Monday April 26 Scrutiny

This morning we met Olga at some type of government building here in Schors. We were ushered into an office to meet with a well dressed man. This was the meeting where we were just supposed to try and look friendly but he ended up asking me through Katya why we wanted to adopt a Ukrainian child. I hadn’t practiced looking friendly and talking but I think it went OK. Katya and Olga probably improve anything I say anyway. Next time I’ll say we need more help around the house. The guy was definitely eyeballing us the whole time. Olga was blowing kisses at the building after we left so I take that as a good sign.

During the middle of the day we went to the foster home to check email and catch up on updating the blog. I can’t get on the blog but I’m sending everything to Justine by email and she’s doing the rest. There’s a cute little guy there named Koyla who’s around seven and has a little sister Nastya who’s around five but we didn‘t see her in person, just video. They’re both fully adoptable so I took a preemptive strike and told Diane to knock it off even before she said anything. Not surprisingly, she knew what I was talking about and told me “just don’t look into his eyes and we’ll be OK.”

This foster home is amazing. Pasha (also our driver) and Oksana take care of 13 children, including their own. They have obvious love for each other, the children and God so it’s a special place to visit. Their daughter Katya has been our interpreter and we found out she’s getting married next April so they’re very excited about that. We’ll want to find a nice gift.

We went back to the room and upgraded our attire because at 3:00 PM we were going to court to meet the judge. I guess the process is to ask him permission to submit the papers and set a court date before we can consult with the court clerks. This is where the title of the blog “Scrutiny” comes from. He looked at both of us for extended lengths of time including deep into our eyes. He was a good looking man with pretty clear blue eyes and only one gold tooth so I’m developing a small man crush. We’ll see how he’s does in court before I’ll know if this is going anywhere. Olga was happy after this visit too so I guess we passed the test.

We went from there to visit Julianna. She met us at the car as usual, but this time introduced us to a different friend named Alona. Diane said “Oh, another Alona!” Our hopefully newest daughter said, “I not Alona, I Julianna!” I guess she likes her name. We did some crafts and played some Uno. It was a nice visit. She tactfully let me know she would prefer to listen to the music on her ipod so we’ll do that next time. I asked her what kind of music she likes and eventually she came up with russian field music. Interesting.

We got back to the Icebox and Alona R, Gramps and Granny were waiting for us. We offered to take them out to a restaurant but they wanted to take us back to their flat (apartment). Then I tried buying the food at the grocery store but Granny wasn’t having any of that either. Stopped by Alona’s school on the way and took some pictures which was very cool. Julianna called while we were there to check up on us so we had her talk to Alona briefly. We squeezed back in the LADA 1500 to finish our journey home, so named because it takes a lada luck to get where you’re going. Actually I think it’s a russian built car. Grannys door swings open periodically when we’re careening down the road but it doesn’t seem to phase her enough to wear the seat belt.

We had a nice dinner consisting of potato soup, bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken, sausage, cheese, wine, juice, coffee and sweets. Alona informed us Granny believes you need to eat soup every day to keep the plumbing working.

Alona did a nice job as interpreter and they asked several questions about America. They want to know about nutrition, hospitals, salaries, home costs and our criminal justice system. Granny wanted to know if we kill criminals in America. I told her we have capital punishment but it’s rarely used. They don’t do this in Ukraine but Granny’s definitely a big fan of the idea. They were also amazed that we have soup in cans.

They want to take us to Chernigiv to join up with son Wowza and his wife and take a tour of the city and it’s churches. We’ll take all of Wednesday to do this. I’m sure this will be very cool but there’s some real apprehension about an extended trip in the LADA. Should of packed some duct tape for Granny’s door.

On a semi serious note and not to worry anybody but if anything does happen to us I want somebody to finish this process we’ve started. Sorry, but it needed to be said.

I think that about covers it, another great day with our two Ukies.