Day 31 – A Tale of Two Cities

Today dawned bright and sunny. A beautiful day! Nobody really slept much last night; Alex and Robert were mostly up, I was up and down.

We were picked up just before 9:30 to go get V’s new birth certificate issued in his new name with us listed as his parents. Our coordinator had already been to the courthouse at 8:30 and picked up the final adoption decree. When we got to our first stop of many in V’s home town, our coordinator came back out about 15 minutes later. Seems there was a mistake in the court decree. Oh no! Off we went back to the courthouse. We stayed in the car while our coordinator went in to straighten it out. That took a lot longer than I anticipated, about an hour or so. From there we went back to our first stop (now our third stop) again. With the corrected final adoption decree, we received the necessary paperwork for step one in the issuance of the birth certificate. Seems we had to go to another office where they issued the actual document. Unfortunately, that would take about 30 minutes. And our coordinator still had to drop paperwork at the orphanage and at the local inspector’s office for final processing. We made the decision that we would be dropped at the flat to get our luggage while she continued the paper chase. It seems we were going to take the night train back to Kiev after all. All I can say is that this morning when I repacked all the luggage “just in case” and was told by my lovely husband that I was wasting my time, I’d like to remind him that it never hurts to be prepared!

About 20 minutes later we joined the coordinator and driver once again and completed the final step in the birth certificate process. Finally we were off to the orphanage. It is very obvious to me that we are now way behind schedule. Roughly 2 hours behind schedule as a matter of fact.

Next stop, orphanage. V was waiting for us; I did manage to snap an adorable photo of him leaning out the window of the second floor waving as we walked in. He was very happy to see us! I am sure he was worried since our coordinator told him we would be there about 10:00 a.m. and it was now well past noon. He ran down to greet us and I gave him his new backpack with his shoes, socks, underwear, jeans, shirt, coat, hat, mittens, and baseball cap tucked inside. While he changed clothes, we signed in and waited for the orphanage director. The nice woman we signed in with every day was there for our last signature and she asked our coordinator about Alex. Our coordinator explained that this was our other son Alex, V’s new brother. Once again Alex was told how cute he was. More teasing for Alex on that one! 

We then had a quick meeting with the orphanage director. She pulled out a book about the orphanage, wrote V a note inside, and then signed and dated it. We also had a chat about V. She had some very touching comments about him, his situation and about her wishes for a good life for him. She talked a lot about Alex, how excited she was that V was getting a good family and a brother and how happy V was that Alex was going to be his brother. As the meeting progressed, the doctor came in with another book for V also with a note written for him inside the cover. V came in shortly thereafter followed by several more of the staff. Through lots of hugs and kisses, the orphanage director had some words of advice for V and made him blush a few times; it was very cute. I know I saw a tear as she put his face between her hands, quietly said a few things to him, kissed his forehead and gave him a huge hug. As we finished up and much to Alex’s surprise, the orphanage director gave Alex a big hug and said some things to him in Russian. I also got a big hug from her as well as several other members of the staff. As they all hugged and kissed V goodbye in her office, there were a few more tears from the staff. We exited from there and then very quickly signed 4 documents in the assistant director’s office across the hall. As we went to leave the orphanage, a few more staff appeared and there were more hugs and kisses. The last kiss left a nice set of red lips on V’s cheek. We’ve been trying to get that lipstick off ever since. It must have had cement as the primary ingredient! 

We snapped a few photos outside the orphanage door and then we headed out of town. No party with the children; they were going to get their fruit and juice after school instead. The orphanage director wanted us to go to the school before we left town but because of the error at the courthouse, we were now very pressed for time. 

We had a speedy trip to city number two, Donetsk. The roads were not as snow covered and therefore our driver could drive (much) faster. Once we arrived in Donetsk, we stopped at McDonalds for a very quick bite to eat and then we went to get V’s new Ukrainian passport. That took quite a while. And heads up for families coming behind us, I understand there are issues now with getting this passport. I have been reading entry’s on the various Yahoo groups about a shortage of passports. When I asked David about this a few weeks back, he was aware of the situation and indicated our region was still OK. This appears to be changing. The cost has risen quite a bit and I understand there may be a change in the process looming for the next families. The head coordinator told us in Kiev that we may be the last family to get this document. Don’t know what the alternative is, I didn’t ask since I didn’t need to know...again, just a heads up to David and the next families. 

We checked over the new passport, all is in order. They did manage to spell Briesemeister correctly. Our coordinator has been vigilant about checking this all along. We then headed to the train station. A quick goodbye to our drive and inside we went. We have roughly 2.5 hours to kill. Robert is reading a book and the boys are playing Game Boy sharing leftover McDonald’s fries.  

V seems to have lost all nervousness about starting his new life. He is all smiles and took all the teasing, poking and prodding in the car very well. Every small step completed is met with a “Yah!”. He is very excited to take the train to Kiev and then head home to Wisconsin. And it is very obvious. 

Alex has been remarkable. He is leading the way for V, helping him with his coat and luggage and is very loving towards him. Alex even has V wiping his hand on a tissue between each fry. Don’t want to get the new Game Boy greasy you know! I am very proud of my young man!