River of Thoughts

Day 13 – Friday, 25 December In our dreams, Christmas dawns still and clear, sunshine glinting off freshly fallen snow, reindeer tracks on the roofs of every small child. In Ukraine…not so much. We have figured out how Santa manages…he distributes his workload in Europe across the month of December, visiting Ukraine (and probably many other places) over New Year’s; he’s not due here for another week. He did a fly-by for us, though, and dropped off some warmer temperatures. As our translator left the apartment around 9:30, she winked and instructed me to look at the window—she thought she […]

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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 […]

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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 10 – Tuesday, 22 December I’m settling into a morning routine: make coffee, set up laptop in the corner of the kitchen by the radiator and write before Mark wakes up. But occasionally, I have a day when I sit in front of my keyboard and my fingers simply won’t produce the words. Today was one of those days. I got up about 8:15, as our translator zipped out the door to chase more documents. By 9:30, when the only words on the screen were “Day 9 – Monday, 21 December,” I gave up and switched to a book. […]

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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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