Good News

Stephen called me at the airport before I boarded, he had a call from the Embassy so I didn't have to fly back. Thank gosh!

The fingerprints were processed today at 12pm est and after many phone calls to congressional support they were sent over a little before 12am Ukraine time. Its the first time people were willing to help out. They just stopped by the Embassy to pick up the visas, its 7:30 am on Sat there and they are heading to the airport.

They will land in JFK at 2pm, leave at 7pm, and land in Denver at 10pm.

YEA!

Update

Im heading there tomorrow. Stephen's fingerprints left Kiev Friday night and got to DC Weds. Nothing was done yesterday, today they were moved somewhere else and are suppose to we done tomorrow by 12pm, but the Embassy will be closed by them and of course yet another Ukraine holiday on Mon. So that makes Tues the earliest and now we are dealing with the Democratic Convention and we cant find any flts into Denver for 4 people.

We have contacted many congressional people. Today the immigration specialist asked me why our agency didn't make sure these were updated before we left. I told her we have the same question. At this point no one will take responsibility for this and they have washed their hands of us. Im sure they are sleeping fine at tonight.

We will update the blog when we know more on Tues.

Blog Update days 10 & 11

We received a call from Sasha that he had arrived in Odessa and wanted to see me before they pick up the passports. Sasha arrives at the hotel at 11am, during our meeting he receives a call that the passports arrived at 10am, we finish discussing all the challenges and our plan forward. He will leave with Sergay and his driver
from Kiev (Alex) they will go the passport office, pick up the pass ports, fax a copy to his office in Kiev and then Alex will return to transport us to Kiev in an air
conditioned Audi station wagon.

The van had no AC and our last return to Kiev was brutal. So we check out of the Hotel Odessa at 12noon, the cashier accuses us of removing a towel from the hotel. We must look through out luggage to see if someone backed a towel in our completely full carry on bags. After 15 minutes of arguing the cashier calls the maids to check one more time, they find the towel hanging on the bathroom door. Five days $2000 and they
want to charge me for a towel ………….

Sasha calls at 12:30 the passports have been faxed and the driver is on his way to pick us up. He arrives at 1:45 and we are off to Kiev. The car ride is much nicer and quicker than the van, we arrive in Kiev at 6:45. The apartment is clean and has three beds so we are going to settle in for the night. Its 95 outside and 90 inside, we run the fans and open the windows, but at 10PM its still 80+. We convince ourselves that it’s only for two nights and we will be at the embassy all day Friday and on a plane to NYC Saturday morning.

Bad decision, none of us got more than two hours of sleep, it was just to hot. The driver and translator pick us up Friday morning at 7:30am. We pack into a Suzuki Vartri SUV, 4 of us in the back seat and headed to the Ukrainian Immigration Health Services medical center. The traffic is bumper to bumber, so we arrive at 8:25am only to find out the clinic opens at 9, but they have AC and we wait. The doctor sees us early and we review the medical records around 8:45. The girls are healthy but need vaccinations hepatitis B booster and rubella for Sara and rubella for Jordan. We pay for the exams $170.00 and vaccinations $50.00 and receive a health packet for the US Embassy. Off for the US Embassy and the final leg of our journey. There is a huge crowd at the embassy, organized by times in ques, we show the US passports and go right into the embassy. We arrive at the adoption waiting room to find the room full; they ask Cheryl and the girls to wait in the next room.

I submit my I600, health packet and passports. They return all three with circles around items I left blank to discuss. They ask me ten questions about the agencies (the stork and Adoption Journey). Have a seat and we will call you for your interview, but your fingerprints for your USCIS I-171H expired last month and we will need to re-submit before we can issue the visas.

My heart feels like someone has ripped it out and all the blood has rushed to my feet. I’m now white as a sheet and they ask me to fill out another form, at this point my mind is at a complete lock-up, frozen and pounding with a headache. I can’t even remember the spelling for the girl’s names. I fill out the paperwork and return to the window. I ask to speak to someone about the finger prints. Michael comes to the window, I tell him I can’t understand, CBI ran my finger prints three times April 2007, October 2007 and March 2008 each time telling me it takes 4-6 weeks for FBI to review the prints.

Michael explains that the USCIS and DHS (Department of Homeland Security) have a separate data base and the finger print processing expires after 15 months. The I-171H has a date of completion of 7-06-2007 and in the body states that the expiration is 18 months after being issued. At the very bottom there is a note that finger print processing expires after 15 months. No where does it state that the finger prints expire 15 months from the time they were taken back in April 2007.

