I got a call from Dima early in the morning as we were hanging out asking if I had received the email from the embassy. I had not. They sent us both an email saying that they forgot to charge me the $950 for her visa that I should have paid because I was not adopting a sibling but another child so I owed another fee for her I600. BUMMER!
The catch was that the cashier left everyday at 12:30pm and if we didn’t pay the fee before that time, we would be there another week. They had accepted the home study from email. They offered a concession of immediately following with the exit interview instead of making us sit there until 2pm as originally scheduled. We were not showered, dressed or ready to go. We quickly got up and headed out the door to meet Dima to take the subway to the embassy.
We met in front of McDonald’s at 11am and headed for the subway. It is one of the 3 deepest subways in Europe; it’s pretty amazing how far down you go. I thought that 59thStreet in NYC was deep, not so.
He reminded us to stay close to him, keep our hands over our bags and hold on to everything. The thieves are experts. We stayed in step right behind him; I’m telling you “Pied Piper and his bandits!”
Up and out of the subway and a 15 minute walk in the cold and snow to the embassy. We got right in and right to our appointment. This time it was with an American Embassy agent who IS American. In fact, he’s from close to where we live and we had a good chat all about Lancaster, the Amish, the cows, farming, agriculture, we had quite a lovely and lively chat as a matter of fact! I liked him!
Dima had SEVERAL times reminded me that I was NOT to chat, to get on with the matter, NO CHATTING, “I know how you are Deborah! Just get your business done and get out of there. You know I will be waiting outside in the cold for you and there is NO place to wait!!”
Sorry, I’m not feeling it! :)
I made sure the agents’ hands kept moving documents as we chatted don’t worry. As a matter of fact, BOTH appointments for the embassy were done in RECORD time!! The day before in 45 minutes, generally takes 2 hours, and today’s, same thing!!! The Lord was with us Dima on YOUR behalf!!!!
Hallelujah!!!!
Done with the adoption papers now!!! SHE’S OURS!
We took the subway back to the square and said our goodbyes to my “almost” brother now… Dima. I assured him I’d be back for Tolek, we just don’t know when. It was a little sad, we have become such good friends. But.. I’ll be back soon enough to make his life interesting again. There will be many more phone calls, skyping and texting before the next child comes home… Tolek.
Oksana and I headed back to the apartment, but FIRST we went shopping. The 3 or 4 times I had been to Kiev, Arlin and I had gone to the underground mall and I always perused the cutest shop carrying clothes for none other than… CeCe!!!
I had several outfits picked out, but Arlin never let me indulge. We were her for kids NOT the dog. Well, up until now, she HAD been my only child!
I managed to get across to Oksana about the shop, and she had fallen in love with CeCe from the pictures. So, we went out on our first shopping expedition as mother and daughter.
She needed boots as well. Kiev is not the place to be shopping, even at 70% off; it’s like buying on Madison Avenue, NYC and saying, “It’s a deal!” NOT!
She picked out several things for CeCe on top of a Juicy Couture carrying case I had been eyeing for 10 months, but we had to settle on ONE outfit and the purse. It is PINK of course :)
She picked out the absolutely cutest snow outfit for her, the snow pants attached to the snow coat; I have pictures with her sporting this new outfit as soon as I’m able to get them up on CeCe's corner, too cute!
She found a pair of boots, quite the style for Ukraine; she was ‘in’ for sure here. But they didn’t have her size. We would have to come back tomorrow, although, our taxi left at 11am for the airport for our 2pm flight, and the store did not open until 10am, that meant we would have to hurry because we also had to get more cash. They only accepted cash and I didn’t have enough for the boots, and CeCe’s things. We had already made one trip to the bank, but used it all on CeCe. Now before you go off thinking I went wild, I didn’t, but I don’t like to carry a large amount of cash with me if I’m running around without Dima. He’s my body guard!
We finished shopping and headed quickly back to the apartment to meet the driver to head out. HOME FINALLY!!!
Uneventful drive to the airport, normal 2 hour wait for plane, and for ONCE a plane half empty to London. Oh my, we could lie down! And a quick 45 minute layover in London, record for me, usually 3 hours or more, and on to the next leg of the journey home on another airbus that was HALF empty!! We each had an entire row of seats to ourselves!! She slept the entire way, I couldn’t sleep at all, remember it’s day time for us.
Arrived early actually into Dulles with Arlin, Valera, Maggie and her daughter Christina waiting with balloons, gifts, signs... it was lovely.
And now I’m tired of typing this saga, it was a long 3 hour drive home; we arrived to the house at midnight. I’m ready to stay home for a few months!
CeCe was ecstatic of course, and we both loved on her, Oksana fell in love with her just from the pictures, she was excited to hold her for the first time!
