Our Last Blog from Ukraine...

It's 1:30 AM in Kiev and we just finished packing and cleaning the apartment...soooo ready to head to the airport at 8:00 tomorrow morning to board our flight for the States. The last 2 days have felt a great waterfall at the end of the most adventuresome ride down rapids we never would have imagined. We are hoping we've finally reached the bottom safely and it's smooth sailing from here on out. But we've also learned not to count our chickens before they hatch (so to speak) because anything can (and does!) happen when you are adopting a child from Ukraine.
I apologize ahead of time if this is long and rambling...there is too much to cram into a small BLOG. So forgive me if this is wordy and grammatically a mess!

Wednesday night, we thought we had riden out the worst of the storm and were excited to rest on the open, calm seas for 2 days in Kiev before our flight home Saturday. That afternoon, we were able to get Haley's passport with only minutes to spare (a true blessing since we did not have the ID number required to get a Ukrainian passport). We rushed to get her from the orphanage at 6:20 (our train left at 7:20). We arrived in her room and all the children in her group were sitting at the table ready for dinner. Haley was MIA. I went to the bathroom and she was in the bathtub, having her final bath! She smiled and pointed "mama". They toweled her off and led her to a chair in front of the group, where I put her in a new dress and panties. She ran over to get her little red shoes, but I told her she had new shoes and I put some pink shoes with flowers on her feet. She was so happy. The care givers were saying things to her in Russian we could not understand, but I kept hearing "America and mama and papa" in there a lot. It felt like a celebration! We took some pictures (this is a picture of her group and care givers) and kissed the caregivers goodbye. You could tell they were truly happy that Haley had finally gotten her family!! Hunter and I were tearing up with joy! The very last thing I remember seeing was one of her care givers raising her hands in the air, clasping them together and shaking them on either side above her head...as if to say "BRAVO! Well done". It really was a wonderful 10 minutes! We do not know what they told Haley before we got there or if she even understood what was happening, but she seemed content to go with us and happy for all the attention. (This is the picture Sergei took as we were taking her from her room at the orhanage for the very last time.)
We popped in the car, she screamed and tried to get out and then sobbed for about 5 minutes. She retreated into her blank stare, resting her head against my chest all the way to the train station. I carried her life-less body as the guys carried all our suitcases to the train car. (This is a picture of our driver, Max in white and Sergei in plaid shirt, waiting for our train). While we were waiting for the train to pull in, Haley looked around, taking it all in...so much LIFE outside the orphanage gates she had never seen before. But she was still in a daze and unresponsive to anything we tried to tell her. Then I spotted Vitali!! Oh, what a god send!! Vitali is one of her favorite friends in her play group who is being adopted by Paul and Jessica Owens from Florida. The family was supposed to be taking a later train, so I did not expect to see them there. The minute I said his name, Haley perked up and looked around. (This is a picture when Haley saw Vitali at the station). When she saw him, her contenance totally changed and she came alive! We rushed over to kiss him and they hugged it other. The Lord is so good...their cabin was right next to ours!! We put the kids on the same bunk together and Jessica and I sat with the kids while the boys went to our cabin to regroup (I think the regrouping may have included some wine and Tuborg beer!). Picture of Jessica with Vitali and Haley playing train cabin above). The kids played for hours while the train made it's way to Kiev. We finally took Haley back to our cabin and watched about an hour of The Little Mermaid on our computer. It was already midnight (4 hours past her bedtime). She was rubbing her eyes, although she fought hard not to fall asleep. She did not want to lie down. We tried sleeping with her sitting up, but she would not fall asleep. Finally, about 1 AM, Hunter was playing a game with her, rocking her back and forth and she finally hit her wall and konked out! (Hunter wasn't sure I should post this picture of her asleep on his legs, but it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen, I couldn't resist!) She slept until 5:30 when we were about to Kiev. She awoke happy and ready for the next FUN event!

