January 22- thursday

January 22 Thursday
Eeek, what a full day!
We started at 5:00 am to catch the train to Khemlinetsky to meet the girls. I had only slept about 2 hours anticipating that first meeting and what I should do. We grabbed breakfast at the train station McDonalds and it was MUCH better that US McD’s. The train was very spacious and clean and the trip was 4 ½ hours long. Elijah got VERY tired at the end but we couldn’t get him to sleep. Not a good combination when we had a million people to meet with and a million places to go. We stashed our suitcases at a place in the train station.
Our facilitator then took us to the local social worker. While we were waiting to be invited in to meet with the social worker Our facilitator told us that one of the workers said “they want 4 and already have one?!?!?!” We thought we were in for a grilling. People kept giving Elijah little toys to play with as he was pretty cranky and not sitting still. She asked us why we wanted to adopt—Keith told her about Gideon and Talita and that we wanted a big family and to provide for a sibling group. She asked us what religion we were…. We told her Christian. She then said she didn’t have any other questions and praised us for wanting to adopt these girls. I was pretty surprised it wasn’t the 3rd degeree.
Then another social worker accompanied us to the orphanage. They put us in some sort of “auditorium” room with little chairs and then big chairs all lined up. It was all very clean and bright. After that we were ushered into the orphanage director’s office. Again, the interview. Why do you want to adopt? Why Ukraine?
One lady told us about each of the girls. Then the orphanage doctor came in and told us what she knew. They all are pretty much healthy. Then they asked if we wanted them to bring in the girls. Yes, of course.
The three younger came in and were pretty shy. They were prompted to say their names. Our facilitator kind of took over and asked a bunch of questions. He had me get out the camera and he helped Alina and Anastasia take pictures and got one of each child and showed it to them. Chock one up for him! I was trying to figure out how quickly I could to do that without offending. He helped us step through the photo album I had put together. They all look very healthy not thin and frail like other pictures I’ve seen and they seem well attached to their caregivers.
After the book was done, the girls had to go as it was nap time. One of the workers asked the girls to show us their rooms. Their rooms were very clean, and each had a TV. and had toys. After saying goodbye to the girls we went back to the director’s office. We showed the acting director (the director was out on sick leave and would be back Monday) and the other worker the photo album and one of them said something about all our current kids being blonde and the girls being dark haired. We told them that we didn’t care about that. And yes, we have decided and are ready to adopt these girls.
Leaving the orphanage while waiting for the cab, Our facilitator told us we had 20 minutes to come up with the names we wanted. Wow, no pressure. We had our list (but of course it wasn’t with us) but we wanted to wait until we met the girls to name them. We also wanted to get some input from Kristina, but our facilitator advised against that, anyway. So we madly tried to put names together in the cab ride and in the waiting room of the notary. In the end we decided to keep the girls’ names as their first names and give them middle names (not a practice in Ukraine). So we write the names down for the notary--- we can come back after 5:00 to pick up the paperwork. She’ll give us a call when they are ready.
Then back to the social worker’s office- she is surprised to see us so quickly. I guess we really are an oddity. Then we got a cab to the train station to get our luggage and then to the apartment we are staying in. One of the orphanage teachers offered some rooms in her house-- she’s had other adoptive parents stay before. It is only about a 5 minute walk from the orphanage and about that to a grocery store and open air market. We need to share kitchen and bathroom but would have our own room. We had another offer of someone farther away where we could have all our own space but finally chose this place. Her ulterior motive is that she wants to practice her English. I can handle that. She is very nice, accommodating of us and Elijah and very helpful. And she’s only charging 40 USD a night. Good deal for us!! Her mother helps at the orphanage, too, she works in the laundry.
It was 5 minutes to 4:00 (one of the visiting hours at the orphanage is 4:00-6:00, the other is 10:00- 12:00) when we got things a little bit settled here so we headed out to the orphanage. When we walked in the door to the room with the kids in it two of our girls grabbed my hands and took me to another room and showed me their lego buildings and I played for a while. I kept getting “Hallo” from all the other children. We played for a while with our girls, Elijah’s trains, the beach ball I brought from home. I was really glad we went, we almost didn’t because we were expecting a phone call from the notary and didn’t want to be there 5 minutes and have to leave. But it ended up being quite a while. So, it was good.
Then another cab ride back to the notary. I was so sleepy and tired I had a hard time paying attention when our facilitator read the forms to us but I did check spelling of the girls’ names. I think the forms were some sort of petition to get new birth certificates with our names on and with their new names or something like that. I wasn’t very smart and left our passports back at the apartment. But the nice lady helped us with out them. I’m sure Heavenly Father had a hand in that because I was soooo tired I could have cried.
Then we walked to find a grocery store (the McD’s is all we had had all day and it was about 7:00 at night—I’m surprised Elijah didn’t tell us about that one—but then he has jetlag for food, not sleep). We bought milk, cheese, bread, yogurt, some lip balm for Elijah’s poor lips, and most importantly water.
We came back to the apartment and ate some yogurt, cheese and bread then I and Elijah crashed on the bed while Keith stayed up talking to our facilitator.
Next step in the paperwork is involved but the most important is to get the two older girls to say they want to be adopted, petition for a court hearing and get paperwork to the SDA. I’m glad our facilitator is taking care of all that!!