Nearing the finish line

So, there was some delays in picking up the girls. The lawyer had said we
could pick up the girls on Saturday when we talked to her a few weeks ago,
and now she is saying that the judge won't allow her to pick up the court
decree until Monday morning....so she will get it first thing that morning,
get the girls new birth certificates, and then we can pick up both girls
Monday after lunch. Thankfully, one silver lining is that Katya's orphanage
is going to bring her back to Pantievka from the camp for us to pick her up,
so at least we don't have to drive the 2-3 hours to that camp in Svitlovosk.

Then hopefully it is only a few days to get the girls new passports, then a
few days in kyiv, then home. For those of you just getting to Ukraine, or
still waiting for your appointment, please be aware that the passport
issuance procedure has changed - the new passports are no longer issued at
the local level for adopted kids. They are all sent to Kyiv for issuing. The
way it used to work is that an office in kyiv printed blank passport books,
and sent those to the regions to type in the new info. Most regions had a
ready supply of these blank passports....but now that the policy has
changed, the central authority has taken back all the blank passports. Plus,
the Kyiv office was not issuing passports at all for a month or so in the
beginning of summer, so there are a few families who have been quite delayed
by this. I know Beth and Steve Tu were/are still delayed by this.

After we got back to Kgrad from Kharkiv, we took a taxi to our apartment,
slept, and then had Victor drive us to visit Marina. We visited with her for
a few hours, then came back to Kgrad. We also found out that she has a
cousin at this same camp, named Olexander. He is 16 unfortunately. There is
another boy at this camp that I really like, but he is also older - 15. He
looks 12 though.

There is also this little 3-4 yr old boy at Andrey's orphanage who is paper
ready for adoption. He is completely healthy except that he has no eyes.
They were removed due to some congenital cancer he had. Andrey says he is
one of the smartest, talkative and empathetic kids at the orphanage.

Here are photos from Kharkiv and Katya.

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In Kharkiv

Made it to Kharkiv ok on the overnight train. Andrey picked us up at the
train station and took us to McDonalds, and now we are at his office. I
normally hate McD's, but I have not had a hamburger in a month and so this
tasted like filet mignon today! Andrey's office here (his private practice)
is very nice - it looks like a high class american pediatric office even.
Even has its own on site lab for running blood tests and such. Later today
we will go to his baby house and play with the babies there, then go for
dinner with his wife and son. He got us a place to stay very close to the
baby house and then tomorrow we will go to the baby house again to help
train his staff and let them practice their english on us. tomorrow night we
will leave Kharkiv and return to Kgrad.

Our timeline for returning to the states is dependant on how fast we can get
the girls new passports and such in kgrad. the lawyer there says it can take
up to 5 days.....up to.....so hopefully it will take only 1-2 days. if this
is the case then we should be on our way to kyiv by middle of next week,
then flying home sometime over the following weekend or monday. we pick up
the girls from their camps this weekend and visit aunt nadiya's house for
the last time.

here are some photos from our 10 day wait so far

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Court went great

Court went fine and we are now the official parents of Marina Charlotte and
Kateryna Selene Hemmen. We did the court hearing in the judges office- the
"mean-" judge who everyone used to get here is now gone and has been
replaced by a nicer young lady about 40 years old. She had two staff
present, the kgrad lawyer was there, the lawyer from katyas orphanages was
there and a representative from the oblast inspectors office - Nina did not
make it back to kgrad and our friend sveta ended up translating for us in
court. they asked us many questions, especially about why we wanted older
kids and why we just didnt have bio kids of our own. they asked this like 5
times.they also asked about how we planned to help the girls learn english.

we pick up the decree on friday the 27 or saturday the 28 and then pick up
the girls on saturday, visit aunt nadia on sunday and finally get the new
passports and birth certs started on monday - for those of you in ukraine or
about to be here, there is supposedly some new law about the new passports
and birth certs having to go through kyiv, which may add a few days on to
the wait in region. this is what the local lawyer told us anyways. she also
said we have to have the passport photos done at the local passport office
and not in any shop in the town. makes no sense to me, but hey.....

other than that, we are hanging at svetas every day and meeting her friends
and friends of her son.

love,
mel and andrew

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Court tomorrow

So got the call this morning that we have court tomorrow. 2pm or so...things
change minute to minute in Ukraine, and appointments are flexible. So from
here on out its pretty predictable - court, 10 say wait, 2 days more in
Kgrad to finish up paperwork and get the girls from camp (we hope we can go
pick them up after court, before the 10 days are up), then a few days in
Kyiv to do embassy paperwork and get flights home.

