So How've You Been?

Long time no blog, though readers of my normal blog wouldn't be surprised if they've been paying attention over the last year. It's been an interesting and fun, albeit busy week. In review:

Tuesday
I think I left off with Tuesday (aside from the note that we arrived home.) If not, call me on it in the comments and I'll fix the problem. Tuesday did have a bit more detail than I posted then. The day started with doing some packing while waiting for Angelina to call. She did eventually, and picked me up to sign some papers. We went first to the courthouse, where she picked up the court decree. From there to the orphanage, where I had to sign two documents. For two signatures, I'd been gone nearly 90 minutes. Yep, this was going to be fun!

We left Makeevka, and on the way to Donetsk for some more paperwork I called Shannon to let her know that we'd be ready and back to the apartment by 3:00 to go pick up Galya. Angelina wouldn't be with us, but we told the orphanage folks while we were there what the plan was. In Donetsk, we went into a freezing building (side note: in Ukraine, apparently they will choose to do some heating water pipe repair when it's cold out) to get Galya's new birth certificate. This was another long wait, but I did get to do the signature thing so I felt like I was at least contributing. Then we headed off to one last errand - the passport. Unfortunately, the passport office was closed until 2:00 for the lunch break, so we stopped at McDonald's to kill some time and grab a bite to eat.

At two, we were able to get to the passport office, and by 2:30 we had everything the Ukrainian government owed us. Yippee! Angelina dropped me by the bus stop where the girls were going to meet me for the marshutka ride to the orphanage. She was going to go fax the passport page copy to the U.S. embassy so we'd be okay to get a visa interview on Wednesday.

Tuesday, Angelina proved her worth in all of these stops. Conversations in the past few days showed that many adoptive families can wait up to two weeks to get the passport. We got ours the day the court decree became official. It helps when the person you hired knows everyone and everything about the process. If you're ever considering adopting in Ukraine, let me know and I'll get you in touch with her.

So...as I said, it was cold. Even for us Minnesotans it was a bit chilly, and the marshutkas were running very full. There wasn't room for us on the first handful that went by while we waited, so we were all very glad when one came by with space.

And this brings us to the orphanage. I'll bet you're all expecting a big dramatic moment, tear-jerking narrative and emotional broadsides. We were too. It was nothing like that. In the dictionary next to anticlimactic you see a picture of Galya leaving the orphanage. After all these months (years, really) of time since we first heard of Galyna, the moment felt oddly normal. I'm guessing that seeing kids adopted out of the orphanage before made this something rather standard, but it was a surprisingly low-key event.

We went in and Julia, the social worker for whom I'd signed papers earlier in the day, was coincidentally by the door talking to someone else. She pointed up to where Galya was, and we walked up there to get her. She saw us, and apparently knew what we were there to do as she stopped her studies (yeah, we picked her up mid-school day) and grabbed the entirety of her earthly possesions: five little notebooks worth all of about $.30 that we'd picked up for her on the various Amstor stops. Not even a toothbrush. We brought some clothes with us, but she did walk out with a t-shirt and some tights that she was wearing that day.

I've never felt so unbelievably blessed and humbled to live in this country, by the way.

She said goodbye to her class, and a couple of the kids gave her hugs. Some of the teachers too, but it was "business as usual" for most of them. They all said goodbye and went back to their tasks. Two of the girls did seem excited that she was going to "America!" which I'd think is a big deal considering what we suspect they think about our country - that we're wealthy and far away from problems. One of two isn't bad. I for one will never complain about being poor compared to anyone here. Being firmly middle class in this country is being in the wealthiest population on the planet.

So we left, after a few hugs and two classrooms saying goodbyes, but it was the oddest departure I've known. There's been more emotion and hubub when someone leaves the place I work. But we walked back to the marshutka for the ride home. Galya was absolutely giddy, and happy. This was a good sign. We were able to get to the apartment in time for me to get the blog post out, and finish dinner before heading to the train station. We caught the train, Angelina and Shannon in one compartment, the girls and I in the other. The girls slept better on this train trip than on the first, but we still awoke in Kiev tired and unwashed. The train was about 80 degrees all night, which was okay, but a bit warmish for what we're used to. The highlight for the girls, I think, was eating some dried octopus snack thing that Angelina ordered from the attendant.

Wednesday
This post is overly long already, but I'll give Wednesday a go. Maybe I'll catch up the rest of the week tomorrow:)

We went from the train station to an international clinic which provides medical exams for children being adopted. Their report is part of the package of papers we needed to bring to the embassy in the hopes of getting the visa. We were there early, as the clinic didn't open until 9:00 and we'd come right from the train at 7:30. The girls hung out and colored in the hallway, and us adults tried to stay awake. The exam went well, and the doctor was about crying when she thanked Shannon for "adopting this little girl." Seems hard for many Ukrainians to understand the motive to help someone in this type of circumstance.

We went from the clinic to the embassy to drop off our last documents, and to confirm the visa appointment. As we'd sent ahead the documentation necessary to do the background check with Washington D.C., we were hoping that we could get the visa Wednesday. Even so, we weren't sure as nothing on the trip was really easy to predict. The visa interview was at 2:00, and we dropped off the paperwork by about 11:00, so we went to a little cafe to have lunch. It's interesting finding out about Galya's eating habits. She won't starve in our house, but she won't necessarily enjoy all our meals. We have yet to find a non-potato vegetable that she likes, and we eat lots of veggies. Let's hope she grows to love broccoli.

The visa interview was quick, and best of all they said they'd gotten the paperwork in time to do the background check - we got the visa the same day! This happens often, we gathered, but it isn't guaranteed. We were very glad to have our tax dollars going to something that the government does well!

This meant, too, that we were finally ready to hit the apartment. We were put up at the same building as the first visit in Kiev, and we went to the same restaurant for dinner as we'd done the first visit too. The girls all got the mashed taters/chicken dinner with the chicken dressed up with vegetables to look like a real chicken. Tierney took a picture, which I'll post in my next photo update. This went over well with Galya, except for (a) the vegetables, and (b) me not letting her drink all her pop until she'd finished her meal. Other than that, it was peachy. An early bedtime for the girls, and repacking for the plane for me, and it was off to the land of nod.

We awoke Thursday, but that's enough for this post.

TTFN,

Ron