Feeling Better

Feeling better today.  Fever broke in the night.  Felt up to eating by lunchtime.

Went to the orphanage in the morning.  Only saw GameBoy.  Giggles was in the nurse's office.  The secretary told us she was sick.  Gave GameBoy his R/C car.  He LOVED it!  Couldn't stay long, because we still had to drive 2 hours to the other orphanage to see Thumbelina.

At our visit with GameBoy, we met another American couple from Longmont, CO.  They are doing their second Ukrainian adoption.  They have 4 kids of their own (his and hers) teenagers and up.  They adopted a teenage girl from Eastern Ukraine a couple of years ago.  And they currently have 2 exchange students - 1 from Russia and 1 from Thailand (I think).  And they are here to adopt 2 that they had last summer as part of a hosting program.

While we were at the orphanage, Zhenia was at court trying to get our court date.  It appears that the soonest they can schedule us is the 4th.  Something about accepting a jury for civil cases.  The jury is supposed to be accepted Friday, but it could be Monday.  There are families here who have been waiting up to 2 weeks for the jury to be selected, so they can have their court dates.   We didn't even know that a jury was involved.  That wasn't part of our "education" about the process.  But apparently it is necessary.  If the jury is not approved Friday, then the court cases for next week could be delayed.  The 4th just isn't going to work for us.  Cliff has to be in Atlanta on the 5th for a 3 day meeting of his executive committee and Board of Directors that starts at 9am on the 6th.  So our only option (assuming what we hear about the jury is true and that we can't get an earlier date) is to set a later court date, go home for Cliff's meeting, come back for court, go home for the waiting period and come back to pick up the kids.  Whew!  Still working it out.

After a quick lunch, we piled in the car and left for Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyy.  Vitali is our driver now.  Zhenia really likes him.  Cliff does, too.  He is good people.  He drove Cliff and Zhenia to the kids' birthplace to get the corrected court decree a couple of days ago.  Apparently it was quite a ride.

In Bilhorod Dnistrovs'kyy we had an appointment with a city official at 4:30pm.  She is like a Deputy Mayor. She meets with all adoptive parents, asks some questions, and signs a paper approving the adoption.  We weren't sure what to expect.  Zhenia said very few officials do this, and you never quite know what their motivations is.  This woman was quite nice.  It seemed like a formality only and not an inquisition.  She wished us  much patience and wisdom.  She told the girls that Cliff and I would need their help.

From there we went to the orphanage to see Thumbelina.  The Director was just about to leave, so we got there just in time.  We visited with her for a while.  Another very nice lady.  We took a picture together.  And then we got to spend about 20 minutes or so with Thumbelina.  She doesn't seem as little now as she did before.  I remembered to take out my tape measure and get some measurements for our growth charts.  Once I plotted them, I am quite pleased with her progress.  She is very small for her age, but she is proportionate and showing great growth progress.  Her speech is clear.  Cliff was tickling her, and she very clearly asked him to stop (in Russian, translated by Zhenia).  And she has a terrific giggle.  The visit was way too short, but we had a long drive back to Izmyil.

Zhenia left us with Vitali and went to Odessa to catch the train to Kiev.  He will turn in necessary paperwork to SDA to get their approval for court (they have 5 days to provide).  On our way back to Izmyil, Vitali stopped for supper at a little restaurant.  He ordered pork kebabs, cabbage salad, borscht, and fried potatoes.  It was really yummy.  I wished I could eat more of it, but my stomach was not quite ready for so much food.  The cabbage salad was really good.  We would probably call it coleslaw, but it is not like any coleslaw I have ever had.  The pork was amazing - crispy and well seasoned.  And the borscht was very good.  Probably the "worst" part of the meal was the fries.  Apparently the men had stopped here on their other trip and wanted to share the experience with us girls.

We arrived back at the flat a little before 10pm - exhausted but happy.

Continued prayers for court - that even if we can't get in earlier that at least the families that have been waiting longer will not be delayed anymore.