Together...at last

Whew…what a day! Yesterday, Luba arrived and she met us at the orphanage during our morning visit. She was running here and there making sure everything was in order to pick up our court decree today. She talked with the director of the orphanage and she asked if we wanted to take Emma with us tomorrow (which is today) or wait for the passport to be completed. The director asked us because the Greek couple have decided to keep their daughter in the orphanage while they wait for the passport and she wanted to know if that is what we wanted. We said “We will take our daughter with us tomorrow!!!”. We cannot imagine leaving her there when she is legally able to leave.

This morning we woke up and started the flurry of activity that can only be described as the “wait in the car” phase (though a nice diversion from our usual routine). We remember this well from last time. The only difference is that it is now 100 degrees F instead of 10 degrees F. Not sure which is worse. Our nice driver picked us up at 8 am and he took us to the courthouse where Luba picked up the court decree. It was pretty quick since she had made all the preparations yesterday. With the court decree in hand, we headed to the small town where Emma was born (I don’t know how to spell it but it starts with an M). It is approximately 40km from Nicopol so it was a nice drive through farmlands…which looked like it could be “anywhere” USA. We arrived in a quaint little town…well quaint for Ukraine standards…and we headed to the birth certificate office. Luba got us in quickly (ahead of the several people waiting…don’t know how we always seem to get to the front of the line). I took about an hour to get Emma’s new birth certificate listing us as her parents. When we were ready to leave, Luba translated it for us to ensure it was correct…but they listed me as a citizen on the USA…oops! Sooo back in she went to change it to list Canadian as my citizenship, which only took about 20 minutes (not bad in Ukraine time). Luba then checked the court decree to see if they made the same mistake and they did, so we headed back to Nicopol to the court house. That took about 30 minutes to make the changes then we were off to the notary. Not sure what we were notarizing but we do what Luba tells us and all is well. We made a few more stops for a few more documents before our driver dropped us back a the apartment so we could eat and relax before picking up Emma after 3pm. Luba was off doing some more paperwork (changing tax ID number, and to the Nicopol passport office) while we relaxed. Not sure I’d want her job.

At 4:45 Luba called from the orphanage and asked us to bring Emma’s clothes. We took the 2 block walk for the last time and met her at the front door. We had to sign a few documents to make it official. They brought Emma to us and we dressed her in her new clothes. She was smiling ear to ear!!…and so were we! We went to find the Italian couple to say goodbye. They still have a while to wait yet and they were genuinely happy for us. Our Greek friends were not there because they finally got their passport and they are in Dnipropetrosvk. We are sad that we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. Luba wasn’t feeling well so she returned to the apartment and we walked hand in hand (picture the four of us walking up the street holding hands…it was a moment indeed!!) to the restaurant we went to before court. Unfortunately they didn’t have anyone working that speaks English but so we did our best to order what we had eaten previously. I was able to get our order across by the universal language called “farm animal noises”. …yep…I moo’d, oinked, and clucked!! Our waitress laughed so hard she almost dropped her tray….but it worked…Chris got the steak, I got the pork chop, and the kids got chicken. See, you don’t need to know the language!!

After dinner, we walked passed an outdoor concert that was set up in the main square. Lucas and Emma danced in the street and we stopped for an ice cream. We then returned to the apartment where Lucas immediately introduced his new sister to the lure of DVD’s. Right now we’re enjoying the sounds of laughter from the bedroom and the peace in knowing that our family is finally together…at last!!

Love from Ukraine,
L, C, L & E