Last Day in Capital City

Last night neither one of us could sleep, so we cuddled up next to the iPad and watched the Borne Identity.  It was over around 3:00am our time.  Since we went to bed late, we woke up late.  We worked on folding clothes that we had washed and layed out to dry to get ready for our train ride tonight.  Niko came to pick us up at our apartment around 3:30 to go take us back to the SDA.  As we know all to well, in any adoption, expect the unexpected.  Niko told us that there were no train tickets for tonight's train, and tomorrow's day train was sold out as well.  But don't worry he told us.  He had connections and he was almost sure he could get us tickets on tomorrow's express train.
When we arrived, it was a few minutes before 4:00pm and we knew we had some time to wait because they hand out referrals (permission to visit the child) between 4-5pm. We milled around, looking at the work being done to the church that sits next to the SDA.  For those of you who have been here, we were told that in September the cobblestone street will be pulled up and they will pave the street in front of the SDA!

All around the entire church is dug up!

Right behind the gates was a big hole that was hand dug!

 

Gotta love a goofy husband!

In true Ukrainian fashion, they began at 4:30pm.  We were the second family to go in and pick up our paperwork.

Sign outside the door of the SDA

Back to the apartment with a translated dossier, permission to visit our big boy, and some extra papers for Tatiana.

We decided since we had time tonight, why not walk back up the hill to have McDonald's for dinner.  I know this sounds crazy, but McDonald's always tastes better overseas.  When you order, of course the menu is in cyrillic, but we got lucky enough that the cashier spoke some english. When you order a combo here, you tell them you want a "menu"?! :)

And if you want ketchup, you have to ask for it, and pay for it!

So knowing that we had a 5 hour train ride tomorrow, we stopped at the grocery and got bottles of water and some snacks for the train.  We also got some ice cream!



We leave on the train tomorrow morning at 6:30 and should arrive at 11:30.  I want to hit the ground running.  If at all possible we first plan to see Max, then work on getting the paper stating "yes we want to adopt this child" so it can be sent back to the capital city and submitted on Monday!  I want to work as hard and as fast as we can to get back to the capital city and back to BOTH boys and work towards court.  I enjoy the country, but don't plan to be here as long as we were the last time around. (42 days in 2007 for those who don't know!)