Our Growing Family

Trip 2 Day 17
Tuesday June 1

Today was a whirlwind of a day. We started out at the birth certificate office next to the motel. Our role for the day was to try and keep up with Nastya, sit and wait until needed and then sign our names repeatedly without explanation.

The big surprise came at the bank where we found out that Julianna had about $25,000 grivna in her accounts (~ $3,000 USD). Not so surprising was that they wouldn’t give it to us saying that we needed to convene the guardian counsel of 12 people to all agree on it (yeah, right). Somehow, between multiple trips to the orphanage and children services to get papers signed we ended up with the money. We didn’t get many pictures today because of the hectic pace but the best would have been them handing Julianna a huge wad of money. She wanted to donate 4,000 to the orphanage for shoes, 500 to Valya and 500 to a girl named Sasha we never met so this was our last stop before leaving Schors.

During all this rushing around we met Julianna’s sister Oksana and nephew Danya outside the bank. She was very nice and we did get a few pictures of them together. It wasn’t the ideal way for us all to meet but at least they were able to say their goodbyes. We wanted to stop by the house that Julainna owns (or co-owns?) to get a picture but Nastya was in a big hurry to get to Chernigiv so she decided to skip that. We never signed any papers on this house so I don’t know what will happen with her share but that’s a minor concern at this point. Nastya informed us that the government was voting today on whether to ban all international adoptions from Ukraine. The supporters of this measure feel that too many adoptive families are not fulfilling their obligation to report back to the Ukraine on the child’s welfare post adoption. This may be true but we’ve seen first hand how they fare without adoption. Typical political nonsense but fortunately the measure did not pass.
I’m trying to figure out what we did in Chernigiv but it’s mostly a blur. We went to a notary and sat there forever and did some more signing, went to a government building for something else, searched and found a place to take her passport photo and actually got her Ukrainian passport to get her out of the country. The passport would normally be a 3 day wait followed by a 4 hour round trip drive from Kiev to get it but we magically transformed this into a 1 day process. My buddy Benjamin Franklin played a large role in this transaction.
We went to McDonald’s in Chernigiv which was very exciting for Julianna, and us too to be honest. We tend to forget that not only is she a small town girl but she’s been further isolated within that town. Most of the things we do are either new or rare experiences for her. Her McD’s order was a Big Mac, 6 piece Chicken McNugget, Large Fries and Large Coke. We have a 77 pound eating machine.
If McD’s was exciting, Kiev was mind blowing for her. We have a really nice apartment located in the heart of the city. Diane and Jillian are ecstatic over the washing machine and ice cube trays. This is a very vibrant and exciting area by Independence Square with many fountains, statues, colorful lighting and lots of people. Julianna has seen a few Ukrainian celebrities and she’s squealing with excitement. All she can say is “Wow!“
We’re ahead of schedule. Tomorrow we check in at the US Embassy and after that bring Julianna to her Medical exam. If all goes well we should be home earlier than expected!