Friday July 16, 2010

Here we are in beautiful Feodocia! (Skip this if geography bores you) Feodocia has a population of about 85,000 and sits on the shore of the Black Sea. It has strong Russian ties and Ukrainian is rarely spoken. It has a bustling summer population when thousands of Russians and northern Ukrainians visit, but is very quiet in the winter months. It is famous for its beaches, mud baths and mineral springs. Its climate is quite temperate with average highs in the 80’s in July and August and an average low of about 68. Greek colonists founded Feodocia in 600 BC, so it is a rather ancient city.

We took an early flight to Simferopol, which is the capital of the Crimean peninsula. It was truly early as we had to wake up at 2:30 a.m. in order to be at the airport in time. That makes for a long day I’ve discovered! It was even longer for poor Natasha who didn’t get to bed at all that night.  

A friend of Natasha our facilitator picked us up at the airport. After driving for about an hour Arnold, our driver, suggested we stop about a half hour outside of Feodocia for a bite to eat. There was an interesting and quite delicious outside dining barbeque with Tatarian style food. I ordered a cucumber, onion and tomato salad and a small pork shish kabob. Calvin had a meat (tongue) and mayonnaise salad and a mutton ribs. Very daring! We enjoyed sitting and talking and observing, but had to move on quickly.

Tatar restaurant nestled in the trees.

Cheryl looking tired and hungry!

Calvin ready for mutton ribs and beef toung salad!

(Skip this part if history bores you). The Tatars (not to be confused with tartar that I clean off of people’s teeth every day) are a Muslim minority that lives in Ukraine. In fact, on the drive down we passed several Mosques. I believe they were originally from the Mongol region. They were forced to evacuate to Siberia by Stalin around 1944 because he claimed they betrayed Russia by working for the Nazis. Gorbachev’s wife was Tatar and so during this period the government softened considerably and made an official apology for the forced evacuation. This was taken as an open invitation to the Tatars from Uzbekistan and other places, who were never involved in the evacuation in the first place, to move into Crimea and other areas. The influx of the Muslim Tatars is causing some immigration problems and resentment among the other Ukrainians whose issues sound amazingly similar to our Mexican immigration problems in America.

After arriving in Feodocia we stopped briefly to talk with Vera who came to America to help translate. She’s as brown as a button and looks cute as can be. Tamara who is the director of the orphanage is currently in the hospital. As far as I can gather, she suffered a mini stroke or some type of precursor to a stroke. Anyway, she can’t have visitors and they are trying to control any stress that she might be experiencing. I really like Tamara and am very sad we won’t be able to visit her. It’s also thrown a wrench in the works and made some of this paperwork a little more difficult and slow.

(Skip this part if art bores you). We were waiting for some other official to get back into town and had a little time to burn so we went down to the seaside where all the action is. Feodocia is a resort town during the summer and they have something similar to a carnival/lagoon going on. It was unbearably hot so we went into an art museum to see some paintings made by a famous seascape artist who lived here in Feodocia, mainly during the late 1800’s. His name is Ivan Aivozovsky. He really was a master and we enjoyed seeing his beautiful artwork. For having the same subject matter, it’s amazing how much variety you see in his different paintings. The docents take themselves and their job very seriously and I got a huge “stink eye” from one of them because I was whispering during her presentation. 

On our way out we witnessed a very interesting altercation between a father and a security guard and several workers at the art museum. This man and his young boys came into the Museum wearing not much more than their beach clothes. The workers thought this was undignified and didn’t show the proper respect but they refused to give him his money back. I was mystified. There was nothing posted which stated the dress code and 99% of the people outside were wearing similar clothes. It’s a resort town and this museum is pretty much on the boardwalk. It got pretty personal when the museum workers started accusing him of being a bad father and not teaching his sons proper respect. I thought it was a little unfair of them not to give his money back when he hadn’t even gone through, the exhibit (power to the people!) although I can understand them wanting to preserve the dignity of the place.

