Wow! How time flies when you are visiting Ukraine for your third and final adoption trip! Let me do a brief catch-up. We left home Wednesday morning, flew from Raleigh to Newark, NJ and then on to Dusseldorf, Germany where we enjoyed a few hours and a lite breakfast before heading on to Kyiv, Ukraine. We arrived in Kyiv on Thursday afternoon, went with our driver to the train station, exchanged money, bought water and snacks, and got on the train. Our train ride (15 hours overnight - arriving in Simferopol on Friday morning) was actually quite pleasant and relaxing. This particular Raleigh to Simferopol journey was kind of interesting because we were transporting clothing for four people (ourselves plus the kids) in baggage for just the two of us. It was not easy, and it made us really happy to think that on the return trip, we'll have two additional able-bodied people to help carry all of this! In fact, throughout all of the travel (plane and train) it was really exciting thinking that the next time we do these things, we'll have Lera and Vitalik with us!!
We were met in Simferopol by our friendly driver and a new facilitator, who was also nice. The facilitator had arrived one day earlier to pick up our adoption decree from the court. We squeezed all of our baggage into the trunk and headed straight for the town where the kids were born (about an hour's drive) to request a their new birth certificates. After the drive there, we sat in the car and waited for perhaps an hour. When the facilitator returned, the news was not good. There was a mistake in the court document, and we had to return to Simferopol. It was a little scary, frustrating, and we were again helpless, but we tried to be patient and confident and just see how it all turned out - blessedly, it ended well. I will spare you the details, but we burned up that one-hour strip of 2-lane highway on Friday (with a lot of waiting in the car at various stops), and finally, at the end of the day, we did indeed have new birth certificates that have the kids' new names and list us as their parents. We were so thankful!
The time was about 5:30pm on Friday, and we headed straight for the orphanage. (Please keep in mind that we had been traveling in planes, trains, and automobiles for three days straight, and probably didn't look our best, but oh well!) It was awesome to see Vitalik and Lera, of course. It is an amazing feeling to get to give someone a big hug after you have literally traveled across the world to see them. Just awesome! We had 30 minutes to walk and visit with just the four of us. We were so thankful that our facilitator had just worked out a schedule for the next few days so that we could tell them what to expect. The plan is this:
- Visit at noon on Saturday and Sunday
- Have their farewell party at 3pm on Monday
- Sign them out on Tuesday, go apply for new passports, and then begin living together in a Simferopol apartment for a week while we wait for the new passports to be ready...then to Kyiv for a few days... then to America.
Both kids were very excited and perhaps a little giddy with this news. Vitalik took longer than usual to be confident that he got it, and kept wanting to review the details to be sure that he really understood. It must feel pretty surreal to them both - it certainly does to me and I'm almost forty! Lera refused to acknowledge that she understood and just kept giggling and shouting with a smile, "NO! I don't understand!" Vitalk wanted to know at exactly what time we would be going to the supermarket. "Supermarket, what o'clock?" With a big grin, he mimed himself pushing a shopping cart through the grocery store and putting one of everything in his cart. It is said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and I'm pretty sure that the same is true of teenage boys! This is one boy who can not wait to have whatever he wants to eat, and I for one can not wait to feed him!
We walked to the playground and spent an awesome 20 minutes or so doing various tricks and flips. A real highlight was when about 4 of us spotted Eugene as he attempted a backbend! It was laugh-out-loud funny! At the end of the visit, the facilitator told them the plan in Russian, ending with, "On Tuesday we will take you away from Lezevoyeh forever," again, Lera refused to believe and finally Eugene told her, "Lera, pravda (truth)!" which made her literally jump and down with joy. It was really awesome to see. We said "Da zavtra!" and headed home with grins on our faces. After a quick stop at a tiny market, we were home (FINALLY) to take a hot bath and eat an easy dinner of sliced summer sausage, cheese, and bread.
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