The 10-Day waiting period was ROUGH!!! There were many factors involved but ultimately....it was down right miserable. No need to sugar coat it for you. At one point I felt like just going home....it was THAT rough. But many people prayed for me and with me and kept me going through my tears. #1 piece of advice....don't take it personal. (I actually giggled as I wrote that because I'm all about getting my feelings hurt). When it comes to my kids, I'm a sensitive person. I HATE being the disciplinarian because I can't standing thinking my kids are mad at me. But..... you put on your "Big Girl Panties" and you do what you gotta do. Well let me just tell ya, if I coulda burned those stinkin "Big Girl Panties" last week....I'd be singing Kumbaya by a bonfire right now.
So our 10-day period was up on Tuesday, 12/24. She wanted Tuesday to be her last day of school and her last night at the orphanage. I was ok with that. I spent Tuesday running around with the facilitator anyway getting paperwork. We got the court decree, traveled to her birth city (an hour away) and got a new birth certificate, came back to her city and did a few other things. That night I took her 2 cakes, soda and mandarins for her and the other kids. I also made each kid a photo album with a bunch of pictures I had taken on my pervious trip.
We arrived at her orphanage on Wednesday, Christmas morning, at 6:30 am. She had her suitcase ready. It was a hard good-bye for her and her friends. She had lived with some of these kids for 7 years. She got in the car and cried as we drove off. It was gut wrenching. I held her. Then, she fell asleep.
We drove the 2 hours to the capital city of her region. There we filed for her new ID number and petitioned for a new passport. Then we drove to the airport to buy airplane tickets to Kiev. Money well spent! We landed in Kiev around 6pm and I couldn't be happier to be back at the missionaries' house. Hallelujah!!!! (Hahaha, get it??)
We Skyped with Papa right away and we did our family Christmas. Our girls at home opened up their gifts while E opened up the gifts I brought for her. E seeing her Papa and sisters and Nonna and PeaPaw, was the happiest I have seen her in 2 weeks!!!!
Thursday we woke up bright and early to go to the US Embassy to do paperwork for her to be declared our relative and eventually get her Visa. It was easy. BTW, she was fascinated by the electronic fingerprint machine.
Then we headed off to get her medical exam. And like that....we were done. Like done, as in the only thing keeping me from getting the paperwork done to fly home, is receiving her passport. But here's comes the hang-up. We are praying that we receive her passport Tuesday morning so we can pick-up the result of her medical exam, take the results to the US Embassy, so they will issue her Visa and we can GO HOME!!! If this does not happen, then we are stuck here until after January 8th. All government offices in Ukraine, including our fine US Embassy, are shut down from January 1 through 7! Yep, just sit her and twiddle my thumbs for a week. E is doing better (comparatively speaking) here in Kiev but she NEEDS her Papa!!! You can see it on her face when she says good-bye to him on Skype. We need to get home!!!
Please join us in prayer that we have that ever so beautiful Ukrainian passport in our hands bright and early Tuesday morning.
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