I have to confess that I wasn't good company to be around on Wednesday night. I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was trying to shake off a cough. I was incredibly frustrated, too. We had made some incredibe progress! Ethan and I were less than forty-eight hours away from coming home; but the biggest hurdle was STILL ahead of us.
I could tell that Igor and Vicktor were doing EVERY thing they could to get things done as swiftly and efficiently as possible. I am very grateful to both of them that bringing Ethan home only took six weeks. It may have taken the same amount of time to bring Justin home, I don't remember off the top of my head, but they really work very hard to make sure it all goes along at a fast track.
If you remember, Monday was the first visit to the Embassy. I dropped off all the paperwork. I was invited back on Tuesday after two in the afternoon for the visa. But, on Tuesday, there was no passport, so i couldn't make the appointment. We finally got it on Wednesday, and had a really long delay at the doctor's office. It was decided that on Thursday, we would take advantage of a small, narrow window of opportunity to visit the doctor for the medical exam documents, and go from there.
So, I went to bed early feeling incredibly dejected, and concerned that we would get everything done in time to make our flight early Friday morning. My prayers were like the Psalms - Oh! Woe is me! Why hast thou forsaken me? Why have you turned your back on me? Why am I cast away? I was seeing only ONE set of footprints in the sand.
It snowed overnight, and all day Thursday. Big flakes. I'd once heard a theory that certain sizes of flakes tell the KIND of snow fall, but I couldn't remember if it was big flakes, big snow..or little flakes, big snow. We got a LOT of snow. The snow already on the ground had iced overnight, and by afternoon, it was all slushy and sloppy.
Ukraine is a country rich in history. 2,500 years old and full of history. They have wash machines, but they hang their clothes on clothes lines and clothing racks or heated pipes to dry. I can't imagine how Ukraine will ever modernize to the point where there will be room right next to a wash machine for a home or apartment dryer.
At McDonald's there was an employee with a traditional mop. At the orphanage, however, a mop is a "T", with a towel or a rag thrown over the end to clean the floors.
I didn't see anyone using a snow thrower. I saw men and women out with coal shovels and wheel barrels, moving snow manually. I saw crews using a flat piece of metal on a wood stick shoveling. I have a great respect for the people and how they do things.
With Sergei's help, we got Ethan's medical documents. When we got back in the car, I asked, "Embassy?" He nodded, grunted as if it were a given, and said, "Da."
With limited internet access, I had been trying to schedule an Embassy appointment to pick up the visa, but really didn't have any way of checking for confirmation. So we went, on faith, that I was able to get it rescheduled. On the ride over I kept kicking around in my mind, "What's the worst that could happen?" They would look at us standing in the snow, and turn us away? They could easily do that. Embassy visits are by appointment only. There is a man with a clipboard. If you get past him, you're golden and you're in. But, I would need to be on his clipboard. I prayed that we would be on his clipboard, or that there was some way he would have sympathy and pity on us and let us in.
On Monday, before all the snow, there was a guy still laying sod near the security bunker that guarded the Embassy. You can imagine that it is like a fort, this complex, and that the security office is the guard station leading to it. It really is a beautiful building. There are a number of steps leading down into a courtyard walk into the Consulate offices for visas. On Thursday, with all the snow, there was a guy with a snow thrower. Most of the people manning the security office were inside or nearer the front doors. I did not see the man with the clipboard. But I did see a security officer, and I showed my passport, and told him I was there to pick up my son's visa. He found the man with the clip-board, who asked when my appointment was for. I told him it should be for eleven. We were not on the clipboard. But, he brought us inside out of the cold and snow and called about our appointment. he told us to go through security and into the consulate. We were in!!! Praise God!
Once again I got a number and went right to window to see the same man from Monday. He had a big smile on his face. He asked me how I was, and without missing a beat, I said, "Years from now, we will laugh about this!" He asked for Ethan's medical documents and Ukrainian passport with a smile and invited us to sit and wait.
