Ukraine Adoption Journey #2 Trip #2 day #3 Thursday October 30, 2008

Today was a busy day!! We started out at 8:30 by walking to the court house to pick up the rest of the copies of the updated court decrees. It was beautiful outside. Vanya walked in the courthouse and right back out with the decrees-if only everything went so easy here. Then we jumped on a bus to the center. It was a sauna in there, I actually had sweat running down my face and was very motion sick. We walked to the birth certificate office-Sasha's. Vanya gave the lady the updated documents and she started yelling at him. I couldn't understand it but Vanya told me later that she said that it is illegal for her to do her job unless Vanya proves he is employed with somebody. They argued back and forth for a while and then he told her to show him the law. To this she replied "I don't have time" What is it with these people in Odessa, apparently the sea air has rotted all their brains. We solve one problem and another pops up. Anyway, the lady gets up and walks out. By the way this is the same office where we got Matthew's birth certificate almost three years ago. Then another lady gives us the bill, which in government offices is given to you first so you can pay the bill at a nearby bank. It is done this way to avoid corruption, but it isn't working. We went to the bank and pay the bill then head back to the office. We stand outside waiting forever, which was fine with me because the office stinks like mildew really bad. Vanya goes in and I continue to wait. I watched two men hit the building acrossed the street with axes, my only guess is that they were removing the stucco to have it redone. Then an older gentleman comes up to me and starts rambling on in russian. I reply "Ya ne panimyu paruski" I don't understand Russian. He then starts talking to the guy next to me who is also waiting and is pointing to me. Again my only guess is that he wanted to know if he had to wait behind me in line. After a bit Vanya calls me in, he translates a document for me, I sign two copies and we know have Sasha's new birth certificate with his new name on it.
We then head off to the tax ID office, but the woman is on vacation for a week. Her secretary says for a small fee she will come in, we agree and Vanya calls the woman. We stand and wait for her for over an hour all the while watching huge amounts of food being carried into the tax building. Several people were hiding what looked like bottles in their coats. The woman finally shows up, tells Vanya she is going to lunch and tells him what we need. She also says she doesn't need me there. So I hop a bus to see Sasha and Vanya goes to run copies of the documents the woman needs. At the tax ID place they need to change the boys' names on their tax ID's which are similiar to our social security numbers. They have to be changed so that when the passport office checks for debts or taxes owed by the boys their new names match their old numbers.
When I got to Sasha's I had to give several documents to the director and pick up some from her, this at least went smoothly. Then I went to Sasha's room, his teacher is going on about something to me, I eventually figured it out. She wanted to know if I was taking him then, I said no, perhaps early next week. She goes and gets Sasha who was napping. Anyone else think 10 is too old for a two hour nap everyday, especially when they go to sleep at 8?????? He gives me a big hug and we go out side. He was either mad for having to stay at no.9 or still groggy from being woken up. After a bit he warms up to me again and plays his game boy that I brought back. Then I headed to Vasya's. I kept falling asleep on the bus and once again I had that crazy head bobbing thing going on, Do you think I would be taking it to far asking for bunks in the bus?????
Vasya came running from all the way acrossed the yard to me and gave be two or three big hugs. We then went inside because it was almost dark out. We attempted talking for a bit, then he asked for his gameboy. He really liked the new games my mom got for them, Thanks Babushka Lynne! His Director had called us earlier telling us we must take him on Monday. She didn't say why but I figured it out when I got there-at least I think so. They have already filled his spot. There is a waiting list of kids in shelters waiting to get into orphanages. There was a new girl there today and she had her clothes in his locker, and his stuff was shoved in a locker with someone elses' stuff. He is ready to go and I don't blame him.
Tomorrow morning we are taking both boys to get their passport photos taken. We are praying that they will start processing them now instead of waiting until we have the apartment thing taken care of. The passports can take from 5-14 days so I would love to get them started. Then we can work on the apartment junk while we wait.