One of the cute little guys from Steven's orphanage--he has the most gorgeous, melt-your-heart brown eyes
Natasha, Paula, Kevin, Bill, Lyndi, Adam, Amy at Tequila House
Back of Natasha and Paula's heads, Bill, Lyndi, Amy and Adam
Natasha, Paula, Kevin and BillMy time sense is still totally off even though I've been here 3 1/2 weeks. This morning we didn't have a particular schedule. I woke up and figured it must be something like 10 am--nope, more like only 7:30. It has been very hot and we keep the window wide open for air and so of course get lots of traffic noise from the very busy street outside. Though I did lay back down I'm really glad I went ahead and showered at a reasonable hour because I heard that birdie-cheeping sound--the doorbell. A man was standing there, apparently from the power company, to install a new meter. Then it dawned on me what the note left on the apartment door yesterday was telling me. I could read the date and the times but had no idea what it was pertaining to--I thought it had something to do with checkout times for departure or something. Being illiterate stinks :)
We were originally scheduled to fly out tomorrow but are guessing at about another week. That's THE BAD NEWS. We'll have to move out of this apartment on Friday as it will no longer be available. Our apt company is providing this service free of charge. They'd already offered us another apartment but now I've had to ask whether it's available for so many more days--I don't want to have to move more than once.
I was so bummed to mess up my Mom's special plan to have an anniversary dinner cruise on the Snake River on the 26th. Seriously it broke my heart because my Mom has been looking forward to this event with just Mom and Dad (50th anniv), my brother and his wife (25th anniv), Kevin and I (15th anniv) for several months. But tonight I found out that the trip had been cancelled by the cruise company itself. I'm relieved I wasn't the one to mess it up but hope we can reschedule after I'm home.
We went across town to visit Steven. Wow, was it ever hot outside!! The weather didn't slow that young man down a bit--still kept running off wanting to be chased over and over and over. The deputy director came outside--I think really to observe our visit. I tried to show her we were hugging, kissing, playing, laughing. She had us move to a shadier, more comfortable area--not that Steven had any interest whatsoever in staying sedately in that shady gazebo-like shelter. Teresa found the cherry trees all around with several fairly-ripe cherries within reach. I hope the kids get the benefit of the fresh fruit on the property.
On the way home I got a call from Nastya with THE GOOD NEWS: after one entire week, we have that lovely tax number!!!!! I guess Alexey and Nastya were called to pick up the paper at the tax office in Irpin. It's a good 30-45 minute drive. They got there and found that the paper did indeed show his name as Steven Mikhyal McClain but still also had the patronymic name--something like Mikilovich--AND it listed him as female. This was a problem. Smile. So A and N just glued themselves there until the errors were fixed.
The current plan is to try to get people from the orphanage to take Steven to the passport office to get his picture taken tomorrow. Then we can apply for the passport. Since A and N must be out of town tomorrow, Dima is scheduled to help us out.
Also A or N called some 'higher authorities' who said the DD has no right to keep us from picking up our son. They plan to give this phone number to the DD tomorrow so she herself can call said 'higher authorities' to discuss the situation. Hopefully we won't have to continue the seemingly futile efforts to unregister Steven from the orphanage address.
Lyndi called saying several of us Reece's Rainbow people were meeting at a place called the Tequila House around 7 pm and her husband Bill explained which Metro station we needed to get off at. We got there but unfortunately had no idea of which direction to exit the station. I was so hot I just chose the nearest one so I could get out to fresher air. I called Lyndi and spoke to Paula's translator but she couldn't figure out where Teresa and I were from my description of the surrounding buildings. Teresa and I kept walking, I kept trying to pronounce street names, describe what I was seeing but to no avail. Finally she came up with a good idea: go back to the metro platform and meet there. That worked great.
