No News Today

As I write an update tonight, I am reminded of the radio news headline on the local station in my hometown (Franklin, KY - population 8,000).  I remember that one afternoon during my high school years, the announcer began the newscast saying, "The Franklin City Council met last night and conducted no business... this story and others coming up after these messages..."   So it is with this blog post.  Nothing really happened today.  If you would like to hear more, keep reading.  :o) 

In a nutshell, our facilitator spent all day running around and getting things done, calling us every few hours to say, "Wait just a couple of more hours."   :o)  We were picked up for a brief errand around 10am and went to a local notary (notaries here are more like paralegals, and are called, "Notarious!") to show our passports and sign our names to a couple of legal documents written in Russian (or perhaps Ukrainian - who knows).  I think it was our application to adopt the kids.  In any case, we signed and printed our names, and Eugene worried hours later that he may have misspelled his middle name - it is interesting how when you are under such pressure, even the little things take a lot of energy.

Afterward, when I asked our facilitator if he had our passports, he smiled and said that he had sold them. :o)  Then he told us that, in honesty, American passports don't bring what they used to now that they have made it more difficult to rip out the photo and replace it.  He said that they used to bring $20,000 on the black market, and explained that once when a client had his passport stolen, the passport number had to be registered so that it could be essentially blacklisted around the world.  After so many years of helping families through the adoption process, it is amazing to think of the stories this guy could tell if he had the time. :o)

After the one hour errand of signing our names, we were dropped back at the apartment and had a nice walk (the weather was sunny and not too cold) to a nearby market for a few supplies and the nearby French Bakery (thanks to Judy P for that recommendation!)  Back at the apartment, we had a good lunch and rested a bit.  For the entire afternoon until 5:30 or so, we thought we'd be going to the orphanage soon to visit, so we sat and waited - me feeling pretty relaxed and eugene worrying about what might be going wrong while we waited. :o)  Ultimately we didn't get to visit the kids today, but their social worker was notified so that she could explain to them that we will visit tomorrow morning.  We were sorry to not visit today (especially because I had on such a cute outfit!) but we appreciated the fact that today (the last biz day of the week) was a good day for the facilitator to run around and make things happen - I will always be happy to sit at home while he goes out and gets things done.  We expect to go tomorrow morning to visit the kids and hand out the gifts families have sent for them!

Meanwhile, we wait.  We study a little Russian, play a little scrabble on Eugene's ipad (I creamed him tonight, by the way), we rest, and we try not to worry.

We did a little more exploring before dark.  The area we are in feels pretty safe and very decent with lots of shops and restaurants.  This reminds me of a funny story.  Last night, Eugene walked a little after dark with our handler to get something we needed from his nearby apartment.  While walking down the sidewalk at maybe 6:30pm, Eugene said to him, "This is a pretty safe area isn't it?" to which he replied, "Yes, just keep walking straight ahead."  We both laughed a lot about this when he told me today!  This is what the locals seem to do, and I guess it works for them.

The reports from home are that the boys are doing just great with Harmony (korean grandma) and Aunt Tracy.  In fact, it seems that (with the help of other family and good friends) these two ladies are running a very efficient home in our absence.  The kids are watching less TV, practicing more piano, playing more games, visiting Grandmother's house, having a great time... and somehow, the ladies are having time to sit and drink lots of tea!  We are so glad they are all doing so well!  Of course, it helps a lot to know that the boys are doing so well while we are away.  Not only are they surviving, they are having a rich experience and enjoying great bonding time with their extended family!  They have been enjoying the last week of their winter track-out.  School begins for them on Monday, so it will be interesting to see how everyone adjusts to that schedule. 

So I guess this concludes my "no news" update.  This has been Shelly reporting Live from Simferopol, Ukraine.  The local time is 7:28pm.  Good Evening!  :o)