Another Day in Ukraine

It was so good to hug M today. We had a pretty uneventful flight. We arrived in Kiev around 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Kostya picked us up and we stopped to get something to eat. Then it was off to the train depot to wait for our night train to her region. The train left at 11 p.m. and we shared the compartment with an older lady. We arrived in the region at 6 a.m. and took a taxi two hours to her town.

Thinking that our court date would be today (silly us), we immediately went to the apartment to shower and get dressed. Luba went to the inspector’s office to see when court would be. Unfortunately, they said maybe tomorrow. While Luba was there she ran into the director of the orphanage who was a little upset that we weren’t staying at her sister’s place, and she also wanted high donation for the orphanage. She threaten to tell the judge that we are not fit to be parents and didn’t even want to spend time with her, of course leaving out the fact that we called her everyday that we were gone and sent her a package and letter. In her defense, when the government only gives you a small amount per child, and they have no corporate sponsors, she needs money from somewhere. It’s not that we don’t want to give her money, it’s just we don’t want to give it to her before the court; she can always go back on her word.

We are adopting from the hardest region in Ukraine and our court visit will not be merely a formality, it will be a little more intense. The Judge will ask M questions on why she wants to be adopted and particularly why she wants us to be her parents. We anticipate the Judge and Prosecutor asking Casey and I questions about family and why we want to adopt M among many others. We desperately want M to be our legal daughter as soon as possible and are ready to have both our children in the same country!

As soon as we found out we weren’t having court today, we hurried and got dressed to go to visit her. I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled we were to hold her! When we arrived she was in dance class. A young girl took us to her class and M ran up to me and gave me a big hug and then ran to Casey. All the other children in her group were happy to see us as well and eager to show off their dances. These dances were more like Ukrainian folk type dances and some had a little Latin flare. While dancing M continued to look over at us to see if we were watching her. In between every song M would come and give one of us a hug.

After dance it was homework time and she showed us her princess coloring book and gifts we sent her. I would not be surprised at all if these girls had low grades on homework, because homework time is very chaotic. After homework her group went to singing class. They sang a few songs, which we videoed. The last song was a song about orphans wanting a mama and being sad because they don’t have one. At the end of the second song they would point at me every time they said mama. We video taped the first song and will post it tomorrow. I am so glad I didn’t realize what the song was about, or I would have been crying. These children are so precious, it’s hard to know that most of them will never go back to their parents, and because their rights are not legally separated, they can never be adopted, and worse they don’t know they are not legally adoptable, all they know is that M is being adopted and they are not!

We brought two sizes of clothes for M to try on and she was extremely excited. They only have two pairs of clothes and they are heavily worn out, so new clothes are a big deal. We tried on the size 7-8 jeans on first, which were extremely tight. I told her no and handed her the size 10-11. The 7-8 was so tight I had to help her pull them off! The size 10-11 were a little loose-fitting on her and she wanted the extremely tight jeans but that was definitely a no go for us, I can already tell her teenage years are going to be fun! I am thinking that she would fit in a size 9-10 jeans, but we didn’t find any at Target. M also tried on her shirts, and loved them she wears a size medium and large. Every time she would try on an outfit she would look it over in the mirror and then go show it off to her caregiver and friends. She tried on the purple hooded Jackie and zipped it up, put the hood on and preceded to act like a rapper, she is a character!

Then we took pictures together, which we will post tomorrow and she wanted to take a picture of her “mama and papa”. I packed up all the clothes except what she will be wearing for court tomorrow. We can’t leave the clothes there because they will disappear. I said court tomorrow, and she said “da/yes”, and walked up to her caregiver saying “tomorrow I official M… Williams”! I don’t know if she understands that she will have to stay in the orphanage another ten days after she is legally a Williams, but that would have been too confusing to try to explain without a translator. She told us she is very happy.

I can’t begin to express to you how much we love this little girl and absolutely hate all the US and Ukraine red tape we have gone through, but it is worth everything. At the end of the day, we know that our God is bigger than any government and so we trust in him and just have to be patient. We are praying fervently for the Director, Judge and Prosecutor that their hearts will be soften and they will declare us her parents tomorrow. Also we are praying that the prosecutor will be respectful and kind when talking with M and that M remains strong.