It's Official

1. Colleen and me blogging at the Palace Apartment on Sunday night.

2. Robin waiting in the Vital Records hallway in Donetsk. In Ukraine, there's a lot of hallway waiting!

3. Kostya with Ana's official birth certificate.

4. Me waiting in Vladislav's van outside the passport office.

5. Calendar in the Evil Bank office showing Ana's "Gotcha" date.

[Phil]

Yes, it's official: The Red Sox win the pennant! The Red Sox win the pennant!

Oh, and Anastasia Caroline Hammond is now legally our responsibility (and joy).

[Robin]

This morning as we walked to meet Kostya at the courthouse we were remarking on how it was amazing that this waiting might come to an end. Seems unreal even now.

The courthouse visit was completely anti-climatic: We waited in the lobby and Kostya came down and said 'let's go." The driver, Vladislav, was waiting for us outside to take us to Donetsk. We then drove like bats out of hell for about an hour and a half.

I've decided that Urkranian drivers have two speeds: pedal to the floor or a dead (screeching) halt. We were bouncing around in the back of the van as Vladislav dodged various things in the road: dogs, people walking, people on bicycles, trucks loaded with hay, buses, etc.

In Donestk we went to the region's vital records department and waited in a hallway for about an hour until Kostya emerged with paperwork for applying for her birth certificate. We signed some forms and then waited again. Then we went with the papers to a notary and waited in the lobby there. Then we went to a passport office and waited in the car there. Then back to the vital records place only to find out it was closed for lunch. Then more waiting, then to the notary, then to the bank. More waiting in the hallway. Then back to the notary for more waiting. Then back to the bank. Whew. If I didn't have patience before, I swear I am building it like a muscle from all the use on this trip.

The ride back was a trip, to say the least. We took a little detour to drop off Kostya off in his hometown then took the backroads back to Kramatorsk. Really bumpy backroads (the speed not appreciably lower). I felt as though I was in a washing machine.

[Phil]

Yes, I almost hit my head on the roof a couple of times. In one comical moment, Vladislav said something to me in Russian about having to weave back in forth because of the bad roads. I said, "Yeah, I noticed." He said, "No, no. In front of us." Sure enough, the road through the next town was a disaster of crumbling pavement and potholes. He said that the town had fallen on bad economic times. He pointed out the (literally) crumbling factories, saying "That used to be a glass factory. That was a chemical plant. Now it looks like Iraq. Haha!" (mordant chuckle)

[Robin]

Yes, today was not without its comical moments. Taking Ana's disability account out of the bank was a comedy in itself. The typical bureaucratic roadblocks--basically they just don't want to give you your money (in this case, Ana's) and make you pay for it by wanting everything notarized, double-checked, etc. Then they proceeded to give us the money in a brown paper bag. Yes, like the kind you would use for a danish. It made me want to laugh.

One really wonderful part of the day was when Kostya asked us "are you ready to fall out of your seats?" He then proceeded to tell us that Ana's sister, Natasha, might be adopted by one of our previous drivers. Turns out that he was the one that drove us to Ana's birthplace and then drove Natasha and her guardian from there to the courthouse in Kramatorsk. I guess he noticed what a sweet and mature girl she is and was impressed. His family (six kids!) has invited her to join them for her Fall break from school to see if it is a good fit for all of them. We were thrilled to hear this news. Miracles do happen.

[Phil]

Yes, I was stunned, although it wouldn't really surprise you if you had spent any time around Natasha. We were definitely prepared to adopt her if it had to be a package deal. But this actually works out great for all involved -- Natasha gets to stay in Ukraine and become a teacher, Volodya (the driver) and family get a wonderful new daughter, and we're still bound and determined to do some sort of fundraiser to support Natasha's education when we return. From what we've heard, many of you would like to help!

So, with today's successful trip to Donetsk, we're still on schedule to return to N.C. late Sunday night. Tomorrow will be an interesting day. We plan to pick up Ana in the late morning and bring her back to our apartment in a taxi (she loves to ride in cars). Then we'll try to distract her with Russian DVD's and snacks until it's time to go to the train station for our overnight ride to Kiev. Hopefully she'll be totally zonked by the time we leave the station.

[Robin]

We are now back in the apartment and talking to Colleen about her day. I have to say this is one of the unexpected pleasures of this trip. It's been fun "rooming" with Colleen--she has a super wit and is also a wealth of information about adoption. She, unlike us, researched this trip extensively and has a large network of contacts and websites to use as resources. We are sad to leave her in Kramatorsk. She is having a very difficult adoption process and may be here for a while. We are hoping something changes in this scenario---every day the information is different, so who knows, maybe something will fall in place for her like it did for Natasha. She deserves to have an unexpected turn of good luck.

[Phil]

Yes, the last thing we expected was to make new friends through this adoption process, but we have: Colleen, Kostya and Family, Konstantin and Marianna, Lydia Alexandrovna and Mama Oksana, Natasha, and of course Nikita and the other children in Ana's group (Lily-Masha included).

We'll write more tomorrow. Tonight we're off to Restaurant Premier to celebrate!