Monday 5/21/2007

Today was a fun day, but it was also very busy. Svetlana left our apartment this morning at 8am to take care of some documents. She called us at 10:15 to tell us that Andre, our driver was on the way to pick us up. Fred was watching out the window of our apartment for our driver when he started calling my name and telling me to come to the window. There was a man walking by our apartment with a very large rat of his shoulder. It had a long nasty tail! That’s not something you see every day. The man and his pet rat were gone when Andre pulled up. We headed out to the car and Andre drove us to the city office building. The mayor, head of social work for the city, and other important city officials have their offices here. We were introduced to the director of social work and then we sat and waited for a little while so that we could meet with the assistant mayor. Our meeting with the assistant mayor was brief, but quite hilarious. When we were ushered into her office, she began speaking in Russian and holding out her left hand. Fred walked up to her and put out his right hand in order to shake her hand, but then he noticed she was holding out her left hand. He tried to move the stuff he had in his left hand to his right hand and did some strange looking handshake dance. He’d put out his right hand, then his left hand, then his right again. Finally, our translator informed us that she just kept telling us to sit down. Apparently, she had no desire to shake our hands…she just wanted us to sit down and get the meeting underway. We brought up Fred’s handshake dance later on with our translator and she laughed really hard. She agreed with me that Fred was hilarious! The assistant to the mayor asked a few questions about our relationship with Khrystyna, she asked us if we went to church, and if we had any other children. Our answers must have all been satisfactory because she wished us good luck and told us that she was in agreement with our adoption. After our meeting, Svetlana had more work to do, so we agreed that our drivers would drop us off at the internet café and she would call us when she was finished working and we could meet at the orphanage and then take the girls to lunch. She thought she would be done around 12:30. We spent 30 minutes in the internet café and then wandered through downtown to the mall.. We spent a really long time in the mall. We were able to find a Frisbee in the mall that made a whistling noise when you threw it. We also bought Madagascar and Finding Nemo in Russian. Mark and Christine picked up Shrek, Princess Diaries, and Toy Story 2 in Russian. At 1:30pm, we still hadn’t heard from Svetlana so Mark tried to call her. She didn’t answer her phone. She finally called my cell at 2:20 and said she would meet us at the orphanage. Our driver came and picked us up in front of the internet café and took us to the orphanage. Svetlana called to tell us she would be a little while longer so we got out the Frisbee and played with Masha and Khrystyna in the orphanage parking lot. When Svetlana arrived, she told us that she had been meeting with Khrystyna’s brother. He signed all the necessary paperwork that says he agrees with Khrystyna’s adoption. We are really looking forward to meeting him and will probably get to meet him later on this week. Svetlana said he is a very handsome young man. He is currently working and going to the university simultaneously and is studying economics. After Svetlana shared this info with us, we piled into our cars and headed for Papa Karlos. We were starving!!! Fred chose 3 different chicken entrees, some grapejuice, and a large piece of chocolate cake. I had chicken breast with cheese and mushrooms on it, a yummy garlic roll, and some apple juice. Khrystyna had some kind of salad made with ham, mayonnaise, peas, and cucumbers, a chicken drumstick, a pink heart shaped pastry, grape juice, and a bag of salted dry tuna (YUCK!). Khrystyna scarfed down her food and had her heart shaped cake eaten before we all finished our regular meals. When Fred tried a piece of his cake, he practically gagged. He said it tasted like it was loaded with rum or something. Before Masha started eating her fruity looking cake, she offered half to Mark. After taking one bite, she offered the rest to Christine. Masha said it wasn’t very good. Mark, Christine, and Svetlana all tried it and agreed that it was nasty. Svetlana then took a bite of Fred’s cake and declared that it was much worse. She said “There is definitely something not right with this cake.” Fred wholeheartedly agreed. The girls then started eating there dried salted fish in a bag. They offered us some, but Mark smelled it and immediately gave it back to Masha. Fred and I both refused it and Christine agreed to dry it. She made the most hilarious face when she tasted a small bite. It must have been quite bad because Christine is a pretty adventuresome eater! Also, later on in the day, Masha offered a piece of her fish to a cat on the orphanage grounds. The cat sniffed the fist, stuck its nose up in the air, and walked away! I’ve never heard of a cat turning down fish products before. When we finished lunch, we headed back to the orphanage to sign some medical documents. The orphanage doctor showed us the immunization record and medical record for Khrystyna and then showed Masha’s reports to Mark and Christine. After signing papers, we played Frisbee for a few more