Day “I don’t know” through Day “I’ve lost count” – Sunday, 10 January, 2010 through Saturday 16 January, 2010 If I’m being honest, I have to say that the second trip was rough. Seriously hard. After a week of “regular life” which included blowing nearly half of my working hours fighting with payroll over the paycheck they failed to issue while I was on leave, I boarded a 7:30 AM flight to JFK, with a 10-hour layover and then a 10-hour direct flight to Kyiv on Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines. I truly believe I was the only person on that airplane […]

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Day 18 – Wednesday, 30 December First class train pillows resemble bricks a bit less than their second-class counterparts. I will say, also, that the bathrooms in the first-class car are infinitely better than the second-class. Almost worth the increased price! As a result of the improved environment, my sleep was slightly less bad than the first train trip. Mark is starting to get a bit of a cold, so he barely slept at all. I was up before the sun, and as the light came up, I packed our things away. Mark needed to sign some documents at the […]

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Day 11 – Wednesday, 23 December Wake up. Drink Coffee. Feel panicked about lack of blog posts. Write most of Monday’s blog. Answer phone. Take fastest shower ever. Run down to car. While our translator continues to run all over town working on documentation for us, we were allowed a very long visit at the orphanage today. We arrived a bit before 11:00, and Lena came down grinning. As we hugged, her friend Christina stepped into the room and greeted us. Christina was adopted by an American family a few years ago, and has come back to Ukraine for an […]

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Day 9 – Monday, 21 December Google the word “Monday” and I’m sure you’ll find the following definition: “Retribution for a leisurely Sunday.” Our translator and I were both up around 7:30. She scurried out the door a little after 8, and told us that we would be needed maybe around 10 or 11. Perhaps at this point, a cross-functional process diagram might be helpful, but I’m just not inclined to fire up Visio. Feels too much like work. Suffice to say there are many reviews and authorizations and circular escalations to create each document in the process, and there […]

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Day 4 – Wednesday, 16 December Still a bit jet-lagged, the screaming alarm at 6:30 AM came as a shock to both of us. We realized that we actually had to get up when the backup alarm on our phone shrieked at us from the other room. We launched into gear, quickly making breakfast and dressing up for our appointment with the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption (SDA). Unlike many countries, Ukraine does not allow pre-identification of children, so obtaining a referral to “meet” Lena and begin the adoption process is the first step in every adoption in Ukraine. While […]

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