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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