The Embassy
We needed to leave the apartment by 8 am so that we could be first in line at the embassy. Neither boy wanted to get up until I told them that they wouldn’t be able to fly home unless they went to the embassy. They both hopped out of bed and got dressed. Then we had our nutritious breakfast: Cherry pies from McDonalds. I had walked all around the area but couldn’t find a grocery store. So Cherry pies it was. The part I love about the embassy is that Americans can go right in, they don’t wait in line. There are lines of people everywhere. We had to go through the metal detectors then we were able to go into the embassy. I had filled in all the papers ahead of time so all I had to do is give them to the lady. She asked me to sit down and wait. After a while she told me to go pay the bill: eight hundred American dollars for two visas-which I gladly paid. Then she needed to electronically fingerprint Jack because he is 14. This is very funny-they fingerprint him in order to run a check to see if he has a criminal record in the US. He has never been to the US why would he have a record??? On our way out of the embassy they stopped us and told us to go back in. Apparently the lady did something wrong and Jack needed to be fingerprinted again. After the fingerprints we left the embassy and were dropped off at our apartment.
I had a list of things I wanted to do in Kiev and things I wanted the boys to see. So at 10 we started walking. We went to the Metro and rode the escalators down to the subway-these things go underground a very long ways. Then we looked at the trains and headed back up the escalators. We walked to Independence Square and took some pictures. We went under the square to the mall-it is amazing –there is a huge mall under the street in Kiev. We got some food-more McDonald’s for the boys and some rice and chicken for me. Then we started walking to see St. Sophia’s, St, Michael’s and St. Andrew’s. They are beautiful churches. Then to Andrewsky Spusk—it is a street where vendors sell souvenirs. I had a list of things I wanted to pick up. Jack got a Ukrainian soccer jersey and a stocking hat. I got a beautiful hand painted wooden egg and a couple of hand painted boxes for all three boys and one for Jeff. I tried to talk Sasha into getting something but he didn’t want anything. I did get him a key chain and stocking hat that says Ukraine. I also got a t-shirt and a canvas bag that says Ukraine. We didn’t have much time-we needed to be back at the apartment at 1:30 for our ride to the embassy for our exit interview -hopefully the visas would be ready. We made it just in time.
The exit interview sounds serious but it generally isn’t. How much did you spend? How much time have you spent with the boys? Are you aware that you need to fill in post placement reports until the boys turn 18? The man knew we had previously adopted so he skipped most of the questions. He said that they would print the visas soon and we could be on the plane tomorrow. We waited for about a half hour. While we waited we helped a family with their new kids. They were 2, 3, and 4, two girls and a boy-cute! The parents were trying to fill out the stacks of paperwork and watch the kids. The boys helped with the kids while I helped the mother with the tricky questions. The man brought out the two visas and the big brown envelopes for immigration. You can’t open the envelopes, you give them to the officials at the first place your plane lands in The United States. We were very happy.
We went back to the apartment and I started packing. Vanya called and we decided to go to my favorite pizza place for supper. It was just across the street and through an archway-if I had known that we would have been eating more pizza and less McDonald’s. Sasha was very tired and pouting so he refused to eat. We just ignored him and enjoyed our pizza. Vanya gave the boys a talking to about fighting and about staying close to me in the airports. We will sure miss Vanya! He walked us back to the apartment and went to meet his fiancé-she works just down the street. I washed the boys clothes-they each only had one pair of pants so I hung them on the radiators and prayed that they would dry by 4:30 am when the driver came to take us to the airport (they were). We went to sleep early but I never sleep when I have to get up that early. We showered and headed to the airport. Jack was very excited, but Sasha just wanted to sleep. We arrived at the airport just in time to get in line to check in.
Sorry I’ve got to stop there for now… I need to put Sasha and Matthew to bed and Jack needs the computer to practice his English. My mom got the Rosetta Stone, it really works.