minutes with the girls while we waited for Svetlana to talk to a few more people in the orphanage. While we were playing, the girls were called in the orphanage. While we were waiting for the girls and/or Svetlana to come back outside, a group of girls came outside. The group included Amina, Vika (one of the girls that came to Fort Wayne last summer) and Lena (a girl that is a friend of Masha and Amina). They headed out to the place that housed the cat with her new kittens. The new kittens are very tiny and very cute. We got some great pictures of Amina with the little kittens. When Svetlana came out, she said we needed to hurry to the courthouse to take some papers to the judge. She said that we would have a chance to see the girls again tomorrow. On the way to the courthouse, I realized that we were turning in our documents for Khrystyna and we hadn’t made a decision on how to spell her name or what her middle name would be. Fred and I decided in the car that her “new” name would be Khrystyna Ann Thompson. We decided to use our mother’s middles names as the girls middle names. Amina’s middle name will be Lynn. The court building is a very old building that smells inside. We waited for a few minutes and then we met with the judge’s assistant. She asked us what name we wanted to Khrystyna and we wrote it down on paper for her. She said OK and asked us a few quick questions about our relationship with Khrystyna. She then asked Fred and I if this was our first marriage. I’m not really sure what it mattered, but we answered her and she dismissed us. Mark and Christine headed into the office next and picked out their name and spelling for Masha. We had hoped to discuss Khrystyna’s middle name and the spelling of her first name with her before we gave the info to the judge’s assistant, however, we didn’t have time. When Masha and Khrystyna had been called into the orphanage earlier, they were writing their letters that state that they agree with the adoption and that they think of us as parents. When we got back to the orphanage, the girls were finished with their letters and were playing outside. Svetlana translated for Mark and Christine as they told Masha her new name. They chose Maria Elizabeth. Masha is a nickname for Maria although her Russian name is spelled Mariya. They chose to go with a more traditional spelling of Maria because they were afraid that people would mispronounce it. When the told Masha the name they chose, she said she really like Elizabeth and could they call her that. We’ll have to see what she ends up going with. Next Svetlana explained how American names work to Khrystyna and that you have a first and a middle name. We told Khrystyna what her name would be. The only piece of paper I had with me was one of my Master Spas business cards, so I wrote her new name on the back of it. After we told her new name and showed her how to spell it, she and Masha were comparing their names. Another friend came over and Masha was telling them her full name and Khrystyna was telling her full name. It was quite cute. We played some more Frisbee and then said goodbye to Khrystyna. We headed for the grocery store, picked up a few things for dinner and then headed back to our apartment. When we got back to our apartment, we called Sasha, our facilitator in Kiev to get an update on the process of adopting Amina. He said that the orphanage director was not feeling well today, so he hadn’t been able to talk to her for long, but that we should be able to talk to Amina tomorrow to find out if she wants to be adopted by us. If she does (which we are seriously hoping is the case), Ludmilla will call the SDA in Kiev to let them know that we are here to adopt Khrystyna, but we met another girl and would like to adopt her as well. The SDA will then pull her paperwork and make sure all is in order with her and then they will give us a date to go get our referral. We could leave as soon as tomorrow afternoon. If you don’t hear from us for a few days, it’s probably because we are spending hours and hours on a train.

Please continue to pray for us! We have really appreciated all your prayers and your e-mails. I apologize that I have not been able to respond to every email you have sent. We have been very busy and our time at the internet café is not always productive. During our 30 minutes in the café today, the internet was down for about 20 of those minutes. When it finally came back up, I started typing a message, but before I could get anything done, our time ran out. Anyway, we are so thankful for each of you. Some of have asked how you can specifically pray for us, so here are some specifics…
*Pray that our conversation with Amina will go well
*Pray that Khrystyna will be happy that we have chosen
Amina to be her sister.
*Pray that our process will continue to go smoothly and
that our court date will be very soon!
*Pray for our translator and facilitators. They are
working round the clock to make our adoption happen as
quickly and smoothly as possible. They are amazing!!!!
*Pray that those we spend time with on this trip will see
Jesus in us and that we will be able to share God’s love
with them.
*Pray that Amina’s paperwork will be in order and that
we will get an appointment with the SDA quickly.
*Last, but definitely not least, please pray that we will
continue to bond and grow as a family. The time we
have here is really special and we want to make the most
of it!