The girls love to ride on "Papa's shoulders". In fact it was one of the first words they learned to say in English. I am getting my workout with these two jumping and spinning all the time. That with the new Ukraine diet I will probably lose 20 pounds before we get back home.

Girls in the woods by the orphanage.

They are ours!

Today we went to court, it was extremely scary. There was a judge, two jurors , a secretary,
a prosecutor, an inspector, our lawyer, and us. The judge and two jurors questioned us for 45 minutes without smiling even once. Everything was in Ukrainian and our lawyer had to translate. After a grueling 45 minutes we had to leave the room. While we sat outside we could hear them speaking fast and loud for another ten minutes. When we were allowed back in they told us they approved the adoption and confirmed the girls new names. Now we have a mandatory ten day waiting period before we can take the girls. During this time anybody could appeal our adoption, (orphanage, court, family) The only thing we are nervous about is the fact that another family came today from San Francisco wanting to adopt OUR GIRLS! And their big
sister. Their lawyer says they will not encourage them appealing because he knows our girls are happy!

We leave the village Sept 7th to go to the girl's birth place to get new birth certificates. (About three hours away.) After that we get to take the girls from the orphanage and then we will stay in Kharkov. There we will apply for passports. After we get passports, which could take up to two weeks, we head back to Kiev. We have more stuff to do in Kiev, but we're not sure what it is. We'll keep you posted! Check back often, Daniel will be adding pictures that have been sent by camera phone.

Fun day with the girls!

Today is Friday the 24th it has been a very eventful and long two weeks. We spend four hours a day with the girls. We have bonded and are experimenting daily with ways to teach English,
manners, and to discipline when needed.

Today we were fortunate to leave the orphanage and take the girls to the open market. It is a huge market where they open up metal booths a couple times a week and sell everything from clothes and furniture to fish and hair dye. At 12:00 PM they lock their metal doors and shut down. Then it looks like rows of big blue metal boxes. We got each of the girls a couple of outfits and new sandals. "To go to America in!" After the market we took them to lunch at the cafe, and then to the house where we are staying. They were so excited when we showed them their suitcase. They found Q-Tips and were excited to clean their ears. They found Garrett's toothbrush so I pulled out theirs I had bought at home. We gave them to the girls and they were so excited to brush. Their teeth are in horrible shape. I'm thinking they don't brush.
We wrestled around and the girls tried on Leah's lipstick and did hair. At 4:00, instead of going to the orphanage, we went swimming at a lake. It was great fun and so very refreshing after the heat and humidity of the day.

Today is Ukraine's Independence Day. Last night there were fireworks and a big celebration, of course it held up our court date, but we're getting there. Court is in three days!

Bye for now, Love, the Schaffers

Our Girls!!

It is Saturday the 18th of August 10:45 PM in the village of Krasnokutsk.

We arrived here after a 6 1/2 hour train ride to Kharkiv and a very fast 1 hour ride in a car. We had two lawyers, Greg, Leah, Garrett, driver, and luggage all crammed into a compact sized car! We are renting a room at a woman's house. We have a driver who picks us up and takes us to the orphanage each day, twice a day from 10-12 and 4-6 and then brings us home.

The first time we went to the orphanage we went into one of the dorms and there stood an adorable little angel with big blue eyes, a shy smile, and beautiful blond hair. This is our youngest girl age 5 (6 on September 25), Karalina!

We are changing her name to Cassidee Karalina. About 5 minutes later in came a smiling, excited, absolutely beautiful sweetheart age 7 named Karina. Her name will be Karina Rae.

These are our two new daughters!

During our visits we play outside on the playground, paint nails, color, play Frisbee, go for walks to the nearby pond to catch frogs, and have lots of snacks. They love juice, yogurt, and bananas. They probably don't get them at the orphanage.

Our lawyer left today and we are left here in a village where nobody understands us and we certainly don't understand them! We will go to court on August 27 or possibly a couple of days earlier. Then we stay here and continue visits for another ten days during a mandatory waiting period. So, 19 more days! Of course, nothing is final until court... we have to request separation from other three siblings. I know it is sad, but they have already been separated for two years. It will be OK. There is always the chance it will be denied because of the siblings, so please keep us in your prayers.

I know this is long-we have no Internet and had to call Daniel and tell him what to type. So, bye for now! Love you all, Greg, Leah, Garrett, Karina, and Cassidy

Kharkov Tomorrow

It is 9:00 pm -Noon MST - on August 14 and we leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning for the train to Kharkov. It is around a 5 hour train ride and and hour by car to village. Yes Village. We will stay in a house only a few minutes walking distance from orphange. We are told we can see it from our house.

