After our last visit to Kramatorsk to see the little girls named Angelina and Viktoria we headed back to Kyiv with high hopes for our third and final appointment at the SDA. This time we couldn`t get a train ticket so we flew from Donetsk back to Kyiv. This was a real treat!! :-) The airport was very old "Russian" atmosphere where half of the lights in the terminal didn`t work, sorta dirty and just kinda spooky. Gail said the bathrooms were the worst she had seen. Made us wonder what to expect when it came time for the plane ride. We weren`t to be dissappointed as the plane was as we had expected. Not bad but not exactly "new" shall we say. Well, we made it it back to Kyiv in one piece anyways. We spent the week touring various things in and around the city with John and Charlene (our friends from Kentucky) . This time we had an apartment above a bakery about a block away from the main square and had access to alot of things within walking distance.
After another "typical" week in Kyiv we were off to our final appointment at the SDA to look through some more files and to tell them about a certain child in Kramatorsk that we had by chance stumbled upon and to request her file for viewing. Let me back up a bit here- when we had left the orphanage the last time we had made a favorable impression on the people there by helping Angelina get the exams she needed. If you remember our last post we "accidentally" met a little 2 1/2 year old by the name of Oksana that we " felt" we might have a chance at. We were told that if we asked for her file we would have to be shown it.
Luba was so confident that things would work out that she was at the train station during our appointment and her sister went with us to the meeting. When we got there we were greeted with the smiling friendly faces of the caseworkers who were more than willing to help us as much as they could. No- not really, they didn`t like us at the first appointments and this one was to be no different. We were shown basically the same files we had seen at the two previous appointments and nothing else. At that point we reached into our sleeve and pulled out our "ACE". We asked to see the file on Oksana at the Kramatorsk orphanage. Holy cow, you would have thought the world was ending. They made every excuse in the book why they would not be able show us her file. We heard that we weren`t ready to adopt and we should be happy to take the other choices that they offered us. We were not ready to be parents. In short they refused to show us Oksana`s file.
After this arguing went on for our entire appointment I was fit to be tied and told the lady to give us the sheet of paper to sign off on because we were going home. We had enough! That was the only request they granted us. As we were signing off the SDA lady said we were the third appointment today to sign off. Gee what a surprise!! In a few short minutes we were outta there and on our way back to the apartment. It was the first time I've ever heard Gail say, " Give me one of those cigarettes and let's get a drink!!" Let's just say she was ticked. We called John and Charlene and told them we had struck out and wanted to go get a bite to eat.
Keep in mind that they are 8 hours ahead of U.S. time so when it was 5:00pm there it was still 9:00 am here so we had quite a bit of time to get back to our apartment and book tickets home. We met up with the Kentucky crew and their translator at Wato`s restaurant down the street from our apartment. We had supper , a few cocktails and told them about our day and how we were so discouraged at the process in Ukraine. Their translator then told us of an appeal process that we could do the next day where we could go back to the SDA and try to get them to change their minds. She also stated that this works only once in every thousand tries. We really didn`t know what to do but figured what the heck- as long as we are here we might as well give it a whirl. We tried to call Luba that night but she was already in bed by that time and we had not even gotten a chance to see her after the big rejection as she was at the train station. When we got back to our apartment that night we called any and all contacts in Ukraine and in the States to see how we should handle this. With good advice in hand we went to bed. Right away the next day Luba called us and somehow she already knew what we were up to and told us to meet her at the SDA at I believe 2:00.
We made it to the SDA and met Luba there. We got in there and we were to meet with the head honcho type lady. She came out and wouldn`t even let us in her office. There we were standing on the dreadded steps again. Gail gave me "the look" and basically told me to shut up because the woman wouldn't want to hear the words of any man!! :-) We stood on the stairway as Gail argued with this gal for quite awhile as we listened to the reasons why we couldn`t have Oksana.
- too young for us to adopt, we said we had already seen at least two kids that were younger than six but they said the rules changed this week. hmmmm Once again, rules change by the minute.
- too healthy for adoption to American couples. We said she isn`t and needed eye surgery for her eye. By this time Gail thought if they think she is a doctor, now is the time to use it. She stated she had colleaques that could give Oksana the medical needs that she needed. That argument didn`t work.
- We weren`t Jewish. Never did figure that one out
-We could redo some of our paperwork and then come back on a Monday. We stated that laws may change again and that we've spent enough time in Ukraine. Gail said she needed to get back to her patients. (At this point, they didn't need to know it was just to clean peoples teeth.)
Anyways, we argued for quite some time and it became apparent that it wasn`t going to work. Luba then told us to go to lobby and talk with her a bit. When we got there she thought that if we got a letter faxed to the SDA from our buddy the director at the orphanage stating that Oksana needed immediate eye surgery that it might change their minds. She called him and he sent it right away and we met with the gal again. Nope- that didn`t work either. The lady told us to come back at 4:oo and she would give us a answer. Gail told her we did not want to leave and that we would wait downstairs. We regrouped and were ready to call it quits as it was getting quite late by that time and Luba said. You guys sit here and I will talk with her alone one last time. It got to be 5:00 and here came Luba and she said "Craig, Gail we leave now we are done here" We said okay....., are we going to go for supper or what ? She said " NO!!! We go to get your daughter, she is yours!!!" Holy Crap!! Not what we had expected but somehow she had pulled it off. We grabbed a cab to get train tickets and got our stuff packed as quick as we could because the train left in 45 minutes. Somehow we made it but it was very close. We were on our way to Kramatorsk. We will never know what was said in that last little meeting but whatever it was it worked.We arrived at the now familiar train station and just barely caught our train. This time Gail and I were not able to ride with Luba in the same berth. As we got on the train we noticed a gawd awful smell coming from somewhere. That somewhere was Luba`s "roommate" for the ride. A big old Russian guy that had been drinking and was eating this awful smelling fish on the little table in her room. We wished her luck and went to find our roommates. We ended up with an older gentleman that was some kind of play director and a young gal that was a student. We had an uneventful trip and the next morning when we pulled into Donetsk we were greeted by a very weary looking Luba. Not only did this guy smell like fish, he also had a tendency to snore after he had been drinking and Luba wasn`t able to get any sleep.
Once we arrived at Kramatorsk we went straight to the orphanage to see the little girl that was to become Briley. We went to her groupa but she wasn`t there as she was getting checked out on a lower floor by the doctor. Pretty soon a caregiver came with her and another little girl and the caregiver told Oksana that her mama and papa had come to get her. Briley was getting checked over because she along with all the other kids had colds. Another thing was Gail tried to give Briley a little stuffed bear and all Briley could say was nyet nyet as she didn`t want it :-). After a short visit we got aquainted with the apartment we were to call home for the next 4 weeks.
COMING NEXT- OUR STAY IN KRAMATORSK
WE PROMISE IT WON`T TAKE AS LONG AS LAST TIME!!!!
