Day #10

FINALLY have internet again!!!! Wow it's amazing how disconnected you can feel without technology!:) 2 days is a long time to be without when you are an ocean away from civilization HA

See if I can back up to were I left off.
Wednesday... last I wrote Serge was trying to get us an appointment hopefully by Monday, actually he managed to get quite a bit more than that done in quite a bit less time!! :) He had a couple weeks of documents and appointments completed in ONE day!!! Wednesday night found us back on the train:( Definitely not my preferred mode of transportation! Let me back up just a little, Serge did get everything done very quickly, but we did have one very large problem! A Ukrainian family had asked for permission to see this child the same day we did and of course they have first rights over an international family so we were in limbo as what to do. Do we go back to region and wait on this family to decide or do we try and go for another referral or what? The problem is that this is a young child and they found out there is a line of Ukrainian families waiting to see him wanting to adopt him, so that is why if we wanted a chance at him we needed to be in region and ready to jump as soon as this family declined IF and WHEN they did! We felt like this was the child we should pursue so the team got all and by all I mean every paper necessary to adopt this boy and we have everything signed and notarized already so our ducks are def in a row:) Our team has very good relationships with the orphanage director, inspector, judges etc. in this region and they are all for international adoption over domestic, because obviously they get money and also most domestic adoptions are done for the money and thus they think the children get better families if they are adopted internationally. So the inspector has told the our team that if this family says no she will accept us before the official 10 day allowed time is up and thus giving the next Ukrainian family rights to have a chance at him. Not sure if that makes sense or not, but hard to explain without going into specific minute details.
So now for were we are now... We are back in the same region, same apartment waiting on this family, ( we now found out she is a single lady) to decide if she wants this boy or not. Here is a little funny, our facilitator, Irena wanted to be at orphanage when this lady came to visit boy so she could watch and see if she could get any clues how interested she was and beings she is good friends with director and staff she went and sat over there till the lady came and then they gave her a white coat and she pretended to be the nanny!!!! :) so she was in the room the whole time and was able to observe! She said she is a very strange lady and she showed absolutely no emotion the whole time and she only took the baby and put it in the stroller, never holding him. She had permission to visit until 3, but Irena called at 11 and said she had already left. She told inspector she would go home and think about it and consult with her mother and then let her know Friday if she would take him or not.
So we sat at apartment all morning on pins and needles this morning waiting to hear something and finally at 3 this afternoon they called and said the lady says that her mother advised her not to take him, but she wanted to consult with a Dr. before making her decision and she would let inspector know on Monday. We are not sure what she will consult with Dr. about because she did not ask for any medical records. So we have made the decision to stay in region until Monday and see what she says. If we would go back to Kiev and try for another referral we wouldn't be able to do anything over the weekend anyway so we will really only be out Monday if this doesn't work out. We are still hopeful that she will say no because this little guy has a heart problem and Ukrainians are very scared of any diagnosis of the heart because heart surgery is a very big deal here! Serge was telling us that any heart operation is done in at least 3 procedures and then they don't have a very good success rate, so if her mother is advising her not to accept and she knows he has a heart problem hopefully she will consider it too risky!! We have such mixed emotions over it all, we feel a calm about inside, but on the outside emotions and stress are raging!!! The unknown is way harder to deal with than if we just knew what the answer would be!
In the meantime we continue to survive on this huge adventure!! :) I wish I could somehow portray this place and culture and people to you, but I'm quite certain you couldn't get a remotely close idea of how it really is! :)
The eating has been the biggest adventure.. we have a grocery store just down the street er dirt path from our apartment that has the basics and when I say basics you must understand that the large supermarkets have less variety and selection than most small grocery stores you have been in! What I find so interesting is the duplicates they have here next door to the grocery is a meat store all they sell is fresh meat and right beside that is another one that looks exactly the same with just a different name! They also have many, many people set up along the path selling there wares, most of the ones here by our apartment would be selling fruits and vegetables and then a few have some random other things. It's not uncommon to have 3 or 4 in a row selling the same thing for the same price. Had a lady selling fresh, actually that would not be the correct term, raw would be more accurate:) meats today. Had her big knife out and would cut you off a slab of whatever you wanted. I just can't imagine how dirty it would be from all this dirt around here and then just to sit out in the open air all day with no ac??!! :/ But yet every child under 3 you see is bundled up to the nines with stocking cap and all already! Guess you can't be careful in every area eh? :) They also have lots of other separate food stores like one that sells all different kinds of fish, a bread store, a dairy store that sells everything dairy, BTW I got sour cream on the first try and it was GOOD!! Haven't had such good luck with milk, but we have finally found the right one now. They have drinkable yogurt in milk bottles, all different kinds of buttermilk in milk jugs plus other stuff that we don't know what is yet because we found the milk know so don't have to keep experimenting HA We have a couple translation apps on our phone, but they all use internet so doesn't do us much good in the store!
Today for dinner we had baked leg quarters, baked potatoes (with our good sour cream:), and some cucumbers and tomatoes from the little stand outside. It was the first meal that when I got done was actually full and had enjoyed! I just love good food way too much and it has been hard on me to have such questionable food all the time:( Pey has really been having a time too, of course he doesn't realize whats going on, but he will be so hungry and eat a few bites and say he is full and I know it's because it doesn't taste good to him. He complains of being hungry almost every day here and he never ever did at home! My dear very unpicky husband has fared the best with the food, he can manage to eat about everything, strange flavors and all and proclaim it all good! :)

People... the people here are for the most part friendly, although very few know english unlike Kiev were most of the younger ones would know at least the basic greetings etc.   There definitely is not the money here like in Kiev. You can tell it in vehicles and clothes etc. Irena told us that there have been a lot of people move here from the East since the unrest.

Weather... The mornings and evenings are cool enough that you need a jacket and then the afternoons warm up to just short sleeves. Has been clear and sunny every day since we have been here.

Could write lots more about it all, but this is getting lengthy so will quit for this time.

Thanks SOOO MUCH to each of you that have taken the time to write a comment or written an email, it means more than you will ever know! And the prayers... we have felt them very much and continue to need them!!! It has been a very tough week, but we are hoping and praying that next week will be more positive! Somedays it is hard to keep the morale up when we have no idea how the adoption will go from here, but we are hanging in there and trusting it all to the one who sees it all and gives us strength to keep on keeping on!