Home Again, Home Again

The last 3 days seem to have been sewn together into one very long day with a few cat naps. Saturday we enjoyed another fantastic day with our son. He was a bit mopey in the morning until he discovered he did not have to leave us right away. We went and got him a hair cut (immediate return of the smile). We toured around town for just a bit. Had lunch and a fabulous dessert (continuation of the smile). And then went to a carnival of sorts in the park.

We rode the Ferris wheel, drove bumper cars, watched our son jump on one of those trampoline/bungee cord contraptions, fired bb guns, and visited a number of other rides and attractions. We had a lot of fun. And got some great pictures and video to be shared another time after our court finalization.

Then it was time to say goodbye. It was much easier than I anticipated. Our son was very happy to hear that we may be back in as little as two weeks. He hugged and kissed us both and said, "Tell I love and hello." for everyone at home.

Then the never-ending travel began. A 4 hour drive back to Kiev to the airport hotel (arrived at midnight), a quick call home to skype with the kids at 5:30am, checking in at the airport at 7:30am and catching our first flight, running through the airport in Paris to catch our flight to Atlanta just in time, then having just enough time to make our connection in Atlanta to San Francisco, making the 2 hour drive home and finally arriving in our bed at about 12:30pm.

It was a long day(s). But we did it. Trip one is officially done and over. This is going to be one crazy summer.

One fabulous day

It was too late for an update last night. But we had the most fantastic day with our boy. There was a fair amount of paperwork before lunch, which was rather boring of course. But when we weren't working on paper work we were playing. And oh, what fun we had.

Our son loves to play. We went roller skating, we went bowling, we had ice cream, we walked around town, we played cards, we played games on the iPad together. We even went to a local soccer field to play futbol. This boy especially loves him some futbol. He was pretty dang excited to discover that mom can play too and dad can at least keep up. (Hehehe, love you, honey).

I have to be careful about pictures to protect the identity of our son until he is legally our child. So the pictures will be sparse for the day. But it is enough to say we had a fabulous day.

Pizza for lunch with the usual toppings: pepperoni, cheese, chicken, penguin... wait, what? I'm hoping that is a typo...

The roller rink has little park features for jumps and rails. Super fun. And made us look good in front of our son. Bonus points.

Best ice cream. Yum! Flat Ty was happy.

My favorite part of the day. Definitely our son's favorite part of the day too,

If I am dreaming, don't wake me.

Back in the game

After our delay yesterday we were not sure what to expect today. We were on our own for the morning while our facilitator tried to make some things happen with the SDA. So we decided it was time to try Ukrainian McDonald's. It was good. Still fast food, but good.

It was a beautiful morning in Kiev. Sunny skies. Crisp air. And just a few cotton-ball clouds. We enjoyed the walk to our apartment. Since we needed to be ready at a moment's notice we needed to wait in our apartment for news. I took a nap while Brad played computer games. Out of the blue our doorbell rang. Apparently our cell phone is being choosy about who's texts it will receive. It was Natasha there to pick us up. Our documents were ready but they asked her to wait until 2:00 to pick them up. Nothin' doin'. We drove straight there and waited in the lobby and Natasha called them every so often until they came out to meet with us at 12:30 just to get rid of us. 

Then it was a mad dash to our son's region. The inspector and director had agreed to wait for us to come even though our appointment was originally at 9am. The 5 hour drive was beautiful. And it rained on us most of the way.

We picked up the inspector on the way into town. Our facilitator told us we would be going somewhere to prepare paperwork with her and then we would all go to the orphanage to meet the director and our son. We didn't recognize the building we arrived at. We went inside and sat down. All of the sudden our son walked around the corner. No camera out. No warning. No one even seemed to pay attention to the fact that he was there. We both got a quick hug and before we could even say a word to him the inspector started questioning him about why we were there. Within just a minute or two of the constant questioning the director showed up and we were ushered into her office. And the questions continued. Our son was very nervous. And to be quite honest, so was I. But these women had been waiting over 8 hours for this appointment. I can understand the urgency to move things along.

But, despite urgency and nerves, our son was adamant that he wants to be adopted. He is ready to come with us to America. And so the official paperwork is started. We will spend the next 2 days together preparing papers for court and getting to know our son.

We stopped by our hotel and then went straight to dinner after our appointment. This day did not go by quickly, but it has felt like a whirlwind. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Speed bump

Today did not turn out the way we expected. We are still in Kiev.

