I have been tempted more than once during this trip to call Jake "Clark". I am shocked that there hasn't been an international incident yet....I am also incredibly grateful that we are not "locked up abroad". I remember a friend that has been through the "interesting" process of adoption in Ukraine telling me to keep them laughing....so here's our humor.
When we arrived here in Kyiv our facilitator (we'll call her G) rented an apartment for us. Its a great price and great location. A studio apartment with a little washing machine and clothes line on the balcony with a market right across the street - perfect! Our SDA appointment was Wednesday. Thursday morning our translator (we'll call her R) called us and said to meet her in an hour, we needed to get to the notary office and start our paperwork. As we were walking out the door, R called and said that G had called and said we had to move apartments. Now. We frantically packed all of our things and then R said, "no no. It can wait until 1. We MUST get to the notary office. At 1, the landlord will meet you to get the key". So we went to the notary office. And waited. And waited. And waited. 3 hours later (way past 1pm) we were headed back to the apartment. We arrived to find 3 backpackers sitting on the sofa guarding their bags and staring at ours, as well as the cleaning crew giving us nasty, angry looks. Turns out, G just assumed we would travel to our childs region on Wednesday night so she only rented the apartment until then. No biggie! We moved to another apartment in the same building for the same price. After we waited for 3 hours at the notary office we headed back to the SDA to pick up the referral that allows us to visit our little mans orphanage. They said we could pick up between 4 and 5. We arrived at 4:10. At 5:45 they allowed us to pick up our documents. We got home last night and all we wanted was to wash some laundry and go to bed. After loading the washer, downloading the users manual to my phone, troubleshooting, turning this knob and that knob, water valves on and off, and almost breaking the washer to get our clothes back out, we realized, the washer is broken. So I used the Google translate app on my phone and typed in "our washing machine is broken. help." Jake took the phone downstairs to the VERY angry lady at the desk in her nightgown. He stood there and just held the phone out. (I'm laughing just writing this). She read it and said "NO!" then a whole bunch of Ukrainian and then "Manager!". So Jake laughed and retreated to the apartment. Language barrier wins again. First thing this morning we called our translator to see if she could call the facilitator that rented the apartment and find out about the washer. She called back and said "ooooooh yeah. G said the washer is broken. But she said she will come to you and get your clothes and take them to her house and wash them. Her son is here right now so he can help her." So right now, in Ukraine, there's a woman (that we have known for 4 days) and her adult son, washing our underwear for us. Never a dull moment.
Today we did A LOT of walking and through the whole day we were scoping restaurants for traditional Ukrainian fare. I mean, you're only in Ukraine once, right? And I don't think I brought enough mouth bleach to try Borscht but we passed this little place with an English menu under the Ukrainian menu and decided to take a look. Meat pie. Rabbit & mushroom pie. Herring pie. Green onion and egg pie. Jake was feeling froggy. That was our dinner joint. So Jake ordered the chicken pie and I ordered the blueberry pie. They came out in big slices. Cold. Jakes was like chicken saladishy. With rice and cabbage and parsley. Mine was blueberry and perfect! Jake is already feeling the effects of his pie adventure :).
There is never a dull moment with us. I can't document all of them because my writing doesn't provide the proper setting that would make it funny to readers. But we spend lots of time laughing and joking and that's just how we have always been. We could have easily chosen to allow this place to defeat us....but we won't let the devil win.
We will leave on Sunday afternoon for a 14 hour train ride to a city near the Carpathians, not far from the Hungarian border. There is no option but to have a sense of humor on a 14 hour train ride. For real. It will be worth it when we see his sweet face. We are continuing to pray for Gods favor. Our translator has been an AMAZING blessing and we thank God for her. She is working her very hardest to get our paperwork done as quickly as possible. There are still people with the authority to tell us "no". Through this process. There are still people that can hold this process up by taking their precious time with our documents. We are praying that God lights a small fire under them :). Seriously though, we are praying for an expeditious process and for favor, favor, favor. We know that so far, God has shown off big for our boy and for the strengthening of our faith, I have all ideas that God does not intend to stop showing off any time soon.
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