Right before 11:00, we headed over to the SDA building where we waited in the all too familiar stairwell for our name to be called.
While we waited, we saw at least three different other facilitators going over paperwork with the SDA that needed to be corrected by other adoptive families. Ugh, that was our paperwork only a few short weeks ago.
THE APPOINTMENT
We were finally called in shortly after 11:00. Two very nice women enjoyed seeing Dennis and looking at all the pictures we brought. They were incredibly nice and friendly, making the whole appointment very simple and laid back. One of the women told us about Alexsey--- most of which we already knew. However, they did share with us that he had a younger sister that was previously adopted by an Israeli couple, which was new information. They also had the most adorable baby picture of him---- which we can have after court as long as we give them one to replace it. John and I figured it doesn’t hurt to ask so we are going to look into getting contact info for the Israeli couple so that we can see about exchanging photos.
The best news is that we are getting the referral today and our coordinator is buying our train tickets for the overnight ride to Donetsk! We should arrive in region around 7:00 in the morning which means that we will finally get to see Alexsey tomorrow!
Before heading tonight, we met up with our friend Inna for lunch!
THE APPOINTMENT
We were finally called in shortly after 11:00. Two very nice women enjoyed seeing Dennis and looking at all the pictures we brought. They were incredibly nice and friendly, making the whole appointment very simple and laid back. One of the women told us about Alexsey--- most of which we already knew. However, they did share with us that he had a younger sister that was previously adopted by an Israeli couple, which was new information. They also had the most adorable baby picture of him---- which we can have after court as long as we give them one to replace it. John and I figured it doesn’t hurt to ask so we are going to look into getting contact info for the Israeli couple so that we can see about exchanging photos.
The best news is that we are getting the referral today and our coordinator is buying our train tickets for the overnight ride to Donetsk! We should arrive in region around 7:00 in the morning which means that we will finally get to see Alexsey tomorrow!
Before heading tonight, we met up with our friend Inna for lunch!
We went to an Espresso house where we had breakfast for lunch.
Around 4:30 p.m. we said goodbye to our Kiev apartment and went and picked up our referral. Off to the train station!
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We got to the train station in plenty of time. Since I know that the bathrooms on the train are the worst toilets I have ever smelled, I decided to use the bathroom in the train station. Nothing like paying to squat over a hole-- but definitely better than the train toilet.
We stocked up on meat, potato, and jam filled pirogi----- each one costing around less than fifty cents!
Julia cut the bottom of her foot on a plug when we were still in our apartment. All the running around made it worse and we insisted that she rest for the 12 hour train ride to Kramatorsk.
One of my favorite pictures-- that's for sure! Dennis has been the best 2 year old traveler we have ever seen!
We ate dinner so that Dennis could go to sleep, and then stayed up late playing Racko!
Early in the morning, we waited with anticipation for the train to roll into Kramatorsk.
At 6:30 this morning we arrived in Kramatorsk!
If you would like to read more about our trip, go visit Julia's blog for her perspective. I am sure, she would love some comments!
Stay tuned-------- we met Alexsey!
