Page 1 2 3 4 5

Finally after what seemed like forever, we came upon a small town. We pulled up to the place were we would get the birth certificate, to find out that they were closed. I thought that I would just die. I could not believe that after that long drive, and after the 11 days of waiting for the court degree, now we finally get here and they are CLOSED! Urghhhh.

The lady that brought us to the region said, Don't worry.. I will be right back. So my friend Julia and I sat on a swing on the porch of the police station and waited for 3 hours.

Finally the lady that brought us to the region came back with a lady in the car. The lady got out of the car and unlocked the door to the office were we would get Zoya's birth certificate.

She was very nice. She explained that it was her day off, but she was very happy to come and open to give me her new birth certificate. Within ten minutes, I was legally the mother of Zoya Ekaterina. And we were back on the country roads heading back to Simferopol'.

The following day we had to get the birth certificate authenticated, and then go to the notary office and have it notarized, and get a letter asking for permission to obtain a travel document (Passport) for Zoya.

We got to the passport office at 3pm and asked if there was any way to get the passport the same day. The lady smiled and said that she would check and see.

She came back like ten minutes later and said, come back at 6pm it will be ready. I could not thank her enough. I was so happy I had tears in my eyes, and I thanked her over and over again.

At 6pm sharp, we were back at the passport office and picked up Zoya's travel document. We immediately went to the office were we would buy plane tickets back to Kyiv.

The following day at 8am we were on a plane heading to Kyiv to finish the adoption. Of coarse Julia demanded coming along to protect us.

In Kyiv, we were greeted by our driver who took us to a apartment that we would be staying in. We dropped our bags and left immediately and went to the clinic that would have to do the physical on Zoya.

We walked into the medical building for the exam, and within 15 minutes we were done, and heading to the Delta ticket office to change our tickets home.

During this time, our facilitator was bringing our adoption documents to all the necessary places to finish the adoption.

We then went to the apartment that we would be staying in, and I was very surprised to see that my troubles had just begun. We were in the apartment for about ten minutes before we noticed a roach running across the floor. At first I did not think it was a big deal, until a few minutes later when we had killed at least 15 roaches. That was when I realized that there was "NO WAY" that I could stay in this apartment.

I called my facilitator and said, that I could not sleep in a apartment with this many roaches. She laughed and said "Welcome to Ukraine". I said NO! This is not what I was was use to in Ukraine, I had been in Ukraine twice for adoptions, and stayed in several apartments and "never" had roaches. I demanded that she move us back to the hotel that we originally stayed in on the way through Kyiv. She laughed and said that should would move us, but we had to pay for our own room. We happily agreed!

She told me that it was too late in the evening to move, that we would have to stick it out for the evening and the following day she move put us in the hotel. (Which would be our last night in Ukraine)

That night I did not sleep one wink. I literally sat on two kitchen chairs with my butt on one and my feet on the other and was on "Roach Patrol". My mother who was also afraid of roaches slept in a bed that we pulled out to the middle of the room, so I could make sure that no roaches got on her. (Giggling)

AT this time I was a emotional reck. I was tired, hungry and ready to go home. I called my boyfriend at home (In America) and cried my eyes out. Telling him how wonderful everything was going, and now I was stuck in a apartment infested with roaches. Well he just laughed!

The next morning, mom wanted to take a shower. I told her NO that we would be in the hotel that afternoon and we could all take showers there.

We left the apartment and checked into the hotel. My friend Julia was still with us, so we toured around Kyiv seeing things, and eating at good restaurants. There was a really good restaurant called "Arizona". It was American food, but very expensive. It cost us $100 for four of us to have lunch. But at this time,it was well worth it.

Our facilitator came to us that afternoon and told us to be at the American Embassy at 3pm. He said that he would pick up our documents at the Ministry of Foreign affairs that afternoon and bring them to us at the American Embassy..