Craziest Days Ever

This is the blog of April 20th and April 21st, too.

I woke early again, about 5:00 and got in the shower at 5:30. I got some blogging done but couldn't post, of course. I woke Kevin at 6:45 and Kai at 7:00. We got picked up at 7:40 for the busiest day. Lots to do.

We went first to the Office of Vital Statistics to get the new birth certificate. The office doesn't open until 9:00 but Victor arranged for them to open at 8:00 just for us. Isn't he something? We were 5 minutes early but someone arrived at 8:00 and we were in business. Unfortunately, they only wanted Marina, so we sat in the lobby, cold and bored. After a while I pulled out 2 decks of cards and Kevin and I played Solitaire. Eventually, Kai became interested and asked if we could play cards together. Yay. So we got set up and before I could begin to deal, a woman appeared and spoke a bunch of Russian. Of course we had no idea what she was saying, but the funny this was, Kai pretended to not understand as well! She went away and Marina came out immediately saying that it is illegal to play cards in this public place. Well, far be it for us to cause an international incident. So, no cards. I pulled out the Dr. Seuss's ABC book and tried to recite it for Kevin without looking. I did pretty well. Love that book.

We were running out of things to occupy ourselves and it was cold in the lobby. Kai went out to sit in the cab with Vladimir who entertained him with the cool games on his cell phone. What a guy! It was nearly 9:30 when we left that place with new birth certificate in hand. Hooray! Next was off to some office that issues Kai a new identification code (maybe like Social Security or something, I don't know). Marina went in alone this time and was out in 15 minutes with this new number established. Cool. Vladimir said he has been with families who took all day to get this number. Next it was to the notary's office. We like that place. They have good candy.

It was about 10:00 by now and we had papers to sign. One paper had to be signed by Kai in Russian with his new name. This proved to be somewhat of a challenge to him and he had to practice a few times on scratch paper because the document had to be perfect. We got all the papers done by about 10:30 and Marina was rejoicing at our good fortune to have completed 3 out of the 4 things to do today so quickly. No one had eaten or even had coffee yet so we went to McDonalds. I can't seem to be rid of that place!

McDonalds was practically empty. The others got Big Macs and fries. I got a cup of coffee. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny and we sat on the upper balcony again. There were a group of teenagers there as well, skipping school and drinking vodka. Kevin thought it interesting that we can get arrested for playing cards but these kids can openly drink and skip school and no one seems to mind.

Fat and happy, we headed to our next stop, the passport office. With our papers in order, this should be a breeze, too. Unfortunately, this proved to not be the case. The first thing they had a problem with was that on Kevin's and my passport, there is a space between the 2 c's of McCormack. This is because there is only one font used that does not have upper and lower case letters. In the court agreement and other documents, there is no space, instead the lower case followed by the capital. The man wanted us to go back to the court and have the agreement redone and 10 new copies made. The Queen had something to say about that. The man had no idea what we went through yesterday to get those papers. It took 4 hours!

Just as an aside, something I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog: We were told by the Inspector's assistant that it was a miracle that we got the court agreement at all yesterday. Apparently the head judge dude of the entire court was fired under unknown circumstances and the place was in utter chaos. Nothing got done the whole day, except, it seems, our 10 documents. So, what we thought was a disaster was actually a miracle on our behalf. Isn't God good? And don't prayers work?

The passport man agreed to not make us get the court agreement redone, but he wanted a special paper from the orphanage that states Kai's tenure there and has special stamps and seals. He was asking us to go back to the orphanage and get this document. Again, Marina argued and produced orphanage papers of a similar ilk plus his old passport, which he had used to get to the USA last summer. He appeared to relenquish this requirement, too. Then he found a misspelling of the name McCormack (in English) on 2 of the notary papers. It was spelled "McCormak". I didn't pick it up because, in Russian, they spell our name with K's all over the place. I figured they could spell it any way they wanted. But this point was non-negotiable. With back-and-forth phone calls every 10 minutes from Marina to Victor, it was all very crazy. Then Marina handed me the phone and said Victor wanted to ask me something.

Victor said that if we pay an "expedition fee" of $200 (USD), we could have the passport today instead of waiting until Saturday. Then there would be no reason to remain in Zaporizhzhya and we could go to Kiev asap. I asked him to hold one moment and ran it by Kevin who took all of 1.5 seconds to say "YES!" So, we rode to the notary's office and had tea and candies while new papers were drawn up. Kai had trouble again with writing his name, but I told him all the kids who get new names have trouble and he relaxed and came through brilliantly.

