On Saturday we all went with the Weber's to the new home in the country, about 30 minutes outside Kiev. It was wonderful being with them (and a whole group of Logan's sophomore classmates). Sasha tried his had at biking while I walked with him to hold the bike steady. We decided he needed either training wheels or a less bumpy road, or both, to get going on his own. While I was inside, he did attempt one more ride. This time it was down the hill, straight for a barrier with a pond on the other side. Luckily, the Webers saw him and yelled hard enough that he managed to stop before crashing into the barrier and flying into the pond.
Sunday morning we drove back into Kiev to attend the international church the Webers go to. This kind of service had to be new to the boys even though both were confirmed in the Orthodox church. They were rambunctious during worship but enjoyed Sunday School. In fact, after the service Sasha asked if he could come back again tomorrow! Later that afternoon, we returned for one more night in the country.
A big highlight for the boys happened on Wednesday afternoon when Oksana took them to the circus. They absolutely loved it and also the toys and snacks they got there. Otherwise, they continued to enjoy playing and talking late into the evening and continuing where they left off in the mornings. On Monday night I took Oleg with me to the grocery store and he did pretty well in the sense that he did not run around like a chircken with his head cut off or insist that "Papa" buy everything in site. So it was with a modicum of confidence that I took both boys to the store the next night after going to a shwarma restaurant for dinner and walking through evey puddle of rain water they could find. Unfortunately, the two of them together created different dynamics in the store. Both of them went crazy. FInally, I had to carry Oleg and my grocery basket in one hand and pull Sasha with the other to the checkout stand.
Yesterday was the big day in whihc we hoped to find out if the boys' passports had made it back to Kherson. Olga was back down in Kherson and went to the government office. Around 3:00 PM Natasha called with a good news/bad news scenario. The passports had been received but could not be released without the signature of someone who was out. Finally he or she showed up around 5:40 PM, just before government offices close at 6:00. Olga planned to take the overnight train to Kiev with passports in hand. Unfortunately, the train was completely sold out, likely because this week is spring break. But, there was one seat left on a train from Odessa. So she took a bus from Kherson to the next big city, Mikolaiv, then waited for a bus from there to Odessa. The waiting and a big snow storm made her late to Odessa and she missed her train. Not to fear, there was still the night bus which actually got her to Kiev before the train. I so appreciated her efforts to get the boys' passports and other documents to Kiev by this morning.
For the first time, the boys were still sleeping when they needed to be up. I literally had to pull Sasha from the bed a couple times. He somehow couldn't see the relationship between getting up early and going to America, which he is still very excited about. We made it out of the house only 10 minutes later than planned and by 9:00 we were in the health clinic with Olga. The US requires a health exam before granting adopted orphans an immigrant visa and this may only be done once the children have passports. The doctor who examined them was very nice. She did have to have Sasha get a chect x-ray as he had once been diagnosed with TB. This diagnosis was later reveresed but, because it was on his record, she needed to see the film. Fortunately, his lungs were in perfect health.
We needed to get to the US embassy by 12 noon. We finished the exam and paid by around 10 AM and just needed for the clinic to put together the various papers and hand them over to us. An hour and a half later, we were still waiting. I kept thinking that it would be such a waste for Olga to have made all that effort to get the passports to us only to not make it to the embassy today, forcing the 2-day visa process to go into next week. Finally, at 11:38, we got the documents and went to our car. We did not get tot he embassy until around 12:10 but the guard let us in (I think we were the last so allowed). The lady who attended us in the adoption section was very friendly and helpful. After reviewing our documents, asking me some questions, then making sure I had paid the $800 for the two visas, she scheduled our second interview for tomorrow between 9 and 10 AM.
My wish during this process was that we could get their visas by tomorrow (Friday) and fly on Saturday. The reservations I had made for safety's sake, was on Wednesday of next week as we calculated our process could go on until Tuesday of next week. As soon as I was back in the office this afternoon, I tried to change our reservations. Unfortunately, no seats were available either Saturday or Sunday. We were able to change to Monday and are now scheduled to arrive Norfolk 10 PM Monday. This was a disappointment but I will still try again tomorrow. I am so ready to go home, as are the boys (albeit for different reasons!).
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