After ten minutes of pleading Michael agrees to send an email to DHS in Moscow to see if they can accept the finger prints since I was actually in the Ukraine when they expired and the fact that we are 5 weeks into this process. We must come back after 2PM. We head to lunch with a glimmer of hope, all I can think is this can’t happen now. My own country is splitting hairs over my finger prints, to get two ten year old girls in the country. Needless to say lunch was not good. We returned to an empty Embassy, they are changing out the emergency generator and all the power will be turned off at 3PM. I meet with Michael and DHS refused access until the finger prints are processed again. They require ink prints to be taken and sent to DC, this normally takes 4-6 business days and expedited 2-3 business days.

They take my prints and send them off Friday and we are stuck in Kiev until someone in DC can input my prints manually in the system. Michael then informs me Cyndi will also need to get her prints done and sent to DC for processing. Once again my heart is heavy, my blood feels thick like cold motor oil and my head is bounding worse than ever. I have developed a twitch in my eye that lets me know that my blood pressure has probably reached an all new high. I inquire if anyone knows where we can get a hotel and/or apartment with AC.

Michael says he can get us a list and returns with one of his team, Lena. She informs us she has a friend at an accommodation finder service and they have apartments in downtown Kiev at reasonable prices. She makes a call and we can stay two blocks off the main square in a very nice neighborhood with AC. We booked it over the phone and Lena took us to the Rental office and then she walked us over to the apartment showing us all the good coffee shops, restaurants and markets along the way. That was above and beyond the call of duty. Everyone keeps telling us to look on the bright side, the weather is good and it’s better to be in Kiev than a lot of other places.

On Friday it was hard to think of anything but defeat and disappointment. I pay my taxes, I’ve followed all the rules and fought a good fight in Odessa and now 24hrs from our flight to freedom it’s taken away. The girls are feeding off our emotions and are clearly upset and scared. We try to reassure them that everything is okay. I have the translator explain that this is just a set back and we will be leaving next week…………………………….sometime.

We have requested a congressional letter from Ken Salazar’s office to expedite the finger print processing. According to the Embassy, if the office receives the congressional letter they have 48hrs to respond. Cyndi went to the USCIS office and they sent her new finger prints to DC electronically which should arrive Monday morning for processing. Why can’t they use my electronic prints from last year? Did they change? If so doesn’t that defeat the purpose of finger prints?????? Stay tuned.




Day 11

The girls sleep to 9am Saturday morning and we convince the girls to go for a walk around the main square and get some coffee for the frazzled nervous adults. The square is beautiful with large fountains and green parkways. The girls play in the fountains for a while and the discover that they can hand feed the pigeons. After spending an hour or so trying to catch a pigeon they final decide its time to move on. We then enter unfamiliar territory for the girls, a Mexican restaurant. We order fajitas and the look on there face when the waiter delivers bowls of tomatoes, chicken, beef , peppers and tortillas is priceless. I show them the proper way to build a fajita, but they keep eating all the stuff off the tortilla before we can roll it up. They eat all the bowls clean, but the tortilla is safe. They don’t have hot sauce, but give us garlic butter that will straighten out your hair and keep the vampires at 50ft for a month. On are way back to the apartment we stop and play in the park. Several playgrounds with all the essentials; seesaw, swings, jungle gyms, monkey bars and one poor pekapoo/pug dog that the girls would not let lie down. The owner got the dog to lie down in the grass and drink some water, only to have the girls run him around the sand box ten more times. Cheryl cooked some veriniki and made a tomato/cucumber salad for dinner. Looks like and early night for the girls. Thank God. We’ve finally come to grips with the situation and can only look forward to our safe return.

I keep you posted on our ongoing saga.

Update

Just when we thought we have made it through all the hurdles, we are hit with a big one. Stephen was at the Embassy at 4pm to pick up the visas and found out the background checks we took with the I600 expire at 15 months which was end of July for us.

So glad we paid all these "so called experts" for their services. No one told us this could expire, what a basic thing to take care of at home, in the Ukraine, not so basic.

Stephens fingerprints were taken at the Embassy on the "paper" version and being overnight service to and from Ukraine is 3 days... not to mention the weekend, and then it has to be processed, so we dont know when this will be done. Mine were re-done today, since its the electronic version, the results will be in the system Monday.

The Embassy told Stephen to have me call the Senate's office to have them contact the FBI registry and put a rush on our fingerprints. I spoke to the lady in immigration and I faxed her some basic information. Hopefully she can do something.

Numb is the best way to describe the emotion and the girls are so confused.

On top of that, the apartment they were put in Thurs night was the size of our living room and had no air conditioning for the 90+ degree weather. Stephen asked the Embassy if they knew of an apartment they can move into. When the Embassy asked where they were staying, they were shocked. Its in the ghetto part of Kyiv, nice choice for Americans with newly adopted children. The Embassy hooked them up and they are in a nice, larger apartment with air and its in downtown Kyiv so they can do something this weekend.

