The End Is In Sight

This is the blog about Thursday, April 22.
I woke early again and snuck out of the apartment just after 7:00 to go to the cafe and blog.
Victor called while I was there and said that there is a flight from Kyiv to Vienna at 8:00, then to Wash. DC, and then to Dallas. I said I don't want to go to Dallas, Texas. The Washington, DC airport is called Dulles. We got that cleared up and he could get us 3 tickets. I said I'd get back to him. Kevin got up eventually and when he got on line I skyped him from the cafe. He said to go ahead and take that flight. I called Victor and he reserved it. I finished up by 10:30 and went back to the apartment. Kai was still luxuriating on the couch, but got up to get ready to go with me and Victor to the travel agent. I needed to get some grivnas and we were hungry so we went to an ATM in the Radisson Hotel and then found one of those little cafeteria places. The food was good but Kai couldn't finish. That was different! I think he is too excited to eat. Then we went to the travel agency. We booked 3 tickets without a hitch and rejoiced all the way back to the apartment.


We got our papers together and chatted about our journey. When it was time to go, we were heading out the door and Kevin couldn't find the apartment key. We wandered around for about 10 minutes or so and Kevin finally spotted it on the bed. It kind of blended in with the print of the spread. We rode a trolley-bus to the Embassy. The money taker guy gave me my tickets (there were 4 of us) and asked me in Russian to give them back to him when I disembark. Victor translated this for me and I asked him what for? He said that the man will resell the tickets and pocket the money. He said that is how things go in the Ukraine. I opted to keep the tickets for a souvenier instead. The man tapped my shoulder as I got off the bus but I ignored him.

We were early to the Embassy, our appointment wasn't until 2:00. Kevin was hungry and I was thirsty so we went in a smal restaurant nearby advertising a business lunch for 40 grivnas (about 5 bucks). It was a lovely little place and Kevin ate while we had juice and tea. Then it was off to the Embassy.

We waited a bit to pay our $400 for the visa and then waited a bit for our interview. While there, we met 3 other families just completing their adoptions and going home. They were all adopting girls, aged 11, 13, and 14. Two of the girls actually knew each other. All of us had been involved in a hosting program. That seems to be a very effective way to get kids adopted. You meet them and fall in love with them. The woman doing the interview was happy and pleasant and from South Carolina. It was great to talk to other Americans. Although they are total strangers, they feel like friends and neighbors here in Ukraine. We all waited again to get our papers and swapped adoption stories. Everyone had stories much worse than ours. Our time here was like a walk in the park compared to some of them! One guy from California got stuck in an airport terminal in Moscow for 2 days because of the volcano business. There was no food, no access to monetary funds, and at times, no bathroom facilities. There were hundreds of travellers, including mothers with babies who had run out of diapers. They called the US Embassy over the course of a whole day and nothing was done. They called the White House and were released 6 hours later!

We all got our visas and papers and congratulated each other. We hugged and kissed and went out to find Victor. It had taken exactly one hour, a piece of cake to our new way of thinking. Victor was downright giddy with joy. We were DONE!!!! We are going home!!!!! We danced down the street to the bus.

Back at the apartment, Victor went over the papers with me and told us he'd be there to pick us up at 5:45am to go to the airport. He left and I started packing. Kai played with the Paint program, and Kevin went to work. I gave Kai the phone and he talked to Jessica, Alina, Nonna, and whorver else was around. He wore out the battery, so I put it on charge that night. Soon we were hungry. Kevin didn't feel at liberty to take the time to go out to eat, so Kai and I took a walk to look for some place nice.

We walked past the Radisson Hotel and I got the idea to ask the desk girl if she had any recommendations. More people speak English in Kyiv than in Zaporizhzhya. She recommended the restaurant at the hotel, but admitted that it was expensive. She then offered a restaurant called Saffron that was Ubakistan or some sort of 'Stan" place. She assured me they spoke English and had an English menu. They have other "stan" food, she said, as well as Ukrainian. It sounded good so we walked down the street and found it.


We were greeted with the insense of hookah smoke. The decor was exotic, the staff in ornate ethnic garb. We were escorted to a table large enough for 6 and sat on pillows. I think it sort of overwhelmed Kai, but I encouraged him that this was cool and we were having fun. We ordered our food, both choosing salads and shashlik (shish-kabab). I got some bread, too. He also got rice and French fries. I got grilled vegetables. For drinks, he had a coke and I had fresh celery juice mixed with apple. I took some pictures, because the place reminded me a little of Tagine, although much bigger.

Our food arrived and everything was delicious. Kai's mood elevated as he became more comfortable that everything was going okay. I even ended up taking half my shashlik in a doggy bag home to Kevin. We asked for the bill. I had a ton of grivnas that I wanted to spend, but I wanted to make sure we had enough for the cab to the airport. I figured I would have plenty. To my great surprise, the bill came to 712 grivna (about $90!!!!!!). I had more than 500, and I thought that would be way more than enough. My bad. So, I asked if I could put 400 on grivnas and the rest on my credit card. He went away to split the bill and I went to the coat check to look for my credit card, since it wasn't in my jeans pocket.

To my horror, my credit card wasn't there, either. I didn't have enough money to pay the bill! Oh, gosh, what was I going to do? The hostess saw my panic and I explained what the problem was. She said, "No problem. We know the Radisson hotel and we will take care of it with them." I explained that I was not staying in the hotel and she said this was a problem. Then she asked, "What about your man?" I said, 'What??" She said, "Your man...your boyfriend?" I couldn't believe my ears. I said, "That's my son!" (It was actually hysterical, that she would think that. I am lol-ing as I write this.) Well, she said I could go back to the apartment and get my credit card and leave my son at the restaurant. I explained this to Kai, who I'm sure is thinking his mom is looney-tunes. He said no problem and I booked it out of there.

Kevin let me in and I explained as quickly as I could what was going on and left quickly. I called Victor to see how much the taxi would cost to the airport and he said 250 grivna. In light of that, I decided to put the whole shebang on the credit card and go. Poor Thomas, our waiter! I'm sure he was glad to see us go. We decided to try to find the little grocery we went to yesterday to get some food for Kevin. We found it and got chips, cookies and whatever. On the way home we passed a homeless lady begging on the street. Kai asked if he could go back and give her some money. I gave him all my change and he went back and put it in her cup. She said all kinds of things to him and I asked what she said. He said she said that he would have good life, good parents, good everything from God. I said, "Oh, she blessed you" and he said yeah.

Kevin was overjoyed to see we had brought him food. I finished packing and Kai listened to his rap music. I could hear the "music" and when I could make out the words and heard bad stuff, I'd call over to him "Hey, we don't talk like that". He would immediately click to another song. Later, as he scrolled through the songs, I did the same thing. He didn't play enough of most of the songs to hear where they were going with the lyrics, but some hit the ground with expletives right at the outset. Eventually I decided to have a little talk about this music. From what I understand, the Russian rap lyrics where pretty tame; "Hello, I'm in America. I don't speak English. Do you like music?" Of course he doesn't totally understand the English lyrics which are much worse. I am not convinced, however, that he doesn't know the cuss words in English. He did grow up in an orphanage, you know. After our talk, he willingly threw the CD's in the trash. I was touched and amazed.

I got ready for bed and told him to take a shower. I showed him one of Kevin's razors and said he could use it if he wanted to. If not, that was okay, too. I was in bed when he got out of the bathroom. He wanted me to look at him. He was clean shaven and beaming. He gave me a kiss and went to bed. Kevin stayed up working for about another hour before showering and coming to bed. We have a big day tomorrow. We all can't wait!