Day 7 – The paper-chase begins!

Awoke to a cloudy day, the cloud cover from Kiev must have caught up with us. But it’s a new day and the paper chase is on! We visited the notary as planned this morning. We arrived about 10 minutes after the hour; we were told up-front that not much happens as ‘planned’ here. You roll with the punches. 9:10 is close enough to 9:00 so – game on!

We walked in the front door you see above to a bright clean office with 2 young ladies and 2 desks with computers. There was a smaller office off to the left; there was a desk in there and lots of papers. Going to the notary in Ukraine is a very different process than in the US. Our coordinator had already talked to them so they knew why we were there; a quick check of the passports, a couple of copies of them and they were off! The two young ladies started to review the paperwork our coordinator had brought with us. Very soon one of the young ladies got up from the desk and walked into the other office and sat behind the desk in there. The remaining young lady then started typing away on the computer, transferring information from our documents to something (a template?) on the computer. Our coordinator then went behind the desk and typed away on the empty computer as well. One of the many documents we signed in the US was a Power of Attorney, several copies. Families to follow - very important!!! Since our coordinator had that lovely document in her hands, she was able to process our paperwork in addition to the young lady in the notary office. About 25 minutes later paper was flowing out of the printer. After much sorting, stamping and organizing, our coordinator sat down and reviewed the documents with a fine tooth comb. Sure enough, she found an error! The young lady at the computer called the other young lady out of the other office and after a discussion with our coordinator they agreed the document was to be corrected. Our coordinator then translated for us what the document said. It was our final application to adopt V. It gave his full name, his birth date, the name and address of the orphanage, our names, passport information, V’s new full name, etc. It also included some very specific language regarding our understanding of his medical situation. I think this is my favorite document so far!! It ranks right up there with Alex’s birth certificate. One copy of this application will go back to Kiev and another copy goes to the local inspector’s office. I asked for an unofficial copy as well, in Russian of course. I thought it would be cool to have a copy on the wall in a frame for V! We signed the two official documents, signed a ledger in 2 places (by a check this time, no X's) and then we were done. The coordinator gathered all of our other documents and we returned to the car. She ran across the street to quickly make some copies. She needed to complete some additional activities at the orphanage and since V is in school, we headed back to the flat.

Our coordinator had an appointment with the lawyer regarding the court case and our court date mid-afternoon. She was gone longer than I anticipated. Of course I started to worry that something was not going as planned, you know me. Upon her return, she indicated she had to wait for him for quite a while. Remember that statement above about 9:10 being close enough to 9:00. Yup. She said he is now working on the paperwork and we should know more about a potential court date on Monday.

She also indicated that the orphanage would not have their paperwork ready today as we had hoped. Our coordinator is going back to Kiev on the train for the weekend. We were hoping she would be able to take the paperwork with her and then file all of the paperwork with the request for approval for court on Monday at the SDA. Alas, it was not to be. I don’t have any indication yet that we will be delayed but it will definitely mean more travel on the train for our coordinator. Poor thing! 

We left right away then for our visit with V as it was much later in the day than we planned. He was again very happy to see us. Our coordinator was working with the orphanage staff for a few minutes and then left with our driver for the train (never fear, the driver was coming back for us!). It is of course harder to communicate with V when she is not with us but we managed just fine, just like last summer. He asked yesterday for an apple and some candy to share with his friends. So we brought the requested apple and 2 bags of peanut M&M’s, like the extra large size candy bars we have in the US. And we brought a candy bar just for him as well. Best I can tell, there are 19 boys in his ‘house’ upstairs. The kids are separated by sex and age I have heard. There are several houses in the building, it is a good sized building.  We also brought him a disposable camera to take pictures of the people or things he wants to remember, we discussed this with him and the coordinator yesterday so he will know what to do. I brought my computer along as well to show V the pictures of his best friend that I received from his new mom late last night (Thanks T!). He was very pleased. We are trying to arrange a call on my local cell phone this weekend between the two boys. It really is heartwarming to see such a strong bond between them. Several of the other boys came in to see the pictures of M as well. We also brought a game of Crazy 8’s with us. We had a blast.  V picked it up very quickly, it helped that he knew his colors and his numbers in English. We played many games and before we knew it, it was dark outside. And way past our 4:00 p.m. ‘curfew’. So out we went to the car and once again, off to the flat. 

Another sign today that this is what I am supposed to do; there have been others over the last several days as well. Remember how I said that once I saw that initial photo of V, I couldn’t walk away? And I couldn’t explain it. I just knew somewhere inside that I wanted so badly to do this. As the other boys were coming in to see the pictures of M on the computer, nothing happened. Nothing at all. No tug anywhere, none of those feelings what so ever. They were just boys. I feel very badly for them, don't get me wrong.  But just like the other pictures I looked at last summer for the hosting program, God has a different plan for those children and I know I am not part of that plan...

Since I have been rather long winded again today, I will describe the flat complete with pictures tomorrow. I can hardly wait to take you on the tour!