy. The Italian family brought in a table net and ping pong paddles and ball. Some of the boys came and played and they had a good time. What a great idea. This is what they need. We take for granted the fun stuff that can do when the children here really don't have fun things to do. We did find out from Olga that there president has an american wife. How interesting is that! And there president wanted to meet with Obama but he declined. Apparently he had a good relationship with Bush but so far no contact with Obama! When I was told this all I could say was Really! Surprise! In any case I thought this was very interesting. We have a few things to do tomorrow, but unfortunately not to much until wednesday court day. Will keep you informed! Sorry we don't have more to report. God Bless
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The good, bad, and ugly

This post may not be suitable for the squeamish!!! The Ukrainian bath rooms. In ukraine most things are kept as clean as possible and this is true for most bath rooms as well. But they can be different than what I am used to. As far as the good their are toilets similar to the ones in th US, but they are a little different. Some of the toilets have a half flush feature and some times that is all you need and then you use full flush when needed. The toilets are not a bowl of water like the ones in the US this eliminates splashing which can be nice. So it depends on were the "drain" is if it is in front it creates a viewing platform to evaluate your fiber intake before you flush it off into the drain. If the drain is in the rear who knows? As far as the toilet paper and what to do I am still not sure but I am following the advise of our drive in Kiev. He said he never understood this wastebasket thing and who knows what you do with your toilet paper any way. We were told by him before our train trip about a family who went to the bathroom every time the train stopped at a station and it was closed. The train toilet flushes and dumps the waste out side the train so you don't want to dump it at the station were people are. Most public restrooms are pay they have an attendant that collects the money. At the fun park we were at you purchase a card and put money on it for the rides and arcade games you also use this card to enter the restrooms. Their is a restraint in the town we are staying in that is said to be the best in town, we eat their often. The other day I had been petting stray dogs that were very dirty prior to going to lunch when we arrived at the restaurant I thought it may be wise to wash my hand, our interpreter was on the phone but I felt I could handle this on my own so I asked the guy at the bar were the toilet was in russian they took me outside and hand signaled to go around back, at this point I did not know how to say I just wanted to wash my hands and I had a feeling I couldn't were I was going. Sure enough it was an out house it had a tile floor with a hole in it. I figured since I was their I might as well use it. When I went inside I told Olga I just wanted to wash my hands and she found me a sink inside.
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Trip

We got to see some of the country to day as we went on a road trip to the center of the region, each region has a city in the center which shares the name of the region, each city has a city center which has some sort of park with some type of monument. I asked Tanya if she ever got to leave the orphans she said she went to camp, it sounds like camp is very similar to the orphanage as far as the activities they do their. They also go to the cemetery around easter. It is tradition for the towns people to take baskets of food, cakes, candy etc to the cemetery and pay their respects to lost loved ones around easter. In some cities the homeless will come to gather the food that was left, in this town they take the kids from the orphanage to gather the food that was left. We ate lunch at a very fancy restaurant in the park we went to, it was the type were the waitress replaces your silver wear with every course etc. I told Tanya not to get spoiled because once we hit america mc donalds is going to be as good as it gets. She ordered ice cream with candy I expected maybe it would have chunks of candy bar but when they brought it had peeled orange wedges around the top almond and the candy was rosel well I'm not sure the type but it is the expensive type. It made me wonder if she had ever eaten in such a place. She had fun play on the playground equipment. Went on a ferris wheel and had several rides on the bumper cars. Their was several other rides that were closed, probably for winter. It was the first time she had done such things and I look forward to taking her to Hershey Park. We took Alina and Vika their last summer and they had a blast.
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Valentines Day

Hello friends, today was just a relaxing day. We picked up Tanya and headed off to Kirovagrad for a few hours. It is an hour drive, but a very nice drive. Just country land. The sun was shining and we were all happy just to be together. We went to a nice park where we all played, then we had a nice lunch in a beautiful place. Then we played some more. It was time to go and it was getting cold so we headed back. On the drive back we received a call from grand daddy and grand mommy. They wanted to here their grand daughters voice. At first she was being shy but Olga convinced her to say something in Ukrainian and then Olga translated. It was so cute! Then my friend Maggie called us, this was very nice. It is good to here familiar voices. Once back at the school we decided to go in for an hour. While we were there Colleen who has a little girl at Tanya's school called us and we were able to get her child on the phone so that she could visit. This made me happy to be able to connect this family! After wards there was a 15 year old boy who asked if he could talk with us about America. Of course we were delighted. We talked with him for a little while then it was time to go. Now we are back at the hotel, we will have dinner at 6:30 then return to our room for the night. We are tired! Hope all is well with all of you. God Bless!
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Novamirgrad

