Finding Carter

Finally settled

2005-04-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well I finally have a chance to update the site while Carter is naping. We are still amazed at the fact that we are already home and enjoying our little one. Our trip took 15 days door to door, which is amazing and unheard of these days. We had a wonderful time in Ukraine, but we glad to get home. The plane trip back was not as horrible as I thought it would be and Carter did amazingly well. We had a layover over night in Amsterdam which helped a lot. I would recommend doing the same to anyone traveling. When we arrived home we were exhausted and just wanted to make it back to the house. We were greeted by my parents and Corey's mom at the airport which was nice. Then when we arrived home we had a few other visitors which was nice as well. It took us a while to adjust to the time change especially with a little one. It took us about 4 days to start feeling like ourselves again and for Carter to sleep through the night. Things are going very well now. Carter has been teething so that has been a little rough but he is quite a trooper to have gone through all these changes with a smile on his face. Everyday when I look at him I am still amazed that I finally have my son after such a long wait and to have such a perfect little boy what a blessing. He has made such progress since he became ours on April 6th. Whithin two days he started crawling, he has gained 4 pounds, is saying mama and dada on a regular basis, said the word cat (2 days ago we have 3 cats), and began to feed himself cheerios, the list goes on and on. I am just amazed at what a little sponge he is. Well that's all for now I hope to see all of you at the shower on Sunday to celebrate the homecoming of our son.

More Pictures

2005-04-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

This was taken on the first day we met Carter.

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Here he is on our 3rd visit.

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And here he is when we got him home.

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Carter is home!

2005-04-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

        Click picture for larger version.

Updates from Denise's Mom 3

2005-04-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today's update -- they went to court this morning (Wednesday). The judge signed the papers and waived the 30 day waiting period. And, of course, Denise and Corey cried for joy. When I spoke with them this morning -- they were in a taxi on their way back to Kiev with Carter in their arms. They are officially a family. On Thursday Carter has a doctor visit and then they go to the embassy to pick up his visa. They will be headed to Amsterdam on Sunday and back in Seattle on Monday (April 11).

-Joyce

Updates from Denise's Mom 2

2005-04-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tue, April 05

More information -- The papers are signed and Denise and Corey go to court at 8:30 a.m on Wednesday. Then they head back to Kiev on Wednesday night. On Thursday they take him for his visit to the doctor and go to the embassy to get his papers. They will be home on Monday, April 11, at 12:20 in the afternoon. They are so excited and so are grandma and grandpa. After court on Wednesday, Carter will leave the orphanage and be with them forever.

-Joyce

Updates from Denise's Mom

2005-04-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

Mon Apr 4th

Denise has not been able to get to a internet cafe to post an update -- I have been talking with her daily (and this morning) so I thought I would give everyone an update.

Things are going really well. The Director should sign the papers on Monday or at the latest Tuesday. They could go to court on Tuesday or Wednesday -- then Carter will be officially theirs. Then they will head back to Kiev. Getting them an earlier flight back is proving to be somewhat of a challenge -- but it could be as early as April 10th or 11th. I will keep everyone updated as soon as I know.

Carter is doing great and is already saying mama (which I think they are taught at an early age). Corey has been trying to get him to say da da -- but every time he does Carter responds with mama. But I bet by the time they get back he is saying it. He is all healed from the heart surgery he had a month ago. It was to mend a hole in his heat. The surgeons in the Ukraine are revered as experts in doing that type of surgery. He is sitting up and stands up in his crib. He is still building up his strength, so gets a little tired after standing a while. Denise and Corey got to take him outside a couple of times. Once to get his passport picture and today out in the yard. They are now allowed to take him to the play room where he loves playing with rattle types of toys and the tags on everything. She said they have lots of pictures and hopes to get some posted when they get back to Kiev. Everyone is telling them how much Carter looks like them, especially in the eyes.

I am tentatively planning a baby shower for her on April 24 (Sunday). More to come on that later. I thought I would let people know so that they can plan. Invitations will come out as soon as Denise, Corey, and Carter return.

There is so much to say -- but I hope this gives everyone at least a little update on what is going on. My phone number is 425-882-4867 if you want to call for more info.

I am so excited to be a grandma again. Mike and I hit Toys R Us today -- a grandparents paradise.

The wait and anticipation continues.

