Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Our plan for today was to relax during the morning, go to the internet café around 10:30am, and then head over to the orphanage to pick up the girls at 1pm. We usually try to pick them up at 1 and take them to lunch. As we were getting ready to walk out the door this morning, Svetlana told us that she needed us to come with her to the notary to sign some papers. We figured it wouldn’t take long and that we could head to the internet café when we were finished. We got in the car and headed off. Svetlana said she needed to make a stop on the way. When we stopped, she hopped out of the car and told us to wait for her, she would be back in a minute. We waited in the car for over 30 minutes. We drove for 5 minutes and then stopped at the court building we were at yesterday. We started to get out, but she told us we needed to wait for her again. This time, we waited over an hour! By the time we finally got to the notary, it was 1:30pm. She dropped some documents, told us to wait for Lena the translator, and left to go sign documents at the court with Mark and Christine. We signed a document at the notary that said we would like to adopt Amina as well as Khrystyna. We were there for a while longer before Svetlana finally came back for us. We headed over to the orphanage and played with the girls for a few minutes while Svetlana took care of some paperwork in the orphanage. While Svetlana was inside, Amina came out and hugged us and said hello. She then told Masha and Khrystyna that they needed to go inside and practice dancing. While the girls were inside, Svetlana came outside and was ready to leave for lunch. By this time it was 3:45pm! We had planned on eating almost 3 hours before and we were STARVING! While we waited for the girls, one of our drivers took Svetlana back to the apartment to pick up some documents. When Svetlana came back to the orphanage, the girls were still inside. She decided to go inside to look for them. Khrystyna came out shortly after Svetlana went inside. Amina came out next, but Masha still hadn’t come out yet. Amina and Khrystyna headed back in to look for Masha, but they couldn’t find her either. When Masha made her appearance, we were ready to head for the car. Unfortunately, we still do not have permission for Amina to spend time with us outside the orphanage. When we were getting ready to leave, Khrystyna asked if Amina was coming with us. Svetlana told her that Amina wasn’t allowed to come. Khrystyna looked sad, but Amina looked even sadder. She gave us a hug and said goodbye! We felt totally bad leaving her. Ludmilla, the orphanage director was out sick again today, so she was not able to call the adoption center in Kiev or talk to Amina. Nataliya, the orphanage psychologist talked to Amina today and asked if she would like to be adopted by us. She said that she would really like to be part of our family. Amina wrote a letter to the court requesting that they allow us to adopt her. Natliya told her that we really want to adopt her, however, we would have to wait to see if the State Department of Adoption would give their approval. Sasha, our facilitator in Kiev, told us that he expected to know something by tomorrow around noon. We are really hoping for good news. If the adoption center agrees to allow us to adopt Amina, we will head back to Kiev in the next few days to get our referral for her. Also, if things go well at the adoption center tomorrow, Sasha will ask the orphanage for permission for us to start taking Amina with us on a regular basis.

When we finally got to Papa Karlo for lunch, it was after 4 pm. We were starving. While we loading up our trays, Khrystyna asked if she could get chips. I told her that she could have a bag of chips. She then asked if she could have 2 bags? She told me that 1 was for her and she gestured that the other one was for someone else. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was saying, so I told Khrystyna to ask Svetlana. Svetlana explained that she wanted to buy chips for a friend. I asked which friend it was and she told me that it was her friend Luba. She told me that Luba has been in the hospital and today was her first day back at the orphanage. Khrystyna also wanted to buy Luba a pack of gum. We let her buy chips, gum, and a bottle of sparkling water for Luba. She was so excited about buying these things for Luba After we paid and sat down, Svetlana said “You have 10 minutes to eat and then we have to leave.” I literally inhaled my food. I was in such a hurry that I didn’t even take any pictures. We all finished quickly and hopped back into our cars. Svetlana had to take our documents to someone who would be taking them on the train to Kiev. Our drivers dropped Mark, Christine, Masha, Fred, Khrystyna, and I off at the park where we took Amina and Khrystyna on Saturday. Masha had not been there before. We only had 30 minutes to play at the park before Svetlana would be returning and we had to have the girls back to the orphanage around 5pm. We let the girls play on the crocodile slide for a little while and then we agreed to let them take one turn on the roller coaster. When they were finished with those things, we headed back to the car. Svetlana hadn’t returned yet, so we pulled out the soccer ball and let them kick it around for a few minutes. It didn’t take very long for Svetlana to get back and we headed back to the orphanage. As soon as we got back to the orphanage, Khrystyna jumped out of the car and told me that she was taking her gifts to Luba. She literally ran into the orphange! She came back out a minute later, hugged us, and said goodbye. We agreed to meet the Niles for ice cream at a local ice cream place. Svetlana had to go to a meeting, so were on our own. The menu was in Russian, but we were able to figure out some of the important words…like dessert and banana split! I ordered a banana split. Fred told me to order for him. That he wanted something chocolate. I wasn’t sure if I ordered him chocolate ice cream or ice cream with chocolate on it. When our food came out, his dessert was like a chocolate mousse. My dessert was ice cream on a plate full of fresh fruit! It was fabulous! The ice cream here is better than any ice cream I’ve had anywhere else and the fruit was really good too. There was a ton of kiwi, pineapple, banana, strawberries, and oranges! It was quite tasty and it only cost $2.40 USD. Fred’s mousse was only $1.00. After ice cream, we headed to the internet café to update our blog and upload pictures. We spent a little time uploading pictures and then we headed back to the apartment. We are all exhausted and have been laying around the apartment tonight being lazy! I’m super tired, but I wanted to write about today while it was still fresh in my mind! Please forgive my spelling and grammar…my mind is ready for bed! Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good news to report. Also, we will try to post more pictures then!