Done and waiting for Monday

It’s been awhile since we were last online to update our journal. We were like the cliff hanger on a soap opera that was pre-empted by breaking national news. But, we’re back and the story continues…

Monday night, Kostya finally got our paperwork from the National Adoption Center at 7:45 PM! It was truly a God-thing to get it that late at night. As soon as he had the paperwork, he got a train ticket, got on the train and called us.

First thing the next morning a minivan picked us up from the apartment. We had completely packed everything, including all the food. Incidentally, John and I had just gone shopping the night before, thinking we wouldn’t see the paperwork for another day or two, so we would need groceries for 3-4 days!

We dropped off some outfits for the kids at the orphanage and tried to explain the significance of the day. They understood a little I think. Then we were off to court to wait for Kostya. His train was due at 7:30 into Odessa, then a 2-hour bus ride to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. Around 10 we met with the lawyer, who notified the judge we were ready.

Soon thereafter, we were invited into the judge’s chambers where our court hearing took place. Present were the judge (young woman probably in her 30s), a court recorder (hand transcribed everything!), John, myself, Kostya, the local social worker, and a representative from the orphanage. The court proceedings were probably about 30 minutes. We were asked individually to give our names, birthdates, occupation, address, the reasons we wanted to adopt 4 children, why we wanted to adopt from Ukraine, what kind of connections we made with the children, support from home, questions about Lillia and Anabella…The judge was extremely kind and personable, and really seemed interested in our answers, rather than simply trudging through “required questions”. We were also asked about the 30-days waiting period, and why we thought it would be beneficial for us, our family and the kids. There were statements made by the social worker and orphanage representative, and then we were asked if we wanted to add anything. We then were asked to step outside and please wait. We ended up waiting probably 20 minutes. At one point, I was starting to get nervous, but once we went back inside, I understood why it took so long. While we were waiting, the entire court hearing was typed up, along with the court decision. So, the decision time might have been instantaneous, but it just took time to prepare the documents. Once we were invited back into the chambers, the judge had us stand, and she read the decision. She then heartily congratulated us and wished us all the best. And so, we became an official 8-member family, and immediate execution was granted (aka 30-days waived). The judge was extremely gracious and even agreed to a picture with us, crowning the special moment.

After the court decision was read, we once again had to wait. Many copies had to be made, and while that sounds like a simple procedure done quickly on a Xerox machine, getting something copied here is quite the process! First, they make photocopies. Then they stamp them, certifying they are official copies. Then, they stitch them to make them extra-official. Stitching is quite a common practice here. John and I have laughed that if you asked any secretary in the US to stitch some paperwork for you, they would laugh quite heartily! But, most secretaries here seem to have a needle and thread/string in their drawers. Four holes are punched along the left margin of the paper, and then they are sewn together. The ends of the string are then tied, and a small sticker is placed over the knot. Finally, the knotted, stickered string is stamped! So, with us having to get many, many official copies of the court decree, we waited for quite some time…

Finally we were done at the court and went over to the orphanage to pick up the children. There were more papers to sign there, and more papers to pick up to bring with us. One of the papers that we had to pick up was a current medical statement, which was to be taken from the children’s files. Vanya has had a sore on his ear since we first met him, and we were curious what it was. This was the same sore that we took away fruit snacks from him about, back last week. Anyways, we asked the orphanage doctor about it, and she claimed it was only a couple days old, and actually started when we bought them icecream a couple days ago when we went to get their passport pictures taken. She said she had only treated it once, when in fact, it had been treated probably 5 times since we first started seeing Vanya…She was in quite an uproar about the entire thing, and finally huffed out of the office and came back with some kind of capsules. She opened the capsule and dumped it into his ear and instructed us to do that 3x/day. The treatments that Vanya had received previously on his ear were this awful purple liquid that was some kind of antiseptic. We don’t think it did much of anything, except make his face look awful! We are just looking forward to getting home and having a doctor we know and trust look at his ear and treat it appropriately. Needless to say, we are not dumping some unknown capsule into his ear 3x/day. It was amazing what a little cleaning did to make his sore look much better!

