"Here are your visas... Congratulations"

Jim:
I can't tell you how happy I was to hear those words!

See ya Thursday at 3:30!

Valentin picked us up at 8:30 a.m. We picked up the kids' passports at the train station and went to the medical center. I met two other American couples adopting there. Brad and Mari Wildeman from Omaha with their new daughter, Vera, and Matt & Sheila Nasekos from Mississippi and their new daughter, Karina. We were there about two hours, and both kids had to get two immunization shots (they said they didn't hurt). Exams cost $110 for each child, and the four shots cost 570 grivna.

Off we sped to the US Consulate office. I took the kids in, and they said they could get our visas today. She said she would try to get us an interview right now, but we may need to come back at 2:00. She returned and said we could do it now, but please wait. While she was talking I heard another American who is adopting at the next window return from the cashier and say he was $10 short, so I pulled out a $20 bill and gave it to him and told him, "Go, get home." He thanked me, gave me 100 grivna (about 12 bucks) and went and paid. So we waited an hour before the interview. It was short. He had to see the kids and compare them to their passports and review each set of paperwork. He asked some basic questions - how long have we been in the process of adoption, about how much did it cost, have they been to America? Then he said he approves our visa application, and they will be printed soon and asked us to wait. After a minute he found us and told us that the lady who does the printing just left for lunch, so either wait or go have lunch and come back in one hour. So we left for lunch with Valentin and returned at 2:30. Remember that 100 grivna that guy gave me? I was almost out of grivna and was thinking I was going to have to borrow some from Valentin for lunch when I remembered it. The bill was 91 grivna. Back at the Consulate we waited about 10 minutes while I talked to two other families getting visas for their kids, a lady from New Mexico with her young daughter, and a man from Dallas with his son, Jackson.

They called us to the window and gave us the passports with the visas pasted in and congratulated us. I thanked her and said goodbye.

Valentin drove us back to the Tyler's, and I said goodbye to him. The Christoffersons were just leaving, so I said goodbye to them after calling Kari with the good news about the visas. Becky and Nadia came over for dinner. Becky took Ashley for a haircut. We thought it would be nice to get it done here while she could explain how she wanted it. She told us that this was her first haircut at a stylist. They usually get their hair cut at the orphanage or her roommates trim it. Her new cut looks great, but when I went to take a picture, she had to mess it all up. I could tell she was pleased with it, though. She stopped for a whole second to let me look at it. Luba was making borscht and a potato/pork/onion/mayonnaise dinner that was amazingly good. I finally had borscht in Ukraine!

Kevin arrived home from Portugal tonight just before dinner. I'm glad we got to see him again before we left.

I gave a slideshow of our adoption process to everyone. Kevin set up the projector. During the slideshow there is a picture of us with the McGowans and Maxim. I just said this was the McGowans who stayed in the apartment next to us, and Ashley said, "That's Maxim!" She said they were in the same school for a couple of years. I sat there in a small state of shock. First she knew Vanya and now Maxim.

We had some ice cream and toppings. The kids know it's their last night here and don't want to sleep. So I'm letting them have a late movie night. Eunice has volunteered to take us to the airport at 2:00 am - what a saint she is! I can't say enough about the hospitality we've been shown here. They've made us all feel like part of the family. Kari's pointed out that the week delay has given us the blessing of several godly women role models for Ashley and will probably help her a lot in her transition to family life. So THANK YOU to Eunice, Lesley, Becky, Nadia, Karen and Luba!! And of course thank you to Kevin as well for having us. Ashley really took a liking to Kevin. They were even tickling each other tonight. (Ashley does not like being tickled - she did a back somersault out of the recliner to get away from Kevin and Becky.)

Josh has taken up the role of little brother well. He was tormenting Ashley during the movie by messing with the remote. She filled the role of big sister by quickly correcting the situation. Speaking of big sister role, let's backtrack to the medical exam and the shots. Josh went into the room to get his shots first, but Ashley announced that she would go first, and Josh agreed. After her shots, she ushered Josh into the chair, helped him roll up his sleeves, and guided him through both shots. She made sure he wasn't looking when they gave him the shot, and she held up his sleeves while they put bandages on.

This picture is titled the Babuska Bizarre. Becky, Eunice and Nadia were all teasing Ashley yesterday about her hair, so Ashley said they were a Babushka Bizarre! (If you don't remember, Babushka means Grandma, so it wasn't a compliment!)

OK - gotta go finish packing. See you all soon. Thanks for the prayers and support. It means a lot. Our flight leaves in 7 hours (5:30 am here, 8:30 pm in Colorado). Please pray for on time flights and safe travel.

Kari:
Here is the flight information for TOMORROW! They are at the airport in Kiev right now getting ready to board their flight!
Thursday, January 29
Lufthansa Flight 446 Frankfurt to Denver
Arrival Time: 3:25 p.m.

It will probably take them around 45 minutes to go through customs and get the official stamp on Ashley and Josh's passports making them United States citizens! So we anticipate them coming through the customs doors on the north end of the airport around 4:15 p.m., but you might want to be there a little earlier just in case it doesn't take that long. Everyone is welcome! We are so excited, I wonder if we will be able to sleep tonight!