Day 54 Thursday, Nov. 10 Almost home!

This morning started out poorly. Sergei would not get out of bed and get dressed. I let him sleep as long as possible and then tried everything I could think of to get him going. It was not working. He seemed to have no desire to cooperate. I guess he was getting scared as it was so close to leaving everything he knew to come to America. And as we were finishing up with all the paperwork, it was becoming very real. Nastya called to let me know that she was almost there, and I told her about Sergei. She said she would try to find a place to park and come up if she had to. She spoke to Sergei and told him he had to get ready...it did not help much. He was still not moving. I could not do anything to get him dressed, he was too big for me to wrestle into clothes. We waited as Nastya got closer and when she called back again, he had started to dress. She was outside our apartment when we finally got him out the door. This episode was not a good sign for what might lie ahead. I hoped it was just nerves and that all would work out. Nastya talked to him in the car and tried to help him understand the situation. We got to the medical center in time to get their physicals done. While we were there, we met up with another mom who was adopting one of the boys they had hosted that Darren and I had met on the interview trip. He was the only black boy that we had seen at the orphanages and a black family from Georgia (I think) was adopting him. I was very happy to see him. He did not remember me at first, but as we waited together for several hours, he did remember me and Darren.
The boys checked out healthy, but needed to have a couple of immunizations done. Nastya took me to pay for them and then we went back down to wait some more. Once we got all of the paperwork back for both families, we all went to lunch together. We all had to go back to the Embassy shortly after lunch, so we stayed together for lunch and the Embassy. It was nice to have someone else to talk to and share our experiences.

Cool  giant clock on the ground

At lunch, Sergei was not very hungry, but he seemed to be a little more emotionally okay. After lunch we went to the Embassy and had to wait until last to get our visas. There were several other American families there with us. The other three got their paperwork quickly, while we waited. It seemed like a long time until they finally called our name. We got everything that we needed and Sergei cooperated with the signing and agreeing to all that had to be done. It was such a relief to have everything completed and know we were ready for the airport the next day.

Interesting fortress off the beaten path

Mom in one of the monuments

We had a little time to get some souvenir shopping done once we got back to the apartment. Sergei did not want to go, so we left him in the room to play games on the super slow internet. Yarik had some items that he was looking for, so we tried to find what he wanted. It was late in the day, so we did not have much luck as the street vendors had closed up shop. We did however, get some amazing views of the city lit up at night. It was a really nice time for the two of us. We also found the underground mall and each got a gelati to snack on. Sergei missed out on this one! We took some photos and then went back to make dinner and eat with Sergei. Tonight went much better and we did not have an early flight, so I promised them we would try to go find some souvenirs in the morning. We got as much packed as we could and I was very ready for our trip home.

City lights

Day 53 Wacky Wednesday!! Nov 9

After such an exciting day the day before, it seemed hard to come down from the emotional roller coaster. We got up in time to say Hello to Abbey who was across the hall from us and was on her way home that day. It was nice to see her one more time before she left the country, as we had started our journey together so many days before.
I got the boys up and ready for the day. We had to meet Nastya first thing in the morning and we had not had any time to get food. As we were waiting for her, we tried to find something quick and easy to eat. She called and was delayed in traffic, so we were able to get some food for breakfast. We were going to meet her at the corner by the grocery store, so the boys waited outside as I ran in and got some yogurt drinks and apples. She finally arrived and took us to the Embassy. It did not take long to get the paperwork filled out and turned in. Then we went back out to meet Nastya and go to the medical facility to get their medical exams done.
Unfortunately, once we got there, we found out that the passports did not make it to Kiev the night before and they were going to try to fax the copies to the medical staff to get their physicals done. We waited and they tried several times to get good copies of their passports, but none of the faxes came out clear enough for the staff to be willing to do the exams. Nastya made arrangements for us to come back the next morning to get them done.

Yarik and Mom in Kiev

We also decided to switch to the room where Abbey had been staying. It was a little bigger and had a separate room for me to sleep. We had to move all of our stuff to the new room, at least it was on the same floor, so we did not have to try to get everything back into the elevator again! That was quite an adventure the day before trying to get it all in at once!

Sergei and Mom in Kiev

Skateboarders for Sergei to watch

We really had nothing else to do that day, but explore Kiev and get food. We wanted to try to see the Saint Sophia cathedral, so we walked in that direction. When we got there, we did not have enough money for me to get in with the boys, so we just looked around from the outside. Next we went downtown to the main square and got some photos. Sergei found some kids skateboarding and enjoyed watching them. We had to be back at a certain time to meet a gal who was bringing their passports to our apartment, so we could not explore as much as I had hoped. It was fun to see the boys getting a chance to see their home country capital. We also enjoyed stretching our legs and getting to walk a bit.

Sergei and Yarik walking  back to the apartment at sunset.

We hurried back to the apartment and arrived in time to meet the gal with the passports. We were so relieved to have them in hand...at least I was!! The boys were pretty excited to see their new names on their passports. We later got some groceries and I made dinner for the three of us in our apartment. We had a fun evening eating and playing pillow fights and what not. Sergei found some games on the internet to play, but the internet was terribly lousy, so we did not get much done on there.
We tried to get settled and sleep, but it was hard to get used to another strange place. Sergei was not happy with his bed and I tried to make it better for him, but it did not work out very well. We had another early morning pick up with Nastya to get us to the medical exams again and then the plan was to get to the Embassy to pick up their visas so we could leave by Friday!!