Our Journey Home

We spent the next days in Khmelnytskyi in our apartment and going on small little adventures to the park and shopping nearby.  Luckily the passports were issued ahead of schedule so our time spent in Khmelnytskyi was shorter than expected, but we really enjoyed the parks and ease of getting around as almost everything was within walking distance for us.

It was neat to see Anna and Artem interact with the children on the playground.  They make friends quite easily and are not shy to meet new people, young and old.  We started to learn that when we would go out to eat at a restaurant that Ryan and I would have to give the server direction that all food would need to be ordered through us.  On a few occasions food was arriving at our table that the children had ordered and we didn’t know they ordered it because we couldn’t understand what they were saying to the server.  One morning we went to a coffee shop for some coffee and a small breakfast, and Anna tried ordering cheesecake and a latte!

The food was delicious everywhere we went, but for the most part we would make our own meals in the apartment.  The problem was that our apartment was freezing cold as they hadn’t turned the heat on for the season yet.  We ended up having to turn the oven on with the door open to heat up the place.  You would see us often huddling around the stove warming up.

The time at the apartment was really great despite being cold.  It was here where we began to see the children’s routines and abilities.  They were both very orderly and kept their rooms and areas of the home clean.  Shoes would be placed at the door neatly in a line, and without even asking, they would get their pyjamas on, brush their teeth and head to bed.  In the morning, Artem would be the first to get up.  By the time we would wake up, he would be found sitting at the kitchen table, dressed and playing a game.  Once up, they would make their bed on their own, place their pyjamas under their pillow and get ready for the day.  Extremely well trained and disciplined.  I noticed that they would turn their clothes they had already worn inside out, then place them in the closet to distinguish what was clean and what was already worn, but not ready for laundry yet.  Brilliant!

Both Anna and Artem were eager to help in the kitchen, whether it was learning how to cook or cleaning dishes, both were very engaged to participate.

The first item on our shopping list to get them was warmer jackets, toques, and gloves.  We were not expecting that the weather was going to be much colder then what it was back home, so we were a bit unprepared.  While at the store buying the jackets, the clerk was taking a bit longer than normal to process our transaction.  It had something to do with they tried charging it in US dollars vs. Ukrainian Currency and their was an issue with the conversion to our credit card.  It took quite a while before it was sorted out, but the staff there were very kind and were chatting away with the children.  I used my translation app at the end to thank them and to explain why we were speaking English yet our children were Ukrainian.  Their response was, “Yes, we already know, the children told us that they were from an orphanage and are now being adopted and moving to Canada.”  Indeed, not shy and proud of their story which is something so awesome.

We were able to spend time with Anna and Artem’s grandmother (their late Mother’s Mom) in addition to their Aunt Luda and her husband Roma.  Luda is their late Mother’s sister and they have 3 children who were unable to join us that day. The entire family has been very supportive and kind to us throughout this process.  Their love for Anna and Artem is very evident.

At last the passports were ready and we were able to leave Khmelnytskyi for Kiev on Oct 12th.  Fortunately we were able to reserve seats with a table which allowed us to play games, colour and ride comfortably for our 4 hr train ride.  Both Anna and Artem were able to sleep a couple hours on the train, but they were very excited every time they saw lights asking if we were in Kiev yet.  Upon arriving, Kate, our driver was waiting right at our train door helping us with our luggage and the children as we disembarked the train.  A short walk and we were at her car.  The children were in awe of the lights and the big buildings and of course the big McDonald’s which stood across the street from the train station. 

We arrived at our apartment rental that night around 1:30am.  The next morning Anna woke up throwing up throughout the morning.  Ryan wasn’t feeling much better which led us to believe they both had food poisoning from the pizza at the restaurant the night before.  By afternoon everyone was feeling fine and back up and running. 

The next day Inna and I went to the Canadian Embassy to start our application for Canadian Visa’s. This is the final step in our documentation required to fly home.  The days after this were spent touring the area by foot, visiting various sites and parks.  Kyiv is a beautiful city, very clean and easy to get around.  Our first few days in Kyiv they were celebrating the Ukrainian military at St Andrews Square right next to our apartment.  They had numerous military vehicles and equipment out on full display which was quite cool to see.  Both Anna and Artem had fun climbing on the tanks and checking everything out.

We also had a chance to visit our friend Taras and his girlfriend for dinner.  After they took us for a drive around Kyiv to see some of the beautiful sites, monuments, and bridges.  It was a very memorable and wonderful time spent with friends.

On Oct 19th we received notice from the Canadian Embassy that the visa’s were ready for pick up!  We spent nearly 2 hours on the phone with Aeroplan arranging to switch to earlier flights and thankfully the customer service agent we were speaking with was able to make this happen.  She not only got us an earlier flight, which meant we were able to leave 5 days earlier, she also managed to get the first flight of the trip in business class.  This was so amazing to give Anna and Artem this special treatment for their first flight ever.

Our travel day was very long getting up at 3am to leave at 4am for the airport.  We flew from Kyiv to Munich, Germany where we had a 7.5hr layover for our flight to Toronto.  Our time at Munich was pretty fun.  We played games, ate at a of couple restaurants, and found a wonderful indoor playground that the children and Ryan loved.

Once boarded on our flight from Munich to Toronto, things were already starting to feel at home.  Something about boarding Air Canada when you are overseas already makes you feel that you are one step closer to all the things that are familiar once again.  Upon Arriving in Toronto, we made a mad dash for customs as we only had 1 hr and 15 min before our next flight was boarding.  There was no time to waste.  Customs went fairly quick; however we also had to stop over at Immigration to review Anna and Artem’s documentation.  Everyone was very kind and could see we were stressed about potentially missing our final flight home to Winnipeg.  The customs agent finished and asked if we had any questions.  I jokingly looked at him and said, “uh ya, do you know how to raise children?”.  We all had a good chuckle and he helped direct us where we needed to go next.  By the time we were at the Covid Testing area our flight had already started boarding.  At this point, we were setting ourselves up fo the great possibility we were not going to make this last flight home.  We ran to our next area which was security once again, only to find that we had accidentally left a water bottle from the flight in one of our backpacks.  This meant we had to wait for the bag to be thoroughly checked through by security. Once cleared, we ran and I mean we ran to the point of not being able to breathe only to find that we were at the wrong gate!  Unfortunately, my Air Canada App didn’t refresh with the new gate showing.  This meant another long run from one end fo the airport to the complete other end, desperate to catch the next plane home.  We got to the gate with just a of couple minutes to spare, barely breathing, sweating, and truly making a scene.  Not a great feeling, but once on that plane it was the best feeling ever.  We are in Canada!  We are on our final flight and so close to being home.

We are finally here! How amazing that feeling was arriving at our final destination and thankfully our luggage all arrived.  The drive home felt so great and was another milestone for us as we got in our SUV as a family for the first time.  Driving home it was dark as we pulled into our lane just after 11pm.  The dogs were waiting anxiously for our arrival and gave us a glorious howl as we entered the house.  Anna and Artem were excited to finally see their new home and even more excited to see their new rooms. 

We did it!  2 years in the making, and we are finally here at the picture we had always dreamt of.  What an amazing feeling it was tucking our children into their beds for the first time at home.  Though exhausted, we all were excited to wake up the next morning and start our adventure as a family.