Embassy and Medical Appointments

We went to the US Embassy this morning and that went sooooo smoothly!  All of the paperwork was in order and we will return next Thursday morning to finish up after we get Anna's passport on Wednesday.

We then went to her medical appointment and because she is 16 they did the x-ray instead of the skin TB test.  It turned out fine.  Yaaaa!  They also had to take blood and we will get the results from that when we have her passport. We will then get the medical form we need to give to the US Embassy.

So such a great day!

I have no pictures today so I will just post one I have posted before.  It is cold and windy and just started pouring down rain.  So we will stay inside for now. 

Anna is doing great; I just couldn't ask for her to be any better.  I haven't started trying to work with her yet on English but this girl is starting to understand some of what we say.  She is so shy when we Skype with the family but here in our apartment she just chatters away at us.  Peyton gets such a kick out of her chattering because if you know Peyton you know she is not much of a talker.  I know some others that have adopted teens that don't want to take showers, well not Anna.  She's happy to take showers and be clean. I'm thankful for that.  Now, of course, everything is not rainbows and sunshine as there are things that we will have to work on that were not taught to her at the orphanage.  I'm waiting until we get home for most of that.  I just want her to be happy and comfortable right now.

God is good and I'm glad He blessed us with Anna.

~Tina

 

Bored

I know, how can anyone be bored in Kiev but well, we slept in and it has rained off and on today and it is cold.  Who knew we needed to bring a winter coat to Ukraine in May.

 So after coloring, playing cards, playing on the tablet, what else is there to do but go eat and buy some groceries and snacks.  Let me tell you Anna could eat ice cream and candy all day long if I let her.  She doesn't mind asking and takes it well when I say maybe later and we move on.    

Tomorrow we go to the US Embassy in the morning at 9 am and to Anna's medical appointment after that.  She will have to have the skin TB test done.  We will go back on Monday to have the doctor look at it.  This test is something that all the older adopted kids have to have done.  Please say a prayer that it will be ok. 

We got to Skype with Gary and the boys this morning before they went to school.  Carson and Caleb are ready for mom to be home.  Carson was telling Anna privet (hi) and paka (bye).  The first thing he asks when it's his turn is where's Anna.  Caleb says, why she not talking.  Cash he sits and waves and says hi and tells me all the things going on that I think dad would rather he not tell.  : )  Oh my how I miss them so but this is only a season.  We will be back home soon and this time here will fade.

I have a few pictures from today.  Anna is not smiling but I promise you she is happy.  The girls were so bored that they took a video out the window of the birds on the ground eating bread.  I haven't been able to get it to download yet.

Enjoy!

~Tina

This is at the top of the big tower above.

The girls are in the center.

Peyton thinks she is on vacation. Ha!

 
 

This doorway doesn't mean anything
to Anna right now.  But this is the door
that leads to the SDA where we first
got her file and permission to go and
visit her.
 

 

 

Short Post

I will start by saying we got to start the passport today.  We left our apartment at 7:20 am and arrived back to the apartment at 8 pm.  When we got there it started out looking like yesterday.  No one could make a decision.  They made us leave 2 different times so they could think about what to do.  They also emailed the main passport office in Kiev.  But at 5:15 pm it was like a miracle happened.  They just said ok we will issue the passport.  I am not sure if they were tired of seeing us sitting in their hallway all day or what made them have a change of heart.  You guys back home must have been praying hard because it just went from no, no ,no to ok.  Awesome God!

So on Friday we will take Anna to her medical appointment and we may go to our first US Embassy appointment.  We are supposed to get Anna's passport back on Wednesday of next week.  The hold up now may be that because she is 16 they have to do a background check on her with the SBU. (not sure what that stands for)  This could not start until the passport was started.  They are hoping to get those results back on Wednesday also because those results will allow them to put a stamp on the passport that is needed before we can pick it up.

Maybe tomorrow we can get some photos on here. 

~Tina  

I Just Don't Know What to Say

So Anna is doing great; no real issues.  She just goes with the flow.  She chatters away at us like we understand and through Peyton catching some words and me trying to act out what she is saying, we are getting there.  She just laughs.  I say a single word in English and she says the Ukrainian word.  She is so smart and witty.

Now, the part about not knowing what to say. 

