Getting closer

The last few days have been very busy with lots of running around getting documents done.

Olga came on Monday afternoon to pick up the court decree, but that didn’t work out as the judge wasn’t there. So that lengthened everything one more day and we had to pick it up on Tuesday at 2pm. Without it we couldn’t get the new birth certificates, so instead we left early on Wednesday morning at 4:45am. The journey to the birth town took about 2 1/2 hours. By 7:30am we were waiting outside the window of the registry building and at slightly after 8am, a lady came out and called us in (ahhh, expediting fees). By 10am we were ready and out of the office. Then we took the hour journey to Dnepropetrovsk to get the certificates legalized. Traffic is quite bad in there. We left the paperwork there (with grease-money) and went for lunch. Then we went back to pick up the finished certificates and left to return to Nikopol around 3pm.

Today it was passports day. We had more paperwork to sign at the orphanage in the morning, sorted out some complications due to Isaac’s medications and went to notarize some passport documents. Around noon we took the kids out to take pictures. The first leg of the trip was fine and they both did quite well. Then we rode a taxi to old-town Nikopol, where the passport office is, and the fidgeting began. Isaac did better than Isabella, but she was super-hyper, wanting to touch everything, bothering strangers trying to get their attention (mainly for seeing what they’re carrying in their bags!). Overall the car ride was ok and Isaac was quite focused.

At the office, we needed to take digital photos and sign documents. It was quite a feat to get Isaac to focus on the camera and close his mouth. The ladies were very nice and patient with all of us. After some candy and about 10 attempts at a picture, it was Isabella’s turn. In the meantime, I struggled to keep her in check as she was wanting to touch everything and tried to turn off the power strips a couple of times! Olga was quite surprised at her behavior (poor Isaac, we all think he’s the troubled one and instead, Isabella was worse!!) and I could tell she was really looking forward for this to be over. We took turns holding the kids as I was required to sign documents a few times. Anyway, we finally managed to wrap things up and took the kids back to the orphanage around 1:15pm.

After a quick little salad and some cold drinks at Celentano, we headed back to the passport office to see if we could get the documents completed. The plan was to drive the documents directly to Dnepropetrovsk to make the process go faster, but it wasn’t going to happen. At least we had the documents in hand around 3:45pm and then a guy took us to the police department for some more signatures and handed us the completed files. At around 4:10pm we walked back to the orphanage in what easily felt like 100F temperatures (might have been 98 but the humidity was higher today). Olga finished some more paperwork at the Orphanage and I went to have fun and sweat one more time with the twin’s group. Alla was there today, and that’s always more fun.

So tomorrow should be the big day. The plan is to go sign more documents in the morning at the orphanage, buy some gifts for the kids and caregivers, get groceries and food, and then take the twins out in their new clothes. Olga will take the 2 hour trip to Dnepropetrovsk to get the passports in the pipeline (and hopefully get a date of completion), go to the hospital to settle some issues with Isaac’s prescription so we can buy medicine from a local pharmacy, and then take the train to Kiev. I’m hoping we’ll have passports on Tuesday, at which time we can travel back to Kiev to finish up the medicals and Visas. If we have an estimate by tomorrow, I’ll call Continental to see if they will let me “hold” the kid’s seats, but I doubt it. I’m not booking till I can physically see the passports!