The town we are in now is one of those towns you could see your self living in it may resemble I town in the mid west but has a large statue of stalin in the center of the city. Their is very few cars on the streets, mostly taxis and delivery trucks a few motorcycles etc. You go about a mile or two from city center and it turns into bicycles and horse drawn wagons. I was told the population is around 9000. I looked out the window this morning and saw a procession of people walking down the street their was police officers and people carring a wreath, I thought it was a funeral,l but when we spoke with our driver he said it was in memory of the troops return from afhganastan it is interesting how not many years ago they were their and now we are there we are in the heart of Ukraine now and the people here speak Ukrainian. Another neat thing about Ukraine is they have many music video channels on tv one is mtv but not like in america it actually plays music videos. American music is played frequently here. Every one we have spoke with is very nice and helpful on the streets people look and whisper thing like tourist and americanski. Our faculty says they are not used to seeing forienors and they think of us as being from another planet. The kids at the orphanage are about the same staring. And saying things such as america or hello not sure at first if they were making fun or what but it seems they are curious and want to get our attention and hear about america. The school here were Tanya is at is very nice it is clean and the kids talented
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God's timing

Hello everyone, today has been such a great day! We went to buy train tickets this morning for thursday night departure. Then we had lunch, then went to see Tanya. We visited for a while then we went to a Valentines concert put on by some of the children. It was very nice. The children here are so happy and the staff really cares about them! After wards we visited a little more with Tanya then the assistant director came in and said the director wanted to meet us! She hasn't been there do to poor health. We didn't know what to expect, I was a little frightened but ok we have to do it. So we went to her office. You see the director is the final if she doesn't trust you then that's it no adoption and we know this. Things have been going great up until now. Ok so we sit down with her and she asks us some questions then she says I like you and Tanya is very happy I hope things go well with this adoption. Thank you God! She told us of a family a couple of years ago who she didn't feel good about and she refused there adoption! She said she reads people very well and is happy to meet us! She said she likes our president and encourages us to adopt again very soon. Maybe some boys! She also commented on Tanya looking like her papa! Yes Tanya looks like her papa I get it. LOL! We have Tanya's trial on Wednesday and Alina's on Monday. Then we are off to Keiv for final appointments. We will be home soon it looks like! This process so far has been wonderful! We are going to spend the day tomorrow with Tanya for Valentines Day how great is that! Thanks again for your prayers! God Bless
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David- Hello all. I wanted to add some more info on our stay here the city we are in is a nice small city of around 9000 I think. The taxi drive we have been use most here drives an old soviet era car which I really like that was one of the things on my to do list. I was very excited to be able to close my door. Their is a trick to lifting the handle when you close the door to get it to latch properly. The car is very old and the driver said he would by a new one if he had the money. I like it and most of the other vehicles here. in america people would buy them and restore them as collectors items but here they keep them running. Our facuilitator seemed surprised when I said we only keep our vehicles for 10 years which is probably a stretch for most. Their is a lot of neat old trucks and evan motorcycles. Another neat thing is the taxis and buses in Gorlovka run off of natural gas. They have tanks in the trunk which make it tough for luggage but is cheaper
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Great news

Hello friends we are happy to report that we have Tanya's court date it is on Wednesday! We witnessed her signing her consent for adoption today! We spent a lot of time with her today while Olga worked on our behalf! This girl is amazing! She doesn't waste any time. She has taken such great care of us! Today we asked Tanya a bunch of questions, played games and helped her with her home work, but the best part of the day was when I just held her on my lap and she cuddled to me. It was an amazing feeling for both of us! She needed to be held and I needed to hold her! We found out through all the questions that she not only looks like her papa but they like and dislike the same things! It is wonderful! We hope to leave for Gorlovka at the end of the week to get Alina's court date. If things continue to move like this we will be home very soon. Tomorrow we will go to get train tickets. We will continue to keep you informed. E-mails and phone calls are welcomed. Have a good night we will. Thank you Lord for making our dreams a reality! God Bless
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Great day

