Wednesday, May 16,2007

Today proved that the phrase “Adoption Adventure” is an appropriate one! Today was our appointment at the State Department of Adoption (SDA). Our appointment was at 10 am and because traffic in Kiev rivals that of any major US city, our translator and driver picked us up at 8:30 am. We encountered a major traffic jam on the way into downtown. Cars were at a complete standstill on the freeway! Cars began jumping the 8 inch curb and hurtling down the sidewalks at 30-40 mph. After sitting in traffic for a while and not moving much, Svetlana and our driver became worried about making our appointment. They decided we should try a “different way.” Boy, was that an understatement. Our driver cut through various parking lots and apartment complexes before hopping back onto a normal road. We didn’t get very far on the road before we encountered standstill traffic! That didn’t deter our driver. He backed up, turned around and headed down a dirt road. The road was not meant for traffic and ended in a field that was separated from the freeway by a steep 100 foot tall hill! Our driver told us to hold on, floored it, and headed up the hill and onto the sidewalk! We drove down a portion of the sidewalk at 80 kilometers per hour before jumping a curb and heading back into traffic. Our driver probably saved us at least an hour of sitting in traffic. Although the drive was a little crazy, we thoroughly enjoyed it and Fred tipped him generously when we got to the SDA…25 minutes early!

We were told that our meeting at the SDA would take approximately 5-10 minutes. Our facilitator told us that we would go in, they would ask us a few questions about why we wanted to adopt Khrystyna and then they would tell us that we could come back tomorrow for our paperwork. The SDA provides their own translator for all meetings and does not allow translators or facilitators to accompany prospective parents into the meeting. Our meeting started out with the psychologist and translator asking for our passports. Unfortunately, our passports were not easily accessible. I had a money belt under my dress with my passport in it and had to pull up my dress to my hip to access my passport…needless to say it was not my most ladlylike moment! Fred had his moneybag under his shirt and had to unbutton his dress shirt to get his passport out. I’m sure they thought this was strange, but they seemed to act like it was no big deal! We were quite embarrassed, but after the stress of the meeting was over, we found it to be quite funny. Fred said they were probably thinking, “We only want to see your passports…not your whole body.” After the passport fiasco, we sat down and the translator said “So you would like to adopt three children, yes?” I said we’d really like to adopt Khrystyna, the little girl who stayed with us this summer on her vacation, however, we were approved to adopt 3 children just in case there were siblings we didn’t know about, etc. The translator and the psychologist began speaking to each other rapidly. They told us that they did not have our request to adopt Khrystyna and that they had chosen a group of siblings for us…3 girls! Fortunately for us, our facilitator had made us a copy of our request for a specific child before we went into our meeting. We gave them the copy of the original document and they told us that this is not the way they normally operate, but they would see if they could find her file and if she was available for adoption. They left the room and came back 5 minutes later with her file. After that, they sat down in the room with us and called the orphanage to check on Khrystyna’s status. The orphanage director, Ludmilla, spoke with the psychologist at length and then the psychologist hung up. Fred and I prayed the entire time she was out of the room and on the phone. Things were looking a little precarious! After the phone conversation, they told us a little more about Khrystyna’s background and told us that we could come tomorrow to pick up our referral! They also showed the picture in Khrystyna’s file. The picture was taken in 2004 and Khrystyna had a buzz haircut! She was so little and sad looking! Fred didn’t even recognize her…he thought the picture must be of Khrystyna’s brother!  We were thrilled when we left the SDA knowing that we will be able to pick up our paperwork tomorrow evening and head to Khrystyna’s region! Our friends Mark and Christine had their appointment at 11 am. They were in and out in under 6 minutes…we were in and out in 45 minutes!

After our appointment, we headed back to our apartment. Fred was in need of a haircut, so we headed to the salon in our apartment building. Fred’s haircut only cost 25 grivna which is the equivalent of $5 USD. After the haircut, we walked to McDonald’s. It’s a little less than a mile away, and it was totally worth it. I got wonderfully yummy cheese sticks that tasted very similar to brie and came with a berry sauce. For those of you who have had the fried brie at Saunders in New Hampshire, that’s what it tastes like and it only cost 6 grivna ($1.20). Fred was quite happy with his double cheeseburger and we had Kit Kat McFlurries! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting. We had a really yummy dinner tonight. Sasha’s (our landlord) mom made us yummy breaded fish fillets and rice! Last night she made us a wonderful soup without potatoes and we ate it with crackers! Meals are definitely getting tastier!