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Monday, January 7, 2008

Familiar Things

On Sunday, December 30, we helped Lisa move things to her and Michelle's new apartment. They don't have any furniture yet and the carpet laying isn't finished, so they really don't want a lot of heavy furniture to move around. It was difficult to keep the apartment warm since you could see daylight between the glass and frame on some of the windows. There were some loose fitting window frames that let in a draft in the kitchen, living room and all three bedrooms and a couple of holes that had been drilled at various times to bring in telephone, tv or internet cables. On Friday, January 4th, we gave Lisa a "house warming" gift, a roll of clear plastic package tape, which Steve used to seal all the windows in the apartment. Th temperature probably increased by at least 10 degrees, with no draft coming in. On Saturday, Steve and Sergey went with Lisa to purchase light fixtures, electrical outlets and light switches. There were no lights in the bedrooms or living rooms and several places had wires in the walls, but no outlets. It is quite an adventure to shop for light fixtures in an outdoor market when the temperature is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Back at the apartment, Sergey and Steve were able to install all the fixtures, switches and outlets. Shutting off the breakers that we found in the apartment didn't seem to have any effect on shutting off the power. Sergey talked with the woman who lives in the next apartment and determined which switches in the hallway were the main breakers for the apartment. It was good not to have live 240 volt circuits to work on. Steve commented that it seemed like home, where he is always doing home projects at the house or at the daughters' homes in Oklahoma. It was a productive day. When Michelle returns this week, more items will be moved. It was nice to have something different to do than to just wait.
Our 14 day 10 day wait is over tomorrow, so we should get the final adoption paperwork. We will then apply for birth certificates, get copies translated to send to USCIS in Omaha and apply for the kids passports. Hopefully, two weeks later we will be ready to return to Omaha.

2 comments:

Paul and Renee Berger said...

Steve & Gail,

We are watching your adventure and praying for everything to be completed quickly. These next two weeks may be frustrating, but all will be done as God has planned. :-)

The Berger's

Irina said...

I respect with your actions, I thank you for acceptance of the Ukrainian children. I have no words adequately to thank you for that you remarkable people, good parents, and I am glad that I had an opportunity to learn your history. Thanks you!