This Is The Story of How We Adopted Our Two Sons From Ukraine - page 2
November 14, 2000
So much has happened since we have left Omaha. We left on Sunday Nov. 12 at 11:06 am. We flew to Chicago & had a 5 hour layover. During our layover, we met Simon our chaperone. He is from Ukraine but has lived in St. Paul MN for 3 years. He explained some of the process & the "dos & don'ts" of the trip. Then Jim & Bridget arrived . They live in Waukesha WI. Jim and Bridget are the other couple we will be travelling with, they want to adopt 2 boys.
It was a 9 1/2 hour trip to Vienna. Orest & I were only able to sleep maybe 2 hours each. In Vienna we filled out our Customs Declaration to turn in at Kiev. We had a short layover but the plane was delayed & it ended up being 2 hours. Another 2 hour flight and we were in Kiev. This is when all the running around begins. Perhaps I will let Orest explain all the activity. I wasn't really nervous or really excited. What I am nervous about is making the decision - what child do we pick to raise as our own. I keep praying for guidance, wisdom, faith, strength, knowledge and help to make the decision easier. When I think of holding a small child close to me and it being my child - I start to cry.
Well, we got off the airplane which was packed full of European business men and what I'm sure were members of the Russian mafia. Simon directed us to buy medical insurance which cost $24 for the two of us for 1 month. The line for the insurance was quite crowded. Meanwhile Simon went through the passport control for Ukrainian citizens. Once we had our insurance, we had to stand in line for foreign passport control. The lines were very long and quickly getting longer because a flight from Zurich had landed right after ours. I was the first one through from our group, and Simon was waiting on the other side with a cart. He told me to get my baggage off the carousel. Right as I pulled the cart up, our baggage was going by. I grabbed it quickly, and by that time Cheryl was through the passport line so we rushed over to customs inspection. It was a relatively short wait.
We had a female inspector. I noted with dismay that she looked quite severe. She asked how much money we had. I told her, $12,140. She asked to see it. I pulled it out of the bag under my shirt. I was actually wearing a money belt as well as a pouch around my neck. Knowing that the customs officer would want to see the money, I had transferred the money from my money belt into my neck pouch in the restrooms in Vienna airport. I didn't want to have to fumble around with the money belt in Kiev. When she saw the big stack of bills, she quickly looked both ways and waved at me to put it back out of sight, almost as if she was afraid somebody would see it. Then she asked how many gifts we had. I told her about $150, though in reality we probably had quite a bit more than that. Then she asked to see what was inside the largest suitcase, which was the suitcase which contained all the gifts! So we opened it. She flipped through all the toys and sweaters and tablecloths, paused to tweak the teddy bear's nose and said "OK, close it up." So we did, and went out through the sliding doors. We were surrounded by people holding signs.
We decided to wait for Simon and Jim and Bridget. Of course everyone in the crowd was checking us out to see if we belonged to them and one lady with black hair and glasses was really staring at us. I said to Cheryl "I bet that is Paraskovia." After waiting for about 1/2 hour, I finally went over and asked if she was Paraskovia. She got all excited and said she was, and I introduced myself. She called over Seriozha to help us with our bags. He took us to his van, loaded up our luggage and told us to wait. Quite some time later, the rest of the gang came out. Simon said we would go straight to the Federal Adoption Center, because we were running very late.
We started to leave the airport parking lot, but they would not let us go for about 15 minutes (something about a motorcade). We drove into Kyiv to the adoption center. It was very dark in the hallway where we had to wait. There were also other couples, but in the dark, we couldn't see them well, we only knew they were there, because we would catch glimpses of them when someone would open the door to one of the offices and light would briefly spill out into the hallway. Finally we were allowed to see the director. She was a heavy, older, red-haired woman. Her walls were lined with photos of children. She seemed very pleasant. Her assistant brought in some photos of children in Simferopol. She had Simon tell us that we did not need to go only to Simferopol. After this, we all went back outside. It was already dark. Simon and Pasha went back inside to get the official permission to go to Simferopol. We waited and waited. Finally they came back out and Simon was in a huge rush to get the gifts. Cheryl and I had ours ready in an instant. Jim and Bridget had a little more difficulty finding the proper items. While they were sorting through their gifts, one of the director's assistants came out and demanded to see Pasha immediately. I thought we were in some sort of trouble. Pasha talked to her and then came back to finish with the gifts. Then they took the gifts inside. We waited and waited and waited.
