Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Recap- Our last days in Kramatorsk

Man- Time slips away without doing the things a guy thinks he will have time to do. We still have quite a few people checking in every day so we`ll try to get on the stick and finish our recap. Looking forward to showing how things are going now after 3 years but we had better finish the recap first.
- After arriving in Kramatorsk for the conclusion of our journey we knew we had to do the following things to finally bring Briley home.
- court appointment
- birth cert. stuff
- passport stuff
- 10 day waiting period
- load up and get home
After a few days in town we were able to schedule a hearing with the judge and do the paperwork with that. While this was getting done we settled into a routine. We would leave for the orphanage every morning at about 9, arrive at the orphanage, have Briley put on a "good" set of clothing, pick out a pair of "community" shoes, take Briley to the playroom, play a bit, feed her the food that we smuggled in and just "get aquainted with her".
Some of the things that we learmed during this time.
- oranges are bad for children
- you can catch cold from looking out the window at the snow
- no matter how warm it is in the building it is good to have the child in 7 layers of clothes.
The worst and best part of these visits were when we would get up to her "groupa". We would come to the door and every single little boy and girl would come running and grab onto your legs saying " momma and papa" thinking that you were coming to get them. There are some little faces that we will never ever forget and will always wonder if their momma and papa ever did come and get them! After a couple of days Briley would see the kids coming to greet us and she would push them away saying that we are her momma and papa and not theirs. Sorta cute but heartwrenching all at the same time.
After playing with her for about an hour and a half we would take her back so she could have dinner that we could smell cooking in the corridors. More often than not it was a "soup" of sorts made with chicken and potatoes. As we had stated earlier alot of these kids had little hair from the lack of protein.
After the morning visit we would head out and stop by the BUM market to get what we needed for a meal or two. Some of the things that we miss now are the crab flavored potato chips, the juices, mushroom flavored chips, the maslo (butter), great bakery bread, fresh cabbage salads, pickles, sausages, fruits and quite a few things that we don`t miss such as the limited meats, the carp in the tanks, and the milk that didn`t taste like ours. One of the odd things we noticed was that the people there would go daily to the market and buy just what they need for the day, while we would come in and fill up a basket for a few days. People looked at us sorta goofy sometimes because of this. We would check out and give them a 200 gryvna note ( about $25.00) and sometimes they had to get change at another register. People as a rule did not have that much money at a time to spend on groceries. While at the market we would get a 2-3 gallon jug of water also because the only other way to get drinking water was off of the truck that would go around to the apartments and fill jugs and this looked to be a little more "safe".
After that we would go back to our apartment and catch up on our emails and our blog and maybe take a nap. At about 2:30 we would head back to see Briley and repeat the morning. When we would leave after the afternoon vist it was sorta surreal walking down the streets. there wasnt as much lighting as we were used to, sidewalks were typically slushy, and was for lack of a better term "cool"
After a few days we had to get ready to go to our court hearing. there wa$ a few thing$ that made u$ $ure that it would go well in court. We arrived in a building that was I believe 4 stories and really not all that that large. This courthouse served the whole region along with the 250,000 people in Kramatorsk. Sorta made us wonder why we need all the courthouse space at home with a fraction of the people. Anyways, we sat in the hall until we were called and when we were called in there was the orphange lawyer, the "county attorney" type guy, the judge and a stenographer. We had to explain why we should be able to adopt, our yearly income, what we do etc, etc. The judge was a big burly guy and we sincerely think he was happy a child was finding a home. We were asked to leave and wait in the hall until he made his decision and after awhile we had to go back in and he read a "verdict" that said he felt this was ok to happen and then he congratulated us and wished us well. If I remember correctly that afternoon we went to the town of Stravansk for some reason and we stopped to eat at a very nice ski chalet type restaurant. We were the only people in there which wasnt uncommon with the lack of money to go out to eat. After we ordered they brought us basket of bread, a plate of lard to put on the bread and a pitcher of "water". Yup- they had to bring us butter because there was no way Gail and I were going to use lard and then we found out that the water in the pitcher wasn`t water, it was home brewed vodka. It was evidently customary to do some "salutes" to celebrate special events. :-) We saluted a few times and to be quite honest the vodka was actually pretty tasty.