The Tequila House has a Mexican theme. We had Amy and Adam, Lyndi and Bill, Paula and Kevin (who are adopting a 4 year old from an orphanage here in Kiev) and Paula's translator, Natasha (?) We had such a fun, crazy, laughing time. Yes, we did get pictures!! I had a chicken chimichanga and Cola Light. Teresa had a cheese enchilada and Pepsi. Pretty yummy. Lyndi and Bill rode the Metro home with us as far as their stop and we came on home.
Thanks for all of your prayers.
We were originally scheduled to fly out tomorrow but are guessing at about another week. That's THE BAD NEWS. We'll have to move out of this apartment on Friday as it will no longer be available. Our apt company is providing this service free of charge. They'd already offered us another apartment but now I've had to ask whether it's available for so many more days--I don't want to have to move more than once.
I was so bummed to mess up my Mom's special plan to have an anniversary dinner cruise on the Snake River on the 26th. Seriously it broke my heart because my Mom has been looking forward to this event with just Mom and Dad (50th anniv), my brother and his wife (25th anniv), Kevin and I (15th anniv) for several months. But tonight I found out that the trip had been cancelled by the cruise company itself. I'm relieved I wasn't the one to mess it up but hope we can reschedule after I'm home.
We went across town to visit Steven. Wow, was it ever hot outside!! The weather didn't slow that young man down a bit--still kept running off wanting to be chased over and over and over. The deputy director came outside--I think really to observe our visit. I tried to show her we were hugging, kissing, playing, laughing. She had us move to a shadier, more comfortable area--not that Steven had any interest whatsoever in staying sedately in that shady gazebo-like shelter. Teresa found the cherry trees all around with several fairly-ripe cherries within reach. I hope the kids get the benefit of the fresh fruit on the property.
On the way home I got a call from Nastya with THE GOOD NEWS: after one entire week, we have that lovely tax number!!!!! I guess Alexey and Nastya were called to pick up the paper at the tax office in Irpin. It's a good 30-45 minute drive. They got there and found that the paper did indeed show his name as Steven Mikhyal McClain but still also had the patronymic name--something like Mikilovich--AND it listed him as female. This was a problem. Smile. So A and N just glued themselves there until the errors were fixed.
The current plan is to try to get people from the orphanage to take Steven to the passport office to get his picture taken tomorrow. Then we can apply for the passport. Since A and N must be out of town tomorrow, Dima is scheduled to help us out.
Also A or N called some 'higher authorities' who said the DD has no right to keep us from picking up our son. They plan to give this phone number to the DD tomorrow so she herself can call said 'higher authorities' to discuss the situation. Hopefully we won't have to continue the seemingly futile efforts to unregister Steven from the orphanage address.
Lyndi called saying several of us Reece's Rainbow people were meeting at a place called the Tequila House around 7 pm and her husband Bill explained which Metro station we needed to get off at. We got there but unfortunately had no idea of which direction to exit the station. I was so hot I just chose the nearest one so I could get out to fresher air. I called Lyndi and spoke to Paula's translator but she couldn't figure out where Teresa and I were from my description of the surrounding buildings. Teresa and I kept walking, I kept trying to pronounce street names, describe what I was seeing but to no avail. Finally she came up with a good idea: go back to the metro platform and meet there. That worked great.
The Tequila House has a Mexican theme. We had Amy and Adam, Lyndi and Bill, Paula and Kevin (who are adopting a 4 year old from an orphanage here in Kiev) and Paula's translator, Natasha (?) We had such a fun, crazy, laughing time. Yes, we did get pictures!! I had a chicken chimichanga and Cola Light. Teresa had a cheese enchilada and Pepsi. Pretty yummy. Lyndi and Bill rode the Metro home with us as far as their stop and we came on home.
Thanks for all of your prayers.
2 comments:
I pray you can pick Steven up before the weekend. I can't wait to hear all about him once you bring him out of that place! He is going to be so curious about everything, I'm sure you will have some cute stories to tell us!!!:)
Amy
So glad you have some good news! We'll keep the prayers coming.
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