Next Steps

The Big Day went well and the appointment was quite successful. There, I gave you the big news up-front :)

Sasha picked us up at 10:20am and we headed to the SDA, together with Valentina. Olga was waiting for us in-front of St. Andrei’s Church. We made our way in from the back entrance, through the barely-6-foot tall door and waited by the stairs as several people went in and out. There was a decent amount of space dedicated to the guard area (not sure why a guard is required, but you never know!), yet none for waiting. As Valentina, Olga and other facilitators chatted in Russian, Lori and I stood there staring clueless. Finally at 11:00am they called us and we swiftly marched up the stairs and into one of the offices.

A young lady all dressed in black greeted us with a pleasant smile and asked us a few questions, such as where we’re from, our work, hobbies etc. and Olga translated as we conversed. After explaining why we wanted to adopt from Ukraine and after giving her a thorough answer as we re-iterated our preferences, she started showing us one file at a time, carefully explaining the health status of each child. We were shown 7 individual files and 2 sibling-group files (twins). Now let me tell you…when we go to a restaurant with a big menu, I can’t take a decision, so imagine what this felt like! I’m not comparing this to ordering food by the way, but stay with me for a while here. How can you pick? It was not an easy task and deep inside you feel “dirty” for choosing one over the other. Anyway, Lori and I went back and forth, asked more questions, refreshed our memory with some details by asking Olga to translate, and then after almost an hour we finally we made our pick.

So tomorrow at 4 to 5pm we will return to the SDA to collect our referral and make travel plans for Sunday night or Monday morning. In the meantime we’ll kill time by enjoying the gorgeous Spring sights of Kiev and act like tourists for a while.

After the appointment we took some photos. The day was quite chilly and Lori wouldn’t stop moaning that she was freezing (typical Texas resident in 60 degree weather), so I was a gentlemen and gave her my jacket. From left to right…unknown guy, Valentina, Olga and Lori; look at those shoulders! You can also see the church of St. Andrei in the background.

Next Valentina took the mandatory photo with the SDA building in the background.

Oh, I “forgot” to reveal details about our choice. We picked 4 1/2 year old twins, a boy and a girl. We won’t discuss anything else until a) we meet them next week and b) if we decide to pursue, until the adoption is final, so keep on reading!