Gotcha Day?

Up before the 6:00 alarm. LHM devotional today encourages us with the verse in Psalms that says “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”. Christine’s update appeared a few minutes after we got on-line. They celebrated the signing of the decree with a dish of ice cream after lunch. Good idea! No exercise today because I don’t want to pack wet, stinky clothes. As a matter of fact, John ran one final load last night so the work out clothes don’t even have old sweat and he has clean jeans. The suitcases are packed, packed, packed.

The last egg, the last of the yogurt, split the last tiny croissant. John had his French press coffee and we both had some multivitamin juice. We took out or garbage and met Sergei waiting in his car at the bus stop as arranged. We were a few minutes later than 7:15. The drive was uneventful. By the landscape we could have been driving through Wisconsin, only an occasional unfamiliar water tower or the power lines carried by concrete poles to indicate not.

We arrived at the Vital Records office at 8:15, one little babushka was waiting at the corner of the building out of the wind in front of us. I sat imagining her life, what brought her to the Vital Records Office, what would so important to stand out in the cold for an hour to be first on this March 10th morning. So patient, so still, few words when Sergei spoke to her. Then she pulled out a cell phone and called someone. “Cognitive dissonance” John calls it. John and Sergei kept hopping out of the car as people passed by to make sure we didn’t lose our second place in line. By 8:35 another gentleman had joined the wait and gradually a couple more.

A few minutes before 9:00 we were able to enter the building and finish waiting inside. When we came here for Nick and Dennis all business was conducted in an office to the right of the entry door, and we were seated to wait alone in the room off to the right. Now that “waiting room” has been converted to the director’s office. The wall facing the door is mirrors, the floor is newly tiled and the furniture nice.

The door to each office is solid and no secretary/assistant moderates the flow of customers. People just keep pulling the door open, sticking their head in to see if it is their turn, or if their document is ready, whatever. The first lady was directed to the other door, so we were first with the director. Sergei explained what we needed and received an application to complete. When he gave it back, she said to drink some coffee and come back at 10:00. We stopped at a notary’s office immediately across the street and found out if no one else was already waiting, she could make our authorized copies in 15 -20 minutes.. We then went to the bank to deposit the fee. By then it was 9:50 so we went back to the Vital Records Office. Sergei stuck his head into the office to see if the documents were ready - ‘no, ten more minutes’. In ten minutes he checked and they said they would call us. At 10:10 the first lady waiting was finished with her business and left. Several minutes later a secretary came out. Some of the other people in the waiting area questioned her and she indicated they needed to be patient, she was working on “the adoption“. We could just imagine the people thinking, “So that’s what those Americans are doing here.’

At 10:20 we were called in. The director was very pleasant. The paperwork was completed, we signed where instructed and she let us take a picture as she handed us the new birth certificate and adoption certificate. We gave her a picture of Daniel, John and I. She said thank you several times and said it was the first time she had been given a photo of an adopted child. At the small café at the end of the same building John and I ordered three coffees with milk and three of the dough-encased hot dogs while Sergei went across the street to get the copies made. We received the hot dogs and three coffees with sugar. We were done with our coffee and food by the time Sergei came back with mission accomplished. That should save us a lot of time driving across Kharkov to the other notary. Sergei had his quick “breakfast” and we were back on the road.

Next stop was the passport office in Kharkov. We arrived at nearly noon. Fortunately they take their lunch from 1 - 2 PM. Sergei went in to submit our application, and came out with the information that she would process the application once Daniel was removed from the registry. Children in Ukraine are usually, but not always registered somewhere. It could be where they were born, it could be it the district of the orphanage if a child is placed in one. The passport official didn’t know where he was registered so we should check with the orphanage director. The director wasn’t present when we arrived but eventually returned. She didn’t know if or where he was registered, either. We should check with the passport people in his hometown. Tried: gone for lunch until 2 PM.




No more suspense: we have Daniel and his passport, we are on the train to Kyiv! More of the details later.