Hello everyone, this will be my last entry for today unless something interesting happens between now and bed time. We just got back from visiting Tanya again. We spent time making bracelets, playing checkers, coloring and taking pictures. Olga worked of course! Have I mentioned what a great team we have working for us? And have I mentioned how great the assistant director is? Things are moving right along here. Tomorrow Olga has more meetings so we will have a better idea where we are at, the only thing we know for sure is everyone is very helpful here! We will go have dinner then relax a little then turn in. We have an early start tomorrow and hopefully have good news to report! So until tomorrow God Bless! Remember to please continue praying for us.
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Kirovagrade

Good afternoon everyone! Sorry it has taken so long to update you all on our trip. We took a 12 hour train trip, it was very hot on the train! The assistant director picked us up at the train station and took us to our hotel. So we arrived at our hotel at 4:15am. We were very tired so we went right to bed! Then we got up at 8:00am went to get permission from the inspector to go see Tanya. We did go to the boarding school to see Tanya! She was happy to see us and we spent several hours with her. The assistant director is so very nice she had breakfast prepared for us then David and I went into a room to visit with Tanya by ourselves while Olga and the assistant went to do some paperwork. When Olga came back we went to Tanya's class to give out gifts. The children and the teacher was very appreciative. We had Tanya hand out candy and we put the toys on the teachers desk! We told Tanya what her name was going to be and she liked it very much Tatyana Grace Quinnam! We asked her questions like does she want to be adopted? Does she understand she will go to America and live with us forever? You get the point. We wanted her to know what will be happening and we wanted to make sure she wants to go. She said yes she understands she knew when she met me in April that I was her momma! She has been waiting on me ever since! How great God is! I told her I was very sorry, had I know she felt that way I would have had her stay with us the time while in America, but I didn't know. I started to cry because I felt bad for not knowing. You see I felt something special for this child when I first met her and I find out she to had the same feeling! So let me say for all of you who has this feeling in your heart, go with it! It was time to say goodbye for now, but we told her we would be back later. So we went to have lunch and now we are in our room just for an hour. We will go back to the boarding school while Olga goes to some places to do some paper work. This city is very small but is very nice and quiet. Our hotel is very nice and things are much cheaper here than in Gorlovka! David and I like it here very much! We will be here until at least Sunday. So we will visit Tanya several times! We will post something later. God Bless
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Train ride

Hello friends, its 5:00pm here and we have been on the train now for the last 2 hours! Our train is due to arrive at 3:00am. Unfortunately I am in a cabin with people I don't know, but I'm ok now. I was afraid at first, but I am fine now. I don't have to much to report today since most of the time we will be on the train. I will try to get some sleep! I will report in tomorrow. God Bless!
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Hurry up and wait

Good evening everyone, we left our apartment at 9:45am this morning. We needed to go to hope orphanage to have the director sign some paperwork that pertains to Alina's adoption. She was running late for the meeting, it turns out she had to stop and pick up a 3 year old boy and take him to her orphange. He has a 2 year old brother also, but his brother went to the baby orphange. The boys don't have a father and the mother left the young boys in an apartment for 1 month by themselves, no one knows where she went. So the boys went to the orphange! This is what was told to us. He is so cute! How? why? These are questions I always find myself asking. All the staff came out to meet him and comforted him. We had a nice visit with the dirictor, she voiced concern for Alina, and was very happy that we came for her. She signed the paperwork and we were on our way. Next stop the court house. Olga had us wait down stairs and said wish me luck and hurried up stairs to summit our dossier. She came back about 15 minutes later full of smiles and said it was excepted! Now we are off to have lunch. Lunch was good as always. We had time we didn't have to be to the notery until 2:00pm. After lunch it was time to go purchase or train tickets. We tried to get a train car all to our self but they only had 4 upper seats in 2 different rooms. This is disappointing for now David and I will share a room with 2 strangers. Oh well what do you do! now its time to meet the notery. She to was running late, she went to see her son in the hospital. Once she arrived there were many interruptions, but finally the documents were notarized! Finally we had to take our documents to the assistant inspector so she can write up our consent forms! She told us to bring them to her house so she could work on them tonight so that our paperwork would not be held up, so we got a cab. We got home and packed up our things for our long journey tomorrow. In the morning we will go back to the notery to have Tanya's paperwork notarized, which was smart thinking on Olga's part.! That way this part will be finished a head of time! Our train leaves at 3:30pm tomorrow and it will take us 12 hours to get there. The assistant director will pick us up at the train station at 3:00am and take us to a hotel. How nice is that, she is happy that we are coming. Tanya told her her parents are coming for her. How did she know this you ask? We never said we were coming for her. She just knew! Well have a good night. God Bless!
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Rainy day

