Ukraine Adoption Stories

Wrighttrip

August 2, 2004
We had an exciting beginning to our journey today. Debbie and I were surprised with visits from many of our family. We shared time together and had a prayer before Debbie's parents took us to the airport. Upon arrival at the Northwest ticket counter we were greeted by the Rowes, the Davidsons, Kathy and Nancy. We received a dossier from Nancy to take along with us and new instructions regarding our money belts. The flights and connections went very well. Our anxiety increased during the last leg of the trip when we were instructed to complete immigration forms and customs declarations. The airport in Kiev was

bustling with activity. We had no problems and quickly found our hosts Gayla and Eegor. We arrived at the flat and decided on TGI Fridays for dinner, but later we ended up at an Ukrainian place.

August 3, 2004
Today we went shopping and bought some groceries. We have our appointment at the Adoption Center at 5:15 p.m. We pray that everything goes well. Please lift us up in your prayers.

August 4, 2004
We got a late start and were able to catch a little extra sleep. That worked out OK because our contacts were a little late too. We first set to go to the grocery to buy a few essentials. Then we left to go to the market on Anders Street where we were able to buy some gifts. We had lunch at a fast food type restaurant and headed back to the flat before meeting our facilitator. The facilitator Sverta and driver Victor picked us up to head to the Adoption Center (AC) for our appointment. We waited for a while and finally made it to a long hall (seven different doors) and waited a while longer. We looked through many pictures and were unable to find a child that touched our hearts. Then, Sverta and the adoption counselor talked briefly and found another child she showed to us. This child was born premature (3.5 pounds) and is small for her size currently. She is 17 months old and weighs about 13 pounds. She is healthy with some developmental delays. We decided to have our facilitator call the orphanage to discuss her current status. If we like what we hear we can go ahead with the referral. If all goes well we will leave Sunday evening. We continue to pray for Gods will. We were dropped off at the flat. We had an interesting dinner (bread, cheese, pringles, fruit cups, and cracker jacks) YUM! We are busy doing research on developmental percentiles.

August 5, 2004
We had Cheerios for breakfast and waited for the phone call from Sveta. She called about 10:10 a.m. and told us what the Dr. at the orphanage said. It was positive report and we determined that we would go and see this child to see if we had a connection. Victor picked us up 30 minutes later and we were off to sign Sveta power of attorney.

August 5th cont.
We came back to the apartment and Gayla helped us locate the local internet cafe, post office, and place where Debbie could buy a pair of jeans. The temperature was in the mid seventies for the high. We thought it would be warmer if Debbie had some jeans because she only brought one pair of pants. Debbie really did not want to wear the same pair of pants every day for three to four weeks. She has some new snazzy jeans. Let's just say they seem to enjoy tight jeans. We came back and had dinner at McDonald's because that is the only thing close. We went back to the room for a relaxing evening with reading, playing cards, and games.

 

 

 

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