We went to get passport pictures made. The girl at the counter said, "20 grivna and you can pick up your photos tomorrow." No!!!! Marina nearly fainted. Then the girl said, "30 grivna and they will be ready in 20 minutes." That's more like it. Kai sat for his picture and we left. Then we needed to get the cash. We went to a bank and I took out $500 on my credit card. It cost me $15 to do this. No problem. Marina put $200 in a nice envelope and we went back to get the pictures. They were ready and we went back to the passport office.

The man said to wait. We've been getting really good at waiting and so we waited. The new documents were apparently good enough. At about 3:30, Marina had the new passport and pointed to the envelope on the counter saying,"Is that yours?" The man said, "Why, yes, it is." And we left quickly. Victor said that if we could get train tickets, we could leave this very evening. Oh, GOSH! It was overwhelming! We'd heard that it is incredibly difficult to get train tickets at such short notice, but we had Vladimir. He made some phone calls and we dropped Kevin off at the Intourist so he could go home and work. Then we drove to an office where we purchased 4 ticket to Kyiv for of $60. (We had spent $100 on the train to Zaporizhzhya.)

We needed to make more copies of these documents and fax them to Victor (I think) and so we went to a place to do this. It seemed to take forever. At this point I'm freaking. It was 4:30 and we were leaving at 6:30 to get a 7:30 train to Kiev. Marina said we should get something to eat, perhaps at the Pow-Wow (which we call the Nay-Bay, because that's how it's spelled). I called Kevin to see if he wanted to join us and he was reluctant, kinda freaking because of all the work he was behind in. But he said Jessica had called and was going to the Coffee Life near the Intourist. I called her to invite her to eat with us. Jessica said it took Kevin at least 10 minutes to convince her he wasn't kidding that we are leaving tonight. That is why she decided to come to our part of town.

When we got to the restaurant, Jessica was waiting. I was out of cash after paying Vladimir for the entire day so, after we ordered, Jessica and I walked to the Intourist so I could use the ATM. I tried to recount the day's events but it was all a blur. I don't know if I made any sense at all. My mind was a whirlwind. We ate quickly and I got a pizza to go for Kevin. We all went to the apartment; it was 5:30. Because we had paid for the apartment up through Thursday, Victor arranged for the owner to come by and refund us $50 for the day we wouldn't be there. So, the $200 we spent to get the passport today was saved by not being in Zaporizhzhya for 4 extra days (at $50/day). I began throwing things into suitcases. Jessica wanted to help but I didn't know what to tell her to do. I wanted to spend more time with her but there just wasn't time. Marina waited to make sure things with the owner went smoothly so she stayed and Jessica went home for worship practice.

Vladimir and the owner arrived and in 5 minutes we were out the door. The refund was given in grivna and was a little more than $50 worth. We all piled in the car and took Marina back to her apartment. Then Vladimir got us to the train station, carried my monsterous suitcase, and accompanied us to the platform. The train arrived and he escorted us to our compartment. What a guy! He said we owed him 50 grivna cab fare and Kevin gave him 200 extra. He seemed appreciative. Then he gave me a 1 grivna coin as a souvenier of Ukraine and to remember him. I guess the dude on the coin is some holy guy named Vladimir. So cute. We said our thanks and good-bys and I gave him a big American hug. He left and we were all together on the train outta here.

The train was a "local" and made stops all night long. It was hot as hell in the compartment and there's nothing to be done about it. We played cards and watched the last episode of Jordan, draining my battery in the process. Then I gave Kai my iPod and we settled in to sleep.

We were all exhausted, but it was sooooo hot and even the train had potholes, so it shook and rattled terribly. Besides, the events of the day hadn't even sunk in yet. We slept as best we could. I know Kai slept a little because I got up to use the bathroom at 2:00 and he was asleep. But he was restless most the night. The train was due to arrive in Kyiv at 9:13. At 8:00 we started picking up our bedding and getting ready to go. As we pulled into the station, I saw Victor on the platform. Kevin and Kai were out the door in a flash. The cool air and light rain were welcome after 14 hours of sauna.

