He's FREE!

Joe here. Kolya is now safely in Wendy's arms. I talked with her this morning (late afternoon Ukraine time), and she let me know they got the court decree and she was able to take Kolya out of the orphanage.

She did spend a good portion of the day trying to get his new birth certificate. The bureaucratic lunacy continued. At the office of vital statistics, she was informed that she had to go to a different vital statistics office to get a permission slip to come back to this office. So they had to go to the other office, pay someone $50, wait an hour, get a permission slip, come back to the original office and wait another 2 hours to get it. Then they went to the bank to transfer Kolya's money to the orphanage. There, they were informed that Kolya needed a new taxpayer ID (similar to our SSN). They did that, then they went to the orphanage. There Wendy was held captive by Ludmilla, the director, as she lectured Wendy once again on having Kolya call the orphanage at least once a month and giving parenting advice. With a tight smile on her face, Wendy nodded politely as, inwardly, she hoped for an earthquake so she could escape in the ensuing chaos. Eventually Wendy was released and she lovingly threw Kolya into the van then yelled at the driver to floor it (in Russian of course).

They raced the 100 km to Donetsk, where they would get Kolya's passport, but the journey through the bureaucratic maze and Ludmilla's lengthy lecture caused them to arrive too late to start the process. Fortunately, Dan and Joyce are in Donetsk and Wendy and Kolya will have company during the wait for the passport. At this point, we are not sure how long that wait will be. 10 days seems to be order of the day unless our fearless facilitator, Edward, can influence someone to expedite the process.

In the meantime, Joe's boss and co-workers threw a suprise congratulations party for him this morning, complete with gifts for Kolya. For this, he thanks them immensely and appreciates their thoughtfulness.