Note: For those of you who have already read today's entry, look again! At a later post, we were able to upload a few photos (with captions). To view, scroll down.
March 13 - Our facilitator, Oleg, and his assistant, Dima, drove us to the State Department for Adoption (SDA) for our 10 a.m. appointment. We presented our letter of approval and met with a psychologist and her young translator, Julia. The meeting was brief and to the point. The psychologist asked us a few basic questions, such as, how many biological children do we have? Why do we want to adopt? How did we select Yuri? She showed us his official paperwork. Clipped to the paper was a photo of Yuri as a young boy, just to confirm we were both talking about the same, Yuri Sivtsov. From the paperwork, we learned a few more details about Yuri’s life. At the end or our interview the psychologist informed us that we could return tomorrow between 5 and 6 p.m. to pick up our letter of approval. We will take this letter to the director of Internot #4 in Odessa. We plan to stay in Kiev through Wednesday night and depart for Odessa by car at 7 a.m. Thursday (about a 5 hour trip).
There is so much more we would like to display or write but in consideration of our Ukrainian friends, (and your time) we’ll refrain until a more appropriate date and forum. We are very thankful today’s meeting went so well. One step down, several more to go. ;-) Enjoy the following photos.
Prayer Request – For safe travel by car to Odessa on Thursday morning.
SDA (above) The official-looking building in the background houses the “Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports—State Department for Adoption and Protection of the Rights of the Child” or, SDA for short. The entry to the SDA is a rather small door on the left side. We stood in a crowded stair case with many other prospective adoptive parents and waited for our appointment. Notice the stands of souvenir vendors in the left foreground.
Paul and Renee (above) in front of Saint Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church located next door to the SDA. I think every family who has adopted children from Ukraine must have a photo similar to this one in their family photo album. J This style of church architecture is common to the region. In 2000 (after the fall of communism), the Ukrainian government spent millions of dollars to restore these churches to their original glory to mark the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s birth.
Souvenirs (above) Apparently, we were so elated our appointment at the SDA went smoothly that we felt like shopping. We spent the rest of the morning looking for souvenirs from street vendors strategically located just outside the SDA. (It’s all about location, location, location.) We would tell you what we bought but that would ruin the surprise for many of you who are reading this blog.
Our building (above) Today, I was able to get a picture of the outside of our apartment building in Kiev. Our apartment is on the second floor—the glassed-in balcony is ours.
There is so much more we would like to display or write but in consideration of our Ukrainian friends, (and your time) we’ll refrain until a more appropriate date and forum. We are very thankful today’s meeting went so well. One step down, several more to go. ;-) Enjoy the following photos.
Prayer Request – For safe travel by car to Odessa on Thursday morning.
SDA (above) The official-looking building in the background houses the “Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sports—State Department for Adoption and Protection of the Rights of the Child” or, SDA for short. The entry to the SDA is a rather small door on the left side. We stood in a crowded stair case with many other prospective adoptive parents and waited for our appointment. Notice the stands of souvenir vendors in the left foreground.
Paul and Renee (above) in front of Saint Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church located next door to the SDA. I think every family who has adopted children from Ukraine must have a photo similar to this one in their family photo album. J This style of church architecture is common to the region. In 2000 (after the fall of communism), the Ukrainian government spent millions of dollars to restore these churches to their original glory to mark the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s birth.
Souvenirs (above) Apparently, we were so elated our appointment at the SDA went smoothly that we felt like shopping. We spent the rest of the morning looking for souvenirs from street vendors strategically located just outside the SDA. (It’s all about location, location, location.) We would tell you what we bought but that would ruin the surprise for many of you who are reading this blog.
Our building (above) Today, I was able to get a picture of the outside of our apartment building in Kiev. Our apartment is on the second floor—the glassed-in balcony is ours.
1 comment:
I'm so glad to hear that your meeting went well at the SDA. I'm glad to hear you've had sunshine. I've heard winters are almost always gray, and it snows a little every day. Maybe spring has sprung there, too. I'm praying the rest of your time goes there as smoothly.
The band concert was very good last night. Saw Elizabeth on stage. They sounded great.
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