We had commented in our blog that it was like the movie Groundhog Day with the routine we settled into. Very mundane and little difference from one day to the next. Our highlights were reading the e-mails frome home and our skype visits with our boys back home. It could be 4 in the morning there so that would be 8 at night at home. Our little chime on the computer would go off when we were getting an e-mail and more often than not I would get up to read it. Another sound that we will never forget is the sound of an incoming skype call. The kids would skype us sometimes in the morning before they got on the bus and sometimes in the evening. Without skype it would have really sucked as we missed the boys immensely. It got to the point at the end that our cat would even jump up on the desk with the boys when he heard our voices and at one point Tory was hugging the computer screen.
But anyways the ten day waiting period where any of Oksana`s family member could protest the adoption was within 2 days of being up. we were on our way to the orphanage on a Sunday morning when the cell phone rang. Now keep in mind, I went from 100+ calls a day at work on the cell to never ringing at all over there. It was Luba and I`ll never forget the conversation. "Craig, we have a problem, Oksana`s groupa has the chicken pox and they need to know if you and Gail have had it before". I stated we had both had it so that was no problem and that was when she dropped the bomb. "this will delay your departure until the pox is gone and we don`t know how long that will be and you must keep it quiet so the orphanage is not quarantined for 30 days". Great, just great!!! But there wasn`t much we could do but keep walking to the orphanage. we arrived there and the kids were definitely not feeling well but didn`t look too bad. After a few days they started getting the pox all over their bodies and guess who the worst one was- yup, Briley! During this time we had the opportunity to fill the "wish list" for Anatoly the director. We bought the orphanage oodles of clothes, underwear, drugs and other stuff that they could not afford. The only thing that bothered us a bit was after we delivered the stuff we never did see it being used. It almost seemed like they hoard the good stuff.
Finally, finally, finally we were given the all clear to take Briley home. On the day we left the orphange we brought juice and cookies for the groupa. When we left with her we`ll never forget the one caretaker holding Briley and crying, because I`m sure they get attached to the kids too and I`m sure she was happy for her also. As we left the orphange we had Vlad videotape it so we`ll have to put that up when we post all of our pictures.
Luba was in Kyiv making arrangements and we told her to stay there and we could make the train trip on our own. Vlad took us to Stravansk to board as they allowed more time there to board than in Kramatorsk. That was another surreal time because we were waiting in the train station that was largely deserted, no buiildings were open really, it was just a siding to load, a light snow was falling, sorta dim lights again and we had 100 things going through our minds. We had a new daughter, a solo train ride coming in a strange country, having to say goodbye to our friend Vlad that we had become good friends with, our upcoming paperwork in Kyiv and above all our trip home to Collin and Tory.
Finally a train came pulling in and Vlad said that that one was ours. we boarded, found our room and said our goodbyes to Vlad and departed for Kyiv one last time. The berth was once again very warm so we took all the layers off of Briley and it wasn`t long and she was dozing as were we. We arrived early the next morning(Monday) and were greeted by Luba to be taken to an apartment. We couldn`t do anything that day as it was a Ukrainian holiday I believe like the Ides of March.
After laying around a bit we met up with our Kentucky friends and spent most of the day touring a little bit, getting some last minute souvenirs at our favorite souvenir salesman "Danny boy" and psyching ourselves up to go home. Our plan for Tuesday was for Gail to take Briley to get a physical so she could get her passport while I went and did all the paperwork at the embassy.
When we arrived at the embassy early Tuesday morning we were greeted with a very long line of people waiting to get through the guard shack/ check-in area. Once they they found out we were Americans we were ushered right to the front of the line, way cool!! Once in this little building we were asked why we were there, searched, removed things and finally let go into the embassy. This was the first time in two months that we were surrounded by English speaking people and it was sort of a shock. We were shown where to go to find our paperwork and given a set of instructions on how to do it. I asked the rude old biddy what happens when I have a question, her reply was to fill it out and if was wrong then and only then could we talk with her. What a *****! Anyways, here I am in this room all by myself for a bit until other adoption type people started coming in to do there paperwork. The paperwork wasn`t too bad but it did take quite awhile to get done. Upon completion I had to go see my favorite gal again and she was still a *****! I told her that Gail would be coming with the physical results so Briley`s passport could be done in a bit. She then told me not to be in any hurry because it takes at least one full day to process the paperwork so we should plan on leaving on Thursday at the earliest. After 8 weeks in Ukraine I had had enough and by the time we got done "visiting" I was taken off of her Christmas dinner list! With the paperwork done I left the embassy to stroll out and check out the long line of people and check out the embassy building. While standing there I thought it would be sorta cool to take a picture of the embassy because it is a very nice building which seems out of place in that neighborhood. I got out the camera, turned it on and had time to take one good breath of air when I looked up and saw 2 armed guards rushing at me!!! Holy crap!!! For a minute there I thought I would get to visit a Ukranian jail for a day or two. The American guards were actually quite polite and asked if I had taken a picture, I stated that as quick as they were and as slow as I run a camera I didn`t have a chance to do so. They did take a quick look at the camera but everything was cool. they explained that they don`t let people take pictures for security reasons. WHEWWW!
