Monday, October 09, 2006

We have our referral!




Beware, this one is long….:)

The day started out gloomy with rain. There went my hair! LOL!

Irene met us at the apartment and we made the 10 minute walk to the new SDA. It is that close to our apartment. What a beautiful building! Above is a picture of John and I standing outside the doors waiting for our appointment.

We met our facilitator outside and after a cup of hot cocoa for me and coffee for John and Irene we went inside of a church next store to kill time. WOW! The Greek Orthodox Church is gorgeous. There is not a bare wall anywhere. We took video of the service – it was very interesting.

Finally it was it was time to move inside. The floor is all granite tiles and the walls are made of marble. We patiently waited until at exactly 11:30 this REALLY pretty young woman with a waste about as big as my right thigh (I told ya Ukrainian/Russian women are so pretty here!) came out and introduced herself as our translator. We shook hands and went through the doors and down a long hallway. Last door on the left, made a turn past a desk or two, then right into a small office with a nice corner bench. They asked us to be seated and the interpreter introduced us to the psychologist. Her name was Valencia (pronounced with a strong Ukrainian accent it sounded more like Valenzuela) She had one document in a page protector with a picture of Oleg at 5 yrs old. My baby boy’s first mug shot :) She later asked if we would like to take a picture of it) So here’s how our conversation went per the interpreter:

“Hello. We are happy to meet you! We have received your petition to adopt Oleg and we would like to take this time to get to know you a little better.”
“How are you today?”
“How do you like our city? Have you seen much of Kiev? Where did you go?”
“How did you meet Oleg?”
“You have other children at home? Tell me a little about them.”
“Do you want us to tell you more about Oleg?” We replied yes and she then proceeded to tell us most of what we already knew from Lyudmila. His mothers rights were terminated at age 5…Oleg has been in an orphanage till 8 year of age then moved to where he is now now. He has a 16 yr old brother who does not stay at his school and does not like to learn. He runs away all the time. We got the impression he ran away and is not there anymore. She went on to tell us a few other things about Oleg’s health etc…For all intent and purposes he is a healthy and happy little boy, and was described as such by the Director and his care giver.

Okay at this point all I am hearing is 16 yr old brother and I’m replaying every thing I have heard on forced sibling adoptions. I know they do not like to split up the siblings, etc…But as I continued to listen to the translator Valencia never even implied that we would need to do that. As she continued to talk I started to relax, but am still holding my breath. It would appear they were not going to suggest adopting the brother also. I don’t think he can be found.

She never asked us about our home, salaries or finances.

She asked to see the picture book she had ‘heard so much about’. Apparently she found out somewhere that we had assembled one for I am not sure if it came form Lyudmila’s statement, the Director or our Facilitator; but she knew about it. Darn! Missed that one! John left it at the hotel room. She said “That okay” So; we showed her the picture of Oleg on John’s binder and additional one inside.

Then she said the magic words that I was holding my breath for: “I have read your Dossier and see no reason why you would not be a good home for Oleg” DID YOU JUSTHEAR ME EXHALE?!!!! “We will draw up his referral for you and they can be picked up by either you or your representative tomorrow. HOORAAAAAAAY! We are approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can go see Oleg and get a court date!

I then smiled and of course started to cry. I tried to be reserved and indifferent like I was advised to do…I really did! BUT, I just couldn’t help it! I was so relieved and happy.

Valencia just smiled warmly and said “We can see Oleg has a very good family. We are happy to see him go with you” And the she wiped a tear from her own eye. It was so touching!

We then proceeded to tell her that we would love to bring the book by tomorrow for her to look at and she got up and looked at her calendar. She wrote something down and the translator said “She will be here between 5 and 6 pm to see your book. She is very happy to see your book” (EXACT words!)

We said “Thank you”, shook hands and walked back down the hallway to the lobby.

They are all very nice there at the SDA. It was a pleasant experience. We passed the old NAC on the bus after getting train tickets and I have to say the new one is far more professional and in a much nicer area. The SDA is located near other beautiful governmental buildings in a well cared for area.

Speaking of train tickets…another Ukrainian experience! We went with Irene to get our over night train tickets and boy was I surprised. The building was beautiful and we took picture of the inside. It is very elaborate with art work on the ceilings and columns of granite and marble. O ya! And here’s my gross news: (Those with queasy stomachs just skip ahead) I had to use the restroom…and of course I finally found the ‘famous hole in the floor’ toilets. Out came the puffs in my pocket and hand sanitizer. It was like camping…just squat and go…Yuck! I only used it ‘cause I REALLY had to go, and if I don’t see another one of those in a million years it will be too soon…I have a feeling however that I will *sigh* the Princess WAS NOT happy! And, I had to PAY to use the thing! As I said earlier Commerce is alive and well in the Ukraine. Charging people to pee…it always happens and it is a guaranteed money maker! LOL

So, we leave on an overnight train to Kharkiv tomorrow at 10:30 p.m. One day closer to seeing Oleg! Not sure when we will make it the rest of the way to the orphanage, so I will have to update that agenda as we go.

Oh, and to top it all off we finally got to meet up with the Steinberg’s from the FRUA board! They called us and we met with them for drinks at O’Brien’s. What a super nice couple! They are adopting a child name Andre. We will be traveling to Kharkiv on the same train…It was so nice to sit and compare notes with a fellow Americans! I know there was another American family at the SDA today, but we did not meet them. The Steinberg’s did though.

Our Cultural meal for the day was at a ‘meat house.’ We had fresh meat that was cooked like Mongolian BBQ. (No Marie, I didn’t see it come out of the truck of a car –YET) Mmmmmm! Delicious! I am eating varied breads here and guess what? No headaches! Not a migraine in sight! And I am losing weight rapidly…These hills and all this walking is so good for me! I like this ‘Ukrainian adoption diet!’ It really works for me!

To our friends and family back home, we miss you all!

Gotta run…I know this journal was long but there was soooo much to say!

K~

6 Comments:

Blogger Tonya said...

OOOOOOO! congratualtions!!!!

And thanks for asking all those questions at the SDA. I am one of the ones hanging on by my fingernails:)

1:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WE ARE SO EXCITED. WE LOVE READING YOUR BLOGS!!!

MUCH LOVE THE WOLFS!

2:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for logging details. It does give a person so much more hope. We are in the dossier stage for the 2nd time and hope to adopt Ruslan, a boy we hosted this summer. We didn't get registered because of a missing document, and till we got that in the shutdown was in effect. We are in this process almost 3 years, and have 5 bio children. I love reading your blog. MK from PA

3:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow what an adventure! Keep writing. So who invented the cheese, mustard and salad sandwich that Aidan requests at lunch?
Stephanie in Fresno

1:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

John & Kym --

Mera and I are very excited for you two. We have the church praying for you!

Keep us posted.

9:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey guys, this is such an awesome thing...Glad you did this blog so others can keep the faith for their own situation. What a great way to journal it all. Talk to you later,

Greg

6:28 PM  

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