Sevastopol, what a day - Thursday, Feb. 12th

We are up and ready at 10:00. Roger slept okay; I did not sleep at all.
Galya and Kostia pick us up right on time and we head to the magistrate’s office for our appointment. We get there and no one is allowed up…surprise visit from the Ministry in Kiev, no one available till after 2:00. No one will answer the phone. So we go to Orphanage #1 to see if they have a secret cell phone number Galya can try. There is no one at the orphanage. Galya is so focused; she does not want to waste time. We will go to the notary early.

At the notary the forms we brought have to be re-written, seems the Ukraine is not correct. We find out later from Galya that even though everyone speaks and writes in Russian, all official business has to be done in Ukrainian. Kostia take Roger and I to the grocery while Galya waits at the notary. Galya has called a friend to translate for us, she is not allowed because we are giving her the Power of Attorny for the adoption. Her friend struggles a little with the Ukrainian, but speaks very good English. We finally leave the notary around 1:00.

We head back to Orphanage #1 for some reason, Roger and I wait in the car with Kostia, we are just along for the ride, we know that we are in good hands. Galya returns, she has found out that there is a new office that we can go to meet with a magistrate which is closer to Orphanage #2 where Elona lives. We head there, but it is lunch hour so no one is in. We go to a small store and buy chips, yogurt and a coke – lunch. We eat in the car and watch a pack of about 4 dogs playing and @#&@$ing. We did not mention before, but there are dogs and cats everywhere, this was also true in Kiev.
Finally we go back in and after about 20 minutes we meet with the government representative, a very attractive women. By the way everyone official that we have met with has been a women, not a single man. She asks a couple questions about our jobs, why are we adopting in the Ukraine. The phone rings, she must leave. She will be back 10 minutes.
Galya tells us there is a new rule, now the official must be present at the orphanage when we meet the Orphanage Director and the child. The official returns about a half hour later. It is about 3:30 and we all head for the orphanage only 10 minutes away.

At the orphanage we go to the director’s office. Roger, Galya and I. The director of the orphanage, the councilor, the official of the government and the orphanage doctor. All women. Galya is the only one that speaks English, which is excellent by the way. The director and counselor tell us how wonderful Elona is, smart, talented, she sings, she dances…..they say they will miss her. Then the doctor runs through her medical history. She leaves and counselor begins telling us Elona’s personal history. We are talking with her for about 10 minutes and suddenly the director walks in with Elona.

First we are shocked, we did not expect her. She looks stunned also. I reach out to her, but she pulls away a little. We are introduced, she is so shy, she only flashes glances at us. But she smiles a lot and tells us that she likes to do crafts and that at school she wrote a fairy tale and won first prize. She is beautiful and petite. Big brown eyes, long wavy brown hair and a beautiful smile. About 15 minutes and she is gone. We will see her again tomorrow.