Full final day in Perechyn

It's 1:26 am so I don't think I'll have time to do justice to all the things that happened today. I'll skip a lot of little errands and a lot of planning and replanning with the facilitator as things unfolded. The highlights: we got things rolling at the vital records office as soon as it opened at 9, and got birth certificates around 3, so we are now in fact their parents. We notarized and submitted passport requests, and the person in charge said she would get our app ready even if she had to stay up at night to do it. Unfortunately it was not done before the end of the day so we can't leave for Uzhgorod first thing, so it will not ready until 10 at least tomorrow since it needs legalizing. We still hope to get passports tomorrow and take the night train, but flying on Saturday is not realistic.

At 4 we called the travel agent from a cafe to work on changing tomorrow morning's flight. Late tonight w talked more and he got Lufthansa's permission to cancel our flights but not rebook till Thursday when our departure date is more certain.

At 4:30 wegot to orphanage and started our 3 parties. 2 of the teachers cried, they really are a lot more than teachers, and the kids loved the food and favors, and we got lots of pictures of kids with classmates that will be special. Big success there thanks mostly to Julie's prep. We were called away to sign a bunch of papers in the director's office basically requesting the girls' release.

At 6:45 we left and spent a delightful 4 hours at Sheila and Max's home over a home-cooked dinner, the best way to get to know them better. Then walked home in the cold, finalized plans with travel agent, and packed. At 1:50, it's time to get some sleep before another big day and short night.