We left the apartment this morning a little after 8:00 am to join the rush hour crowd of people streaming into the downtown area. We squeezed into a bus and then transfered to the metro where we were packed in so tight you nearly didn't have to worry about holding on to anything - there was no way you could have fallen down. The last leg of our trip was the most pleasant. We took the funicular (think cable car on a railway) up a wooded hill right in the middle of the city.We met our facilitator at the State Department for Adoption office. After a relatively short wait, we were ushered in for our appointment. We started by looking at children under age 8, but every file we were shown had children who had serious, uncorrectable medical conditions. We pulled out our paperwork to extend the age up to 11 years old which opened up a few more options. We found ourselves trying to decide between a group of 2 brothers with a sister and a group of 3 sisters. The psychologist who was working with us contacted the orphanage where the first group was located and spoke with the oldest brother as well as the director of the orphanage. At best the boy seemed to have mixed feelings about being adopted. Based on that information as well as some good feedback from another facilitator who had met the three sisters, we decided to request a referral for the second group. The girls are ages 10, 9, and 7.
We will pick up paperwork tomorrow and hope to get a train ticket to travel on Thursday. We'll be heading west over the mountains to the Transcarpathian region. This region borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. We couldn't get much farther away than where we were last time and still be in Ukraine! Our facilitator tells us this is the busiest time to travel in that direction as it's the middle of skiing season. Getting our train tickets may prove to be a challenge.
We are excited to meet these girls but glad to have a day or two more to recover from jet lag before we take the overnight train to their region.
Model of the funicular
Funicular car descending into the station
Snowy day at the SDA
5 comments:
We will pray for these 3 girls...Rest well!
Wondeful news! Securing train tickets and travel will be an adventure, to be sure. Praying for things to come together efficiently and for the much needed rest. Yay! Excited! God speed!
Excited for you! I told Lily so she can pray. A huge smile crossed her face & she wants you to show them videos of her & Ellie. :)
Chad's quite interested in how it's going. He says if you get 2 you can manage with a regular car, but with 3 you'll need a van. Leave it to Chad to think of the vehicle issue. I dare say, that's not your main concern. God bless..........
We just now got your news! (E-mail wasn't coming thru so we finally checked the blog.) We're excited for you. Nice you can have a little down town before the action really begins. Will be praying and thinking of you lots.
Much love
Mom and Dad
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