Shortly thereafter Gail showed up with the Briley`s physical results and we had to go back in and attach that to my documents that I filled out earlier so they could get processed. When we got in there they could not find my paperwork and finally the lady said "Christenson right?" I said yep and then she said a different first name. Can you believe there was another couple from I believe North Carolina with the same name adopting, and at the embassy the same day we were? Finally they found our paperwork and told us to come back late on Wednesday or early Thursday morning to pick it up. I told the lady that we had plane tickets for early tomorrow morning and we fully intended to be on the flight. She bristled a bit and told me I might just as well cancel the tickets because the visa would never be done by the end of the day. I then told her that I would be checking in throughout the day to see if the paperwork was done and she told me not to waste my time!! Yup- I was getting teed off at this point. She did give us a sealed package that was "Double Dog Top Secret" that we could not open, that we had to give to immigration upon landing in Chicago. After a little more bickering we went back to the apartment but I had a driver standing by for a trip to the embassy if I needed one and he knew the importance of it! After many futile phone calls through the day I called one last time at 4:45 and talked with a guy and he asked if my name was Christenson from Ellendale, MN?? YES I WAS!!! He said the visa was just coming in as we spoke and I said I AM ON MY WAY!! He told me that if I wasn`t there by 5:00 that the gates were locked and we would have to come back tomorrow.
After a quick call to my driver he showed up for our Ukrainian Indy Car Adventure Ride. We went barrelling through the streets like a chase scene in a movie and pulled up to the embassy gates at exactly 5:01. As the man had said it was locked up tight!! I manage to get a guard`s attention and explained that I needed a visa that was inside. After talking with someone else he told me over the P.A. that I could use the phone on the outside wall, dial a number and get the receptionist. I did so and got the receptionist that sounded alot like the ***** that I had to deal with in the morning. She told me quite emphatically that they were closed for the day and to come back tomorrow. I then told her basically to get off her butt, walk down the hall 50 ft. to the office where my visa was and to see if anyone was there. There was a stretch of silence followed by a "hrumph" and she said that they would see me now! The guards let me in and within 2 minutes I had the visa and we were officially on our way home!!! That night we went out with John, Char and Maxim from Kentucky and had our last meal in Ukraine at our favorite restaurant Wato`s. After saying our good byes we left to finish packing and get ready to leave in the morning.
At 4:00 am our doorbell rang and Luba`s sister was there to get us to the airport. Luba was already assisting another couple with another adoption so she couldn`t be there. As we left we drove through town and it was another "Dickens" type of scene in Ukraine! Huge snow flakes were falling, the bright lights of Kyiv were glowing and for lack of a better word it was just plain COOL!! It was at this point also that we both realized we might actually miss this place.
Pretty uneventful at the airport- arrived in Munich a couple hours later and our experience there was much better than our stay in Dusseldorf on the way over. Really nice airport, friendly workers and alot of U.S. servicemen there waiting for planes. Finally we were able to board for Chicago- you know USA,Minnesota,Home, Kids etc,etc,etc!!!! This flight was long!! Briley was getting a little restless, we were sick of travelling and just wanted to get home. Finally arrived in Chicago, had to wait in line at customs with a HUGE amount of people, had our bags sniffed by a drug dog, and finally got to give a lady our "Double Dog Top Secret Package" that had Briley`s paperwork in it. Then- we had 15 minutues to get across the airport to catch our flight to MINNEAPOLIS!!!! Before boarding we again had to go through TSA and this time the guy in charge thought that the sippy cup with a brand new fill of apple juice might make the plane crash so we had to throw it away. No time to argue this time- we were too close to home.
After a short flight we arrived on "home turf" and got our luggage to proceed to the terminal. There was the best sight we had ever seen!!! Collin and Tory with the welcome home signs!!! After a short time we headed home and when we were about home we had to stop at the local convenience store and get a gallon of good old American milk. That in itself was worth the trip home.
And that as they say "Is the rest of the story"!
Stay tuned- we will give you a run down on how things have been going on our next post! And yes believe it or not we really miss Ukraine and can`t wait to go back!!

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