Ben Robinson (who is the LifeLine coordinator in Kiev) picked us up from the train station. She cried again when we got in the car and fought to get out, but calmed down after a few minutes. We went to get the mandatory medical exam, where they weighed, measured and looked for any signs that she might not be healthy. The doctor was great with her and she pointed to her nose, eyes, etc., said "ah", and stuck her tongue out when he asked. We were first in the door and were glad we had our appointment so early. There were 25 people waiting outside when we left! We had our papers ready and the only final step we needed to complete was getting her visa from the US Embassy.

Then we got a call...and here's where our calm, quiet ride took a turn toward disaster.

We were told that the BLUE passport we were issue in Zaporizia was invalid and customs would not let us take Haley out of the counrty without a RED passport. This would mean returning to Zaporizia to get another passport made...not only that, there currently weren't any RED passport blanks in Zap. and it could take 10-30 days to get one issued. Hunter and Sergei spent hours at the US Embassy taking to people to see what other options we had. Sergei called his friend, Igor, in Zap., who told him that 10 RED passport blanks had been sent to Zap. from another region. Igor said if we could get our BLUE passport to him immediately and sign power of attorney over to him, he could take it to the passport office and get another one made. Sergei and Hunter rushed to the airport and put our BLUE passport on a 2:30 plane headed to Dnipro (an hour from Zap) because it was the only plane headed that way in the afternoon. The plane was just about to leave the gate, so they didn't have time to take the passport to the courier service window...instead Sergei found a passenger who agreed to take the passport with her and give it to our driver Max at the other end. Sergei had called Max on the way to the airport to ask him to drive 60 miles to Dnipro, pick up the passport from this woman and take it to Igor at the passport office in Zap. before it closed at 6 PM. The plane was 45 minutes late, but Max finally got the passport from this woman at 4:30. He then made the 60 mile trip back to Zap's passport office, and $350 later, a RED passport was issued to Haley. Max then drove the passport to the train station and put it on the overnight train for Kiev. Hunter picked it up this morning at 5:30!! Unbelieveable!! ONLY IN THE UKRAINE!!! Without the quick thinking of Sergei, the kindness of strangers, the willingness of folks to go out of their way for people they just met...we would be stuck in Ukraine for who knows how long!! Our daughter comes from a great country...lots of problems with governmental "red tape", but great people!!

With the coveted Red passport in hand, we went to the US Embassy at 8:00 this morning, filled out the necessary paperwork to get Haley's visa. This process took about 3 hours. The clerk there told us that the passport had to be scanned and sent to DC and after it was approved they would give us her visa. He also added that none of the passports they sent yesterday had come back the same day. We were frantic because we needed that visa before our flight in the morning. At 4:00, we headed back to the Embassy and we were told the passport had been sent back from DC, but their computers were down and they could not print out the visa. We waited another 30 minutes and fortunately everything was resolved and they handed us her visa! Halleluia!!

So now that I've taken you on that roller coaster ride (that has been our life the last 36 hours), I'll close by saying that my baby girl is asleep in the bedroom with Hunter's socks pulled up to her knees (she loves putting on our clothes and clomping around in our shoes..yes, that's a crayon in her mouth! Yikes. We've a lot to work on!), Hunter is asleep on the couch snorning away after a very LONG 2 days, and I am listening to the rain beat down on the windows...praying that the weather won't affect our flight home tomorrow morning.

But I also know we have been through worse, so no matter what comes up...we'll figure it out! :)

Hopefully, we will be on that flight home...and land in Atlanta at 7:30 to meet our friends, Robbie and Tim Cantey who have so graciously offered to drive from Montgomery, AL to pick us up at the airport!! In a way, it seems appropriate to complete the circle. They adopted a son from Ukraine 2 years ago, and after meeting their precious boy, Sam, Hunter and I made the decision to adopt from Ukraine as well. We are so happy we did...We have great memories of this country and the people here, we've made a friend for life in our facilitator Sergei. and best of all we have a beautiful little girl, who we adore and can't wait to bring home to meet all of you!!

Blessings,

Lauri (and Hunter from dreamland)