We started the day with a fantastic breakfast. I cannot even describe how good the fresh apple and orange juices were. Oh my.

After breakfast Brad and I decided it was time for some R&R. Rather than more sight seeing we went back to our apartment and watched shows on our ipad, took a cat nap, played some games, and even had a hot bath. It was lovely. Brad kept saying, "We've been laying around all morning. Don't you want to get out?" Oh no, loving husband, I wanted to stay right where I was, doing absolutely nothing. It was soooo good.

We had to be packed up and out of the apartment at noon so the laziness did eventually come to an end. Natasha took us to see several of the beautiful Ukrainian Orthodox churches. Pictures are not allowed inside but they were breathtakingly beautiful. They reminded us of the many many churches we saw in Russia.

Then we were able to travel to the LDS Temple on the edge of Kiev. Beautiful.

We went back into the city to see a few more sights before our appointment to pick up our paperwork.

The picture does not show how steep this hillside is.

The rail car is built at a slant so that the passengers are sitting and standing upright.

The cars are connected by a cable that acts as pulley system. One is always going up when the other goes down.

Our appointment was at 4pm. We were told there was a problem with the computer system and we could wait as late as 6pm to see if it could be resolved. At 6:00 we were told to come back in the morning. Natasha scrambled to change all of our arrangements and we are now praying the computer glitch will correct itself overnight so that we can still get our paperwork tomorrow and hurry to our son's city.

We consoled ourselves with pizza and decadent desserts.

The bright side? Our apartment for the night is quite an upgrade from the previous accommodations. 

 I'm a sucker for a big jetted bathtub...

Livin' large.

We hope for good news in the morning.

Day 3?

I'm not sure what to call today. It is only our 2nd day in Ukraine and technically we left only 3 days ago but by the calendar we have been gone 4 days. I'm just going to call it day 3.

This morning we had our appointment and "selected" our referral. We receive the official referral and travel tomorrow. After our appointment we spent the day sight seeing.

Second breakfast at a lovely little bakery. So yummy.

Flat kids on the subway.

Flat Ty enjoying his favorite: ice cream.

Monument of the Great Patriotic War (WWII).

Memorial of the Great Famine of Ukraine. The monument is a candle that lights in the evening. The crosses indicate the innocence of the victims. The storks represent the innocent souls ascending into heaven.

Flat boys enjoying the military vehicles.

Monuments to the different groups of people who contributed to the Great Patriotic War.

The Lady of the Mother Land. She was originally 3rd tallest in the world (taller than the Statue of Liberty and the statue of Christ in Rio). 

If you look in the distance in this picture you can see the gold tops of the church. There is a superstition that on the day a building is erected that surpases the height of the cross on the church the city of Kiev will fall. When the Lady of the Mother Land was constructed her sword was one meter taller than the cross. The people convinced the architect to cut and remove a portion of the sword so that it would not exceed the height of the cross. That's some serious superstition.

I wish you could see the river and city scape in this picture. So beautiful.

The more affluent homes in Kiev. 

Flat kids riding the subway to dinner.

Another day full of amazing food and sightseeing. 

Still Awake

I can't believe we are still awake.

But we are here, we are safe, and all is well. We left our hotel Sunday morning at 6am and arrived home to our apartment in Kiev at 10pm (noon Monday afternoon). I was able to sleep 6 hours on the plane. Brad... not so much. And there were a couple hiccups in the travel plan, but we made it.

We LOVED walking around the city tonight after dinner. Kiev is a beautiful city and there is so much to see. Our guide is awesome and we can already tell this is going to be an amazing trip.

We also found out we will likely be able to spend much more time with our son than we originally planned later this week. Life is good.

We are awake, but not for much longer. So the rest of this little post will be pictures. Hugs to all!

 The Ukrainian equivalent to our Statue of Liberty. She has a name, but I can't remember right now, and I will get better pictures later because oh-my-she-is-beautiful, but we were in the car. And the picture on the right is last standing 11th century church in Kiev. Definitely need more pics of this one too. Ah-mazing.

Our super cute 6th floor apartment

 The view from our patio. We even have a washer!

Dinner: summer soup, pork and mashed potatoes. YUM!

The Square in Kiev. This is where the Revolution of Dignity took place last year.

The memorial to the 100 men and women, many only 18 years old, who lost their lives. Each individual was pictured along the wall. Super touching.