The day began at 3:30 am when I woke Dianne to get ready to leave for the airport. The cab arrived as scheduled at 4am. It was very sad to see her go. We had come so far together and now to say goodbye before it was over just didn't seem right. We hugged and off she went. I went back up to the apartment alone. It felt so weird. I felt so alone. I had a big day ahead of me so I tried to lay back down. I did finally fall asleep. The alarm went off about 7am. I woke and got ready for the big day. My appointment was at 930. It was very crowded outside with hundreds of people waiting to get in for visas. I was allowed to go right in as an American citizen. Tola and Igor had to wait outside. I took everything in and a Kind lady named Lilia went through all of the paperwork with me. She helped me fill in the places I wasn't sure of. We then discovered that Tola had forgotten to give me pictures of the girls. So I still needed to bring these back as well as the medicals and passports. She tole me to return at 2pm with the girls. So we left there and went to the passport place to pick up the passports. But guess what - they were not ready. So we left there after nearly an hour and went to the orphanage to get the girls and take them to their medicals. When we arrived at the orphanage at approx 1145 they came running out in the same pretty dresses from yesterday. They were very excited to go in the "beep beep" again. We got in the car and headed out. They were very excited as you can see by the pictures below.
So we arrive for the medicals and have to wait in a waiting room with several other people. They are so excited and try talking to everyone. Then Marina needs to use the "tualet". So I take Marina to the bathroom and discover she has a diaper on. This was a first. But I take it off and she goes like a big girl. I put the diaper back on just in case and pull her panties back up. Vika then comes in but says she can't go. We go back out and they weigh them and measure them. Back out to the waiting room. They are acting out very badly and will not listen to Igor or myself. Then a woman in the waiting room(another family's facilitator) started talking to Marina in Ukranian and Marina obeyed. Vika continued to do just what she wanted. She can be very stubborn. We are finally called in to see the Doctor. At first Vika did not want to take her dress down for the doctor to listen to her chest. Marina jumped right up and he listened to her lungs and heart. Then used a flashlight to look at their eyes, and mouth and ears-no otoscope-it was really a joke. Vika then allowed him to do the same to her. We walked out and it cost me $120 a piece. But they won't give us the paperwork until we bring back the passports. So we leave there and head to the passport place. But it is now lunch time. So we wait there in the parking lot for them to return. We wait over a half an hour and Tola finally goes in. We wait some more. The girls and I sing songs-The itsy bitsy spider, Twinkle twinkle little star and Head and shoulders knees and toes over and over. Tola finally returns and gets in the car. He talks to Igor in Ukranian and neither say anything to me but I can tell there are no passports therefore no medical papers. We head back to the embassy for our 2:00 appt for which we are late. But we still need their pictures--I thought Tola already had them but no we have to go get their pictures taken and wait for them to print. We wait and wait and finally Tola comes back. Now I need to go inside the embassy. Igor will ask if he can go in with me to help with the girls. We asked the guards and they saw how active the girls were and allowed him to go in with me. They took Marina's toy phone from her and she was not happy about it. Anyway upstairs we go. We turn in the paperwork and explain that we still don't have the passports or medicals. Again the girls caused chaos in the waiting room. One of the same families from the medicals was again with us. They were very nice to the girls. We finally meet with the counselor and I am sworn in and I sign some papers and they tell us to come back first thing in the morning with the passports and medicals. We leave there and try once again for the passports but no such luck. We finally take the girls back to the orphanage and it is after 4pm. They have not had lunch and missed their naps. They are hot and tired and hungry. I kissed them both and promised to be back tomorrow to take them home. Now once again I am in the dark about the passports but once in the car one of the caretakers from the orphanage joins us and Igor explains that in order to get the passports the orphanage needs to sign some paper releasing them. It is just another crazy step. We go to some office which is crowded and hot. We wait and wait and wait again. After an hour of waiting I am realizing we are not going to get the passports and medicals before 6pm. Finally Tola comes out and tells us to go ahead and leave on the subway and he will finish there and go get passports. On the subway Tola calls and says he got the passports but we will have to pick the medicals up in the morning on the way to the Embassy.
That is the way this journey has gone all along. Nothing has been easy. Something that should take a minutes takes days. Oh and by the way I had to pay extra to get the passports expedited--Well I finally did get them today--But if we don't get to the Embassy early they will leave--they are actually closed and are only coming in to pass out Visas and then they are leaving. Please pray we don't have any trouble getting the medicals. Pray that the final embassy appt is good and we get the visas. Pray as I take the girls out of the orphanage for the last time and take them to the apartment to get cleaned up and eat and sleep. Pray as we wake them at 3am and take them to the airport. Pray that they obey me and don't try to run away from me during the trip home. Pray that I have some control over them. Pray they don't get sick on the plane. Pray they sleep. Pray that when I finally make it to New york that I can get through customs, immigration, claim luggage, recheck luggage and go through security and not lose the girls in less than 2 hrs before out next flight leaves. Please just pray, pray, pray!
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