Dateline – Williamsburg Virginia, USA, 0500 local (noon Kyiv time) –
It’s been almost a week since the last post. As I mulled over what to write about, I decided my thoughts fit into two general categories – Rush and Reflection.
Rush & Reflection – since the last post, life has been a series of rushed events separated by wonderful times of reflection. Kind of reminds me of the first time I ever ran a large deck (floor) buffer. It looked pretty easy to use as it sat peacefully in the closet. I wheeled it to the middle of the newly waxed deck and thought it would be kind of fun. When I fired that baby up – wow was I in for a ride. STOP – and then all was peaceful again……
We rushed to the Gorodnia passport office, then we rushed to the notary, then we rushed to the birth certificate office – then had a leisurely lunch. It was an interesting time. Ultimately, your prayers and Oles’s skillful facilitation led to us departing Gorodnia for Kyiv on Tuesday night. We got into an apartment about half a block from Independence Square at 10:00 pm and crashed for the night. On Wednesday, we had a medical appointment and then an 1100 meeting at the US Consulate office.
The Consulate meeting was interesting - lots of paperwork, but ultimately a very professional staff. We were told that it would likely take until Thursday for the visa to be issued - which it did. We had a leisurely lunch in Kyiv and visited the travel agency to make return flight reservations. Visiting Svetlana (the travel agent) was an unexpectedly interesting experience. We found her office, then found her . We sat down at her desk and watched her type for about 15 minutes with not a word said. He typing was very dramatic – like a concert pianist actually. Finally, Charlene and her Russian came to the rescue. We found out she had a 6 year old son (and saw his picture) and learned that she liked science fiction novels. Not seeing an opportunity to use “Very interesting” in the conversation, I told her we wanted our flights “bez” crashes (meaning without crashes). “Bez” is an important word. If you forget to say “bez gas” when ordering water, you end up with fizzy mineral water instead of the regular stuff. She told us the word for crash was “catastrophe” but with a different pronunciation than in English. OK – “Bez catastrophe” I said!
Thursday we had a wonderful final meeting with Oles. We found an Indian restaurant and took him for his first Indian meal. That was an experience… Oles was bound and determined to eat what and how real Indian’s ate. When two Indian men sat down near us – at about the end of our meal – he ordered everything they were eating and then copied the way they used bread instead of utensils to eat. In hindsight, it wasn’t that expensive if I think of it as actually two complete dinners.
Friday was a blur. Up at 0330 local. Meet the driver at 0415. Drive to the airport. Check-in, clear customs, wait, board a 0655 flight for Prague. 4 hour layover in Prague and then nine or so hours to New York. I don’t want to spend much energy talking about the absolute worst part of the entire adoption trip, so we’ll just skip the JFK airport experience. If you’re returning from an adoption trip overseas, and you have time, I would strongly suggest entering via Chicago or Atlanta.
What a great joy and relief to get off the plane in Richmond with our new daughter and have the Bruce’s and Briskey’s (Charlene’s sister-in-law & niece) waiting! Erin Bruce greeted Sophie in Russian - or maybe Ukrainian, and helped her feel right at home! We are so thankful for everyone who prayed for this entire process and supported us through it!
Saturday and Sunday were blurry and jet-laggy though we all remember the warmth of our friends as we met after church for a big lunch. As I count now it was about 7 families and 8 or 9 children from Ukraine! Three kids (Sophie, Art, and Ella) had been in America less than two days!
Final reflection… We both miss the people and the pace of life very much. I find myself looking at the watch and thinking – oh it’s 1100 there, we would be doing such and so. We also think about and pray for Sophie’s best friend Katya, who is left behind.
Sophie seems to be doing great. She has started to pester he brothers – lust a little now - so we’re sure she’s going to fit in perfectly!
Tim and Charlene
It’s been almost a week since the last post. As I mulled over what to write about, I decided my thoughts fit into two general categories – Rush and Reflection.
Rush & Reflection – since the last post, life has been a series of rushed events separated by wonderful times of reflection. Kind of reminds me of the first time I ever ran a large deck (floor) buffer. It looked pretty easy to use as it sat peacefully in the closet. I wheeled it to the middle of the newly waxed deck and thought it would be kind of fun. When I fired that baby up – wow was I in for a ride. STOP – and then all was peaceful again……
We rushed to the Gorodnia passport office, then we rushed to the notary, then we rushed to the birth certificate office – then had a leisurely lunch. It was an interesting time. Ultimately, your prayers and Oles’s skillful facilitation led to us departing Gorodnia for Kyiv on Tuesday night. We got into an apartment about half a block from Independence Square at 10:00 pm and crashed for the night. On Wednesday, we had a medical appointment and then an 1100 meeting at the US Consulate office.
