Meeting the girls... and the inspector

We woke up early this morning and left at 7 am to head to the town that the inspector is in. We got there about 20 minutes before his office opened, and waited around until he got there and would see us. He proceeded to go through every single page of our dossier and just grill us as he was doing it. When he wasn't asking questions like, "Will you have time for the girls?" and "Describe your house, is it fit?"... kept going back to some form of "I think you are too young, how can you handle this?" and "Why would you want to adopt before having birth children?". He just could not understand. Every form of an answer we gave him he shook his head. Or smirked. Or both. We were sweating bullets. We were there for about an hour and a half, and by the end of it he was saying "On one hand I appreciate your trying to do this... but on the other I feel you are just too young. You can't handle this. You will not be parents, you will be like brother and sister." However, for whatever reason (I am sure the Lord)... and it looked like it caused him pain to do it... he approved the next step.

We then left with his assistant to go to the Orphanage to pick up the director. The kids are at camp, so after we drove to the village the Orphanage is in to get the director - we then went to the village the camp is in.

Almost immediately, Marina approached us... looking super precious in this crazy black satin layered skirt and lime green scrunchy tank top. This is the first time Shane had laid eyes on her in person, and it went well. She was a tad shy, but not hesitant (if that makes sense). They had to go find Sasha, because camp is pretty big and the kids were spread out in various groups doing activities, etc. When they finally found her, and brought her too us she was really excited. It was so good to finally see them.

It was a little awkward because there were a bunch of random people... the Director, Inspector's assistant, a teacher, the two "assistant directors", etc. So it is hard to really try to talk, etc., with a crowd watching you. We went to a small room where the Director and the Inspector's Assistant proceeded to talk to the girls about everything, and question them as to whether this is something they wanted. Both of them said yes.... and then afterward they both had to had print a paragraph (basically saying they wanted to be adopted by us) and sign it. Poor Marina messed hers up at the end, and accidentally wrote a wrong date - so she had to totally start over. I felt so bad for her, no wonder she messed up with all the people staring at her while she was writing.

We then had to say our goodbyes for the day, and head back to the Orphanage where we had to wait on them to prepare and sign tons of papers. One of the workers "who does the documents" was out, so they couldn't complete two docs. After the director called the inspector, his office agreed to complete those docs - but we would have to carry them back to the Orphanage to get the director to sign.

Then it was back to Litugino - where the Inspector was - to take him some papers, and then pick up others. As we were dropping off one set, he also mentioned that he "needed a pack of paper." (Which is I guess better than, I need $100) We had to go and makes copies of everything, so we bought paper while we were having that done. Then it was to the notary, who said it would be 5 pm before they could do our papers - it was about 2:00 or so at this time - so we went to get coffee... and actually got a bit to eat, since we had only had a granola bar at around 6:45 that morning. We were starving.

The menu, of course, was totally in Russian... so Sergey had to pretty much tell us what was on it. Also, the waitress had to stand there and help as well — because apparently they don't actually have everything on the menu. It had to have been in the 90s today, and we were just roasting... and being that this was an outside cafe, we really didn't want any of the hot soups, etc. So we chose Caesar Salad. Shane had gotten one in Kiev, and it was good - it was also, pretty close to an "American" Caesar salad. This Caesar salad was very different, and when she brought it out - I just looked at Shane, because I knew it was his worst nightmare. It was served in essentially a footed ice cream bowl... with the salad layered. The layers were from the bottom: A little bit of chicken, then tomatoes and bell peppers, then cucumbers, then mayonnaise, then shredded cheese. Shane hates cucumbers, and more than that, he hates mayonnaise. It is his number one enemy. Well... number two. Sharks are number one... then mayonnaise. And this salad had a lot.

Shane was a trooper though, he ate it all. He had the empty stomach and the fact that it was cold going for him I guess! I liked it... not what I would ever think of as a Caesar salad - but good! He did ask me not to talk about it, because he said he might throw. Ha.

We then just sat there for about an hour, getting more sweaty and more stinky, waiting and hoping the notary would finish early. Then we got a call from the inspectors office. The SDA in Kyiv had misspelled out name on our referral document. Which meant we would have to put the referral on the train in Lugansk, to go overnight back to Kyiv... Sasha would then take it to SDA tomorrow, and send it back. Boo. This also meant the paragraphs that the girls had to write out were wrong, because this is the paper they copied. SO, we have to get them to rewrite everything. I feel so bad! (It did turn out though, that Sasha can fax the corrected form tomorrow and they can complete the paperwork using that one, and then just switch it with the original when it comes in - rather than having to just wait).

We decided since we for sure had to be back in the morning, that we would just go ahead and come back to the city rather than wait another couple of hours for the notary. We will just pick up those papers in the morning.

I realized today, that I made a few poor packing decisions. Especially if we end up going out to camp some. I have one pair of capris and one pair of bermuda type shorts... and they are both what you might call "dressy" ones. This will not cut it. Fortunately, and most randomly, there is a Columbia - yes Columbia - store right down the street from us. I don't know who buys clothes from them... they sell normal Columbia things.... fishing shirts and hiking boots... but they are there. I was able to find a pair of casual outdoor khaki capris - so I am all good now. :) They did have what essentially looked like outdoor capris for men - and I tried to talk Shane into them so we could match and be super awkward Americans walking about. He wouldn't have it though..... he is no fun. :)

We tried another venture to the market, and wimped out of attempting to buy fresh produce - because they have a  woman that weighs stuff for you, etc... so I am not sure how the process works, or how to really say anything useful - SO we opted for what are basically Ramen noodles, more frozen dumplings, and frozen green beans.

I then came home and took a two hour nap. From 6:30 to 8:30... so going back to bed at a decent time tonight will be fun. This also means that the dumpling and green bean dinner I had planned didn't work out, and Shane ate leftover pizza and applesauce - while I had a cookie, a few paprika pringles, and a square of chocolate. Super healthy over here.

We are looking forward to seeing the girls again tomorrow. Hopefully all the paperwork will get straightened out. We are blessed that the girls were both born in Lugansk, and were both registered as orphans in Lutugino. Some people deal with siblings being born in different cities, registered in different cities, etc... so they have to go to all of them to collect various paperwork.

I can't believe we will have left a week ago tomorrow...

We miss everyone so much!