The official meeting with Kolya

We were picked up today at 8:10 am to go meet with the director of the orphanage, Ludmilla. She told Edward yesterday to tell us we need to make a $1,000.00 donation to the orphanage first thing this morning and to put it into an envelope. She made it clear that she would not discuss this with us at all. So, first thing before we saw Kolya, Edward was summoned into her office to make the payment. She then came out smiling and told us we may "meet" our future son. Kolya was eager to show us his "marks" or grades and his drawings . I felt like he was trying to say, "Hey mom and dad, I am a good kid and will try to please you in any way possible." Ludmilla told us he hated the camp because the older boys picked on him constantly and he is glad we came to take him out. That of course, made me sad.

Also present at the "introduction" was a representative from the Inspector's office. We're not sure the purpose of this office, except to add an additional layer of what our driver describes with a shake of the head as the "Beauracratizy". After the introduction, the inspector lady pulled Edward into an office. Edward returned and told us the inspector's office has many bills to pay and the government will not help. She said she will expedite our paperwork today is we give her $200. Cha-ching. We are an ATM. I looked at Joe and said, "Just give it to her." At this point I can't get him out of there fast enough. The director told us we can visit him twice a day from 10-12:30 and 3:30 to 5pm but Graham and Elizabeth are not allowed inside the orphanage so we must go outside in the heat to see him. I will make no further comments as the director is our best friend.

The kids stayed in the apt. today and when we checked in on them they asked if we could move to another apt., one that is cleaner. I asked if they still see me as a clean freak and both said "No!" in unison. Edward took us to see another apt 2 blocks from the orphanage and it is small but very clean and uncluttered. The owner of the apt was so excited to meet a REAL American she hugged me and begged me to stay at her place. Elizabeth's comment was "we aren't that great." The kids just wanted to know if the bathroom was clean! It only has 2 beds, no oven, no microwave but it has air conditioning. We wish we could move in tonight but we paid for this place for 7 days. The beds here are all couches and were made in the 14th century and aren't even close to being comfortable. Actually I was lying there last night wishing I was back on the train. The mattress there was way more comfortable. Go figure. The driver is costing us over $100/day each day. When we move to the other apt. we will not have that cost anymore. Joe is actually thinking of moving over early because if we stay here will have to pay the driver anyway just to see Kolya.

We asked Kolya about choosing a middle name. We wanted to keep his Ukrainian name of Nykolai but asked him to choose a middle name. Edward said he probably didn't have any idea what American names were, and he did not like Graham's suggestions of Stalin or Lenin, so we kept his last name, Katsy, as a middle name. It is so easy to change your name in the US but I think being a boy, he will be fine with what we gave him.

We did make a few interesting discoveries today. We visited the lawyer today who will help us with our petition to the court. As we sat in his office, we noticed that his bookshelf contained exactly 8 books, including 2 lurid paperbacks. It is apparently a indication of the extent of the laws which exist in Ukraine.

We also have noticed that the lanes on the street are apparently just suggestions. Graham wishes he had learned to drive over here, because then his instructor would not have yelled at him so much. Although given the sound of Russian/Ukrainian, you never know if they are complimenting you or about to disembowel you.

I had to repeat that joke from yesterdays blog (as my kids have pointed out) as a lead in to the last thing we have learned. The Ukrainian language is not the same as the Russian language. Although they share many letters, a good portion of their pronunciations and words are different. On the TV here, they speak Ukranian and subtitle it in Russian. Although Joe claims he is now fluent in Russian, he blames his lack of understanding on the fact that they are speaking in Ukrainian.

A hint for those of you who may be traveling abroad soon ( a good many of you we hope). We are rinsing out our Cola Lite bottles, buying a large jug of good water then pouring the water into the cola bottles and freezing them. Today the water was thawed by 11 am and warm by noon. There are many small markets around the city, but as Joe found today while waiting outside the Inspector's office it is easier to find beer, than it is Coke Lite. So you either resign yourself to drinking beer all day to stay hydrated, or freeze your bottles. Even though most of Joe's Gates comrades would vote for the beer option,. you have to realize that at various points during the day, you have to stay coherent enough to sign your name (and they are watching your every move, ready to report it in court; and our interpreter informed us today that the KGB does not wear uniforms, so you cannot recognize them).

Okay, I'm on a roll right now, so I have to add one more thing. They have many double doors on the apartments here either directly into the apartment, or a door into a small hallway or vestibule, and then into the apartment.. We have been told this is a holdover from the days of the KGB breaking down doors. If they had to break down 2 doors, it gave you a warning they were coming. So rest assured, we will have warning when they come for us.

Finally, we have not seen any of the other children yet. Some are at the summer camp which is an overnight camp right on the beach and the others have not been out when we were there. We will be going to an amusment park with Kolya and Kseniya from the orphanage on Saturday. We will ask her about the kids.

Even more finally, we have discovered the option which allows you all to post comments using the anonymous option. So if you want to post a comment, you should be able to do so easily. We did leave on the verificiation step which requires you to enter the string of characters displayed as a guard against the spammers.