The Consulate meeting was interesting - lots of paperwork, but ultimately a very professional staff. We were told that it would likely take until Thursday for the visa to be issued - which it did. We had a leisurely lunch in Kyiv and visited the travel agency to make return flight reservations. Visiting Svetlana (the travel agent) was an unexpectedly interesting experience. We found her office, then found her . We sat down at her desk and watched her type for about 15 minutes with not a word said. He typing was very dramatic – like a concert pianist actually. Finally, Charlene and her Russian came to the rescue. We found out she had a 6 year old son (and saw his picture) and learned that she liked science fiction novels. Not seeing an opportunity to use “Very interesting” in the conversation, I told her we wanted our flights “bez” crashes (meaning without crashes). “Bez” is an important word. If you forget to say “bez gas” when ordering water, you end up with fizzy mineral water instead of the regular stuff. She told us the word for crash was “catastrophe” but with a different pronunciation than in English. OK – “Bez catastrophe” I said!
Thursday we had a wonderful final meeting with Oles. We found an Indian restaurant and took him for his first Indian meal. That was an experience… Oles was bound and determined to eat what and how real Indian’s ate. When two Indian men sat down near us – at about the end of our meal – he ordered everything they were eating and then copied the way they used bread instead of utensils to eat. In hindsight, it wasn’t that expensive if I think of it as actually two complete dinners.
Friday was a blur. Up at 0330 local. Meet the driver at 0415. Drive to the airport. Check-in, clear customs, wait, board a 0655 flight for Prague. 4 hour layover in Prague and then nine or so hours to New York. I don’t want to spend much energy talking about the absolute worst part of the entire adoption trip, so we’ll just skip the JFK airport experience. If you’re returning from an adoption trip overseas, and you have time, I would strongly suggest entering via Chicago or Atlanta.
What a great joy and relief to get off the plane in Richmond with our new daughter and have the Bruce’s and Briskey’s (Charlene’s sister-in-law & niece) waiting! Erin Bruce greeted Sophie in Russian - or maybe Ukrainian, and helped her feel right at home! We are so thankful for everyone who prayed for this entire process and supported us through it!
Saturday and Sunday were blurry and jet-laggy though we all remember the warmth of our friends as we met after church for a big lunch. As I count now it was about 7 families and 8 or 9 children from Ukraine! Three kids (Sophie, Art, and Ella) had been in America less than two days!
Final reflection… We both miss the people and the pace of life very much. I find myself looking at the watch and thinking – oh it’s 1100 there, we would be doing such and so. We also think about and pray for Sophie’s best friend Katya, who is left behind.
Sophie seems to be doing great. She has started to pester he brothers – lust a little now - so we’re sure she’s going to fit in perfectly!
Tim and Charlene
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5 comments:
I would add that Washington is another good airport to enter the USA. We've never had any problems. Coming through JFK yesterday on a "routine" flight gave us enough heartburn- I can only imagine what's in store if you had to stop at Immigration, also!
Blessings on your new addition! You all look so happy!
~Nancy
Yeah- so glad you made it home! I'll join the "I don't like JFK group also!" as i've had problems there too- sorry you had headache there- but glad you are home to your family. It was wonderful meeting you both- so sorry I was not back in town to meet Sophie. But I'm sure I'll get back to VA one of these days. Keep in touch!
Blessings,
Karen
Tim, Charlene and Sophie,
Welcome back home. Glad to see you made it back home safely. Good luck with your new adopted daughter, Sophie.
Jill, Robb and Erica
Charlene and Tim,
I am glad to hear you all and Sophie made it home to Williamsburg safely. We had another Christian women's meeting last night and your great news was shared!
We will continue to pray for you all as this new phase in your life begins.
Many blessings to you from Kiev!
Christina
What an awesome trip. We loved following your journey and are happy you are now safely home with your new daughter. We got a kick out of Tim's humor along the way. May God richly bless Sophie as she adjusts to her new life and wonderul family. We missed you guys!
Rob and Laura
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