A VERY LONG DAY-Wednesday, July 11th.

Let me begin with the important matter. After a lot of wonder and anticipation, we finally met the boy around noon on Wednesday. Both our daughters were fully sold on adopting him. God bless them for having such open hearts. He was quite sweet and cute which made the decision a little more difficult for me and Tami. Unfortunately, he had unexpected health problems. Quite simply, we are not prepared to adopt a child with these types of health issues. We had to say no.

The day began around midnight when we boarded a train from Kyiv to Khmelnytsky. The sleeper car had four pull down beds where we slept most of the way which helped speed up the five and a half hour trip. Around 5:30 AM, we exited the train with lots of time to kill. Our first meeting was at nine.

If Kyiv is like New York, then Khmelnytsky is like Fresno. It is the agricultural hub of the region and does not offer much for tourists. It was nice to see this part of the country as well.

Basically, this day was all about waiting. We waited for a while at the social workers office. Then, we waited for a hours at the orphanage. Then, we waited for a couple more hours for the orphanage director to complete her post visit report. Then, we scrambled in the pouring rain from one place to another so we could complete the post visit paper work before the end of the business day.

You see, time was critical because we needed to get back to Kyiv. The SDA (State Department of Adoption) only accepts requests for second appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At 4:15, we were done. So, we bolted for the train station to catch a 4:45 train. You guessed it. We missed the train. So, we ended up taking a 6:00 bus back to Kyiv which proved to be a far less desirable way to travel.

In a way, missing the train was a blessing because it gave us a chance to eat. Remember, we are spoiled Americans. We get irritable when we miss a meal or two. Fortunately, we found a pizza place near the train station where we ate our first meal of the day.

The bus was packed with people sitting and standing. Perhaps, the most interesting part of the trip was the three or four congestion problems we faced. The traffic was not bad at all compared to Orange County. Our problem was related to a large bovine creature. On several occasions, hundreds and hundreds of cows blocked the road. They were NOT crossing the road. They were walking down the road seriously impeding traffic. The driver honked and honked for about fifteen minutes each time until he was finally able to squeeze through an opening in between these darn animals. Amazingly, we all slept on the ride back despite our comfort level. We were exhausted.

We arrived in Kyiv at 10:30 and jumped in a taxi to get us to our new apartment. While we were loading the vehicle, a mentally ill man started yelling at our translator. I thought he was going to hit Kostya. To top things off, he repeatedly kept trying to get into our taxi.

We arrived at our new apartment just before midnight. It too is very nice. We all quickly crawled into bed and enjoyed a good night’s sleep. Today, we are taking it easy. We will be leaving for the SDA in a little bit to see when we can get a second referral. Thanks for your support.