April 17, 2007

We started the day out with breakfast at the Intourist Hotel. The kids like the buffet. Since Matt is a growing boy, he really likes the amount of the food. He likes meat. He does not get much meat at the orphanage. Maria likes the variety.

We have to get the birth certificates, then the new passports and then the check-up at the clinic in Kyiv. If all goes well, and that is a big if, we will have the passports on the 27th. But now the US Embassy is telling us that the clinic is closed on Saturday, the 28th, as well as Monday the 30th. Then the US Embassy is telling us that they are closed until May 3rd. We are still working of this.Timing is everything. Today is day one of the 10 day wait period and we will get the official judgement today. We are already working on flights home, but the Ukrainian Holiday calendar, the required sequenceofevents and, worst of all, the US Embassy are working against us.

Sunday, the children experienced working on a computer at an internet café. They wanted to use the computer again. We went to one where we had 3 computers together. Cindy and Tom shared a computer and each child had their own. Maria played on educational websites. Matt lasted almost 1 hour on these same sites and just wanted to play games. He tried this on Sunday and really enjoyed it. He is such a rough and tough little boy.

After the internet café, we walked past on optical store. Maria Oksana is always squinting and reads materials just inches from her face. Since she could be tested by an optometrist in her native language, we decided to see how much this would cost. Well, sit down for this. The examination costs the equalivent of $1. I am not kidding. We had her tested and she needs glasses. Her prescription is 2.5 in both eyes. On boy. We had Luke in glasses at the age. Remember friends, all of the glass stories. Here we go again. We also had Matt tested. He is fine and does not need glasses. But….he became jealous when he saw Cindy and Maria Oksana picking out frames. He NOW wants glasses. When we were finished and with our translator, we had the translator, Asa, explain that he is lucky and blessed that he does not need glasses. His jealously wore off.

We had to get another document notarized. Off to the notary, again. We kept the kids outside, so they could play. After the notary, Tom had to purchase train tickets home. He went on another Ukrainian adventure with Asa, our translator. They had to go to the Zap train station. So many people were there. It was unbelievable. It seemed to take forever to get to a window to purchase the tickets. When they were the next in line, the person at the window stated, “It is my break time.” Twenty minutes later, the 15 minute break was over. Finally, he had train tickets.

Tom actually took the above ground subway after purchasing the train tickets. The trains on this system look like they were new in the 50’s, and they are still running today. They only cost 75 kopete. This equals 15 cents. So they are affordable and crowded.

While he was gone, Cindy was in the park with the kids. Marie wanted to play Freebee and Matt wanted to pass the football. Of course they could not want to play the same thing. After this we met Tom for dinner.
The children stayed with us one last night. They enjoy showering every night and sleeping in the hotel. They like spending time in the hotel with Mom and Dad




We have to get the birth certificates, then the new passports and then the check-up at the clinic in Kyiv. If all goes well, and that is a big if, we will have the passports on the 27th. But now the US Embassy is telling us that the clinic is closed on Saturday, the 28th, as well as Monday the 30th. Then the US Embassy is telling us that they are closed until May 3rd.

We are still working of this.Timing is everything. Today is day one of the 10 day wait period and we will get the official judgement today. We are already working on flights home, but the Ukrainian Holiday calendar, the required sequenceofevents and, worst of all, the US Embassy are working against us.