Village means NO internet access which means no more updates for awhile. We will try and get driver to take us into the city a couple times each week to access and update. Please bear with us over the next few weeks.

We visited one of the grand cathedrals with a private tour this evening. Very intresting. We will submit pictures at some point of our trip. Even Garrett was entertained. Funny to see things that date to the 9th century and think there is not anything in the US that dates back that far. Wild.

Our laywer - Natalia - about crapped when we told her how much they wanted for a one-way ticket back for the girls - $3,300 each. We went to a local travel agency and found one-way on same flights as us for $680 each. Much better I would say.

We love you all and appreciate your prayers and support.

On To Kharkov

Well things went better today at the SDA. The two girls we went back to review are both healthy and adorable. One is six and has blonde hair. The other will be seven on Sept. 29th and has brown hair. It is exciting. One problem, we have to travel to a small village to meet them. If we accept them we stay for a few weeks. No Internet, No updates. Scary.

One problem, the girls have siblings. One younger brother who has TB and two older sisters - teenagers. They had a younger brother who was already adopted by a Ukraine family. To adopt these girls we need to get a letter of permission from the older siblings to take only these two. Laywer seems to think it will not be a problem since youngest one is already been seperated. This can cause us to not get them so keep your fingers crossed and prayers open for us. If not accepted there is one other possiblility of three girls but they will not be available for visit until end of August. We will wait and see. I am sure we will get the ones we are intended to get.

Thanks all please keep leaving comments or sending emails - leah@silkspin.net (Leah) or Sprout2@yahoo (Greg) Chow for now, Greg and Leah

SDA appointment

Today we had our appointment at the SDA. It was really frightening. We waited outside in a courtyard, eventually were called inside where we walked up some bland stairs into a hot, humid stuffy office, to meet with the child Psychologist and interpreter. We were shown files of kids that were mentally retarded, sibling groups that included boys, and other unsuitable things. So, we actually chose a group with a 10 year old boy, 8 and 5 year old girls. All healthy except for Scoliosis for the boy. Garrett was ecstatic about having a brother. When they went to call the orphanages (they are at 2 different ones), they found out that the 2 older kids are on a hosting trip to Italy right now and won't be back till Sept. 6. Wow, so we would have to stay here till then just to even start the whole process. So, Natalia, our lawyer, called the orphanage director herself and found a set of 2 girls. She went back to the SDA and insisted they find the files, which they did. We go back tomorrow to look at them, they are 5 and 6 or 6 and 7. I can't remember! Anyway, we are nervous again. I hope all works out, wish us luck! Please include us in your prayers.

We will try to find a way to post pics soon. Bye all! luv ya! Greg, Leah, and Garrett.

We are in Kiev

Well not a lot of time but we arrived in Kiev with just a few problems. Luggage was left in Poland and is n0t scheduled to arrive until later today. I hope! We did have a washer to wash our travel clothes but no bathroom supplies etc. Oh well we did make it and have tons of stories we will add as time permits. I am trying to type this from a Ukraine Internet Cafe and everything is in Ukraine so no spell check. Sorry if I misspell something. I will correct it later.

Flight and everything was ok. Lost luggage and then Garrett's Gameboy somewhere between security check in Warsaw and Apartment. Oh well.

We have our meeting tomorrow at SDA. We will find out what time just after 9:00 am when they open.

Met our Lawyer today. Very nice and stunning. She took us around to get a few items and show us where internet cafe was located.

Must run time is about up. We will get pictures imported to jump drive and load some goodies either later tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers from Kiev, Love Greg, Leah, and Garrett.

We Are On Our Way

We have the dresser done and their room is ready for their arrival.

It is 5:30 am and I just finished packing. Leah finally went to get some sleep and I will try and get mine on the plane. Our flight leaves at 10:23 and Leah's mom, Sally, is picking us up at 7:00.

This will be quite the adventure. Check back often and leave us a post to let us know what is going on.

Thanks for everything,

Greg and Leah

Girly Stuff

Hi everyone! Well, we have 4 more days to get ready! Yikes! We are running out of time! Here is a picture of our very first girly things in the house, it was really fun setting it up, Greg especially enjoyed it! We're going to get a night stand tomorrow and paint it white to put right there in between the beds. We leave Friday, wish us luck and please include us in your prayers.

Love you all,

Greg and Leah