Ukraine Adoption - Day 5 (Sumy)

Today the children had to write their official letters declaring that they do want to be adopted, and go with us back to America. It was fun to learn that Natasha is a "righty" and Yuri is a "lefty." They both have very beautiful handwriting, and we can tell that Natasha is an artist.

This is Natasha's classroom

Yes, Nate and Kayla, I've actually USED these several times... impressed?

The orphanage has several goats and Dad befriended this little guy. I only had almonds and dried cherries in my backpack, but he ate 'em up. Yuri and Natasha did NOT want to go near him.

There are dogs all around the property, as well, and they had puppies (we saw the "proud parents" nearby). There were also kittens.

Day 5 began with an appointment at the notary's office at 8am. Notary's in Ukraine are a little more of a bigger deal than our notary's back home - it's just a more involved process and is a full time profession, as opposed to something you do in conjunction with your regular job. And this particular office cracked us up as there were nothing but young, beautiful females working there and they were all dressed up (like going-out-to-a-fancy-dinner dressed up). It was so noticeable and kinda funny. Anyway, they were very nice and after our appointment we went on to the tax building to fill out some forms. Oleg left us there as he had to take Natasha and Yuri to the clinic for some doctors appointments. Masha stayed with us at the tax office and then took us to pick up a few "necessities"... like new pillows. We were very happy to have them! In our first apartment our pillows were just fine, but for some reason, the place where we'll be in Sumy for the month doesn't have the best of pillows (and that's putting it nicely) so it was worth the investment. We got some lunch (pizza and salad's - very good) and went back to the apartment to wait for Oleg. When he returned we went back over to the orphanage to see the kids, and to have them write their official letters declaring that they do want to be adopted. They were so cute, and didn't hesitate (see above picture).

I also forgot to mention that yesterday Natasha and Yuri selected their new American names. As you know, Natasha had mentioned "Ashley" when she was at our home last fall. As she didn't like any of the names on our list, and since she mentioned the name Ashley again, we went with it. It's not that we don't like the name - Ashley is a perfectly great name - it's just that we have lot's of them in our family so it wasn't one of our considerations. But we want her to be happy, and she also really likes her name Natasha as well, so she may go by both (that may sound confusing, but Natasha said that she doesn't call her friends in Utah by their new American names, but by their Ukrainian ones, so they also go by two names from time to time). For Yuri, he liked Shaun, Jeff and John the most, and ultimately decided on Shaun. Since we have a Shaun in my family, I can't imagine spelling it the traditional S-E-A-N when I grew up with an S-H-A-U-N... And Yuri doesn't care either way. So ladies and gentleman, we give you Ashley Natasha Stockwell and Shaun Yuri Stockwell!!! We love it and we love that it's what they chose.

Tomorrow we have an interesting day ahead of us as we meet Natasha and Yuri's biological dad. He is not contesting anything, and gave up his rights to his kids a while ago, but it's more of a courtesy, and Natasha and Yuri do want to keep track of him in their lives. We fully support that, and made sure they know that. More to come...