Saturday - We found some coloring books, art paper for the kids to use with the stickers we brought and 4 more Barbie type dolls. The girls were so enamored with the one we gave V, we splurged the $12.50 and got them for the others. O's doll was a little nicer, because we wanted her to feel special like V had yesterday. When we arrived at the orphanage playroom (expecting to see 5 girls) we were greeted by ALL the kids. (I'm sure not all the kids in the orphanage, but all the ones in the 3 adjacent rooms... 10-11 year olds.) We know there are 5 girls. Dan says there are 8 boys, I think there are 11 or 12. Either way, we were very popular and very overwhelmed... they have A LOT of energy. Victor, Dan and I played Uno with 10 of the kids and they were very eager to learn and quick to pick up the game. We are really starting to see their personalities. They brought out the picture book we left with V yesterday and had many questions about where we live. Important things, like “how deep is the pool?” :-) I was able to chat (via Victor's translation help) with one of their primary caregivers. She seemed young, maybe early 20's, and was very caring, informative and willing to share about the girls and their personality types, behaviors, academics, etc.
Sunday - After much prayer, soul searching, and counsel we decided that we will be bringing home only one girl. We have asked God for complete clarity at every step of this process and as much as we were prepared to adopt two girls, our visit today confirmed the decision. O is a beautiful, sweet girl, but we don’t believe that we are the right family for her… we will continue to pray that God brings the perfect family to her and trust that she is in His hands.
Sunday started much more leisurely. We didn’t have to meet our translator, Victor, for breakfast until 10AM. Breakfast is included in our room rate and he says it has always been the same meal every time he’s been here... one hard-boiled egg, a slice of cheese (like a Kraft single, but white), a piece of bread with butter, a small vacuum sealed bag of salami, a glass of OJ, a large roll (tastes like King’s Hawaiian bread), a yogurt and your choice of coffee or tea. Dan and I were able to trade our yogurts for an extra egg each! We chatted with Victor over breakfast and our driver picked us up a little before noon. We made a few quick stops on the way to the orphanage so Victor could begin printing our court documents. Today’s visit at the orphanage was very different from yesterday. All the children flocked to us, especially Dan, as soon as we entered the playroom. (I counted the boys today, there were at least 15 circling around him.) We were only with the entire group for a few minutes because they were called by the caretaker to wash up and go to lunch. When the group came back from lunch they had “nap” time and V was allowed to stay up to play with us. We brought some bananas and Disney princess stickers for her, which she enjoyed and thanked us for, but she was truly excited by the markers and sketch pad. She drew some amazing pictures for us and we wrote out her new name for her. (Victor asked her a few days ago if she wanted an American name and without hesitation she enthusiastically said “yes.” She didn’t have any preferences, so we chose one that we think will fit her and she said she likes it.) We also played Uno for quite a while. For a little girl who had never seen Uno until yesterday, she picked the game up very quickly. She and Papa played as a team and beat both Victor and I almost every time. The math teacher in me took advantage of the opportunity to watch her add up the points on our cards at the end of each round. Dan says she gets her game playing style from me. Her personality is really coming out as she gets more comfortable with us and she is opening up little by little. Hugs and kisses were exchanged all around when it was time for us to go (4:30ish).
Monday - Our (your) prayers are truly being answered! Today was a wonderful day with smooth, timely processing of much paperwork. Those who have travelled this road before us know that is not always the case and God is truly opening doors for us. We went to the records office to request that V and her 17 year old brother be legally separated. Our translator and the clerk bantered back and forth very quickly for several minutes. I understand about half of what the kids say to me in Russian now, but the only words I got from their conversation were “girl” and “brother.” Eventually, Victor turned to us and said, “It is not a problem. The brother is unadoptable.” Apparently, even though he was placed in an orphanage years before V, their parental rights were never terminated. Therefore, he HAS parents and cannot be adopted. That is great news for us! We did not need any real action to be taken by that office. They simply had to write a statement about the brother’s status… told us to come back at 11:00AM and it would be ready! Hallelujah!! We were back at the records office around 10:30 and the clerk was smiling with our letter all typed and ready to be signed. We walked downstairs together and in just a minute she had it all signed and stamped. Victor says, “Nothing can stop us now, we’re made of stars!” From there, we went back to the office of the inspector we met on the first day to pick up her recommendation letter, dropped off papers at the court for their preparation and inspection, signed some forms for the notary and paid the court fees at a bank. (I use the term “we” very loosely. Of those four places, Dan and I waited in the car everywhere except the notary.) Our day went so smoothly we even got to have lunch at Pizza Celentano and visit V for about an hour and a half. We had warned her yesterday that because there was so much legal paperwork to be done today we probably wouldn’t get to see her. Her face lit up when she saw us walk in. We played Uno for a while with just her and then, when we realized her roommates were playing in the next room, invited them to join us. V and Papa teamed up, again, to beat everyone else.
All the paperwork that can be done “in region” right now has been completed and Victor actually left us this afternoon and is on the overnight train back to Kiev. He will finish preparing our documents tomorrow and submit them to the SDA on Wednesday. (They only accept these documents on Wednesday and Friday for an hour each day.) It typically takes the SDA a week to process those documents, so Victor should have them back and be able to return to us in the Donetsk region for our court date. (Drum roll, please!!!) It has already been set and is scheduled for Thursday, December 24th at 11:00AM. Victor could have come back and translated for us while the documents are in Kiev, but there is no real “work” for him to do here. We chose to let him enjoy the time at home with his family and an added benefit to us will be not having to pay for 2 rooms at the hotel.
Please don’t worry about us being here without Victor. I know almost all the words we need related to breakfast each day and it is served in the hotel lobby. Victor has also prearranged with our trusted driver Sasha to pick us up each day for our visits to the orphanage and we will have an interim translator of sorts named Nastya (short for Anastasia). She is sixteen years old and has been studying English for 10 years. She went with us to visit the orphanage today when Victor left and also helped us order dinner. Her school is on Winter Break right now, so she has agreed to do this for us every day and we will help her with her English. It is not as easy to find and/or order food at restaurants here as it was in Kiev. Many places in Kiev had either an English menu or an English speaking server… we’ve not found any of those in our quaint little town and at -12C we are not really interested in wandering the town to explore restaurant options.
I guess that’s the summary for now. I experienced some… let’s call them unique restrooms today, but will save those stories for another time. I think our days are going to all look the same for a while and that’s okay with us. A bit of redundancy will be okay after the heightened state we’ve been in since arrival.
Please do keep praying. It’s been over a week now and we are missing Tim, Carey and the comforts of home… like sidewalks without ice and internet with speed and without random disconnects.
We haven’t done much Christmas shopping this year, but you can imagine V's new name as a gift for you all wrapped up and waiting under the tree. We’ll unwrap it for you on Christmas Eve when everything is finalized and V's real name will be revealed.
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