Day 32 - Darren leaves for Kiev - Wednesday October 19

Now that court was final, we were incredibly relieved, but also happy that Darren could return to the kids at home. We would not have to reschedule his flight again! Yarik left for school at 7am, Darren and I had to be out of the room before noon. Ksenia picked us up at 8:30am to go and sign a few more documents at the notary. After the notary, we stopped at the train station to pick up a hard copy of Darren's ticket to Kiev. His train did not leave until after 11am, so we went back to the hotel, and filled out some Embassy paperwork with Ksenia. Darren had everything already packed, so we said our good-byes and Ksenia drove him back to the train station.

I finished packing. We had found out that there was a single room available for me that night which had just came open that morning. So I did not have to leave the hotel, just move up to the next floor. That made it so much easier for me. I got all my suitcases moved up and spent the next few hours working online and getting things organized to take out to Sergei the next day. Since Nina had said we could not take him out of the orphanage early, I needed to get out to see him on Thursday or it would be a week between visits. I had already committed to helping the Open Arms team with their grad retreat that weekend and Yarik was really looking forward to going. Soon Yarik called and he came to the hotel to meet me. His psychologist had invited me to meet her and her daughter at McDonald's. So when Yarik got there, we walked down to McD's together.

Her daughter was very sweet and did her best to translate for her mother, who was impatient to have a conversation with me. She did very well, but, though she could understand most of what I was saying, she had trouble finding the words in English to ask questions of me, or give me answers easily. After they finished eating, they invited us to go down to one of the town museums. We walked to one and it was closing, then the next one was just about to close as well. So we went to an art exhibition in a small gallery in a different part of town and saw some lovely children's artwork and some paintings by local artists. I was still feeling the effects of a cold and my nose was running. I was pretty tired, but tried to communicate as best as I could. She was so very nice and as they were ready to head for home she invited Yarik and I to dinner at her house on Monday, and I was happy to accept.

Yarik and I decided to get some Pizza at Celentanos and were soon joined by Vitaly. While we were there I got a call from Ksenia. She said that Nina had changed her mind, and I could come and pick up Sergei anytime Friday afternoon. I was shocked, I had to double check and make sure I was hearing her right. The problem was that I had already committed to leaving Friday afternoon with the team for camp, so I was not sure how to work out the details. I told Ksenia I would see how to make it work and let her know.

By then, I had wifi on my phone and got a message from Darren. He had arrived in Kiev and wanted to try to check on the Yoders. As I was the only one with a phone, I called them and worked out the details for their dinner. Then we got our dinner and I was able to tell Darren the miracle that I could get Sergei early! I was so excited to tell everyone the good news that I barely touched me pizza. The guys had theirs finished and were waiting for me, so I had to put away my phone and eat fast.

I was really tired so I had told Yarik he could use the laptop back at the hotel, so he was eager to get back. Vitaly said good-bye and we parted ways.

Back at the hotel, I let Yarik use the computer, while I laid in bed to rest a bit. I told him after a little computer he had to do some English which he agreed to. I had him work on the alphabet, especially the vowels because he gets them confused with the Ukrainian vowels. I also had him write a few sentences.

Soon it was time for his shower and to head back to school. He was bummed that I only had one bed and he could not sleep at the hotel.

I got some more work done on the computer, and got my expenses documented. Then I was really tired and tried to get a decent night's sleep so I could go out to see Sergei the next day.