Leonid picked us up early that morning and we went to the Medical Center for William’s evaluation (required in order to obtain the visa). We arrived about 30 minutes before the doctors would begin seeing anyone. The long hallway was already packed with people. We found the last 2 seats available and waited. Leonid would go in and out of rooms from time to time. William sat in my lap,
played with a toy car, and basically got restless. I saw another lady with a girl probably about 9 or 10 years old. I wondered if she might be adopting, too, but didn’t ask. Finally, the doctors arrived (late of course – if you’re like me and live by the clock, you’ll have to get over it while in Ukraine!)… And we were the first ones to go in. Again, we had the best facilitator team EVER!We went into the exam room and the doctor looked our boy over. He noticed he was a bit congested but said it was confined to his nose and not in his chest. He wrote down the name of some drops that would help. He then filled out the paperwork we needed, and we were on our way.
We stopped by the post office so Leonid could make some copies, then drove to the U.S. Embassy. Leonid waited in the van while the three of us approached the building. There was a long line of people waiting out in the cold, but one flash of our blue U.S. passports and we were immediately allowed in the small guard building. We went through security and then walked across the courtyard. Zack opened the heavy bullet-proof glass and steel door, and we followed the signs to the adoption counter. We were quickly called up and an extremely friendly man from
St. Louis took our paperwork. He asked us a few questions, and told us to come back tomorrow to pick up William’s visa.We picked up a few groceries, and the nose drops the doctor recommended. We wanted to get William a haircut so Leonid drove us down to a place near the SDA. We walked around, but couldn’t find the place he’d heard about. So we walked around the souvenir stands and bought several more things to take home. William also picked out a soccer uniform and a nesting doll set painted with Lion King figures.
We returned to the apartment and had a bite to eat. Then Zack got out his clippers and cut William’s hair himself. Even with the voltage adapter the clippers sounded like they were getting ready for takeoff, so he worked quickly to avoid blowing the clippers or the power!
We then prepared for William’s first bath. We didn’t know how he might react. He was reluctant until he saw the bubbles, but then got in happily. He played and laughed, and had a great time.We talked to some of our family on Skype, and then decided it was time for dinner. We got bundled up and set out towards Kreschatik Street (the main street in Kyiv) in hopes of finding a McDonalds. As luck would have it, we made it to the intersection of our street and Kreschatik and were greeted by the warm glow of the Golden Arches!
We went in and the place was packed! It was the size of 2 or 3 of the Mickey D’s back home, and yet there wasn’t an open table to be found. So Zack and William set out on a mission to find a place to sit while I went to attempt to order our dinner.After a slow but successful ordering experience, I met the boys at a high-top table. We began to eat, but all William could do was people-watch. I think he ate one nugget and a few fries. He ended up eating a little more later, but we were wondering if maybe our little man wasn’t too
keen on the greasy goodness of this American institution!We went back to the apartment and watched a short DVD, then put him to bed. He was not thrilled about having to go to bed before us. So I stayed with him, singing and rubbing his back, until he was sound asleep.
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