We started out at 7:30 this morning and picked our facilitator up on the way.  We headed to what was supposed to be at the end of the street that leads to the orphanage, to meet the orphanage attorney.  He had the second passport and some other paperwork.  Well, when we got to the meeting spot he wasn't there.  Our facilitator called and he was in a meeting.  So we had to, you guessed it, drive BACK into the orphanage.  Anna was not pleased.  She ducked her head and tears slowly seeped out the sides of her eyes.  She was quietly saying something and the facilitator said she says she doesn't want to go back to this crazy place.  Needless to say I was not happy about putting her through that but we made it.  So on we went to Berdychiv to the immigration office to get the missing document we needed from yesterday.  The young man we worked with there had to call to the Zhytomyr passport office, where we were heading next, several times to make sure he was wording everything correctly.  Finally, after going back and forth, signing here signing there and 2 hours later, we were out of there.  We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the Zhytomyr passport office.  It pretty much went down hill from there and not in a good way.  The lady we worked with there said we were missing a petition that stated blah, blah, blah, I wasn't sure anymore.  So we had to leave there and walk to a notary office down the street.  The notary wasn't sure why the lady at the passport office was requesting this so he had to call her.  She told him what she needed and he did it but shook his head as to why.  So back we went to the passport office and I am thinking, ok, it's 4 pm and we are almost done.  Oh but when we got back, the people at the passport office were dazed and confused.  It seems that Anna's biological name was not taken out of the Ukrainian registry and she is still listed as a Ukrainian citizen.  But, according to the court decree she is now Anna Joy Bell.  Everyone was confused because this had never happened before and they didn't know what to do.  And, of course, no one in authority was around to make a decision.  If someone there did make the decision and it was wrong, they could lose their job.  So they were sorry, come back tomorrow.   We headed back to Kiev and arrived to our apartment at 7:45 pm. 

Now a little background, our facilitator called this passport office a month ago and told them the situation  about Anna turning 16 and all the passports and there was no mention of extra documents or make sure she gets taken off the registry.  Also, the orphanage attorney had many conversations with this same passport office and the man there denied ever talking to him. 

So do you see why I just don't know what to say?

Another Picture Post

Here are a few more pictures. 

(A note to Gary - We will be gone all day tomorrow so we won't be able to Skype; maybe try Wed. or Thurs. same time.  I Love You! Oh and your new daughter, yeah, she likes ice cream as much as you! )

~Tina

90 steps

This is huge.  Notice the groundskeepers.
 

This is at the top of the tall statue
I have posted before.  The detail is
amazing.

Fault Start

So today at 11 am our facilitator picked us up and we were headed out to Zhytomyr to start Anna's final passport. Our facilitator got on the phone with the orphanage attorney to see how it was going with getting the stamp on the second passport.  He said he was in the process of getting the stamp on it but would then have to wait a few hours to get the exact same passport with the stamp not on it.  That is the one we need to have to apply for Anna's international passport.  (What?  Remember on Friday how we couldn't move forward because we were waiting on the stamp.)  Well I guess the one we need doesn't need the stamp but the stamped passport comes before the one not stamped.  Ok, all sounds good, let's go. Oh wait a minute, they forgot to tell us since she is 16 there is another Ukrainian form that has to do with the Visa that we have to get before we can apply for her international passport.  Ok, let's go and we'll get that while we are there.  Wait, no, sorry, that office is closed today.  Sooooo we made it around the block in the taxi and we are back at the apartment.  Does this just not sound so absurd?! 

Trying to put a smile on for these 2 sweet girls while I am beyond frustrated.  Shouldn't the hoops that need to be jumped through be listed somewhere so that we know what we are doing?  Is that really too much to ask?  These are rhetorical questions so no need to comment.  I feel so much like I am in the scene from the movie Ground Hog Day and the same song is playing over and over every morning.  I know go with the flow, be happy, lalala.

Tomorrow we are supposed to start out at 7 am to get all of the above done. 

As I sit here writing this so many things, as you can imagine, are running through my head.  God's timing, perfect timing.  I have repeated that over and over this trip.  I couldn't do this without Him!

Enjoy the words to this song.

~Tina

 

Lots of Pictures

Last night the internet was not working in our apartment; just all of a sudden.  I have never had this issue before.  And it was the night we were supposed to Skype with Gary and the boys.  So off we went to McDs at 10 pm and used the internet there.  Well then Skype was not working on Gary’s end so we went back to the apartment and still no internet.  I said a little prayer because I had to see my boys.  And we got a connection and talked for 30 minutes.  I have no idea how we did it because the internet showed that it was not working.  When we woke up this morning we still had no internet and haven’t had all day.  That makes it hard to communicate with Anna through Google translate but she has been a champ. 

So today we walked around, got a few things from the market, washed some laundry, and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.  Anna is good about asking when she wants something, in a good way, not selfish.  I’m so glad she speaks up but sometimes I tell her no and she’s ok with that also.  I just can’t believe how easy going she is.  She and Peyton seem to be getting along pretty well.   Anna just talks to Peyton like she knows what she is saying and Peyton does pick up some of it.  I love to listen to them in the next room just giggling away.  Most times they are laughing because there is this huge cat (see picture below) outside our apartment window and he just cries and cries all day and night.  Anna LOVES cats and I tried to buy her a little nesting doll that was different colored cats.  She didn’t want one.  I may have to buy her one anyway as I think she will like it someday.

Enjoy the pictures from today.   Can you pick out which one is my favorite?  Yes, it’s the sisters picture.

~Tina