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The following day I returned to the orphanage to see my little girl. When she came out of her group, he ran right over to me hugging and kissing me again, and hollering "Momma".

Her doctor came out to go over her medical records with me. My translator, my mom, and I went through everything in about 30 minutes and then I said "Let's get this started".

While the facilitator ran around getting the documents done, I played with my daughter and the rest of the children in her group. There was SO many of them, and all of them were gorgeous.

Some of my favorite kids was Zoya, Saundra, and Sveta. But the one girl that really got our attention was the little girl Zoya. For some reason, from the very instant my mother and Zoya saw each other there was something there. They constantly hugged and kissed, and told each other "Ya lyublyu" (I love you).

A couple of days had passed and we were at the orphanage playing with the children in the group. There was the monthly birthday party for all the children that were celebrating their birthday's in February. We all went into this really nice room and watched a play that some other children had put together, and there was this little boy (Sasha) singing to the audience.

He was so sweet. He had reddish blonde hair and the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. He was very talented. He could sing, dance, and during the whole time he was smiling from ear to ear. I noticed all the caretakers and the other women from the orphanage smiling and watching Sasha. I could tell he was the orphanage's favorite. I asked one of the caretakers who he was. She smiled really big and said "Oh, that is Sasha Dubavic."

After the show was over, I stopped Sasha in the hallway. Of course he could not understand what I was saying, But I told him that I thought that he was a wonderful boy. He started hugging and kissing me and talking really fast in Ukrainian, and had the biggest smile on his face. As one of the caretakers came over, I tried to ask if Sasha was available for adoption. She could not understand me, So I went to the orphanage directors office and asked Ekaterina.

Ekaterina started smiling real big and said "YES" he is available for you. I said, Oh No.. Not for me.. I was asking for one of my friends that was coming the following week. She said, "NO, he is available for you". I grinned and really did not think too much about it. She handed me a picture of Sasha, This was his orphan picture. He was as cute as ever.

That evening back at the apartment, I asked Ludmilla if she knew Sasha Dubavic. She was so over joyed that I asked she started crying. I could not understand what she was trying to say, But I knew that something was good about Sasha. That evening when my friend called that was coming to Simferopol' the following week, I told her all about Sasha. She sounded interested, But she said that her heart was set on twins.

A couple of days had passed and my friend called back and said that she was NOT coming to Simferopol'. She had fired the attorney that we were using and was going to a different region to adopt twin boys. My heart was crushed. I really wanted them to adopt Sasha, because by now I knew him and he was a excellent boy.

When I went to the orphanage that day, I told Ekaterina that my friend was not coming. She was really upset and asked, "will you adopt Sasha?" I was floored, I did not know what to say or what to do. YES, I loved this boy.. But I went to Ukraine to adopt ONE girl. But at that time I could only think about one child, and that was my daughter Shayla.

That evening I called home to America and spoke to my boyfriend, father, and two biological boys. I asked them how they would feel if I came home with a boy and a girl. My boys were so excited, they were screaming into the phone "YES Mommy adopt a boy". My father and boyfriend was very supportive. My father tried to offer fatherly advice and explain that this was a big responsibility since I was a single mother of two biological boy, and now I would be the mother of two adopted kids as well. That it would not be easy, and it would be very expensive to raise them to the standards that we have been use to to.

The following day I went back to Ekaterina and told her that I would like to talk some more about Sasha. I told her that I would be very interested in adopting him, But I could not afford to pay the attorney her outrageous fee's of $8000 per child, plus all the other expenses that it would take to get him home. She called in the attorney that I was using and explained the situation. The attorney, Ekaterina, and I came to a agreement that they would only charge me for the expenses of the facilitator, paperwork, and nothing more. No FEE. So I started Sasha's adoption that day.

During all this time, the adoption paper work for Shayla was not going so well. There was MANY of problems every where we went. From what I understood from several people in Ukraine, the attorney that I was using was being investigated for "baby selling". Nobody was being very cooperative, and we had a hard time getting papers signed every where we had to go. But to make matters worse, the attorney that was there representing me, had no clue as to what was happening because it was her second adoption.

The adoption process for Sasha went really fast. The judge and all the official buildings probably felt sorry for us, because we have been through a lot of heartache with all the problems that we had with Shayla's adoption.

Right before we were ready to head back to Kyiv, the attorney that I was using told me and another family that was there, that we had to lie to the American Embassy and deny any involvement with this attorney. I told her that I was very uncomfortable lying to our embassy, and that I refused to do that. Needless to say, we got into a big fight over this and our relationship was not very good.

I had met a girl that live in Simferopol' thorough a friend here in America. Her name was Julia . We spent a few evenings at Julia's house and with her family .

The night before we were leaving for Kyiv, Julia's family invited us over to their house for dinner. We were very happy to, because this family had become very good friends. (Like family) While we were there, Julia insisted on calling her mothers friend in Kyiv who was a attorney to make sure that we would not run into anymore problems with the adoption. This women, not only offered to pick us up from the airport, she offered to find us a private apartment that we could stay in for only $50 a night.

We were very pleased, because with the attorney's facilitators we were paying $60 a night, and had to share a two bedroom apartment with a family of three. Making it close to impossible to sleep my mother, two adopted babies, myself and all of them.

So the following morning at 8am we were on the way to Kyiv, Ukraine to complete the remainder of the adoption documents.

The following morning we arrived in Kyiv. The attorney, and the other family, and all of us all flew together. Once we got to the airport and had to carry our luggage from the airplane to the car, the attorney just sat back and watched me shuffle two kids, and three suitcases. She could not be bothered to offer me a hand.