Official Petition to Adopt

Yesterday (Monday) we had to give our official answer as to whether or not we want to adopt D & A. Of course, we said yes. We had a meeting with the Inspector, the Orphanage Director, Olga (our translator) and Victor (one of the social workers/care givers at the orphanage). D & A were also present and had to also give their consent to be adopted by us.

The kids were quizzed by the Director, and of course, we couldn't understand anything. Olga told us after the questions that they were being asked. A said "my mama!" immediately and gave me a huge hug. D though looked very nervous and a bit upset when the Director was asking him questions. Olga told us later the the Director was messing with him a bit, telling him we'll take A, but not him. Asking him "why do you want to go, things are so good here at the orphanage", and "you can stay another 5 years here, then go". D was sitting next to Scott, and Scott said his legs and hands were just shaking, he was scared. I guess the Director finally asked D directly if he wants to be adopted by us, because he finally said "dah" instead of "nyet". We were not happy that this happened to him, but of course, we didn't understand what was going on at the time, and our translator must also let some things take their course.

The kids then had to write a statement saying that they want to be adopted by us, which will be part of the court file. They will also come to the court hearing with us, and will be asked more questions there. From a process perspective then, yesterday went very well and was a big step forward. Olga and the Inspector worked until about 8 pm last night to get his report ready for final signature by his boss. His report will also be part of the court documents.

Later in the afternoon when we were playing with the kids though, we could tell that D understood that we are adopting them both. He called Scott papa and me mama for the first time. We got lots of big hugs today :)

Today, Olga will formally petition the court for our hearing. Additionally, tonight she will take all of the new documents, plus our original packet of documents, back up to Kyiv for review by the SDA. The SDA must provide the final sign-off on the adoption before the court hearing. The SDA only accepts such paperwork on Mon/Wed/Fri morning, and only returns the final paperwork on the same days. Their review takes about a week. If Olga can file everything with SDA tomorrow morning, then we're hopeful that we'll have something back next Wednesday (2/27) evening, and we can have court on 2/28. So, that is the date that today Olga will petition for. This is actually about a week sooner than we expected.

All in all, Olga is happy with the way things are progressing here. The time frames are good and moving at a pretty good clip (of course, not fast enough for us!). It helps that Balta is a small enough -but big enough - town to get things done in. Everything can be done here, and within a few blocks of each other. There have only been a few other American families that have adopted from the orphanage our kids are at, but at least they're familiar with everything that needs to get done to make an adoption happen.

We moved into our new apartment last night. It's in the same building as where we were staying, but this one has a kitchen. It was so nice to make eggs this morning, instead of more oatmeal and fruit. So far, the little bit of grocery shopping that we've done has gone pretty well. We can't read anything that we're buying (except Coke products), but the pictures are pretty self explanatory. Our greatest grocery shopping skill here is pointing at items and putting up the number of fingers for the amount of the item that we want. Communication is almost non-existent (we have learned to say thank you and dog), but pointing works amazingly well.

The funniest thing so far is that we tried to buy sugar last night (everyone puts sugar in their tea here, and that is how Olga likes it and she's now staying with us for a couple of days). Except that when we showed her what we bought, apparently we bought a bag of salt instead of sugar. The sugar is just kept in ziplock type bags, not formal packaging. Oh well. This morning, I hit the market to buy eggs and a few other items. It's kind of fun to walk around and see all the fresh produce brought in for the day. Most of it is potatoes, cabbage and onions, but there are the occassional tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Tons of meats and chickens, though we haven't purchased any yet since we just got a refrigerator.

We tried the ATM for the first time today, and it worked out okay. I've used ATMs in other countries successfully before, but wasn't sure if my bank would approve a transaction coming in from Eastern Europe. They did though. The exchange rate is 5 to 1 (hryvna to US dollar) and it looks like big monopoly money. Our money does go pretty far here, with regards to groceries and the few meals out that we've eaten.

It's actually pretty warm today - at least 30 degrees, maybe 40. It's hard to tell since it was below zero for so long. It could be 20 degrees out, but I almost feel like I should be wearing shorts. While we were in Kyiv, I didn't need the heavy boots and ski gloves that I brought. But, I am definitely appreciating them here when we're outside. Inside our apartment, it's warm enough for tank tops and flip flops.

I forgot to transfer the pictures of the town to a thumb drive, so I'll have to post the pictures I've taken of the town tomorrow (or the next post).