A Good Ending to Day 3

Our appointment went great this morning. We went in shortly after 10:00 am and met with the English translator and SDA psychologist. We asked about Natasha right after the introductions, explaining that we met her on a hosting trip, fell in love with her and that we felt she belonged in our family and had decided to adopt her. The psychologist smiled, pulled her file off her desk, and said she was available for adoption. We showed her a small photo album, we had brought with us, full of pictures of Natasha and our family together. They commented on how well everybody seemed to get along and that she looked very happy. They showed us the picture in her file, the earliest one they had from when she was originally registered with the SDA in 2005. She is 7 or 8 in the picture. We boldly asked if we could get a copy of it since we didn't have any pictures of her before we met her. The psychologist thought about it for a minute and said they were required to have a picture of her in the file. However, if we were willing to give her a more recent one from our photo album, she would let us have the one from the file. We quickly agreed and let her pick the one she wanted. She said she could tell Natasha would be very happy with us. They then explained the process to us. We will be able to pick up our official referral for Natasha tomorrow between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. We then need to take this to the juvenile authority in Donetsk to obtain permission to visit her at the boarding school and talk to the boarding school director. We will then complete the required applications to send back to the SDA to obtain the SDA's consent for adoption, which we need before we can schedule a court date in Donetsk. We were done within 15 minutes of going in. The meeting was short, but very sweet!!

After the meeting, our translator, Angelina, helped us to obtain some necessary items we needed (additional minutes for our cell phone, currency exchange, map, needle/thread to sew up my duffel which came apart in baggage handling, and a new hair dryer for Gail that works on 220VDC). We were able to finish all of the errands and return to our apartment before noon. We walked to a good restaurant we found for lunch and then came back to the apartment for some more rest. Our apartment is about 5-6 blocks from the SDA office and right off Independence Square. The square was full of demonstrators from the current political situation. The demonstrators are paid to demonstrate in support of their political faction. It was interesting to compare how Ukraine politics work compared to our own. Our politicians have several fundraisers to pay for the onslaught of political ads during the election year. In Ukraine, instead of the onslaught of expensive ads, they pay for large numbers of demonstrators. I must admit, I would rather see the money go to people instead of advertising and broadcasting companies.

Anyway, tomorrow we will have most of the day to look around and for me to be able to do some work. Our train to Donetsk doesn't leave until 7:20 pm, after we get our official referral.

Although we are anxious to see Natasha on Thursday, we already miss the rest of our girls.
God Bless,
Bob