Good morning everyone, it's 7:15am and I just set down with a cup of coffee and read the comments that everyone has left. I do want to apologize for not having pictures up on the blog. Here's the thing I only have my black berry. My phone is acting as my computer. So when we return home we will put pictures up. We do want to thank everyone for there prayers! We want to say hello to our 2 nephews Durrell and Denver who are our youngest followers. We love and miss you! We want to thank Julie for making the blog happen and keeping us updated. We want to thank Jamie, Julie, and Dad for the phone calls and e-mails! We want to thank Mom for taking such good care of Basil and the girls. Today it is raining so we will be running around in the rain. Its ok! Well I will go for now, need to get David a cup of coffee. Peace and God Bless!
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Early drip

Good afternoon everyone. This morning we got up at 6:00am which is really good since I haven't been sleeping that late. Which means we got a good nights rest! I made David and I some coffee and we relaxed and talked, well some time about 9:00am I noticed the toilet kept running, so I told Dave about this and he looked at it, well he fixed that problem then he noticed that the valve at the toilet was leaking. Well let's just say my nerves at this point got the best of me! I felt sick, here we are in someone's apartment and the pipe is leaking. I was worried that the ladies floor was gonna get ruined, so I called Angelina and she called the land lady. She came and started talking to us and of coarse we didn't know what she was saying so I called Angelina again to get her to translate. The land lady said don't worry it's not our problem. Which means it's not our fault. She was very nice and said someone would come to fix it. Angelina told us to go ahead with our plans to see Alina and someone would come while we were out. So we did. We had a nice visit with Alina. She was surprised to see us. She didn't know we were coming! She surprised us also yesterday while in the hospital she got her ears pierced by another child there! Well I guess she didn't feel the need to ask her parents. It's ok it just surprised me! We talked for about an hour then we had to go. Our driver was waiting and the meter was still running. Ha Ha! After we got back into Gorlovka we went to New York Street pizza place. American pizza place sort of! We ate then came back to our apartment. Once we arrived the door to our building was locked and the key that we are to use isn't like a normal key. So Dave kept trying to open the door but no luck! Well here I start to panic again. Before I knew it the door opened and at the door was a little older woman who so kindly tried to tell us how to unlock the door. I think I understand now, but time will tell. Once we get up to our apartment then we have 2 doors to unlock which takes awhile to do! Now we are back in our apartment for the rest of the day. Ooh wee my nerves are crazy! Dave and I wish Alina was here with us then we would feel more comfortable! In any case tomorrow we will do more paperwork and hopefully successfully accomplish some things. Take care and God Bless
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Moving day

