I'll take two, Please

March 24, 2013

What it’s like to adopt internationally: You've been told that a letter will be delivered to your home, and to wait for it. So you wait, and wait, and wait some more. Soon enough, you see a truck coming down the street. You see the truck coming. You hear the truck coming. You smell the truck coming. “Smell?” You say to yourself. Sure enough, as it gets closer, you realize it’s a dump truck. “Surely, this isn't the delivery vehicle?” The truck starts backing down your driveway and promptly dumps a pile of doo doo at your feet. The driver yells out the window, “Your letter is in there somewhere!” and drives away just as quickly as he came, leaving you with a pile to sort through. When you finally find your letter, it says, “Hello there, you need to be in Ukraine in 8 days. Oh, and by the way, you’ll be adopting TWO children.”

Or maybe that’s just us! Haha! Seriously though, perhaps I haven’t been paying attention, but I really did think I’d have at least two week’s notice to pack our bags and hand over our household of four children and dog over to my mother for 3 to 6 weeks. And yes, if you hadn't heard, we are going to try to adopt Rachel’s older sister as well! We knew Rachel had an older sister, and that it was an option to adopt her, but had no idea it would be a requirement! We don’t really even know for sure if she will want to have us as parents. But we certainly are willing to be, and think it would be wonderful for them to stay together. I’ll keep you updated!

So, here I am, blogging from a rented apartment in Kiev, Ukraine. Or is this New York? Hard to tell.

The trip here was pretty uneventful. Our flight was scheduled for Charlotte to Washington, Washington to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Kiev, with two hour layovers in between connections. Except for a healthy frisking of Brett’s person at the Charlotte airport (thanks to a forgotten travel toothpaste tube at the bottom of his carry-on from a prior trip), there were no serious delays stateside. Although I think the TSA guy might have handed Brett his phone number….. ahem, ANYWAY – We had a non-eventful, and delightful 8 hour flight on Lufthansa Airlines over the Atlantic as we chatted with Charlotte from Paris, and Anne from New York, who was on her way to Paris - ooh lala! Landed in Frankfurt; my GOODNESS that is a HUGE airport! 

We went around in a few circles, but eventually found our gate. Oh! Here is a really cool story: While waiting for our flight to Kiev, we met some neat gentlemen from Canada who were also on their way to Kiev. As we told them why we were going to Ukraine, two ladies who were sitting just a few feet from us overheard Brett say 'adoption'. The mother/daughter pair immediately inquired about our adoption and told us that they were traveling to pick up their two adoptive children as well, in a neighboring country. Have you ever watched the world shrink before your eyes? Turns out, she lives just three hours from us, that we know many of the same people in the adoption world, and that I had actually met her briefly when I played in a benefit soccer game for she and another adopting family the year before! You can't make this stuff up! Brett was kind enough to take our picture:

Our new/old friend soon excitedly boarded her plane, and we were back to chatting with our Canadian blokes. At this point our two hour layover seemed to be running a bit over, going from two, to three, then four hours. Eventually, one of the gate agents got on the loud speaker to inform us that the airport in Kiev had been completely shut down the day before because the snowstorm of the century had rolled in and dumped 2 ½ feet of snow, in 24 hour’s time. In fact, the airport was still closed, but the pilot was working to see if it might re-open soon. Finally, to the delight of everyone scheduled for the flight, the relief of everyone who had spent the prior night at the airport, and as an answer to many prayers, we were allowed to board.

As we taxied down the runway, our pilot politely stated in a German accent, that he had received news there was a break in the weather at Kiev, and the runway had been cleared, but he had no idea what the situation would be when we got there. There was a chance that he would need to land at another airfield. Yikes! 

More prayers ensued, and as we approached Kiev, the skies were bright and clear! 

Our pilot did a wonderful job landing on a still snowy runway, and was rewarded with all his passengers’ applause!  Here are a few more pictures as we landed; It was really neat seeing all the snow below.

As we waited in line at the Kiev airport to go through customs, there was a young woman in front of us. When she heard our English, she introduced herself (Michelle), and we got to talking. Turns out she was raised in South Dakota, and was returning to Europe to continue her work for the U.S. in Ukraine and Russia, with a foreign exchange student recruitment program. Her Russian was near flawless, and she is a fellow believer in Christ. Needless to say, we became fast friends! She helped us fill out our customs forms and told us which line to stand in. She didn’t see her company’s driver, but thankfully, ours was there, so she hitched a ride with us and we headed toward our apartment. Good and quick thinking on her part, seeing as her company thought there was no way she would get into Kiev that day, because of the storm, and had cancelled her driver, and her room! She was able to use our phone to right the situation though, and had a place to stay by that evening. We found out later that so few taxis and drivers were able to get to the airport that taxis were going for $100! But we were equally glad she was with us; Michelle was able to translate what our driver was having quite a bit of difficulty trying to communicate, and she pointed out some really interesting features we would have known nothing about otherwise. Free personal translator and tour guide? Yes please! 

I must say, the snow was pretty crazy, but our driver handled it as well as one can in a 2 wheel drive, with 3 extra people and their luggage. 

However, there was one very long hill that we simply could not conquer. We made it about half way up when the car in front of us stopped. We couldn’t get going again, so we drove. Slipped. Slid, and snow plowed our way backward all the way down the hill, only to get stuck at the bottom by a 3 foot high pile of snow that had built up behind our car as we went. We tried EVERYTHING to get the car out, but nothing was working. “Lord” I thought. “What about those guys with the shovels?”  Within about a minute of the thought, two men who I had seen shoveling the sidewalk about half a block away showed up with their shovels and started to dig us out! Brett took over at one point, and yes, I got a picture! Both Michelle and I also got out to help push, in a last ditch effort to free the car, and it worked! Michelle was very surprised the men had come to our assistance. She said Ukrainians are very suspicious of strangers, and rarely offer help to them. (God!) I suppose this ordeal could have been upsetting, but it was all just part of the adventure to us. “We’re stuck in a pile of snow, in Ukraine! Whoo hoo!”

Our driver dropped us off, then took Michelle to her hotel, but we met up again that evening, 

and she walked us down to an impressively large underground mall for some dinner that we were all starving for! She took us straight to a café where the food was good and right in front of you to choose from. No menu here, just point at it, and they serve it. Definitely has become our default restaurant. End of day 1 – bring it on!