As money is very tight after paying the lawyer, we aren't sure how we will
be flying home. Maybe we will only be able to afford flights to JFK and then
call our families to come rescue us.

Did some clothes shopping at the big Rynok in town today. For less than $20
USD we got a dress, shoes, and two shirts. Other than that been hanging out
with Sveta and her family here in town.

Little piece of info for you Americans waiting to come over here - in
Ukraine the word pepperoni means pepperoCHINI- ie a long green pepper and
not our beloved salami like meat. Be careful when ordering pizza here! We
kept getting these green peppers and thought something was getting lost in
the communication until we asked Sveta about it.....

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Photos

Back at Sveta's house and using her computer. Hopefully this will work this
time, but since she is primarily a German translator her keyboard is wonky.

Photos are of the following:
Marina and her friends putting on a little dance show for us
Marina on the monkey bars at Dendropark
Marina#s new friends, Masha and Sveta(younger)
Marina at her camp
Katya at her camp

Melissa

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Third time I'm trying this

sorry this is short, but this computer cafe is annoying me. I dont think the
guy knows how to access a stupid jump drive. last time i had no problems -
but with the language barrier, I can't tell him he is doing it all wrong.

anyways. court will most likely be this week. if all goes well in Kyiv it
will be Monday or Tuesday. Then start the 10 day wait. I will send photos
later when I can get access to my jump drive.

Melissa

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Papers at SDA and Marina at Camp

Just got back to Kgrad from taking Marina to camp. We had considered staying
with her at the camp, but it is in the middle of the woods, no where near a
town or city. The director said we could stay, but given that I need
internet to continue to do my job and get a paycheck...there really was no
choice. The camp was nice enough though - basically an orphanage in the
woods - much like the once Katya is in, except Katya's camp is in a small
town, not in the woods.

Marina was beginning to miss her friends anyways, and was looking forward to
going to camp before leaving for America so she could play with her friends
for a bit. Thankfully the camp is about 40 km from Kgrad so we can visit her
more easily than we can visit Katya as Katya's camp is over 2 hours away by
car - 4 by bus.

We got the call yesterday morning from Masha that our paperwork was
submitted to the SDa for the final approval for court. Technically they have
5 working days to review and approve the paperwork, but Anatoliy and Masha
are going to call and bother them ever day in hopes that they will process
it by the end of this week ie tomorrow. That would mean court on Monday,
with the 10 days starting on Tuesday.

Ukraine is starting to annoy us - its quaint and novel the first few weeks
you are here. Now we just want to get the girls and go home. One of the
daily annoyances is the total lack of cold drinks at any of the mini markets
or street shops. Cold beer, of course - cold soda, juice or water, nowhere.
It is hot here - not hotter than Atlanta or even Florida, but there is
almost no airconditioning anywhere. Its not so bad if you stay in the shade
- on the minibuses its the worst.

Other than that, we are eating lots of icecream, and getting into a routine.
Internet cafe at the city center, lunch, shopping for food for the hotel
room, visiting friends we've made here in town, then back to the hotel. We
know which minibuses to take to the hotel, the city center, DendroPark,
Furshets, and the orphanage. We took Marina to Dendro park twice while we
had her with us - my dad will kill me when he sees the photos - he is an
engineer at Disney and never allowed me to go to those seasonal carnivals
with the rickety looking rides - and here I am a new parent and I'm letting
my daughter go on these rusty, rickety rides that look like they are from
some horror movie. But she had fun, and a whole afternoon there cost us $6
USD.

I will post photos again soon - its just a pain to sort through all the
hundreds we've taken and put the good ones on the memory stick and then have
the internet cafe guy plug in the stick (they won't let you plug it in
yourself)

Melissa

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Marina goes to camp

We got a call from the orphanage that we have to have Marina back at
Barvinok tomorrow night so they can get all her things together for camp.
Then we go to Barvinok the next morning and go to camp with her - maybe even
stay at the camp with her - that is up to the director of the camp.

Our papers also get submitted to the SDA for final court approval tomorrow,
so please pray that they will review these papers quickly and get us the
final ok in a day or 2- technically they have 5 days to review the regional
approvals. Once we get the SDa approval, we have court the very next day.

Once the 10 days are over then we go to the camps to pick up the girls (we
have to pay for this transport)

Thats one of the things that many people may not know about - all the little
costs during the trip - driving and delivering paperwork is considered an
"expediting fee" and therefore costs extra above the cost of our
facilitator....every trip to Katya's orphanage and district cost us $40-60,
plus paying the driver to wait. The mini buses go to these places, but the
buses take twice as long to get there as a car, and the trains take 4 times
as long. And since you are already in country they kinda have you trapped.
you pay, you have no choice. that kinda pissed my husband off. especially
when they dont tell you that you have to pay until the cost is already
accrued - ie they dont tell you ahead of time. other than that we are happy
with our facilitators - they do a good job.

