Court

We got approved in court!

God is good.

Now we wait. Our "10 day" waiting period is going to be about 13 days b/c of weekends, etc. It technically ends on a Friday... so then bumps to Monday because of the weekend... but the records offices are closed on Mondays - so it moves to Tuesday, July 13th.

It was weird to have court, be granted approval - and then have to send the girls back to the orphanage.

We found out about our passport "options" today for the girls.

1) We apply for the "new" passport through Kyiv. Fairly inexpensive, but takes a minimum of 10-12 days. And this is 10-12 days AFTER the waiting period... so the earliest we could apply would be the 13th, possibly the 14th. Also, apparently the government contracts the printing with a private company - and sometimes doesn't pay in time. When they don't pay in time, the company stops shipping. Our facilitator says most of the time it takes the 10-12 days, but that he has known families where it has taken a month. Boo.

2) We get an "old" style passport, printed in Lugansk. This is a little, I guess, under the table - though they are totally acceptable to use. They take 2 days. As you can imagine there are "fees" involved... which make them expensive. Especially when you have to get 2. There is no way out of the "fees".

It stinks because, despite the expense - there is almost no choice. Staying another 2 weeks (or possibly longer) past July 13th is just not an option... Especially since Shane will not be here.

We also had to take care of our "donation to the orphanage" today...

We were starving by the time we got back into Lugansk around 5:30 pm or so. (Court was held in Litugino, and after that we had to go to the inpsectors office and signs tons of papers, etc. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at 8:30 or 9:00 am. I honestly thought I was going to pass out in court. You have to stand up every time the judge addresses you... so not having eaten, in heels, hot, standing up and down..... not good. Thankfully, I did NOT pass out. Ha.) So we went and had a super yummy dinner to celebrate.  Shane got salmon, I got grilled chicken and grilled vegetables (I ate more veggies tonight that I have eaten in a week I think). We had gone to this restaurant the first night we were here... it is the one with the funny wording. We actually got the "regally baked cheese" as an appetizer, and it was great. Kind of like mozzarella sticks, but the cheese was wrapped in ham before being coated with bread crumbs. Very regal. They also serve their bread w/ paprika infused butter - yummo as well.

Tomorrow we have to be back in Litugino at 8 am to do some more paperwork, since Shane is leaving Thursday morning. Then back to Lugansk to go to Records Offices, etc - and to make sure there is nothing else he needs to sign before he leaves.

Shane flies out of Lugansk at 7 am Thursday morning, lands in Kyiv around 8:30 - then goes with the facilitator to sign some things at the Embassy. He spends the night, and flies out of Kyiv around 11 am Friday morning, and lands in Birmingham around 8:30 pm. He has quick layovers in both NYC and Detroit. Hopefully it won't be too short of a layover in NYC, and he will have plenty of time to get through Customs...

I am jealous that he will get Mexican food before me (I mean, among many other things). We have been talking about Mexican food for the past two days, and driving ourselves crazy. All I want in the world is Cocina Superior or Tris Chapman Chicken Enchiladas. Mmmmmmmmm.

I will either go out to camp tomorrow night, or Thursday morning after he leaves.

The Judge grilled us today during court. We were in there for about an hour or so - but it felt longer. When he was questioning Sasha, he asked her "Was she sure she wanted to go to America? She didn't want to live in Ukraine?"... Sasha said yes she wanted to go, and yes she wanted to leave Ukraine. He said "well maybe you will think about it" and she looked right at him and said "Nyet."

We went to the same cafe this morning. Shane ventured away from the omelet and got a meat filled pancake. I stuck with the omelet. We both got a-mazing cappuccinos.  I will miss that place when I am at camp eating noodles for breakfast and drinking coff-tea. (Even though I do like being at camp!)

We walked to a Blini stand last night and ordered by ourselves. We got across what we wanted, but I guess we worded things awkwardly, were obviously American, and probably mispronounced as well. The two girls working made fun of us pretty hard. I wanted to say "I know what you are saying... even if I DON'T know what you are saying!!!!... but they wouldn't have understood, and would have just made more fun of me. That kind of thing makes me so timid to try to use Russian... which backfires b/c then I don't practice and I don't get any better. I guess I need to be less sensitive, and not a baby, huh?

Miss you all so so much. SO ready to come home!