Getting the Referral & More Travel

The morning was ours to do with as we pleased. Since there wasn't much in the way of entertainment, we went for a long walk. It happened to be the first day of school for Ukrainian children. The school was across the street from our apartment with the Soccer stadium between the two buildings. There was a big ceremony with speakers and performances for the start of the school year. The children wear black pants (or skirts for girls), white shirts, and a dark blazer - in this case forest green. We stayed to watch for awhile and then continued on our walk.

That afternoon we were to go back to the SDA to get the referral. They only hand them out for about an hours. When we got there, they were not open. So we waited outside with many other hopeful parents. Finally the SDA opened and we all hurried into the small waiting area and stood waiting for our turn. All in all, we waited about an hour, went in, showed our passport and were given our referral. It took less than 5 minutes.

Because it took longer than expected (even from our advocates viewpoint) we hurried back to the apartment to grab our luggage. We then had to pick up the person who would be traveling with us to the orphanage city. Our advocate was needed in Kiev and couldn't come with us, so his colleage came. After picking her up, we went to the airport to buy tickets and make the 9:00 pm flight.

We were instructed that while in the orphanage city not to mention that we had hosted Misha. We were to tell the officials that we saw their files (which we did) and that we wanted to adopt them (which we do). We are meeting them for the first time (which we were for Anna). I don't understand all the working and whys of things, but don't want to cause complications for us or for others still to come.

After our flight and 2 hour drive, it was 1:30 am. Luckily we had brought non perishible food from the apartment with us and the apples became dinner. We also had a "snack" of salami, cheese, bread, juice and dessert on the 1 hour flight. Didn't USA used to serve food on their flights? (haha).

Upon arrival to the appartment, there was no power on. The person that was there had a flashlight as did our cell phone (neat feature). After digging William's headlamp that he takes backpacking with him, we fell into bed. Tomorrow we would worry about food.