Tatyana, Here We Come!!!

Wednesday, October 6 - After a taxi ride to the Kiev airport, Steve, Summer and I arrived early enough that we could have lunch at the airport. We enjoyed some food, relaxed and had some laughs thanks to Summer. We ordered her a green apple, sliced, from a Russian-speaking waitress via lots of pseudo sign language. She returned with a green apple milkshake! More motioning finally resulted in an actual sliced green apple for which Summer found an interesting purpose. (See photo of Summer followed by a photo of Steve and me "chillaxing".) Then we flew from Kiev to the Donetsk Airport (nearest Severodonetsk) and, when we landed, we went straight from the plane to a bus which zipped us off to a terminal. As the bus approached the terminal, I saw the words "Donetsk" in big letters on the roof and thought this would make a good picture for Tatyana's scrapbook and for the blog since this is the only landing that really matters because it is the one that means we are close to Tatyana. I got off the bus, moved away from the crowd exiting the bus and stood alone in front of the terminal as I set up my photo. Teaser alert: This is when I apparently became a threat to national security because I was approached by a man in "uniform" who said in his Ukrainian English, "Stop please." He then came close to me and said, "Delete please." I said, "O.K." and closed the camera and went to put it in my purse when he said, "Delete now, please." I felt my stomach sink imagining myself being handcuffed and dragged to a dungeon somewhere never to be heard of again. I turned my camera back on as he stood over me and watched me delete the photo! Therefore, I have no photo to share of this pivotal airport sign but I did walk away from the encounter a free woman. Whew!

Within moments of this horrifying moment, I saw a sign that said "Jewell" being held by a tall man with a heartwarming smile. It was Sergei, our Ukrainian facilitator/translator for our adoption papers and process in Severodonetsk. (See photo of Sergei and his warm smile.) He had driven 2 hours to get to us and would now be driving 2 more hours to get us to Tatyana's hometown. Sergei had a small sedan and we questioned if we could fit the 4 of us plus 6 large suitcases. Steve and Sergei used their puzzle mentality and somehow fit everything in but it also meant that the majority of the backseat would be suitcases leaving one seat for Steve and Summer to share - so she sat on his lap for two hours! (See photo of Summer backdropped by 4 suitcases during a gas stop.) Meanwhile, Sergei and I talked the two hours away. He is a fascinating guy born to two Russian parents who moved to Ukraine. By profession, he is a document translator but also serves as a facilitator and translator for 5 or 6 adoptive families each year.

I can also tell you that our two-hour drive was quite sobering! We passed through some desolate parts of Ukraine including some very poor areas where people literally walked down the street with cows at their side. The houses were in very bad condition as were the roads which we literally had to slow the car down to a crawl to get through hundreds of small and large potholes. Just before arriving in Severodonetsk, we drove through a town called Lissychansk (spelling?) and Sergei told us that Tatyana's birth certificate showed that she was born here. Again, a very poor area of poorly constructed homes and roads. Shortly thereafter, Sergei got us situated at our hotel for our stay in Severodonetsk. He also went over what our next day would involve with the best news being that we would get to see Tatyana for the first time since she left our home in January. We have been living for this moment and now it will finally, finally happen!!!

In closing, Steve would like to thank everyone for their emails and blog comments including condolences to him for the loss of his father on Tuesday. He has been so touched by the words of love and comfort from family and friends and he encourages everyone to continue to keep in touch with us throughout this adoption process. We LOVE getting blog comments and emails from home!! We check email and the blog multiple times a day!

To find out why I may be in the hospital before this is all over, you will have to tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story...