Today we pick up the boys for good! Victor is driving in from Kiev this morning in his big luxury mini-van and he will be here about 10am to take all of us back to Kiev. We pack our suitcases and say goodbye to our comfy Kirovograd home of 13 days. Gregori arrives before Victor and we have a moment of confusion - is Gregori taking all of us to Kiev in his tiny taxi with luggage and three kids? Luckily, Victor arrives before the panic sets in, and order is restored. We say goodbye to Gregori and give him a bottle of cognac, thanking him for all he has done for us. Quite the character!
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We load up the mini-van and head to the orphanage to meet Katya and Andrew. This is it - we say goodbye to the boy's teachers and nurses, thanking them for taking care of our little guys until we could get there. We are escorted into the Director's office for our final farewell and signing of the "guest book". We promise to keep in touch and send pictures of the boys as they become "little Yanks". Then it's off to greet the boys and prepare them for their new life. As they walk in with their nurse for the last time, we wonder if they have any idea what is about to happen to them. They have been here for over half their lives and probably aren't quite ready for what's about to happen to them. This becomes quite evident as we start the process of dressing them in the clothes we bought for them. They must leave every stitch of clothing with the orphanage, and leave in the clothes we brought them - which of course is all UofMichigan attire! DJ has a minor panic attack as we start taking his clothes off...not real happy about having two strangers strip him naked. Max, on the other hand, loves the idea!
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At 12:00pm we walk out of the orphanage for the last time, with our two boys released from prison, escorted by their brother and new parents. Victor takes us to pick up their new Ukrainian passports with their new names and pictures and we start the long drive back to Kiev! Five hours later we arrive in the big city and watch as the boys take in this amazing city with all the traffic and noise, unlike anything they have ever seen. They drop us off at the flat we stayed in the first time, over by the President's house, and we all get settled in for our first night together.
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Unfortuantely, they are quite scared of their new surroundings, and probably of us! So we spend the next four hours trying to get them comfortable in their bed. This requires both of us to lie in bed with them until they stop crying. Every time we try to get up to go to our bed, one of them wakes up and they start crying all over again. Poor little guys...quite a shock to their system! By 2am they are sound asleep and we are exhausted. Good Nite little guys - welcome to our world!
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