Happy Victory Day!

Janell writes....

Ukraine is celebrating Victory Day here so it is a govt holiday. That means another day here for us. (The holiday party started last night in our apartment building with loud music that kept us awake for awhile) We did visit Independence Square yesterday so saw familiar sites on TV this morning as they televised the parade from there. It would have been interesting to see but since it is raining I am glad we didn't go down there.

Please pray for sunshine quickly (since it is 4:30pm here) We washed socks, etc in the tub this morning and hung everything out to dry on our enclosed sun porch. We hope it drys before we depart at 5 am for the orphanage. We do have a wash machine (I think) in our apartment but it is very different looking and the instructions are not in English.

We need to try to find some more supplies before we head to the country and it has been raining on and off today. We met the other couple who are adopting and had pizza with them. Yes, pizza again. We have had four meals: pizza, pizza, McDonalds, and pizza. McDonalds does not have an English menu and has different items so wasn't as easy as you think it would be. So we are off to the market to find some more labels that look familiar. We did find yogurt (Dannon looking label) and asked a Ukranian born American at Uno Pizza what kind of milk brand to buy. We like that pizza place because we find Americans there who can help us! Yesterday at the market, I told Amber to remember the word for strawberry, Morgan the word for cherry and I had yogurt (because it is the same). That way we could order quicker and not hold up the line.

We leave at 5 am tomorrow packed into a small car for our 4 hour trip to Andriyevo. Try to find it on the internet! It is about 100 miles north of Odessa. Please pray for safe travel since we hear that no one drives slow. We also get a new facilitator (Seroge) and we still don't know where we are staying once there. We probably will not have internet so any posts will be via phone call to my sister Lynette again. That was the first update in case you didn't know who it was.

These are pictures of the old city gate. There was a wall that completely surrounded the city long ago - I think the 10th century. The gate is all that is left and now houses a museum I guess. These are pictures of both sides and you can see how thick the wall must have been. This was across from Pizza Uno but we never knew what it was until the last day here.

It's official - Lienna and Tanya!

Tuesday May 8, 2007

We had our appointment today at 11:00 am. We were asked only a couple questions and they shared some information about the girls. It was over very quickly. Even Dima our facilitator was surprised with how quickly it went. I guess they think we are normal enough. The ladies at the adoption center wished us well with the girls.

We now have official go ahead to adopt Lienna and Tanya. We are not able to go to their region until Thursday as tomorrow is a national holiday and the government offices are closed.

We will spend Wednesday washing some clothes and preparing to travel south to the orphanage. We are looking forward to moving on in this process.



We spent part of the day visiting Independence Square and shopping in an underground mall in that area.

This picture is of Amber and Morgan with a monkey at Independence Square. They had a choice between a few monkeys, an owl and a guy dressed up as Shrek to take a picture with. People are there to make a little money off the tourists. This cost us a 5 grivna (a dollar)

We appreciate your prayers everyday. We can tell that we are not alone on this journey. Please pray for another couple that is here to adopt. Their process has been very difficult and uncertain.

The Tolly’s

Independence Square: Sight of many public demonstrations including the student hunger strike against against the old Soviet socialists in 1990 and the "Orange" Revolution of 2004-2005.

A statue of the legendary founders of the city. Brothers Kiy, Schchek, Khoriv, and sister Lybed.

Morgan at a playground in downtown Kiev.


This was a really cool picture of Independence Square that I took off the internet. Unfortunately, I did not take this one. The underground mall is under the two glass domes. It is three levels of stores and food courts.

We finally found internet!

Monday, May 07, 2007 (Ukraine time)

We made it to Kiev, Ukraine at 10:00 Sat. May 5. That was about 2 am CST so it was the middle of the night for us. We are still trying to switch our body clocks. Morgan and I got a bit of reading done for several hours in the middle of the night because we couldn’t sleep.
Our interpreter (Dima) met us at the airport and we got to our apartment around noon. It is a spacious apartment and has most of what we need. This picture is of the girls in our kitchen. It has a nice bathroom with modern plumbing and hot (fluctuating) shower. Modern plumbing was a prayer request but I guess I should have prayed for heat. The govt. controls the heat for the city and it is turned off. We got extra blankets so the sleeping is cozy and we wear all our layers during the day. We have a little glassed-in balcony that gets really nice when the sun shines. I am praying for more sun!

We took a nap on Saturday and then ventured out to find water, food, and supplies. After striking out several times, I felt like I was on Survivor and just needed water. We did come home with that and Sprite! They sell water here “with or without gas” (carbonation). Luckily Jon knew that from his previous trip and knew to look for the bottled water with no bubbles pictured on the label. We sat down to a meal of beef jerky and Sprite. We did bring some Nutrigrain bars, jerky, protein bars, and a few other prepackaged items along. It was a lot to carry but doesn’t look like much now. Especially the jerky.

Sunday morning we really struggled getting up. We couldn’t sleep much until about 6 am which coincided with bedtime at home. We headed out after lunch to again look for a place to eat and an internet café. We did find a pizza place about 2 blocks away that has their menu in English also!! The waitress couldn’t speak it but another patron at the next table jumped in to help. She said lots of people around here speak English. We just hadn’t found any yet! We had asked quite a few people (well, pointed in the Russian/English translation book at the question) where an internet café was and had struck out.

Each time we come home we sit down and look for words and phrases in Russian to learn before our next trip out. I am trying to get Amber and Morgan to learn them since they have better memories. Amber has a good memory and practiced Russian words with Lienna late into the night when she was at our home. So I am hoping she will step up. Of course, being a woman, I am the one who is asking the directions so am most frustrated with not knowing the language and trying to pronounce the words. After yesterday, I have no more dreams of being on the Amazing Race!

Today we met an American living in Kiev who was hosting her parents for a couple weeks. She was very helpful in guiding us to free internet after we had spent another couple more hours looking and asking with no luck. We can now sit in the lobby of the Radisson and have free wireless internet. The drawback is that only one person can be on the internet at a time and so it gets boring for the others. I also wonder how long they will let us four travelers hang out in the lobby of such a nice hotel.

We have walked a great deal and are now glad to know this internet is right near our apartment. We are happy!

We've Arrived!!

Lynette (Janell's sister) writes:

Sorry about the delay in posting new information about the Tolly adventures but Janell gave me the responsibility of updating everyone even though I told her I am techo-impaired. I received a call from Janell yesterday(5-5) at 3:00 pm. Their flights were all on time and they have arrived safely. They ventured out in the afternoon and soon realized that language was going to be a huge problem. The only eating establishment that they could find, without being too adventuresome, was a deli. So....they opted to go back to their apartment and eat beef jerky instead. I'm sure Morgan will not be too happy with that for long but they were already tucked into bed at that time, which was 10:00 pm. Janell also said that the heat had been shut off in the city, so they will have to rely on that THICK South Dakota blood to carry them through.

Leaving for Ukraine

Friday May 4 at 7:00 am we left for Ukraine from Sioux Falls. Our trip went smoothly. The girls enjoyed their first plane flights, especially the big international flight.

Fundraiser pictures-April 21, 2007

What started as a joke on Jon cost a few men their hair and others from their pocketbook. These are just a few of the men.(and one very young man)

We do now know of one complication with a shaved head: when you put your sweatshirt on it gets stuck (like velcro) and then it leaves the white fuzz on your head!

Thank you so much to those who shaved their hair and to those who donated through this fundraiser! It has been amazing to us how God has provided financially for this adoption over the last year and a half. So many of you answered the prompting from God to help give two children a home.

Easter- April 8, 2007