New Friends - Monday, Feb. 16th.

Today we headed out at 10:00 with Galyak and Kostya. Galya has the day planned. We planned ahead and packed snacks…..after all Galya is on a mission (believe me, we are not complaining, we are very grateful to have Galya). We are going to the notary, then to the government office, to pick up an assistant so we can pick up the papers from the orphanage (they won't release them to us) and meet with the supervisor, and to get final approval. That is the plan.

Well, the notary went well. We get to the government office and the orphanage has not submitted their paper work. So we go to the orphanage to get it, but they can not finish because the one computer is tied up.

That is how it goes…..we went to hang out in the main room of Elon'a dorm,thinking she was in school, but to our surprise Elona was there. While Galya stood over the staff to get the paper work finished we spent time with Elona. The group area is a living room with a large rug and comfortable chairs, a TV, and some student desks, there is coat room with individual cubbies, a bedroom with about 10 beds and a bathroom with individual hooks and shelves for towels and tooth brushes. It is all very neat and clean.

Galya comes in and goes over the afternoon. We get moved to a different room and play UNO with Elona while Kostya watches. During this time Galya has Elona write her letter saying that ‘she would not mind being adopted by us’. Later the children need to rehearse for a musical performance to be given to some war veterans (they are celebrating Victory Day), and we get to watch. Unfortunately the orphanage director notices that we are there and we are moved to another room before Elona practices her part (remember, new rule, we are not to see the other children).

Finally Galya returns and we head to the government office to submit the paper work and hopefully meet with the official so that Galya can send the paper work to Sveta in Kiev tomorrow. No luck. But we do get our paper work submitted and schedule an appointment for tomorrow at 12:00. Wait a minute…isn’t that lunch time? Galya believes she can still get everything on the train to Sveta tomorrow and we should get a court date on Friday. Cross your fingers.

Since we had no lunch and the market is closed on Monday, Roger and I head for the Potato House after Kostya drops us off at the apartment. Pizza again. We hear English a couple tables away and after we finish our food. Roger steps in and introduces himself. We are invited to join the small group. In the picture starting on the left, Roger, John from England (on vacation?), Jason from Niagara Falls, Canada (currently living and married in Sevastopol), Gem from Turkey, Natalia, Ukrainian living in Turkey, and Kevin from Boston (currently with the Navy living in Sevastopol). We have beer and talk about many things including politics, Ukrainian red tape and travel. It was good to have a casual conversation that we understood all the words, besides between just us.