Hi! We are Cathy and Dave! This is our continuing adventure with our first son, Justin, and the journey to bring our second son, Ethan, home. When we first got married, Cathy wanted to start a family and have kids right away. I always thought that we would have plenty of time for that. So we focused on our careers. And when I say "we", I mean "me". Fourteen years, and a few job changes later, we found ourselves in Rochester, in a fertility program that diagnosed Cathy with cancer. I almost heard Louie Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World". I say almost, because the cancer was caught, removed and while we recovered, Cathy said that we needed to look into adoption. That was eight years ago. It's been almost two years, since I went "all in" and posted my determination on Facebook, "I want to be a dad in 2011." With a little help, Justin found us. He introduced us to his brother Ethan...
...And here we are, on our final Monday here in Kiev.
Sergei picked us up this morning at eight-fifteen and drove us to the US Embassy. It moved sometime in the last year. There was the Embassy; and a few blocks away was the Consulate offices in a separate building. Last Tuesday, when our facilitator, Vicktor, and I were at the Regional Office of Vital Records, he was explaining that the Embassy had moved and that I would need to make an appointment as soon as possible and let Igor know, so he could schedule Sergei to drive us, because it was, "absolutely not any where near a Metro station."
So we drove, with light flurries falling on the first Monday of December. Ethan's last Monday in Ukraine.
If I feel any guilt, it is when I come to the US Embassy. Not knowing where to go or what to do here at the new location, I walked up to a security guard, presented my passport, and told him I had an appointment. Like I did at the Consulate office last year with Justin. The guard walked me over to a man in civilian clothes with a clipboard. I presented my passport and he checked my name and appointment time off and told me to go right in. Ahead of every one else waiting in line. The building I went in was the security checkpoint. Pretty much like going through airport security. From experience, I brought only the paperwork I needed for Ethan's visa. Some Altoids. Cough drops. Along with the cell phone, Ethan and I surrendered our earbuds. We'll leave those at the apartment on our next visit.
With a smile we were directed on into the Consulate office and told where to go. I got a number that immediately corresponded to an open window. What are the odds that I would get the same person that helped me as last year - let along that I would remember that it was the same person that helped me last year? And what are the odds that all of this would happen at eight-forty in the morning? We spent a few minutes going over the packet of paperwork, and he directed me to another window, and told me to come right back afterward. By nine o'clock, we were finished and on our way back out.
We killed some time before having lunch at McDonald' at thirteen hundred hours. That's one o'clock to you and I westerners.
As the snowfall started to accumulate, we headed out to the orphanage for a bonus visit. And, what a bonus it was! The social worker gave me Ethan's school records and the classroom teacher found at least a half dozen certificates he had earned and three more certificates she still had for Justin! Bonus! A couple of the children started handing me drawings they had done for me and Cathy. Bonus! Masha handed me three that she had drawn: one of Bambi, one of a giraffe, and one of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella posing. It looks like the teacher had written her name on the picture of the giraffe and the Disney Princesses. Bambi was drawn on a small square of graph paper. Bonus!
We got our timeline of what the next few days should look like: tomorrow will be a check on the progress of Ethan's Ukrainian passport. It may not be ready until Wednesday. We may need to reschedule our trip back to the Embassy. We'll have our visit with the doctor for his final physical on Thursday.
And that's it. We will be finished. Our journey to bring Ethan home to join Justin, along with Cathy an I (or is it "me") will be complete.
Just like last year, we will start a NEW chapter. Another year of firsts, this time for Ethan, and firsts for the rest of us as we go from THREE, to FOUR.
Who knows what the future holds?
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