12/3/07: Day 12 of our 10-day wait.
We woke up early, got dressed, and finalized our packing. We had breakfast, hauled everything downstairs and loaded up Leonid’s van.
First stop: the court house. We waited in the car while Luda went in. About 15 minutes later she emerged from the dilapidated building, court decree in hand. We now had what we needed to spring our boy from the internot!
We made our way to Centre Opiky for the last time. We unloaded the gifts and food that we’d brought, and made our way inside.
We waited while Luda spoke with the director. We were told to take the caregiver gifts and the snacks for William’s groupa and go to his room, so we made our way up there. It was so good to see our sweet boy’s face again. He showed us the playroom, and then the bedroom. His was bed #14.
We took some pictures and were then instructed to change his clothes. We rid him of his worn-out rags, and replaced them with new clothing that was all his own. You could see the pride as we helped him get dressed. We then said “Spaseba” (thank you) a few more times, and made our way out of the building.
He didn’t cry. He didn’t look sad. He walked away with confidence. He never looked back.
A few minutes later we were on our way to Donetsk, the capital city in the region. It was there that we would attempt to secure the birth certificate and passport all in the same day. Many cities close these types of offices on Monday so it is not uncommon to be turned away if you attempt this business on a Monday. This is another time we were thankful for our wonderful facilitator.
She went into one building to secure the birth certificate, while Zack, William, Leonid and I went to a café and had a cup of coffee, then walked across to a bakery and purchased some pastries. An hour or so later Luda handed us the birth certificate with our names and William’s new name.
We went to a building to make some copies, and then made our way to the building where we would request the passport. This is typically one of the more time-consuming tasks, and I know of many families that have waited weeks for this document. Not us – within an hour or two, we had the coveted red-sleeved document and were on our way to Kyiv.
We quickly learned that William is a great car rider. We had packed a big bag of food, and he asked to eat something about every 30 minutes. We limited the drinks since bathrooms were scarce.
He played with cars and his new little lamb. As it grew dark, he the mini-flashlights in the bag and played with them.
At some point during our ride that
evening, Luda asked him if he'd rather be back with his groupa going to sleep, or with Mama and Papa. She said she often asks the children this and they always say they would like to be with their groupa. Our boy responded, "Papa ee Mama".
Around 10:00 I had Luda tell him it was time to sleep. He put his head in my lap and his legs in Zack’s, and dozed off. But that lasted for no more than 45 minutes and he was back up again. He loved being in that middle seat and watching the road. He was fascinated with everything. He especially enjoyed watching the taillights of the cars ahead of us.
At 1 AM we arrived in Kyiv. It had been 14 hours since we left the internot, and we were exhausted.
We made our way into our new apartment and said our good-byes to Luda and Leonid. We quickly dressed William in his pajamas and kneeled next to the bed for prayers. He looked at us quizically, but we motioned for him to join us and he did. Then we all went to bed. Leonid would be picking us up around 6:30 the next morning to go to the medical center, so we only had a few hours to sleep.
And within a few minutes, our boy was out. I was a different story. Zack and I were lying on either side of our blonde headed angel, and I couldn’t sleep for watching him. It was real. He was finally ours.