Hello everyone, we don't have a lot to report today, but here is how our day has gone. We moved into an apartment today, by the looks of things someone lives here but is renting it to us for 4 days. It is a very nice apartment in Gorlovka. I don't really know where I am but its ok. Angelina's husband picked us up then picked up Olga then took us to our apartment, then took us to an Ukrainian restaurant dropped us off and went to pick up Angelina. We had a nice lunch. We talked for a while then Angelina and Nick left to celebrate Nick's birthday. Dave Olga and myself got a cab exchanged some money and headed off to the grocery store. After that we came back to our apartment and here is where we will stay until tomorrow morning. We are going to see Alina tomorrow. Yeah! Monday we will be busy running around doing paperwork. Then hopefully on tuesday taking a overnight train to see Tanya on Wednesday. We hope things will go as smoothly with her paperwork as Alina's has. We will keep you informed.
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David- Hello all
I figured I would try posting a little message. Have a few little stories about how God has watched out for us one occurred when we went to the SDA due to politics and the hurt on ukraine by the worlds economic crisis some one shut off the electricity to the SDA building due to payment issues we had our meeting anyway but they could not find tanyas documents and could not use the computer to locate them. While we were in our meeting they got a call that electric was back on and they were able to find them. Another was on our way to the train station we had a few hrs to kill so our drive asked us what we wanted to do we decided to go to a mall and eat and walk around. It was a few min from train station. We walked around and ate when we returned to our car their was men hooking a sling to our car and a few others. There was 2 crane trucks and a few flat bed trucks they use the cranes to lift the car and set it on the flat bed trucks. Had our car with all our belongs been taken we would have missed our train. Our drive spoke with the men and they said luck was on our side that night and unharmed our car. A new law states that if you catch them before taking it they have to give it back. The drives here have meet my expectations they due use every bit of road and acceleration their cars can give. They also use their bumpers to speed pedestrians across the cross walks. Ukraine could have saved some money painting the lines on the road. But it makes going exciting
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Keeps getting better

Ok let me start by saying I love Ukraine! Our day started at 4:00am, we had breakfast at 6:30am, then left the hotel at 7:00am. Olga picked us up and took us to the Minors Affairs Service where we met with the head inspector. During the meeting she asked us a lot of questions pertaining to children. What made is want to adopt, how did we meet Alina, how do we feel about Alina's condition, are we still interested in adopting her knowing that her condition is serious and so on. We answered honestly of coarse. We told her we love Alina and we will take care of her and as soon as we return home with Alina we will get her to the doctors, she said she would be interested in know what the doctors in America say. She feels American doctors are very good. We were in her office and talked for about an hour. At the end she said that she liked David and I very much. She feels that we are very good people and admires us for still wanting to take Alina in spite of not knowing what her condition is. We said she is our child and we won't turn our back on her. she told us of the apartment that Alina has and said we needed to decide what we wanted to do with it and she told us Alina has some money in a bank account but she doesn't know how much. We said we would talk to Alina on both accounts and see what she wants to do since these things belong to her! She gave us the approval to go to the hospital to see Alina, and her assistant went with us for her observation. We went in to the hospital and Alina came running out and gave us the welcome we had hoped for! She looks really good. Her face is back to normal and her speech is much better. Our little girl was very happy to see us! We hugged a lot and cried. She was sharing a room with about 7 other children whom she was so proud to introduce her parents to. Then before I knew it the assistant inspector pulled out some plain paper spoke to Alina in russian and Alina began to write. I asked Olga what was going on, she said Alina was giving us permission to adopt her! So long story short they gave their consent for adoption! How great is that! We did speak with the doctor and she said Alina had something a wrong with her muscels and would have to take medication for a long time, but her condition is cure able. We had to say goodbye to Alina because we had other paperwork to be done. So we went to her orphanage to get the paperwork done there. The director won't be there until monday so the social worker will do the paperwork and have the director sign them and Olga will pick them up on monday have them notarized and go to court to get a court date. So hopefully this will all be done on monday so Tuesday we can head of to see Tonya. Alina should return to her orphanage on Tuesday. So this is good news! We then went to have some lunch and David and I are now back in our hotel room. It is only 2:00pm so we will just relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we will get moved to an apartment, then I don't know right now what we will do for the weekend. Olga hopefully will do something with us. Maybe we will visit Alina again this weekend. So that's all to report for now. Today was another successful day. Thank you for your continued prayers. God Bless! The Quinnams
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Glorlovka