Joyce Carter (Denise's Mom)

Meeting Carter

2005-03-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, we had our visit today but let me go back a day first. Yesterday we spent most of the day in our lovely apartment. At 3:40 pm we were picked up and taken back to the NAC to get our referral letter. Everything went fine despite my embarrassing fall on the stairs. For all of you traveling anytime soon that last step is a doozey! We waited for about 30 minutes and then we were on our way. We came back to the apartment where we slept for about 4 hours and were up by 12:00 am. I was so excited I couldn't sleep and Corey had taken so many naps he couldn't sleep. So anyway we stayed awake until our driver Vitalik cam for us at 5:00 am. We arrived in what we believe is the Cherkasy region at about 7:20 am. We had to sit and wait for the inspector to arrive at 8:00am to get our approval to go to the orphanage. We then traveled to the orphanage. It is very nice, apparently according to the inspector one of the best orphanages in Ukraine. We talked to the Director for a bit to find out more information about Denise (yes his name is the same as mine). She told us more about his condition and About his birth mother. Then instead of Denise coming to see us we had to go to him. His surgery was just 2 weeks ago and he is still recovering. We entered the room to see a very small boy smiling at us. He only weighs 15 pounds as he was born premature and is the size of about a 9 or 10 month old. Developmentally he is also at this stage. He apparently is not walking or crawling, but can sit up on his own. He is a very happy boy and it didn't take us long to warm up to him. They left us with him in his room for quite some time we took lots of pictures and played with him. However he is still on bed rest and supposed to lie down and take it easy for the next 5 to 7 days. We decided almost immediately that he would be our son. We are in the process of getting paperwork done now and his name will be Carter Kanden Greene. It looks as though we may be headed home in 16 days total. We are hoping we will get our court date by next Friday and be headed home on the 13th if everything goes as planned. Well it looks like it will be sometime before we are able to write again, but we will do the best we can. Ta ta for now.

We Made It!

2005-03-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

Well we finally arrived in Kiev yesterday at 2:00pm as scheduled. We only have 30 minutes online so I am going to type quickly. The flight was terrible to say the least. We were awake for about 27 hours straight before we finally made it to our apartment for some sleep. The jet lag hit us way harder then we ever expected. It seems like all we are doing is trying to get back on a regular schedule for sleeping. When we arrived at the airport it was a bit intimidating. After getting our luggage off of a flight that arrived an hour later we made it through customs with no problems. We walked out the big gray door labeled "to the city" to see a crowd of people surrounding a little walkway. I felt like a moviestar walking down the red carpet (ha ha). We immediately saw a sign with our name on it and approached the woman holding it. Our translator Sveta is ill so Lyuda is our translator while we are here. She is wonderful we love her and can't say enough good things about her. She is the same translator Wendy's brother used.
This morning we woke up bright and early for our NAC appointment which was scheduled for 10:30 am. We arrived a bit early so sat in the car and waited for Lyuda to join us. When then went into the Adoption Center around 10:00, we walked up a few flights of stairs and down a long hall way to sit and wait for our turn. We were like the 5 the appointment of the day. We weren't waiting long and actually got in early. We went into the office and sat down at the desk of the older man psychologist. We looked through a red binder of several very sick children. However we were shown two children that were considering the best. One was a girl and one was a boy. The first one was a boy almost 16 months (DOB 12/08/03). His file only had a baby picture of him so we don't know what he looks like currently. We were told he has dark hair and gray eyes, his name is pronounced something very similar to mine. We will have to find out the spelling and get back to you. We were informed that about a month ago he had heart surgery for congenital heart disease. However the psychologist said the surgery was successful and not to worry he would be able to play sports. We also looked at the girl but she is said to be developing much slower than the boy and could possibly have cerebly palsy even though she is walking. We decided to go and see the boy. We will get our referral tomorrow and go to see him at the orphanage on Wednesday. Hopefully we will be able to find an internet cafe there. For now we do have a phone in our room MOM CALL ME! 574-79-03. We will be getting a cell phone as we were told we absolutely have to have one. We will give you all that number when we get it. So far things are going wonderfully and we are thrilled about the thought that we may have found our Carter!

2005-03-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

Wow I am sweetly surprised with everyone's comments on the site! Thank you all for your encouraging words and support as we will be needing it now more than ever. With only 3 days left till departure I am overwhelmed with excitment and nervousness. Our plane leaves Seattle at 8:30 on Saturday morning. We will first fly to Minnesota for a lovely 5 hour layover, then we will fly to Amsterdam, and lastly to Kiev. We are set to arrive at 2:00 pm Kiev time on Sunday. Our appointment at the National Adoption agency is on Monday the 28th, but we aren't sure what time slot we got yet (hopefully the first appointment of the day). We just found out a few days ago that Sevta will be our main translator and everything will be in her hands. We have heard only good things about her so that is a plus. Well ta ta for now I won't post again until I can manage to find an Internet cafe in Kiev.

2005-03-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Well this is my first post today is actually March 15th. I would have posted earlier, but I have been so sick.  I went to the doctor 12 days ago to find out I had a respitory infection and started on anitbiotics right away.  However 4 days later I was feeling sick again.  I went back into the doctor to be diagnosed with bronchitis and the flu all at the same time.  So instead spending my time packing and preparing I have been in bed attempting to get better seeing as we travel in only 10 days.

2005-03-12T18:58:00.000-08:00