September 26, 2002

Today was a difficult day, not because of the things we had to do, but because of the things we couldn't do. Inna had warned us the previous day that Larissa (our coordinator) would be arriving by train this morning, and that might disrupt our routine. We might not be able to visit Evan in the morning. She couldn't say, really. When she called around 10:30am, it was to tell us that she and Larissa would be busy working on our case through the rest of the morning and early afternoon, and we would have to stay at the apartment until 3:45pm.

This was very frustrating. We knew that Inna and Larissa were working to make our adoption happen--and happen sooner rather than later. We were happy for that, of course. The problem was that Inna was quite insistent that we not go anywhere without her. Unlike Kiev, where we at least could go out with Nina, in Donetsk we were not even able to do that. (Galena didn't know much English, and apparently that disqualified her as an escort in Inna's eyes.) Kristin found this especially uncomfortable, as she very much wanted to go for a walk, maybe do some shopping, etc., and being treated like she was incapable of doing that grated on her.

We tried telling Galena that we were going to go for a quick walk to the flower stands up the street, but she wouldn't hear of it. She called Inna to help translate. Between Inna, Galena, and ourselves, we managed to compromise on a small walk in the yard outside the apartments, so long as Galena could see us from her windows. Frustrating! We were very tempted to just leave once we got outside, but we knew that this would make Galena and Inna very angry and annoyed with us, and might lead to unpredictable sanctions down the road. Since both had been very helpful to us in so many ways during our trip so far, we decided to respect their concerns, even though we felt they were unfounded, and we stayed in sight of the building.

In the afternoon we watched a DVD movie on the computer, did some reading, repacked our stuff in preparation for tomorrow's travel, and generally tried to keep our minds occupied in order to avoid a nap (which would further disrupt our already confused sleep schedule) and to avoid extreme frustration.

When Inna and Larissa arrived that afternoon, however, we learned that it had been well worth the wait. They had done such a great job that there was now hardly anything for us to do at court. We signed a few papers, and it was official! Amazing! We're now parents.

We went to the orphanage to visit Evan (now really Evan) and had a very nice visit with him. We knew it was going to be a good one when we opened the door to his group's rooms and he gave a shriek of delight when he saw us and leaped to his feet. This was especially meaningful, since he was at the table eating a snack.

We spent most of the time outside walking back and forth around the orphanage. Evan was completely entranced again by his image in the rain puddles. He could stare down at the puddles from mommy or daddy's arms forever if we let him. And we had to stop to look at every puddle!

We gave Evan some food we brought him from our lunch, as we had the day before. This time it didn't agree with him so well. Evan followed up his first time eating with a spoon with mommy with his first time spitting up on mommy. (First of many, we assume. The nurse didn't seem too shocked when we returned him with dirty shirts.)

Daddy again got extra points on the giggle scale (a real belly laugh this time) when he grabbed Evan's toy caterpillar in his mouth and wiggled it around in the air. This dad will do anything, it seems, for a laugh--at least from his little boy. Kisses on the cheek also get great smiles. (Mommy thinks it's because of daddy's beard.)

We visited the Internet cafe on the way back to the apartment, reading messages and sending updates, including a frequently-asked questions and answers note and some new photos.

Tomorrow will be a big day. We'll visit Evan in the morning, pack everything up in the apartment, take all of our stuff with us to the orphanage to take custody of Evan, and hurry off to the airport to fly back to Kiev. Best of all, Evan will be with us for the rest of this trip!