Good Evening everyone, we are in Gorlovka now just got settled in our hotel. I stayed here in April when I came it's a very nice hotel. Tomorrow Olga will take us to meet with the inspector, Olga feels that the inspector will go with us to see Alina. For those of you who do not know what an inspector is, it is required by law for an inspector to go with you to see your child for the first time. She will see how you and the child interact with each other. The inspector will then say yes you can proceed with adoption or no you can not. I don't feel we will have a problem for we all know that Alina wants to come home! Then we will go to the notery to have 3 applications drawn up and notarized. Hopefully we will see Tanya on Tuesday. Olga said she spoke to deputy director and told her we are coming for Tanya, she said Tanya asks every day when is her Momma and Papa coming for her? The deputy director said she didn't know what she was talking about, but now it makes since to her. Dave and I were very happy to hear that she is waiting for us to come. I did find out she as an 18 year old brother. The SDA says this is not a problem, he is to old to be adopted and they don't know where he is anyway. I also found out that in 2006 Tanya's mom left her in the apartment by herself and never came back, and has never been heard of again. So social services came and put her in the orphanage. Well this is all I know for now, David and I are very tired from our 17 hour train ride. We will write some more tomorrow. God Bless.
Quinnams
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success

Good Morning all, I am happy to report that our appointment went very well. I am finding that Ukraine is a very nice Country. The land is beautiful, the people friendly, and the food is the best I ever eat! David and I are off on a train to Donesk to see Alina. I know some of you would like to know about Alina's condition, but all we know is she keeps having her blood cleaned and is doing better as of Angelina. We will know more later when we go to see her. So far this trip has been incredible! God is truly looking out for us and has put an amazing team together for us! It's early in our trip, we are aware things could not go as smoothly as we would like, however we also know things happen for a reason. We will report more later. Keep praying for us!


David- We toured keiv very beautiful place went to park of unknown soldier there is a large flame like in the usa while there newly weds came it is custom for them to place flowers at the flame and take pics it was very cold and icy we also went to WWII park went in large working cathedral, very beautiful went to the fanciest mall I have ever been had supper their. Lunch was also at a very fancy "fast food" restaurant cafeteria. We have tried many new foods since our arrival all very good so far. DQ
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SDA

Good morning everyone. Today is our appointment at SDA. We have to be there at 11:00am our driver will be here at 10:30am to pick us up. There is snow on the ground so this will be interesting our driver drives very fast! I am worried because Angelina won't be with us, but she called me last night and said someone will be with us. She is taking care of our sweet Alina today who is still in the hospital! We will hopefully see Alina tomorrow. I will let everyone know how things went at our appointment. God is in control! Until then peace.
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Good morning

Good morning everyone, David and I just returned from having breakfast at a very fancy cafe. This cafe served a very good breakfast. After breakfast then we decided to walk around a little just to look around. We went underground where one would catch the metro and the people down there were moving very quickly about. They have all sorts of stands set up selling different things. We were looking for a big fur hat for Dave but didn't see any. The exchange rate is very good right now. Our driver took us to a stand that had a good rate. My sister called me last night she misses us and we miss her. It was so nice to here her voice. Thank you sis! Well I will write something a little later. Have a great day and God Bless!
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Re-arranging the luggage at Dulles

Kiev

Hello everyone,
Our flight to Kiev was good. We had vip services so we didn't have to do anything but walk through and pick up our luggage. Our guy took care of all paperwork. Then Angelina had another guy waiting for us to take us to our hotel. Being in Ukraine before I was spoilled with the places I stayed. Not so much with this one. Its ok just really run down. We will make the best of it, this is part of the experience. David and I went down the street to the market and bought some food and drinks. The people where very helpful. I am looking forward to hopfully a good night sleep. I am very tired. If anything intereting happens between now and then we will let you know. God is with us I know this.
We will talk to you all soon. If anyone would like to call us Julie has the number.
Freda and David
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A new day

Hello Friends,
Today we start our journey. Mom and Dad Q took us to the airport this morning. We arrived on time and had some time to spare. We checked on our suit cases and well David did such a good job packing his suit that it weighed 17 pounds to much, what do we do with David's stuff? Well we stuffed our back packs and the other 2 suit case until the seams were busting out! We got that taken care of the off to catch our flight. I tried to update everyone before now, but time got away from me. So we are at JFK now the flight over was good. Now we are awaiting to board our flight to Kiev. Hope all is well with all of you. Please keep us in your prayers, our dreams are finally coming true. God Bless you all!
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We will be starting our adoption journey on February 1st. Stay tuned for our adventure!
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Testing out how this thing works

This is a test!!!!

(no subject)

We're starting this blog to keep track of our adoption experience.