Here’s what happened yesterday.

I woke up, showered and started packing to move to our new apartment. I was about half done what Vanya called and said that something weird happened. The lady from the city building who had told us we had to wait until Thursday to get the document we needed to deregister the boys from their apartment called. She told him that she would process our documents today if we could get their by 11. I thought that is great but Vanya is not here, I can understand some Russian, I can only say a few things and this is a huge city how will I find this building. Vanya decided I should call Julia to translate for me, but she didn’t answer. So Lisa called Sonia, whom I have never met but can translate. He told me to be there is 45 minutes. I remembered the bus number to take, but had no idea where to get off. I figured if I got lost I could just take the same bus the opposite direction back to the apartment. But I found the building, met Sonia and we went inside and waited. The thing with adoptions is that from start to finish you hurry up and then wait, hurry up and wait, over and over. When the lady showed up, she gave us piece of paper to take to the bank. We found the bank and the woman didn’t know how to process the fee since I do not have a tax ID code, after calling a few people she figured out that she could enter my passport number. Then I needed to pay the fee, but I didn’t have enough grivna and guess what she can’t change my dollars for grivna. So we go to the next window, wait in line, exchange the money and go back to the first woman. She gives us a receipt and we head back to the city building. We give the lady the receipt and she tells us to come back at 3:30 for the document.
I went back to the apartment finished packing, had Vasya get his stuff ready, we ate some lunch and Michelle got us a cab. Our new apartment is nice but a little quiet without Michelle, Lisa and Leanna. We got our stuff into the apartment and I had to leave to get the document, I was really unsure how to get to that building from the center. Michelle told me where the bus left from I wasn’t really sure how to get there. I knew the general direction and found it. I was even at the building 15 minutes early. When I walked in I found David who lives near us at home http://doctordavid.wordpress.com/ sitting there. He had gotten the same phone call from the lady. We sat there for 2.5 hours before the lady showed up. She told us to wait a little longer. We followed her downstairs to a notary, we signed the little book and left. God is so great! He moved this mountain for both of us, I don’t think David and I could have been any happier. I was supposed to wait until Thursday for the paper, and he was told he might not get it. I think Cindie was surprised to see us together and with the document. She fed us, we all played games and it was a great night.
Now on Monday, Vanya will come back to take this document to another office who should deregister the boys and give us another document that will allow us to get the stamp we need in their passports. This stamp says something like: This person is cleared to leave Ukraine for permanent residence in the United States.
I finally discovered what the whole register/deregister thing is about. When a baby is born the parents are supposed to register the baby in the place they live. It is kind of like giving them an address but much more. I am told it takes a lot of documents to get them registered. Everyone has to be registered somewhere. So if a baby is abandoned or found on the street they are registered at the orphanage they live in. When they age out of the orphanage the orphanage people try to get the child registered somewhere else, like with a distant relative. I don’t know what they do for children who have no one. So when someone adopts a child registered at the orphanage has to get a “document of origin” paper to deregister them from the orphanage. Matthew would have had one of these but I guess three years ago they didn’t enforce this rule. Now Vasya and Sasha are registered in the apartment where they lived with their mom. There are seven people registered there, two aunts, three cousins (all minors) and them. Their aunt Tonya had all the documents proving that they were registered and that the apartment had been paid for years ago. She and Vanya took all these to the lady who originally said we needed to wait until next Thursday to go before some board and get their approval to change their names on the register thing. The lady says she is protecting the children by just changing their names on the register to their new names so if or when they decide to come back to Odessa to live they will have a place to live. Now I am thinking, they are hear now and even though their names are on the apartment they still don’t have a place to live. Boys have to do mandatory military service. I am told that the army here is worse than living in prison and many of the boys die just in training. So do you think my boys are going to want to come back for that?
So now the plan is to get the last document so we can get the stamp (hopefully the woman works on Monday), get Sasha, pick up the passports (hopefully they are in Odessa, they get sent from Kiev), say their goodbyes and get on the train to Kiev on Monday night, Tuesday night at the latest. In Kiev the boys need embassy physicals, I need to turn in a lot of paperwork at the embassy and pay the fees, the next day I have to do a short interview with an embassy official and pick up their visas. If we can find a flight home we could be home by the weekend.
I remember the interview with the official when we adopted Matthew. They asked: Did you bribe any one? Did you encounter anyone doing illegal things? Are you capable of caring for this child? Is there a risk that you will abandon him? But I have heard people being asked things like: who is your favorite football team? Why Ukraine? Etc. It usually lasts about ten minutes.

This apartment has a huge Jacuzzi tube with a shower. It took me 20 minutes to figure out how to turn it on. It has a remote, that didn’t do anything, I turned all the knobs, pulled and pushed everything, looked all around it. Finally I figured out that one knob goes up diagonally and that turns the water on. Now if I could just figure out the TV.