Thankfully I speak enough Russian to get by here, and we have the phone
numbers of some students who speak English in Kgrad in case we need help -
other than that we are alone here in region. We take the mini buses
everywhere, rarely do we take a cab. 80 kopeks versus 10 grivna.

Melisa

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photos

here are the photos for those reading the blog. I guess the email upload function doesnt keep the photos attached

Photos

No updates since yesterday. Still in a holding patttern until court. Marina
goes to camp next week. Maybe we will get to stay with her there.

Here are some photos.

Melissa and Andrew

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Lawyer cleaned us out

Well, things were going soooo well. Too well. So the lawyer in Kgrad had to
go and ruin it. She was demanding $4000 USD for her work on the court
paperwork. Every other family who had been through Kgrad recently had said
they paid around $1000-$1600. We talked her down to $1500 for the court
work, and $1000 for the passports ("expediting fees" since they CAN take up
to a month to process the passports, but she will get then in 20 minutes!).

Thankfully we got a great deal on an apartment - we are staying in the guest
house of Dr. Tkatch, a friend of Carola and Dieter, and we are only paying
$12 USD per night. It has a european toilet, shower, bathtub, and fridge,
and REALLLY comfy hospital beds. No clothes washer, but thats no problem -
the only problem is when we wash our clothes in the tub, there is no where
to hang them to dry. oh and no kitchen. so we eat lots of fruit, kolbasa,
cheese, bread, juice.....

There are two internet cafes in downtown kgrad - one by the main market in
the park with all the beer tents - Papa Andrew takes Marina over to a cafe
and gets her Fanta and icecream, and Mama Melissa goes to the internet cafe.
The other cafe is hotter and more crowded, so I think I will use this one
more.

Marina has to go to camp on July 12 - nothing we can do about it. The
orphanages must be emptied out so the caretakers can go on vacation. Galine,
the assistant direcvtor of marina's orphanage is talking to the director of
the camp to see about marina remaining with us in kgrad though, so that is a
possibility. Otherwise, we can stay at the camp with her, or stay at dr
tkatch's guest house and visit her at camp - the camp is like 20 minutes
away. Katya's camp on the other hand is 2 hours away. After the 10 day wait,
we can pick her up there though. We visited Katya yesterday so she could
write out her petition agreeing to be adopted. We even bought her new shoes
and hair bows. She said she would save them for that night's disco, so she
could show them off.

Marina also did her petition, we did a bunch of running around, more
paperwork etc. All the papers will be in the lawyers hands by tonight, and
then they will be submitted to the local "rada" for approval on Monday. The
official local approval conclusions will be ready that same Monday, and then
they will be submitted to the SDA for final approval for court on Wednesday
(SDA only accepts these petitions for court on M, W, and F). The SDA has up
to 5 working days to review the petitions, but Nena and Masha think they can
use Anatoliy (who submitted our dossier) to prod them a bit and get it done
in 1-2 days. The very next day we can have court. So, current timeline puts
us getting home in early August unfortunately - the first week at the
latest, hopefully the end of July though, if everyone prays really hard and
crosses their fingers and toes for us.

Please also pray that we can find the money to get home.

We promise to post photos tomorrow. We've just taken SOOOO many, we need to
go through them before getting to the internet cafe.

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Inspectors and tons of paperwork

We have been enjoying having Marina with us the past few days, and received
permission from the director to keep Marina with us when the Germans leave
to go back to Germany this Thursday. This weekend we spent visiting the aunt
and uncle, and Katya at her orphanage. Katya left for summer camp this
morning, but the camp is only 50 km away from the orphanage, so it will be
no problem for us to pick her up once the paperwork is filed. I will write
about the aunt and uncle later....

Sunday we took Marina to Center Park here in Kgrad - its kinda like a
permenant carnival with rides and little cafes - like a smaller version of
Hydropark in Kiev. Marina and Andrew had a great time going on all the
rides! In total it cost us under $10 USD for the day. Dad, I think we have a
roller coaster junky on our hands! Marina loves the "big and fast" rides :)

Today we spent going to see all the inspectors, lawyers and directors,
getting the needed papers to file for court. We should have all that
finished tomorrow, and have the papers for the SDA. The SDA then has up to 5
days to process those before we can have court, but Nena thinks we can get
it in a day or so. Then court, then maybe 10 day wait, then
home.....meanwhile, we continue to wake up to Marina covering our faces in
kisses!

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