The cab driver and Victor helped with our stuff and we went to the cab. We were all in the clothes we'd worn the previous day and sweated in all night. But Victor took us straight to the Medical Center. We spent the next 2 1/2 hours waiting while Kai had blood drawn, x-rays taken, a Hep B vaccine, and an exam by a lady doctor. Meanwhile, the cab driver delivered documents to the US Embassy for us. I went with Kai to get the shot and prayed that it would by no means harm him. I went with him for the medical exam, too. The doctor spoke English to some degree. She was very opinionated about us adopting so old a child. She thought it was going to be nothing but trouble. Of course, Kai wasn't making such a great first impression. He'd not slept, he was hungry, and we'd been waiting for 2 hours, not to mention the previous 2 days. He was droopy and taciturn.

The doctor lectured him as she examined him. She said for him to study hard and be obedient and that sort of stuff. He seemed to grow more animated as she talked, so I think she was being nice about it. Then Victor took us to the hospital cafeteria where we all had olivia salad and beef stroganoff. It wouldn't win any culinary awards, but we were hungry and it went down without a problem.

We left to go to our new apartment. Traffic was horrific and we crept from one gridlocked intersection to another for an hour at least. Victor said this is normal for Kyiv. The apartment was beautiful and cost $60/day. It was bigger than the first one we'd had, with a living room, nice kitchen, and modern bathroom with a shower you can stand up in. There was only one bedroom which meant Kai was on the couch. We all took showers and Victor returned at 3:30 after retrieving all the test results back at the Medical Center. We drove to the US Embassy and just the 3 of us went in to the adoption service area to fill out forms for the visa. The girl we spoke with gave us the forms to take home, said we could pay the $400 tomorrow, asked us questions about our adoption experience and fingerprinted Kai (because he is over 14 years old). We were to return tomorrow at 2:00 for our interview and to get the visa. We left and found Victor and drove back to the apartment.

After paying for the cab for the day (lotsa grivna), Victor took us for a walkabout to find an internet cafe and a grocery. There was a Coffee House (spelled K, O, Wierd-letter, E. Then XAY3. That says "Coffee House".) just past the Radisson Hotel. Yay. We found a small grocery and bought bread, cheese, ham, cookies, chocolate, juice, and who-knows-what. Victor left us at the apartment and we all ate sandwiches. I needed to get on line because if we get the visa tomorrow, we can leave on Friday to come home. So, we all went to the cafe and I posted the blog I had just finished about Monday. Then I tried to find flights home.

I had a lot of trouble. Because of such short notice, and because of the backlog from the volcano, the flights were coming up costing $3000 and up. I found something for Saturday to JFK with an overnight layover in Rome for $732. Then there'd be another flight to Richmond which was coming up as $800! So we'd rent a car and drive after 2 days flying plus jet lag. Oh, glory! Then I skyped my very, very good friend Nancy Kravitz who used to be a travel agent. She found one for Monday to JFK through Vienna for $933. But waiting til Monday was going to cost us, too. I gave her my credit card info and told her to wait. I called Victor with what we'd come up with and he said he'd contact his travel agent friend to see what she could come up with. Then he'd call me back at 10:00 and compare. I told Nancy I'd skype her from Kevin's computer when I knew anything.

I was just reeling by now and Kai was pretty bored, but not complaining. He was pretty much just praying to go home. I took advantage of being on line and pulled up some You Tube and we watched the ones of the Ukrainian girl sand painting. My computer is really fast with videos so it was enjoyable, and he seemed very interested. Then there was one about making the Mona Lisa using Microsoft paint program. He watched that with great interest and so I pulled up "paint" on my computer and he began to play. After about a half hour, I was bored and needed to get back and do laundry and fill out the visa forms for tomorrow. So Kai and I left Kevin there and went back to the apartment.

I set him up with the paint program and we put on music (pretty loud) and I got busy. He experimented for a while and then began to copy a drawing he had done of some Ukrainian poet. He worked with enthusiasm and it came out beautifully. I showed him how to save it and he began working on a sea scape for me. Kevin came home and I called Victor. Victor said he found a direct flight on Friday afternoon to JFK but only one ticket was available. I had him book it for Kevin. Kai and I could come later. He said his wife would continue to work until 2:00am looking for 2 more tickets on that flight and he'd call me in the morning. I called Nancy on skype and she booked him a flight from JFK to Norfolk, arriving at 9:00pm Friday night.

I was fairly elated that at least Kevin would be able to get home and I told Kai it was time for bed. When he was ready, he asked me to kneel beside him and pray for us all to go home together on Friday. I did and he crawled in the covers with my iPod of praise music. I got washed up and went to bed. Kevin stayed up for a while working out on the porch. He was exhausted, however, and wisely came to bed before I had fallen asleep. We'll see what the new day brings. Let's pray there are no problems getting the visa, too.