hard labour...

So today. What is there to say about today. Another day of riding around in the car and waiting. Vadim picked us up at 8:10 then we picked up Slava from the metro and headed to the court (about 25 minutes away) and then we sat in the car and waited while Slava went in to talk to the judge. We waited. And waited (should have brought music today). Played some Xs and Ox. Waited. Played some hangman (Darren thought I was cheating by using the word ‘elektrichka’ as he said it’s not English – D: it’s not.). Waited (I should have brought my journal to write). Snoozed. Waited. Vadim said ‘takes long’. Then waited some more. Finally at about 10:10 Slava came out talking on the phone. When she got in the car she told us that the judge had been late and she waited an hour to see her, then that she would call the judge later to find out what day our court would be (we were hoping to find out right away – oh well) (D: I was feeling pretty good about having submitted our papers and having done something. It felt like progress to me. So I was pretty upbeat -- shocking, I know). So we decided to visit Ivanna in the afternoon as Slava had to be at the ‘department’ at noon – so there wasn’t really time to head out to Boyarka then. We came home and decided it was a nap day so crawled into bed. A few minutes later the phone rang. It was Slava. She said the judge had just called her (I immediately thought – maybe court is today!) to tell her that she needs another document from the department. (no court today. Argh!) Thus ended the nap. So Slava and Vadim will come to get us at 11:40 to head to the department and then back out to the court again. Fun. I think this time I will bring my journal and the music. Patience, patience, patience. We will someday get to court and take Ivanna home and this will all be a distant (and maybe even laughable) memory. Will write more later…

Now it’s later and what I thought was patience that was required earlier – was NOTHING!!! What a day this has been. It is now 5:14 and we’ve just returned from our afternoon. To sum it up in a few words is impossible…so here is the long version! We got to the department (SDA) and waited for a while outside for Lesya. When she arrived she went in and came out a while later and started off immediately with “the main problem is as follows….” Never a good way to start off a conversation! She then proceeded to say (in summary) that Ivanna was still adoptable but the document we were looking for (to say yet again that her mother abandoned her and hasn’t tried to see her) – they wouldn’t give us. Instead they would agree to pursue cutting off her biological mother’s rights (you’d think that would have been done already!) – that process would take 2 court dates. One to cut off her rights, then we’d have a month wait, then we could have our court date and the regular 10 day waiting period. As we tried to process that bombshell, Lesya continued to say that ‘that’s not good enough – I want you to have your court date this week’. So the option was to talk to Tatiana (the nurse in charge of adoptions at the orphanage), get her to write something we could then take to the police in Boyarka, where we would get a document from them saying that her mother hasn’t tried to find her, then we’d take THAT document back to the department (SDA) and they would give us the document to take to the judge. If it wasn’t so serious – it would be funny. Anyway, the biggest wrench in that craziness is that we couldn’t get a hold of Tatiana (she was not at the orphanage – in Kyiv somewhere with her cell phone OFF). So, we sat and waited some more as Slava said there was no point in going out to Boyarka until we had talked to Tatiana. We sat there for about 2 more hours (during which time I did get to write in my journal, enjoyed the sun and prayed ALOT). (D: I on the other hand, sat in the shade, prayed some, and, in a manner not unlike that of the disciples on the boat in a storm, tried to steel myself for the worst case scenario -- at least I am in good company). During this time there was some commotion going on at the SDA (I think a bunch of facilitators upset about something). Oh to have had Jonathan here to translate for us!!! Anyway at about 2:30 Lesya came out of the SDA with a paper in her hand and gave Darren a big thumbs up (I was sitting up the steps of St. Andrew’s). They called me down to say that we had the document and didn’t need to do all the other running around. Yes. We were stupefied. We have NO IDEA (ya ne pa ne mayu – we don’t understand!) what happened in that time (Lesya's magic?). Whatever. It was good news. So, we piled back into the car and headed to the court where we sat for a little while (and Vadim took Darren to the local woods – Jonathan you’d have enjoyed it – it was nice out :). Then Slava came out to say: “Tomorrow at 2:30”. So we have a court date Tuesday May 15th at 2:30 in the afternoon. We then (the saga isn’t over yet) had to wait for the social worker and took her back to her office (via a CRAZY shortcut) to get a document from her (saying why she wouldn’t be at court) and then BACK to the SDA (déjà vu??) to get a document from them saying why they wouldn’t be at court (both standard). And THAT was our day. The traffic was crazy and Vadim (our driver), I’m sure, is exhausted from all that back and forth (and these are not short distances we went!). The only thing that keeps us from losing it is that tomorrow, we go to court and Ivanna will officially be much closer to being our daughter! (unofficially, she already is.) Because of the insanity – we didn’t get to see her today, but it makes it worthwhile if court is tomorrow. We are heading out for supper now to try to relax. We’ll go see Ivanna in the morning and then head to court in the afternoon. As the pastor yesterday would say, “Slava Bogu.”
We are emotionally exhausted after the roller coaster ride we've had today, but very thankful for the ending. It looks like we are over one more hurdle.