Our busy schedule

December 20, 2006
Boy have things been busy since the last time we posted. We got our paperwork from the SDA (adoption center) quickly and Yes, we had a court date the next day. Thank you for all of our prayers and thanks to our translators and the Judge.
Once we get done at the Court House, then we are off running. (By the way, our translator had to drive all night to get to us…he got here @ 5 am after an 11 hour drive and took a short nap to get us to the orphanage by 9 to be at court by 10 for our hearing.) The town inspector and the orphanage psychologist served as the jurors for our hearing and were very supportive. The Judge asked us quite a few questions about our ability to financially be able to take care of the child. The questions were pretty straight forward. The main question that he asked was how we were prepared to help Chris/Kola to transition to life in America.
After our court hearing, we were off and running again. We had to take the Orphanage Psychologist back to the Orphanage AND take a gift to Kola. This day was special for so many reasons: 1st. It is St. Nicholas day in Ukraine and a day that all children celebrate. The church was at the orphanage holding a service and bringing small gifts to all the children in the orphanage. It was very sweet. 2nd…It was a special day for Kola because he is named after Saint Nicholas (Nicholai) and anytime you are named after a Saint, you celebrate that Saint’s day just as you would your own birthday. 3rd, it is our official gotcha day since he officially became our son today. Talk about a very BIG day!!!
We also took Kola quickly to a photo shop to get his passport picture taken. This only took about 30 minutes. We were then headed to Donesk. (By the way, we didn’t know this was going to happen.) Donesk is a little over one hour away from Maripol and in order to get his new birth certificate and passport, you have to go the main city in the region he was born in. That would be Donesk. Our translator had purchased 3 pieces of sweet bread(small Danish) and 3 drinks. We thought we were headed around town and had no idea we were going away until we noticed we were headed out of the city. The bad news is since that we didn’t know this, we didn’t have our trusty backpack with us that is ALWAYS with us and has toilet paper, tissues, and all other emergency supplies. For those people who might be adopting in the future….keep that stuff with you always, even if you think you are just going to court!!
In Donesk, we ran into a problem. A new law has gone into effect that doesn’t allow for immediate execution of a childs paperwork. This means that we will not be able to get the birth certificate or passport today, but we have to wait until after the 10 day waiting period and then we can get the paperwork. Oh no, we had planned to take Kola on Wednesday night and to drive to Kiev over night and then be at the doctor’s office early on Thursday and then to the Embassy to get his VISA so that we could fly out on Friday. Now, we can’t pick up the paperwork until Thursday morning in Donesk and this process will take a couple of hours (even if we have the paperwork filled out in advance) and the drive to Kiev is 10 hours. The Embassy is closing at 5:30 on Thursday and is closed to the public on Friday, and closed for the Holidays on Sat, Sun and Mon. That means we won’t be able to get an appointment until Tuesday and leave on Wednesday. Oh no, that means we will have to stay in Kiev for an extra four days just hanging out. The medical office is also closing at 2 oclock on Thursday. For every hurdle we jump over, a brick wall gets in front of us.
Here is where we really need your prayers. We have found a flight out of Donesk at 1:00 on Thursday. This will get us to Kiev at around 3 oclock. We pleaded with the doctor to stay and wait for us, he has agreed to stay, but it is a great inconvenience to him (we all know what that means). Hopefully since everyone will be gone, the appointment will go quickly. Then we have to get to the Embassy by 5:30…if that happens, they have two people who will be working in the VISA office at the Embassy and they will process the paperwork and will leave the VISA with the Security Guard at the Embassy on Friday.
Please pray that there is NO FOG on Thursday. If there is FOG, the planes do not fly and we will not make it to Kiev and we will have to stay in Ukraine and extra 5 days. Please send prayers that this doesn’t happen and that all the other steps go smoothly. We are on such a tight schedule, that one delay and we won’t make it in time.
The next day, we had to run around more by going to the court house to get some more paperwork fixed. We also had to get David’s flight changed. God has been with him on this, he got the last seat available…so he will be coming home early.
David and our translator left this evening for that long drive back to Kiev. I am now by myself. I must admit, that right before they walked out the door and about an hour after they left, I started to feel a small amount of panic. I am now by myself and NO ONE hear speaks English and I speak so little Russian…how will I make it. Then I started thinking about it and we really do have our routine down well. David has insisted that I only visit Kola during the morning visit. The late afternoon visit would make it too dark outside and it really isn’t safe when it is dark. After the morning visit, I will go to the restaurant where they have gotten comfortable with me pointing at the picture dictionary to tell them what I want to eat, then I will go to the Internet (it is 6 gryvnas per hour …1 dollar) and this will take care of my need to communicate with someone. Then I will get a Taxi back to the apartment and stay in for the evening. David seems to think that I will stick to this plan for one day and will begin to figure out a way to find someplace to shop. We will see.
Kola is very excited that we are his forever Mama and Papa…but he was much more excited about the remote control car that he got for St Nicholas day!! We called Matthew to tell him that he officially had a new brother. His immediate reaction was to find out if Kola said in court that he wanted a brother!!! Our phone conversation ended very quickly since his grandparents had taken him to Florida and he was getting ready to get on the Beauty and the Beast ride and had just gotten off the Tower of Terror. He went from being our little boy that was crying everyday after we left and was wearing one of my necklaces and had one of David’s coins with him always so that he would have something to let him know we were always with him….now he is the boy that said, “I have to go…it’s time to get on the ride…bye!!” I guess he isn’t missing us anymore. 