It's All Over But The Paperwork (HaHa)

[Robin]

We both worked this morning and then got a call from Kostya saying that he received the draft of the court's decree awarding Ana to us, which will be formally handed down on Monday. The good news is that there haven't been any appeals so we are "officially" in the clear to get Ana. How great is that! She was SO cute today.... giggly and yelling "papa" to get Phil's attention. That is music to the ears.

[Phil]

Yes, all that's left is getting her birth certificate from either her hometown or the District capital (Donetsk), and then we go to Kiev to have the medical exam and get her passport and visa. We have tickets home for Sunday the 28th, but that could change if there are hold-ups next week. Please cross fingers, burn candles, pray, etc. that we don't encounter too much red tape.

So, as Robin said, this was basically a work-filled day, which is too bad because the cold front finally left and we had a beautiful Indian Summer day. I finally finished my translation around 5:00. and we headed out to the orphanage to see Ana. When we got there, we were very pleased to see that Mama Oksana was the caregiver for the evening. She came up to me and said that she had been worried when she came to work in the morning and saw that Ana was still here. She was afraid that we'd had a paperwork (!) problem or something. I explained to her that it was just that our 10th day of waiting happens on a weekend, and thus we can't take Ana until Monday. She was very happy about that and told us that we got a wonderful child. She's so awesome. We're going to bring her some kind of nice present this weekend.

[Robin]

I've been reviewing our posts and I don't think the way we feel about Ukraine/Ukrainian people has been properly acknowledged. When you walk around and see the people (and cats and dogs) on the streets, you realize just how much we take for granted in the States. They make do with so much less here. You really admire the people for their perserverance and their ability to be good-natured. We witnessed a wedding today where they were taking pictures of the bride and groom biting pieces of bread from a braided loaf held on an attractive Ukrainian cloth. They were having a great celebration with their family and friends and it was a joy to see. I also washed my dirty clothes in our apartment sink and hung it to dry on a drying rack. It took me over an hour to do about 3 days worth of clothes. This is exhausting and not something I can imagine doing every week (this is effective birth control -- if you had more kids, there would be more washing).

There is such a distinction between the have and have nots here. There are older women sitting out on the sidewalks with pretty little tablecloth-covered "stands" selling bowls filled with tomatoes or cucumbers or potatoes. There is only one building that is under construction in this town within walking distance. They have no laundromat. They have bathrooms with the "feet" rather than a toilet. But, they do have three internet cafes. They do have a department store filled with DVD players and digital cameras. They have lots of cell phone shops and ATM machines. There are people driving expensive German cars and others living in crushing poverty.

[Phil]

Yes, and as Kostya says, Kramatorsk is pretty nice for a Ukrainian city, and I agree. We see much worse on the roads between the major cities. Still, yesterday morning I saw an old woman picking grass/greens from the local park, and I can only imagine that she was going to either try to sell them or to make a soup(?). It was pretty odd and disturbing. We've also seen old women picking the nice flowers at the memorials to sell at their sidewalk stands. Everyone pretends not to notice.

Robin just mentioned another thing about public life here: a lot of the young people hang out in the parking lot in front of the big supermarket "Arbat". I'll let her explain:

[Robin]

My friend Claudia used to talk about when she grew up in Albemarle and there was nothing to do except cruise the Food Lion parking lot on weekend nights (she couldn't wait to go to college at Carolina). I was reminded of this when we saw various groups of teens/early 20s hanging out in groups in front of the local supermarket. Apparently this is the place to hang out with your friends and be "seen" -- drinking, smoking and laughing. There is definitely a lot of bling and high heels on display for the girls; the guys wear black leather car coats and talk on their cell phones. They are hanging out to get away from their families (they most likely live with their parents and grandparents), and this is where they all meet.

[Phil]

Yes, but the nice thing about these shiftless youths is that they don't bother you at all. Can we export that to America?

Also, thank you to Susan for letting us know about the Burrito. I hope it's former staff who are going to keep it going.