Pins and Pine Needles

Day 12 – Thursday, 24 December

Today is just another workday in Ukraine, and we are waiting for another key document, without which we are dead in the water. Yesterday, our translator had extracted a promise from the official responsible for this document, “Tomorrow morning.” She left the apartment early and promised to call us as soon as it was ready.

I perched myself in the corner of the kitchen with a pot of coffee and caught up on blogging. Mark settled in at the desk and focused on work. We both waited on pins and needles for the phone to ring.

10:00…11:00…Noon…as time passed, we began to fret a little more. We had planned to leave around 3:00 to visit the orphanage, and we thought the document would be long finished before then. We finally received a call around 2:30. Our document was finished; one more hurdle was cleared, and it was time to go visit Lena.

We gathered our things, bundled up, and headed down to the car. When we arrived at the orphanage, the first question out of Lena’s mouth was “When is court?” We told her the hearing date and time, and then reviewed the timeline of my second trip on the calendar with her. We can tell that she is thinking deeply about the changes that are coming in her life. She is very excited about finally being an official part of our family, but there’s also a real sense of loss for the life that she knows and the people here that she cares about, and anxiety for the challenges that lie ahead.

I held her for a few minutes while she mused, then she lifted her head off my shoulder and asked to play a game. She perked up quickly as she won the first game. We visited for a couple of hours, playing games, chatting, and reviewing music on our iPods until it was time to go. Lena asked us to wear warm clothes tomorrow so we can all go outside together tomorrow; she reminded us about 5 more times before we left!

Because we only had one car for two families today, our translator went back to the apartment first, and sent the car back for us about 30 minutes later. We ran a couple of errands with the other family on the way home; and when we arrived at our apartment, it was full of Christmas cheer! Our translator had found some Christmas decorations—lights and ornaments—and had hung them up in our room while she was waiting for us. It was so sweet and thoughtful of her, and it helped today feel a little bit more like Christmas Eve.

We decided to celebrate Christmas Eve together with the other family and our translator at the hotel restaurant across the street. The five of us met there, and enjoyed a leisurely dinner filled with more food than we could eat and great conversation. I learned that Ukrainians never take restaurant leftovers home…as I asked for a box for the salmon I couldn’t finish! We were so full we could barely walk, but we made it home, had a cup of tea and chatted with our translator a little longer, and then crashed.