Ukraine. . . it's like this whole other country!

(That was a "Forest Gump" reference for all you movie buffs!)



So much has happened since we wrote yesterday. I could not get to sleep last night, I think because I had slept so much the night before. So, I was pretty tired this morning after sleeping maybe 3 hours. At 9:30, Jenia called to say she was downstairs waiting for us. She decided we should drive rather than walk since it was snowing and cold out. It took maybe 5 minutes driving to reach the State Department of Adoption. (Did we mention how crazy the driving is here? Jenia said that Kiev has more accidents than anywhere else in Europe! Yikes! I told her that Tim teaches Drivers Education, and I think that flustered her a bit because later she had a tough time parallel parking!)

The State Department of Adoption seemed very small. We waited with Jenia and her mother for someone to yell down the stairs that it was our turn. We've been pleased with how timely everything has been so far; we arrived 15 minutes early and we were sitting down with an administrator right at 10:00, our appointment time. We went in with Jenia and sat down in a small office around a short round coffee table. The administrator asked us questions like, how did we meet Vanya, what our families thought of him, was it our intention to adopt him. Jenia gave us back our 4 page mini-scrapbook we had made of the dossier and so we showed it to the administrator. She seemed to take great interest in the pictures and asked a lot of questions. After seeing Vanya and I petting a goat, she asked if we had goats! She understood it was a zoo after we laughed! She also was interested in our dog, and could tell that Teagan and Vanya were great buddies. We also had brought some pictures to share with Vanya, so we showed those to her too. We learned some very interesting things about Vanya's family background, but I will share those with you at a later time; perhaps after he is home for good.

The whole process, once we were in the interview, was about 10 minutes. We were told that our referral (one of the most important pieces of paperwork that we would need!) would be given tomorrow (Tuesday) around 5:00-6:00, but that perhaps it would be done today. Jenia told us as we left that sometimes they say that, but VERY rarely is it done that day.

After that interview, she drove us to the U.S. Embassy, because I needed to sign some paperwork since I would not be returning with Tim after the 10-day waiting period. The Embassy is where Jenia tried to parallel park and since she couldn't do it, we ended up with one wheel up on the curve and the car sticking out. This is totally ok in Kiev! We saw so many cars parked in the craziest of ways-- we took some pictures of some that I'll share later.

At the U.S. Embassy, Jenia could not come in with us. When we entered, Tim had to surrender the cell phone, and we had to go through a metal detector like at the airport. Then the security guard used the wand to make sure we somehow didn't escape the first metal detector with some contraband stuff! Turns out Tim forgot to empty his coat pocket of a metal pen, so he set off the wand detector-- such a criminal! Once in the Embassy, we were thrilled to lots of English! We had to fill out 2 forms and then waited a bit to talk to an officer. While we waited to talk to him, we sat down next to a couple and the man turned out to be American. He was there with his girlfriend, a Ukrainian, and they were getting married today. He was a character, and I don't have much time to talk about him now. I'll try to remember later to tell you that story.

The officer was very American and that was like a little piece of home to us! He had a good sense of humor, and once again, this process didn't take long. We were also able to inquire about another family's INS papers. Turns out it is a family we met in August, and though their story didn't originally turn out well, it looks like they are trying again. That was good to hear! We were out of the Embassy in about 15 minutes. For all we've heard about the "hurry up and wait" mentality around here, we've had good experiences.

It seemed like we were just flying around this morning, and it took less than one hour to complete our errands. We were back in our apartment by 11:00. After puttering around a bit, we decided to try something new for lunch. Jenia pointed out an Irish Pub on the way back, and it was very close to our place. So, off we went in the rain to see if we could find something good to eat. It was called O'Briens and it was a very neat place. It reminded me of an Irish pub we have in Fort Wayne (JK O'Donnell's). I chose an Irish dish-- fish and chips, and Tim tried chicken Kiev. How fitting! My fish was huge!! It was about 10 inches long and 5 inches wide! Sorry, we haven't been good about taking pictures of our food on this trip. Everything was pretty tasty.

To work off our lunch, we went exploring. There are some very steep streets around us, so we're getting quite the workout! We finally discovered the souvenier stalls that Jenia had referenced and we looked around. Despite being told to buy something the first time we see it because we didn't know if we'd return, we didn't. We thought we would have plenty of time to go tomorrow because nothing much was going on until 5:00. When we returned to the apartment, we took a nap. It felt so odd taking a nap on a Monday. Although, some of you were probably still sleeping anyway since it was about 6:00 AM Fort Wayne time.

We were awakened from our nap about 4:45 with a phone call from Jenia. THE REFERRAL WAS READY!!!! So, we had to jump up, I had to put my contacts back on, and run downstairs to meet Tatiana. We went back to the SDA and got there right before it closed. For those who know what it is, I laughed when I saw a family with a teenager who had a Vera Bradley bag!!! They were from Kentucky working on their adoption too. Obtaining the referral document took all of 2 minutes. We showed our passports, signed a register, and the woman gave Tatiana the all important document. Off we go!

So, now we are ready to move on to the next step which means leaving at 3:00 AM (about 6-1/2 hours from now) for Kotovsk which is where Vanya's school is located. I will write more later about the bargaining I had to do with Tim, but suffice to say that we are going by car (mini-van!) and the drive will take about 5 hours. If we would have taken the train, we'd be on it about now and not reach Kotovsk until the middle of the morning. As soon as we get there, we will meet with some more administrators and it is VERY possible that we will see Vanya tomorrow morning-- a few days earlier than we thought! How exciting is that?!?!?!?!

What's not exciting is that now we had to make a beeline for those souvenier stands again! Not many were still open, and now it was pouring, so that made for a very fun time (not!). We bought a few things, so I hope we will have another opportunity later to buy a few more. After that we went looking for an adapter for our adapter. We found one, we think, and if it blows up, at least it only cost about $2.00.

For dinner we went back to the pizza place we dined at last night. It has super yummy pizza-- thin crust and lots of garlic. The odd thing is that they bring it to your table with a bottle of ketchup. Do any of you eat your pizza with ketchup??? (oh, and they don't charge you for it like they do at McDonalds!)

So, now we are at the 24-hour internet cafe, and as soon as I post this, we're off to pack. We know we will be staying in an apartment within walking distance of Vanya's school, but we will have to drive to do pretty much do anything else like get groceries, find an internet cafe, etc. You may not hear from us again for a few days. Although my niece was horrified that we weren't taking our cell phone with us, I am more horrified about not having close access to the Internet!!! We'll talk to you again as soon as we're able. (Sorry for any typos-- our time is running out!)