And that’s it folks, an abrupt ending to this part of the journey, I will update with stories as I have LOTS since we’ve come home.
The catch was that the cashier left everyday at 12:30pm and if we didn’t pay the fee before that time, we would be there another week. They had accepted the home study from email. They offered a concession of immediately following with the exit interview instead of making us sit there until 2pm as originally scheduled. We were not showered, dressed or ready to go. We quickly got up and headed out the door to meet Dima to take the subway to the embassy.
We met in front of McDonald’s at 11am and headed for the subway. It is one of the 3 deepest subways in Europe; it’s pretty amazing how far down you go. I thought that 59thStreet in NYC was deep, not so.
He reminded us to stay close to him, keep our hands over our bags and hold on to everything. The thieves are experts. We stayed in step right behind him; I’m telling you “Pied Piper and his bandits!”
Up and out of the subway and a 15 minute walk in the cold and snow to the embassy. We got right in and right to our appointment. This time it was with an American Embassy agent who IS American. In fact, he’s from close to where we live and we had a good chat all about Lancaster, the Amish, the cows, farming, agriculture, we had quite a lovely and lively chat as a matter of fact! I liked him!
Dima had SEVERAL times reminded me that I was NOT to chat, to get on with the matter, NO CHATTING, “I know how you are Deborah! Just get your business done and get out of there. You know I will be waiting outside in the cold for you and there is NO place to wait!!”
Sorry, I’m not feeling it! :)
I made sure the agents’ hands kept moving documents as we chatted don’t worry. As a matter of fact, BOTH appointments for the embassy were done in RECORD time!! The day before in 45 minutes, generally takes 2 hours, and today’s, same thing!!! The Lord was with us Dima on YOUR behalf!!!!
Hallelujah!!!!
Done with the adoption papers now!!! SHE’S OURS!
We took the subway back to the square and said our goodbyes to my “almost” brother now… Dima. I assured him I’d be back for Tolek, we just don’t know when. It was a little sad, we have become such good friends. But.. I’ll be back soon enough to make his life interesting again. There will be many more phone calls, skyping and texting before the next child comes home… Tolek.
Oksana and I headed back to the apartment, but FIRST we went shopping. The 3 or 4 times I had been to Kiev, Arlin and I had gone to the underground mall and I always perused the cutest shop carrying clothes for none other than… CeCe!!!
I had several outfits picked out, but Arlin never let me indulge. We were her for kids NOT the dog. Well, up until now, she HAD been my only child!
I managed to get across to Oksana about the shop, and she had fallen in love with CeCe from the pictures. So, we went out on our first shopping expedition as mother and daughter.
She needed boots as well. Kiev is not the place to be shopping, even at 70% off; it’s like buying on Madison Avenue, NYC and saying, “It’s a deal!” NOT!
She picked out several things for CeCe on top of a Juicy Couture carrying case I had been eyeing for 10 months, but we had to settle on ONE outfit and the purse. It is PINK of course :)
She picked out the absolutely cutest snow outfit for her, the snow pants attached to the snow coat; I have pictures with her sporting this new outfit as soon as I’m able to get them up on CeCe's corner, too cute!
She found a pair of boots, quite the style for Ukraine; she was ‘in’ for sure here. But they didn’t have her size. We would have to come back tomorrow, although, our taxi left at 11am for the airport for our 2pm flight, and the store did not open until 10am, that meant we would have to hurry because we also had to get more cash. They only accepted cash and I didn’t have enough for the boots, and CeCe’s things. We had already made one trip to the bank, but used it all on CeCe. Now before you go off thinking I went wild, I didn’t, but I don’t like to carry a large amount of cash with me if I’m running around without Dima. He’s my body guard!
We finished shopping and headed quickly back to the apartment to meet the driver to head out. HOME FINALLY!!!
Uneventful drive to the airport, normal 2 hour wait for plane, and for ONCE a plane half empty to London. Oh my, we could lie down! And a quick 45 minute layover in London, record for me, usually 3 hours or more, and on to the next leg of the journey home on another airbus that was HALF empty!! We each had an entire row of seats to ourselves!! She slept the entire way, I couldn’t sleep at all, remember it’s day time for us.
Arrived early actually into Dulles with Arlin, Valera, Maggie and her daughter Christina waiting with balloons, gifts, signs... it was lovely.
And now I’m tired of typing this saga, it was a long 3 hour drive home; we arrived to the house at midnight. I’m ready to stay home for a few months!
CeCe was ecstatic of course, and we both loved on her, Oksana fell in love with her just from the pictures, she was excited to hold her for the first time!
And that’s it folks, an abrupt ending to this part of the journey, I will update with stories as I have LOTS since we’ve come home.
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