River of Thoughts

Day 8 – Sunday, 20 December And on the seventh day, we rested. Well, ok, really the 8th, but you get the idea. After a week of running around and traveling and stressing out and running around some more, we finally had our first totally “down” day. The weather warmed to just above freezing and a light fog filled the streets around our apartment, giving us a cozy, cocooned feeling perfect for a lazy Sunday. We slept in. I made a pot of really strong coffee. I read while Mark played with the internet sharing on our computers and did […]

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Day 7 – Saturday, 19 December We must feel like this is our second home, because for the first time in a week, we both slept well and long. I woke around 8, made a cup of tea, and found a nice warm spot at the kitchen table next to the radiator to write. Mark and our translator both rose a short while later. “We have small problem.” Um…uh oh. That’s never a good thing to hear. Our translator proceeded to explain to us that the holidays in Ukraine begin on 31 December and then run the full first week […]

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Day 6 – Friday, 18 December A weak light broke through the frost-covered window of our compartment, causing me to roll and face the wall and beg for a few hours in a soft bed with a fluffy pillow. Sleep on a train is only marginally more possible than sleep on a plane; at least on the train, you have the ability to lie flat, albeit on a hard, narrow bunk with sheets the texture of tea-towels dried on a clothesline. Again, I strongly recommend the use of pharmaceutical assistance! We finally shook off the cobwebs a little before 10; […]

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Day 5 – Thursday, 17 December I have discovered the key to our formerly successful anti-jetlag strategy: prescription drugs. In the past, we have employed tactics that included deliberately not sleeping on the plane and pushing hard through the first day to ensure exhaustion and a solid first night’s sleep. In the past, our first morning in the new place, we have awoken pretty much refreshed and ready to rock. In the past, we’ve supplemented sleep for the first few nights with Ambien. Please note the correlation. This time, we didn’t get around to calling the doctor for a new […]

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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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