On Monday when the kids came in the room I noticed that they already looked a little healthier and more confident. It is amazing what a little attention and a lot of hope can do to transform a child. It'll be wonderful to see what they are like six months from now. Andrew started out more confident and healthy looking six months ago, but the transformation he's had has been dramatic.
As we were greeting them, guess who came in the room on a flimsy pretext? Edjick of course. We showed them all the photos from Sunday and were starting a puzzle and English lessons when Ruslan's teacher came in with a cell phone. Their sister was on the phone and was trying to talk them out of being adopted. They both insisted to her that they want to go. It 's much more emotionally complicated to adopt kids with living relatives because in Ukraine, when you lose custody, you still get to visit. The parents cannot take them because they neglected them so badly they lost their rights four years ago and the siblings don't want to take them. Nadia and Ruslan want a fresh start and it is their decision to go with us or stay, and they have clearly said they want to go.
After the phone call, the kids seemed even more set on going, if that is possible. They spent the next several hours with us and it was the most comfortable visit. After a while, Luda went to do paperwork and file for a court date. Edjick went back to class. We all went outside and the boys had a snowball fight with about 25 kids. I think the kids especially loved playing with Mark .
Sasha #3 from our summer visit was there and he looked sad. I felt bad that we hadn't come back for him too, but we have our hands full and don't even know if he's available. Luda is going to find out in case we can find a family for him. He is a very nice boy; of course, the school is loaded with nice kids who need homes.
Nadia and I walked around the outside of the school and she took me into a dark hallway, the one where Andrew drank out of the dirty pickle jar last summer, but Nadia brought me there so she could show me the handcrafts room. Ukrainian kids learn traditional crafts at school.
The boys were still throwing snowballs, but were getting tired of it. They went back to the soccer field and built a huge snowman. Andrew was so hot he took his jacket off and I'm thankful he didn't get sick by getting so wet out there.
We went back to the visiting room for English lessons. Nadia and Ruslan are both making good progress. As darkness fell, Luda called to say our court date will be Feb. 7 th. On the court date, the kids become ours but there is a formality of a ten day waiting period until we can take them home so we'll make two more short trips to Ukraine. For this trip, we were done with all paperwork except for a couple signatures needed at the Regional office.
Luda picked us up at the school and we said good bye to two happy kids who gave us big, loving hugs. After signing in the book at the Regional office a a quick pizza, we packed up and drove to Kiev. We arrived at the airport at 3:30 am and got on our plane at 5:30. We flew to Frankfurt, where there was a five hour layover before boarding another plane to go home to Atlanta. We're arriving at 4:30 which is 11:30 pm in Ukraine, so all told, our return trip has taken 27 hours.
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