Once we were all loaded onto the van, we headed off. A short stop to pick something up from the social worker and then finally we were off to Odessa. The traffic between Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and Odessa was awfully slow and so the 71 km trip took almost 3 hours! We could tell the kids really had no idea what was happening, because everytime we stopped for traffic, they all said “So?” meaning “all done?”. Once we were finally in Odessa, Kostya found an apartment for us to all stay in. It was somewhat a challenge because many of the apartments were too small for 7 people, and most of them were onkly available by the week, rather than day. He finally found a gentleman that had two apartments. We looked at the first one, which was actually very close to Vladimir and Lena’s apartment. It however, had no running water. The other apartment wasn’t going to be available for another 2 hours, and so we left our things and went to get some dinner. And where would a family take 4 of the newest American citizens? Why McDonalds of course! It was actually Kostya’s idea, and after having them sit in the van for many hours, the Playland was a hit. They weren’t too sure about hamburgers, but the fries were a definite hit. We have discovered salt is the most common seasoning here, and so the salty fries probably were something that tasted familiar. After dinner and arranging notary services for paperwork we had to collect the next day, we went to the new apartment and settled in for bed.

Getting 4 children, all sleeping in the same room to settle down for bed took a little doing. They were wound up and excited, and eventually, after tucking them all in, saying prayers, and reminding them to be quiet several times, I “stood guard” at the door until all were asleep.

John slept that night with Vanya on a pull-out couch (somewhere between twin and full size). Vanya thrashes in his sleep and actually fell out of bed at one point (never woke up)! So, John pressed himself against the wall and did the best he could sleeping-wise in between elbows, knees and toes being jabbed into his side. I was going to sleep in the pull-out couch with the girls. However, once I came to bed, there was nowhere to squeeze, and so I opted for the very-hard floor. There was very little sleep that night, on my part!

The next morning, the alarm went off at 4:30. We drug the kids out of bed at 5 and were on the minivan at 6 AM a very long day. On the agenda was getting new birth certificates for the kids, and registering them at the Oblast capital. It sounds quite simple, but add to it a lot of miles on poor roads (without road signs to point the way!), 4 tired, cranky, antsy children, and lots of waiting around at each stop and you have a recipe for an extremely trying day. We were on the road from 6 AM until, well, 9 AM the next morning, when we kept going. Three of the children were born in Odessa Oblast. The place we had to get their birth certificates was a 300 km drive (remember how long it took us to go 71 km?!!?). Their birth certificates had to be registered in Odessa, so that had to wait for the next day. Then we were off to Kirovgrad Oblast to get the last birth certificate. The lady was really nice and actually waited until 6 PM for us. Our final stop for the long day was at the Oblast capital to register the birth certicate. As we pulled into town at 9:30, Kostya simply called the lady on her cell phone and she met us at the registry office. We were shocked and amazed that a government official would not only give Kostya his personal cell phone number, but come in so late at night! But she did, and we were done with all that we could do. We were still a 5-6 hour drive from Odessa (where the paperwork chase had to continue first thing the next morning), it was 11 at night, and so we headed back to Odessa in the minivan. The kids were able to spread out in the van and sleep pretty well. The adults, well, John slept fairly well (he sleeps anywhere!), I slept about an hour total, and Kostya dozed off and on as well. Around 2 AM we stopped for a few hours so the driver could sleep. John and I had a bowl of Borscht at the little restaurant at our stop. It was quite delicious, but didn’t sit well with my stomach…

I am going to sign off for now. Just a quick note about when we will be returning. We will arrive Tuesday, August 24th into Lewiston at 6:30 PM from Seattle. I will try to get back on this afternoon while the kids are resting to put more updates!