They let us take Katya out of the orphanage yesterday, even though our ten day waiting period isn't up until Tuesday (but they won't let us start the paperwork early - darn!). I was talking to Oksana yesterday about the timing of the paperwork that we have to do and when she thinks we will get to come home and asked her if we got to take Katya out of the orphanage on Monday or Tuesday. Oksana replied, "You could take her out today if wanted to." What? If I had asked her the same question days ago would her reply have been the same? Could we have taken her out before Alex and Allie left? It is frustrating and annoying but we are happy anyway! Except that Katya is now bored out of her mind! There are some kids around here that she played with last night for a little while and walked to one of the nearby stores with but after that we had to find something to entertain her. We played a card game with her (which she cheated at and laughed and laughed!), she watched Hannah Montana for a while, and then she was actually so board that she wanted to go back to the orphanage to see her friend Natasha. Oh brother! This is going to be fun - entertaining an eleven year old girl for another twelve days. I don't know if I can stand it but I guess I don't have a choice.
Right now, she is in the kitchen eating a ketchup sandwich. Disgusting! I figured out how to hook up the DVD player to the TV in the bedroom so that I could work on the computer while she is watching her movie. This might work out OK. Tomorrow we can walk down to the video store and buy her some more movies to entertain her! I hate to have her sit and watch TV but that sounds more appealing that trying to find other stuff to entertain her.
Oksana thinks the soonest we are going to finish up all the remaining paperwork is by July 8th. I was so hoping that by some miracle we would be able to fly home the weekend of July 4th but this is not going to happen. Here is a summary of what we have left to do:
1) Get a new birth certificate: This has the potential to be the biggest delay because according to Oksana, the lady that normally does the birth certificates is on vacation and she seems to be the only person in the office that knows how to use a computer. So, our plan with this is to leave at 5:30 am on Tuesday and drive to Katya's birth town, which is about 4 hours away from here, and meet the computer illiterate lady in the office and Oksana is hoping that she can help her get us the birth certificate that same day.
2) Once we have the birth certificate, we go back to Dnipro and get a "security card". I am not sure what this is, but it is something we need before we can get the passport. It sounds like this takes a day.
3) Then we can get the passport. To do this, we have to go to the bigger city, that is about 40 minutes away from here, to do the passport photo, paperwork, etc. The passport takes about 4 business days and we will stay in this lovely town to wait for it.
4) After we have the passport, we can go to Kiev and get the visa. I think there is a medical exam that we have to do there also.
This morning, we went to the toy store to try and find something that could entertain Katya and bought this seven-in-one game combination that has checkers, tic-tac-toe, and some other games. Katya wanted this baby doll that cost the equivalent of about $25 but looks like something you could buy in the dollar store back home. We didn't exchange any money yesterday and didn't want to spend all of our money on this (or we wouldn't be eating this weekend) so we told her we would go back and buy it on Monday - ugh! Maybe she will forget about it??? We also went to the orphanage earlier so that Katya could give her friend Natasha her old MP3 player. Even Tony - the little boy that just can't get enough attention - is weary of all the kids. I let Natasha hold him and he started crying and decided that he wanted to take a nap instead of being the center of attention.
I just talked to Alex. He and Allie are in Kiev until their flight leaves tomorrow morning. They are souvenir shopping, which sounds like a ton more fun than we are having. The weather has cooled down a little bit today so it is a good day to walk. I wonder if Allie is wearing her heels? The street that has all the souvenirs in Kiev is a cobblestone street so if she is wearing her heels that would really suck!!!
Oh, I hope she's not wearing her heels! She might twist her ankle!
ReplyDeleteI had Alex with me (all by myself) for 16 days and it's tough to keep them entertained. My computer crashed and I finally just let him watch cartoons on TV all day. When I was told I had another six days I really thought we were both going to go crazy!! (Like insane not fun crazy!) So I feel your pain.
The fundraiser was fun today. I don't know how much money we raised but it was good to see everyone. I had to update everyone on where everyone is at in Ukraine. I'm surprised how many don't follow blogs! Good grief!
Sounds like Jen & Drew and gone and Mike and Lori? So it's just you and your Mom? Thank goodness for your mom! I hope it goes smooth and Oxana can work her magic and get that birth certificate. If anyone can Oxana can. Give her a big hug from me!
Love,
Wendy
My heart goes out to you. We had a hard time finding entertainment living at the orphanage with the kids. We bought coloring books, clay, legos, marbles and puzzles. Ana was the only one who could make up things with the clay and legos. The older two had to have a specific picture or outline to follow. So they tended to like the puzzles. We've even bought a couple for them here because they can't sit and play (other than riding bikes and swimming) for longer than 10 minutes. My heart goes out to you.
ReplyDeleteAllies shoes are super cute! I never found any I loved, but Troy found a pair -- go figure ; )