We Got It!!

I LOVE AMERICA!!!!

We got Tetyana's passport and visa and we are outta here on Sunday!! We should arrive home at 10:30 on Sunday night. It feels so good to type those words!

The day has been crazy to say the least. We had Tetyana's medical appointment at 9:30, which is required for all exit visa's. We didn't have the passport yet and didn't know when it was coming or if it was coming today, but Yana had a connection and for $40 the doctor did the exam and told us we could come back later with the passport. What a guy! The exam went well. She weighs 52 pounds and is 51 inches tall. I think that is pretty darn good for a 7 year old orphan!

Afterward, we came back to the apartment in hopes that Yana would call us and tell us some good news. Our plan was to fax the passport to the embassy and then put it on a bus to Kiev. Yana called the passport agency at 11 am and the woman said the passport was not there and to please stop calling every hour. Oops! We went into our apartment to wait. We were going to go outside for some reason and Drew realized we were locked in! The lock would not unlock! Yana came back over and Drew threw the key down to her but we still could not get the door open! After about 10 minutes they finally got the thing open!

So, Yana called us at 12:30 and told us the passport was there but the inspector couldn't pick it up until 3. No good. So we called the driver who helped us while we were in Cherkasy and he agreed to drive it to us. What a guy! Ok, so it was expensive but still...

Yana later told me that when Nicolae, the driver, got to the passport agency, the woman who had our passport had left for lunch! He somehow convinced someone there to give him her cell phone number and he called her. She returned and gave him the passport! She also told us the doctor at the medical center stayed after work so he could look at the passport and give Yana the medical forms we needed!!

So we called the embassy and asked them if we could still get it done and they said yes but we had to get to the embassy by 2 because the cashier was going to close. We raced over there and made it just in time to pay the cashier. On the way, I called Aerosvit Airlines to try to change the tickets and add Tetyana. This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard...."business class is sold out and we cannot change your business class tickets to economy". I nearly came unglued! How could this be? We weren't asking for a refund, we only wanted to get on the plane and sit wherever they could put us! The woman told me to go to the office and try to work it out there. We were supposed to be waiting for Yana to come with the medical papers and passport at the embassy. But since we had about an hour, we went to Aerosvit. These poor kids, we have dragged them all over the city all day long.

So Aerosvit told us we could get 3 seats in economy and 1 in business class for now and they would put us on a waiting list for business class. I really didn't care where we sit as long as it is a flight to JFK!

After Aerosvit, we raced back to the embassy only for Yana to tell us Nicolae, the driver was in Kiev but didn't know where the embassy was so he was taking a taxi. By this time it is 4:00 and the embassy closes at 5:00. I was so scared that we were that close and we weren't going to get the passport in time. We sat at a restaurant, a very smokey restaurant and waited. Yana and Nicolae came to the embassy at 4:45!!! We raced in there and hoped they would not tell us the visa could not be done. They were all smiles and waiting for us. They had our file sitting at the window. They looked over the paperwork and printed out the visa. I think Mike, the officier was just as happy as we were. It was so great. Tetyana even understood this meant she was going to America!

To finish off our day, we had dinner with our friends Night and Suzi, who we met at the park last weekend. Their hospitality was incredible and the food was to die for! To have a home cooked meal that tasted familiar was out of this world! Their kids and ours, played in their giant apartment and we just talked....in English!

So now it is late and we are all tired from our exciting day. Tomorrow we will enjoy Kiev and take all the pictures we can!