goodbyes, medicals and embassy

4-12-07 Kyiv
We survived the goodbyes. It’s pretty heartbreaking. It is a bittersweet moment, that is to hard to describe. It is just something you have to feel and experience yourself to understand. The teachers are so happy for her, they know it is the best thing and so supportive. They offered her words of encouragement and advice and blessed us with everything we will need. One of her teachers said that we were taking the soul of the school. After packing her things, there were tears and hugs. She has a class full of boys and two girls, Nastyia and Vica there to say goodbye. The boys ran beside the van as far as they could waving (there waves were probably more for Cort than for Laina, they all think he is pretty awesome.) We had a somber ride back to the apartment to hurry and finish packing up things. We loaded all our luggage and Garretts and we had one final stop – You’ll never believe it – McDonalds. We were dreading having to, but it was past dinner time and we had a 5-6 hour drive ahead and we needed something to eat. We all hope to never see that place again. There’s not a fast food joint on every corner here. We picked up Natalie and headed on the road to Kyiv. We had been driving about 1 hour, bouncing around on the bumpy road and we hear a thud. Vasili pulls over and Natalie said he hit a rabbit. We thought he was just checking to see if the van was okay, but no – he’s getting the poor dead rabbit, putting in a plastic sack and puts in it the car. I guess it will be dinner soon. Steve grabbed the antibacterial wipes in his backpack and hands some to him. You can never be too prepared. It was just kind of a strange thought that we also had Bugs, rest in peace, riding with us.
We tried to get some sleep in the van, near impossible, at least for me. Steve and Cort’s heads were bouncing all over the place. Laina was stretched out, as much as she could on my lap. We arrived in Kyiv after 1:30 a.m., dropped Garretts and Nanette off at the apartment Vladimir had just found for them. Went to ours. Moody’s are in Lviv til Saturday, so Bogdan, Cort’s mission buddy, met us here with the keys he picked up at the mission office. Thank goodness for good friends! We’ve been blessed with so many helping us here in Ukraine. We got to our apartment, and found out that the lift was broken, we had 6 flights up, (and the ceilings in this apartment bldg are 14 ft high so it is equivilant to 12 flights of stair) we had more than 10 pieces of heavy luggage to get up stairs. Thank goodness for a guard at the bottom that helped us with some. We were so exhausted, but our hearts were pounding by the time we reached the top. We got a few hours of sleep and had to be at the doctors office for medical check-ups. I guess people just go and get in line and you get seen in the order of appearance. They are supposed to let adoptions check-ups not wait and a few men were getting upset with Natalie, saying they didn’t care if we were Americans, we had to wait. Natalie is patient and as soon as the door opened, she worked her way in, and of course the doctor said that adoptees don’t have to wait. Our (ours and Garretts) Medicals were done in a couple of hours and both are healthy. Laina had to have a couple of vaccinations that she was behind on, MMR and Hepatitis B, (I think Andrew had one). They told us that she couldn’t eat fatty foods or chocolate or get the shots wet for 3 days because of the shots. That would never fly in America. Then we headed to the Embassy.
The facilitators don’t go in and I wasn’t sure what we were doing. Our appointment was for tomorrow, but we have to have everything done by tomorrow or we won’t get out on Monday. We told them that since we got our medicals done, we decided to come over and start. They were accommodating. She got our case, and came back and said she didn’t have a copy of our fingerprints. Panic. I brought a copy of all of our dossier and other papers we had compiled. I gave her the copies of no criminal records and she said she would ask the director if they would pass. She came back and asked for another form, our I171 and attached to that was the paper she needed. She said "Thank God". Others preparing make sure you have all your papers with you, just in case. We didn’t have the originals of the birth certificate or adoption court decree, and Vladimir didn’t explain to us. Cort went out and found Vladimir (remember, you can’t take anything in, you need your passport, you have to go through security and gates and guards to get in. Vladimir was up the road and we found out that he drove straight from Sumy to her apartment in Kyiv to give her the originals to translate. She had been up all night and would have them in 30-40 minutes at the Embassy. Then they needed a copy of them, so Cort went out again, and they went and made copies. By about 3:00 we had everything ready, answered a few questions, Laina had to also be fingerprinted since she is over 14 and will have a criminal check done here. She had to sign some forms since she’s over 14. It was thrilling to watch her sign her official new name, Laina Shaye McGinty, on her Visa forms. We should be able to pick up our Visa tomorrow, there is a small clitch, so if you’re reading say a prayer. The software they use to scan the photos to process Visas has been down in Washington DC. A family hoping to get theirs yesterday, flying out today, didn’t because of the software malfunction, so they have to change their flight and they still didn’t get it today. All we can do is see what happens.
I wish the same for the Garretts. Vern is faced with a much greater obstacle, so pray for them also. He found out that their fingerprints expired in March. It will take 10 days to redo, Nanette will have to get hers done immediately when she gets home, she’s already on her way, and doesn’t know the situation. He’s called and trying to get some strings pulled in Washington, but if it doesn’t work out, he may be staying here a little longer. Garrett’s have had quite a few obstacles, but they have also had some amazing experiences with relatives of Emily and brothers of Andrew. They just continue to smile through it all. We’ve decided that Elder’s Holland’s advice from Conference is applicable "There’s nothing in life so terrible, that complaining about it will make it better." We will find out tomorrow the status for both of us. We’ve had things go real smoothly so far and anticipate it to continue! It will be Friday the 13th, we aren’t superstitious and it will be my wonderful dad’s birthday – Happy Birthday Dad and Grandpa! So it’s got to be a good day.
After the Embassy, we took a taxi to the "Belly House". The Ukrainain Buffet. It is great Ukrainain food, a must for everyone coming to Kyiv. Then we took another taxi back to the apartment. On the way back, we are only a couple of blocks from Independent Square. There were thousands of people there, police all over, the main road closed, traffic problems. I guess the demonstrations are still going on, and we aren’t sure the political issues that have been rising since we left Kyiv. Moody’s will beable to fill us in more when they return. Not many want to talk about it, we know some of the impact, but not the details. We just don’t get the news everyday. We are just supposed to stay away from any demonstrations and be aware and vigilant.
We were hoping to just veg for a while tonight, which we did, which has been real nice. We actually watched ‘The Phantom of The Opera’ DVD that Moody’s had here. Having a riot with Laina and learning English. When she tries she does real well. Right now I’m blogging while Cort and Laina are playing Fool, a fun card game we learned at the orphanage.
Cort has been invaluable for this trip. It has been so wonderful to share his mission experience, although there were a few things we were unable to get too. He has been a lifesaver for us and for other families and has lightened the load some for Natalie and Vladimir. I think they are happy he's here too. What a neat thing to share together. I can't believe how much we miss the rest of the family back in the ole USA.
I’ll go see if this will post, we have dial-up here, and not always successful.