When Simon came back out, we drove to the airline ticket office and bought tickets to Simferopol on Crimean Airlines. Simon was very upset that we could only get a later flight out because he said that another family had been given permission to go to Simferopol that day and he wanted to get us in ahead of them. Buying the tickets took a very long time. Then we drove back to the adoption center, picked up Pasha, and drove to Pasha's daughter's house. Her name is Natasha. Cheryl and I were to stay with her, in her tiny one bedroom apartment. Natasha is a lawyer, but does labor jobs because she can't find any work as a lawyer. She cooked us a good dinner and then we went off to sleep in her bedroom. She slept in the livingroom on the couch. This whole time we have been so busy and so tired we haven't had time to be nervous or to worry about what will happen next. I just know that what we are doing is huge and will change our lives forever in ways that we can't even imagine. I said a quick prayer and fell right asleep.
This morning we got picked up from Natasha's house at 9 am for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the Kiev airport. When we got there, we unloaded our luggage (now down to 5 bags instead of 7 - since we were no longer carrying the soft sided breifcases which had been given away as gifts last night) but had to wait outside. We stood outside for about 45 minutes. We did not go to the International Airport, but instead to a smaller airport. Finally they let us in. All our luggage was weighed & we would be billed for every kg over the limit. In the whole confusion a few of our bags perhaps did not get weighed - and what do you know, we came in under the weight limit. One of Jim and Bridget's suitcases weight 110 lbs. - it was full of gifts. We boarded the plane from the tarmac. It was a small plane with propellors. We sat in the "Business Class" & were offered liquer & given a large meal. It was a 2 hour flight to Simferopol. Simon and Pasha flew with us. To meet us at the airport was a whole crew. We had 3 drivers, Gena our translator, & Zhenya our Simferopol coordinator. After some master packing of the bags into the 3 cars we went to the mayor's assistant's office. Driving in Ukraine - very different. Being a passenger is a very scary experience. Often there are no lane markings - very scary. I'll write about it more later.
This assistant was running late - so we waited. Ukrainians must be very patient people, they spend a lot of time waiting & they do not complain. When she did arrive, she interviewed us briefly - how much money do you make? Tell me about your house. What does your family think about this adoption? She gave us permission to go to the orphanage & look at children. While we were visiting with her, Simon was at the orphanage talking with the director & giving gifts. We saw one of our pen sets on his desk when we arrived. He met with all of us at the same time. He told us that we have the right to know medical information, ask questions, get results of special tests performed. We were also told if we did not find children that we liked, we could return to Kiev & get sent to another orphanage to look for children. We were also told that all the children in the orphanage had a "diagnosis". They wanted to make sure we were OK with this. An appointment was set for 9 am tomorrow to look at the children.
We went to the house we will be staying at: Tatiana and Valery are our hosts. Orest & I will sleep on a hide-a-bed & Jim and Bridget will have a bed. Our hosts are not sleeping in the same apartment. My guess is that they are sleeping next door with their son Sergei and his wife, Zhenya. Simon wanted to package up the gifts - what a process. Jim and Bridget brought a lot of extras - shampoos, deoderant, nail care, facial cream (guess that explains the 110 lb. suitcase). Simon said "You have enough gifts here to adopt 10 children!" We packaged all the gifts and still had lots left over.
We had a huge dinner and drank a lot; cognac and champagne. Orest drank too much, got drunk & even got sick. I got a good buzz, maybe even drunk. We both had a rough night. At 2 am we woke up and never fell asleep again. Tomorrow we look at children & probably need to pick our children.
We have been told that there are 7 families coming to the Simferopol orphanage. There are only 7 children to adopt & our group alone wants 4 of them. There are not enough children at this orphanage. There will not be any more children available until next year. The director and Simon have talked a lot & it sounds like they are going to show the healthiest and best children to us. I guess we will have to wait and see. I am nervous. Tomorrow is the most important day - tomorrow we decide who our children will be. I continue to ask for guidance - I pray.
Click here for the next day's journal entry.
or click on any date in:
November
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
December
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
or
back to the home page.
