Purgatory - Thy Name is Khmelnytski!

We're working on the long promised photos. We met the boys today and then so much happened. First know that this city is the definition of "dingy". Eveything is gray and dirty. Nothing is pretty - the aesthetics are most likely courtesy of communism.

Andrei just turned 5 on Jan 3. He is terrific. He greeted us by reciting a poem for Santa Claus. Nickolai is a very energrtic and active 3 year old (Sept. 5). He's a handful but seems to have a good heart. Both are diagnosed as psychologically delayed. Also Andrei had a potentially positive TB test though there are no signs of it.

From there we rushed to a lawyers office to initiate the adoption paperwork. We were told we had 30 min. To come up with names which we did - you'll have to be patient. Then to the "inspector's" office for more paperwork. This office was in a building that would be close to condemned in the USA. It also housed the Dept. of Transport and the Communist Party. Then things took a turn.

We had to head to where the boys were born to get permission to adopt them. We traveled 25km to a town with a Russian name, more dirt, a statue of Lenin, and stray dogs. There we were not given permission to adopt. After 90 minutes or so, we learned we must return tomorrow @ 4pm to appear in front of a committee with reps. From social workers, police, health dept. and maybe education. It turns out the boys' mother recently had a baby with a different man and while no one from their family has seen them in over a year, the question now is can they be separated from this new sibling. This will set everything back 1 day. I taught our facilitator the term "dog and pony show" and she found it apt.

From there back to the boys after a brief stop at court. Keep in mind our facilitator is the only one who we could speak English with. Not knowing the language is difficult, but the alphabet is what's hurting us - we can't make sense of the signs.

The boys call us mama and papa and gave us hugs and kisses goodbye. The language barrier is difficult, but we seem to communicate. More later.