Monday August 23, 2010 - Goodbye to Max and David

Today we say goodbye to Max and David ;^(
I doubt Max will even understand what's going on, but it will be difficult for David and even harder on their parents. We bought a couple cute stuffed puppies to give to them when we leave - hopefully something they can hold on to and remember.

We pack our suitcases, gather our stuff (we won't be bringing this much when we come back!), and prepare for our last visit to see the boys before we head to Kiev this afternoon. Emma cuts up the remaining ham and cheese for the boys and runs down to the shop for some fresh jammy donuts (the Nutella is all gone).

 

Katya will be joining us this morning so she can translate to the kids, as well as the orphanage folks, about our departure - altho I'm sure the orphanage director already knows, as everybody in this town knows about everybody's business. I'm sure Natasha has already been in contact with the director, but we want to make sure. Plus, we have some additional forms to fill out, including our contract with Natasha.

So at 9:45, Gregori and Katya are waiting for us downstairs for our daily pilgrimage to see the boys. Our bags are all packed and the plan is to hand over the keys to our flat at 1pm and head to Kiev.

 

The three of us wait in the office and soon we can hear the sounds of two Dannemillers walking down the hall. The boys spot us and come running to us as usual -  just another typical day for them, and we head out to the playground. Its another beautiful cool morning. The boys love the slices of ham and cheese - altho Max thinks the cheese is for sticking on the side of the slide, not for eating.

 

Our visit is a bit subdued today as we are interrupted by a couple dogs and the parade of other kids passing by on their way to their play area. Adding to these distractions, the boys spend a large amount of time communicating with Katya, as she speaks their language! All in all, not a great visit, but I was kind of expecting that.

We head back to the office a bit early, so that we have time to give them their puppies, a picture of all four of us, and to tell them that we will be leaving for a while. This time, as we leave, I pick up Max and put him on my shoulders and he laughs all the way back to the office with no temper tantrum! Why didn't I think of that before?

 

Back at the office, Katya translates our words, explaining that we must go back to America to get their rooms ready, and to buy clothes and toys, etc. We tell them that we love them very much and we will be back soon to pick them up, along with their brother Vanya. She asks David "do you understand?", he says "Da", she says "do you want to go to America with them?", he says "Da", she says "will you be good boys when they are gone?", he says "Da".

Of course Max is oblivious to all this, so we give them their puppy dogs (which they love), and give their nurse our picture to show them every day, and then we start the goodbyes. They aren't nearly as emotional about it as we are, but all is well in their little world as they walk away, waving goodbye, and hopefully somehow, somewhere in their little subconscious minds, are looking forward to our return and the start of their new life in America. We stand there watching them walk down the hall until the very last possible moment before they disappear from our sight. So long Max and David. See you soon!

 

Wow - the next time we will see our three sons will be sometime in October. But its all good and everything is happening just like it should. We can take these six weeks to better prepare ourselves for life with three boys, including checking on schools, 'de-Maxing' the house and fixing up their rooms.

Gregori picks us up at 11:45 and we invite he and Katya for lunch, knowing they will decline. We stop by the curb to drop Katya off near her office and begin to say our goodbyes to her. But apparently we spend too much time saying goodbye, and as she walks away the local policeman comes up to give Gregori a bunch of shit about stopping where we did (like it's some busy street). The Kirovograd 'filth' start yelling at Gregori and invites him to join them in their police car, leaving us to sit in the back of the taxi wondering why these guys are giving Gregori such a hard time (have I mentioned how much I hate pigs?). Its all just a stupid power trip as they call in their superiors to make their final judgement on the severity of the crime. They finally decide to pardon him and let him keep his taxi license without a fine or jail time...

 

He gets back in the car and grumbles something about police and takes us to Camellia's for lunch. We enjoy our final meal here in Kirovograd, walk back to the flat and hand the keys to the owner. We load up Gregori's taxi with all our stuff and by 1pm, we are on the road back to Kiev.

 

Four and a half hours later we arrive in the outskirts of Kiev, and we start that ol' Ukrainian past-time of getting lost. Lesya calls wondering where we are so I hand the phone to Gregori to sort it all out. We finally get to the familiar downtown area near where we live, but we still need Vadim and Irene to escort us up to our flat near the President's offices. A bit tricky to navigate around the restricted traffic patterns for this taxi driver from Kirovograd. We say our goodbyes to Gregori, as he has been a great guy to take us everywhere, and we thank him and hug him goodbye - in that manly Ukrainian manner...

We settle back into our familiar Kiev flat, pick up a few needed supplies and settle in for a nice quiet evening. Tomorrow is Ukraine's Independence Day and you can see the national pride beginning to swell up wherever you look. I walk down to Independence Square to exchange some cash and pick up some local Vodka. The holiday buzz is everywhere! Should be a huge day in Kiev tomorrow - good timing eh? I especially like all the Yellow and Blue everywhere!!!

We snack on cheese and salami, drinking Vodka Martinis toasting the holiday, as well as our successful two weeks here in the Ukraine. Good night Kiev...