(Okay, here’s the good part, don’t skip this!) We finally made it to the Director’s office, where the Assistant Director did the formal interview and asked a few questions. Finally they invited Anastasia in. (Drum roll and nervous stomach here!) She walked through the door and gave me a huge hug and then gave Calvin a big hug. She looked so beautiful - tan, a little taller with sun streaked hair and smiling and so very excited to see us. It was a sweet reunion. The Spirit confirmed again that we were doing the right thing and we both shed a few tears. Being with her and hugging her is the most natural thing in the world. She is still so sweet and has this adorable cute little innocent face and a darling giggle.  

Anastasia and Calvin in the administrative offices of the orphanage

She sat down and wrote a paper declaring that she wanted to be adopted – no hesitation, no misgivings at all. After a while they invited Anastasia to leave and we were free to ask questions about her and her background. There was nothing earth shattering or particularly new that we didn’t know before. We then waited for them to finish paperwork. I could see poor Natasha getting more and more edgy because the paperwork should have been pretty much completed before we arrived. The secretary was doing a “hunt and peck” at her computer and Natasha looked like she wanted to boot her off the computer and take over for her. She wanted us to stay to hopefully keep the office staff aware of our presence to keep them moving. I stayed as long as I could, but was falling off my chair trying to stay awake. (I had two hours sleep the night before and it was warm).  

Anastasia's signed letter of intent to be adopted.

Calvin’s Entry: After my initial meeting with Anastasia, one of the first thoughts I had is that I will have to have a big stick on hand to keep the boys in check. I’m glad that Christian, who will be in 9th grade with Anastasia, and Roman who will be in 10th grade, will be able to watch out for her at Provo High. At Provo High, Anastasia will be primarily in ESL and ESL based classes, which are attended mostly by Hispanic students. I can see myself – sitting in the back of Anastasias ESL classes with a big stick, ready to smack any guy who looks at her or says something the least bit disparaging or inappropriate.

We finally got up and started walking around looking for Anastasia. The orphanage is remarkably well kept, bright and cheerful. Tamara’s (the director’s) husband helps maintain it and you can see him walking around checking things out and making repairs. We found Anastasia and went to a room where she opened the gift of jeans and two shirts in it that we brought for her. She tried them on. Everything fit and she seemed to like them quite well. Score! 

I asked for a paper and a pen and wrote down the full names of everyone in our family. Then I wrote “Anastasia (?) Wendelboe”. I then wrote down three choices of middle names and let her pick. Everyone in our family has either a first or middle name that begins with “C”. She chose Chantel for her middle name. Anastasia Chantel…. sounds gorgeous doesn’t it? A few times a day I’ll ask her, “Anastasia, what’s your name?” She still can’t remember and it usually comes out something like, Anastasia Chantila Vendelboy. Close enough.  

Calvin was checking her math acuity and wrote out an algebra problem. He solved it for her to show her what he wanted her to do. We all got a good laugh when she took the paper and corrected the wrong answer that he put down on the math problem he’d just worked. Sheesh, these foreigners! Always one-upping us dumb Americans! No worries though. She’ll soon be part of the same fine school system that produced us. J

Calvin’s Entry: Later in the evening, we went out to eat. I told Anastasia to choose any restaurant where she wanted to eat. We wandered down town by the beach area, which was like walking through a carnival/state fair atmosphere. We walked about 1 kilometer through little kiosks offering food, knock-off perfumes, little crafts, ice cream – like you would find at any beach/resort area. We came to a ‘bistro’ restaurant where we enjoyed a meal with typical Ukrainian fare. While eating our tomato and cucumber (Greek style) salads, I would spear a cucumber with my fork and hold it up to Anastasia and repeat “cucumber” to her. I would have her repeat “cucumber” back to me before I could eat it. I did the same with most of the ingredients in the salad, “lettuce”, “cheese”, “olive”, “tomato” and so forth. I felt very proud of her and excited she is joining our family. She is so easy to love.

Anastasia and Cheryl walking towards the bistro restaurant

Anastasia telling Calvin how to say "cucumber"