Road Trip with Marina!!!!

We'd like to start by thanking everyone for their comments including a couple first timers today, as well as some misguided football fans.

The judgement was final end of day yesterday - we have adopted Matthew and Thomas! Now we begin the immigration work. Today, Marina arrived at 8:30 after an overnight train ride and she took us to Krasyliv (again) then back to the orphanage where we picked up the boys to take them for passport photos, then back to the orphanage, then the tax police, then the Regional Vital Records then the orphanage...

In summary, we took a death ride to Krasyliv, sat in a smelly government building for three hours, tried to use the bathroom (which is across the street) and no longer had to go, then took another death ride...We left the room at 8:15, and returned at 4:30. In between, we did not have one sip of a beverage, one bite of food or use the bathroom. We accidentally ate beef jerkey and ham at breakfast forgetting it's Friday in Lent - good thing as we needed the protein.

In Krasyliv there was a"tax". Apparently the budget for office supplies is low, so for our process, there was a "tax" to help move things along by ensuring they have paper, pens etc. We understand there are other similar "taxes" along the way. For those of you wondering, Krasyliv still has lots of clouds, communist architecture, stray dogs and dirt...good times.

The trip to get passport photos was interesting and the boys traveled well. We later had a nice visit, though Thomas bit Matthew pretty hard. When we returned Matthew to his group a few minutes early for misbehavior, he was crying. When the nurse in his group asked why he was crying, he promptly pulled up his shirt and lied that it was because Thomas bit him. The boy shows promise.

Now we wait for their passports, then next week travel to Kyiv to do immigration work at our embassy, a checkup for the boys at the American Clinic and then hopefully back to the USA next weekend.

Big day, big week...thanks for your support.