Wednesday August 25, 2010

 

Our last full day in Ukraine - at least until we return in October! Lesya calls us to tell us to be ready for an 11:45 pickup to take us to a Notary to sign some papers. Vadim and Irene (all dressed in orange from head to toe) pick us up to take us across town where we meet up with Lesya at the Notary's office. As we are waiting to sign the formal agreement to adopt all three, Lesya asks me when our flight leaves tomorrow. I tell her it's a 9am flight to London which produces a look of panic on her face, followed by a rapid Ukrainian discussion with Irene who also suddenly begins to look concerned. I offer to delay it if needed, but she replies "no problem - I will work it out...". And we know she will - she always does! Lesya has been absolutely wonderful through this entire process. She is very energetic, positive and loves her job - and she is the master when it comes to knocking down bureaucratic barriers. We tell her she has been our little 'match-maker' and we feel very lucky to have her working for us. We know she had these three cute boys in mind for us from day one, and she was determined to make it happen, for all five of us! I can't say enough about how great she's been, and I would recommend a Ukrainian adoption to anybody who is interested in adopting a child (or three).

 

After signing the document, we leave the Notary and Lesya tells us she must rush over to the SDA office and she will call us later. She needs to get these documents over there asap to set up our appointment to formally visit Vanya and get the process started before we leave. It's always a bit of a drama, and I know she will need to pull a full strings to get this done today, but we know she will handle it. She is formidable!!!

Vadim drops us back at the flat and we decide to walk down the street to try a new restaurant we'd seen before. But first, I need to buy a Ukrainian Football jersey (did I mention the yellow and blue thing?). The restaurant is a cool Ukrainian buffet style restaurant (huge!) with every type of food you can imagine. We load up our trays with various types of delicacies and sit down to enjoy a late lunch. Two minutes into it, Lesya calls and tells us to come outside our flat as we need to get to the SDA office asap! She worked her magic and we've been given our formal appointment to come back in October, just like we knew she would. But we need to get down there before they close for the day. We grab whatever food we can carry and stuff the rest of it into our cheeks (just like Max would), and quickly make the steep climb back to our flat where Vadim and Irene are patiently waiting for us. They whisk us over to the SDA office to meet Lesya and sign a few more documents pertaining to Vanya and they give us our official appointment allowing us to return in October to complete the process. Lesya and Irene are so happy for us, as we show them pictures of the boys and tell stories about our visits. Lesya points out a Canadian couple that had the exact same initial date as us and they still haven't found anybody to adopt yet. We feel blessed to have all of this work out so perfectly - it couldn't have gone any better for us.

So, Lesya and her husband take us back to our flat and we say goodbye to Lesya with hugs and kisses and many many "thank-you's" and "see you soon's". A very successful outcome and a perfect visit to the Ukraine.

 

So - Monday October 11, 2010 at 2pm is our appointment to officially start the process to adopt Vanya and his brothers. We will need to get a few more documents updated and notify the US Immigration folks that we are bringing back three instead of two, but that's just details - and we have a great team back home to help us through this. Ruth, Ally, Alla, Pamela and of course our dear friend Auntie Val!

Looks like I will be spending my birthday in Kiev - what a great birthday present. Tomorrow we leave for London to spend the weekend visiting friends and family - Vadim will pick us up at 6:30am to take us to the airport, so we pack up, drink a few Vodka Martinis to toast the new Dannemillers and get ready for bed. Good night Ukraine...

It's been a fantastic visit - can't wait to come back!