We were called to a different window by a woman. She went over each document with me. I had filled out everything, signing things before I should have. She asked me to raise my right hand, "sir, your OTHER right hand", and she swore me in on the validity of the forms I had filled out.
She told me that it would take a while for the visa to print. If it did not print in the next few minutes we would have to come back for it again after two. She invited me to sit and wait again.
I sat down and bowed my head and prayed.
A few minutes later she called me back up to the window, and said that the visa was printing and would be ready shortly.
WE HAD MADE IT!
We spent a little time at the orphanage after the Embassy, and then went back to the apartment. I grabbed my computer and we went to McDonald's to check in on messages. I had gotten a confirmation for an eleven o'clock appointment for Thursday. :)
Last year, Justin's and my last day was filled with "Justin no suh-leepin'! Popi, Justin no suh-leepin'!" This year, Ethan's chant was, "Me no sleep!" but I had him lay down around six thirty. We both napped, got up at midnight, and counted down until Sergei came at 2:40am to take us to the airport.
We had a 5:55am flight to Frankfurt. It takes an hour to get to the airport, and with the weather, it was agreed that we would go at 2:40am.
The question is not What happened on our flight home from Kiev, but rather, what DIDN'T happen! I was not kicked in the shins by a midget. That did NOT happen on our flight home. I made sure I had my document binder out to show off the court decree and any necessary documents whenever and wherever possible. After checking our suitcase, and going through security, there is a window where we had to show our passports. The uniformed guard looked over our passports, chatted with Ethan in Ukrainian, called over another operator, and then invited us into a small security office where he ran everything passed a supervisor, and Ethan was questioned further. We went back to the window, he gave us back our documents and passports and wished us a safe journey.
At a little after five came an announcement over the PA that the flight from Kiev to Frankfurt had been CANCELLED due to the conditions of the runways at the destination. It was like a cartoon, my jaw hit the floor with a loud, metal clang. All of the passengers crowded round the gate as an operator came over and quickly assured us that this information was INcorrect, and the flight was still on.
If you think ADOPTING a child is a challenge, try flying with one. Last year was a debacle with Justin! This year was just as big a challenge with Ethan. I've told the story that Justin was trying to watch movies with mature content and we spent almost the entire flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis arguing. Ethan was so excited that he kept asking, "America? America? America?" We were over London. "America?" No. Montreal. "America?" No. Detroit. "America?" No. :) We got to Chicago, and he kept asking when we would meet Mama and Justin. He was fine watching kid's movies from Frankfurt to Chicago, he was constantly asking questions. The difficulty was giving him an answer he would UNDERSTAND. I could tell the day was starting to wear on him. Nine hours of sitting is hard on any one, including a child. There were extra passport checks throughout the day, but for the most part we kept moving from one flight to another pretty easily. I was not able to check in on Facebook, or get a Chicago style hot dog or any cool food at O'Hare, because we had to move through customs and the TSA office there, grab our bag, run it through security and then check it for the flight to MSP. We had to find our terminal and then our gate and then make sure that our seats were together for that flight. We had ridden trams to some of our flights throughout the day, stood in a number of different lines, and Ethan was now asking, "Bus? Car?" At one point he asked what color our car was? "Blue?" No, red. The color of our car is red.
We finally got off the plane in MSP, and met our friend, Mike, just coming in from his own flight, and he walked us down to our huge welcome home at baggage claim. After three weeks it was great to see Cathy's face again. After six weeks, it was great to see Justin's face. It was great to see as many other families from our "club" of adoptive families. It was great to see each one of them, and the signs welcoming Ethan home. He and Justin got two very nice Christmas presents; Thor and The Hulk. Justin handed his to me with a smile on his face and said, "Popi, I know you like this kinda stuff, we can share!" Yeah, buddy!
Naturally, our suitcase made one of the OTHER flights from Chicago, but we had time to take the boys to Nickelodeon Universe. Justin covered Ethan's eyes until he was standing in front of the bronze Spongebob statue. "Whoa!" was heard to exclaim.
Breakfast this morning is pancakes from IHOP.
It is good to be home.
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