Day 9

I’ve lost track of the days. Oh today is the day we get the Illichivs’k passport office to sign our de registration letter. The drive seems to get longer everyday, but we arrive at 9:50am for or 10AM meeting. The manager of the housing authority has agreed to meet us at the passport office. She’s right on time. The passport director is telling everyone about her private meeting with the president and her twenty five thousands (ok five thousand) close friends (ok co-workers, she can’t have friends). So we wait for 30-40 minutes for her to clear her busy schedule. She looks at the documents, appears to read three or four pages in one-two minutes sets the documents down and leaves the room. She returns and again scans the documents, signs her name and requests copies from an assistant. We receive the documents and are off to the Odessa passport office.

The hope is that we can drop off the documents and pick up the passports; unfortunately the passports have not arrived so it is a bitter sweet day. We confirmed that the passports have been completed and arrived on Thursday. We will fax copies to Kiev so our documents can be submitted for the visas. Our plan tomorrow is to pick up the passports between 10am - 12noon and drive to Kiev (6-7hrs). Get the girls medical exams and visit the US Embassy on Friday to receive the final documents, the golden visas.

We now have a flight Saturday to return to Colorado, we can’t wait any longer. The girls are doing great, maybe better than us. The restaurant visits have been very entertaining. At first they pronounce that they are vegetarians that eat chicken, shrimp, salami, hot dogs, ham, bacon, eggs, ground beef as long as it is not in a hamburger (according to them they make you fat) and never fish unless is breaded and deep fat fried.

They will eat any fruit or vegetable not tied down, so I’ve been making daily runs to the market for bananas, peaches, apples and lots of bottled water. Ice Cream and French fries are still the top of their food pyramid, but hamburgers make you fat. I’ll never let them forget that fact and some day I will convince them that fried foods are not health food. I think this is my last update until we return. Thanks for all the comments see ya soon.

Quick Update

They were told the passports will be couriered to Odessa today and they can pick them up tomorrow. They will drive back to Kyiv tomorrow and go right to the Embassy. Stephen called the Embassy and they said they can have the Visa's ready by Friday. They are booked to leave Saturday and arrive in Denver at 1Opm Sat.

I cant wait until they are home.

Jefferson county school district has a Russian translator, Anna. Anna will meet us at school on Mon to introduce their teacher, their class and buddies, explain what a buddy is, explain how lunch works and take a tour of the school. Hopefully this will ease them a bit and they will start school on Tuesday.

Day 8

Another big day: Off to court to the de register the flat, we arrive early so we wait a few minutes for the prosecutor and the magistrate. It’s a small chamber, a conference table with twelve chairs and a section for a small audience. The prosecutor has prepared a three page brief describing the situation; the girls are being adopted by a family in America and need to be de registered from the apartment to receive their passports. In lieu of the fact that they probably will not return, the magistrate decides to de reregister the girls from the apartment, but if they return before there 18th birthday they can again lay claim to the apartment or some other said premises. The whole process takes 10 minutes, everyone is happy and cordial. The paperwork is signed and we wait for copies with an official stamp.

After receiving the documents we head to the hosing authority where we provide them with the paperwork in triplicate. The manager of the housing authority calls the director of the Illichivs’k passport office at 9:30am. She states that we have the paperwork and can be there in 5 minutes if she can sign. No she must go to Odessa at 10am to see the president and cannot sign today. We must return on Wednesday at 10am.

Oh the feel of power. It must be something like a high for her to have that kind of power or maybe it is a prerequisite to be crazy to get a job in the passport office. Who knows, but now we must wait another day. The passports have not arrived in Odessa yet so we can’t leave anyway. The passports can take up to ten days, but normally its 3-5days. Again this is something new, old passports were made in the local offices in 1 day, and the new passports are all made in Kiev and shipped by government courier back to the originating city.

By the way the president will be in Odessa today, so the passport office in Odessa was empty. I guess all government employees can go to see him speak (another day off). So we wait………

Hopefully we can get the signature tomorrow and the passports arrive. Then we are off to Kiev (6-7hr drive) and the US Embassy. I’m told this is a 48hr process to get the girls Visa’s, but Christina says it is much more difficult with two girls. Hopefully we can make contact and get some help. We are so close, but so very far, far, far away.

Day 5

We started the day off with a trip to ILLICHIVS’K. The passport office is open , but they are little help. No one seems to know what paperwork we need. If the apartment is government owned we need some official approval and if it is privately owned we only need notarized letter stating the girls will not return. Back on Monday to the housing authority, this must be resolved before we can receive the passports

Well it’s been a long and painful delivery, not to mention expensive, but worth the wait; we now have twin girls 53” and approximately 65lbs. I officially picked up the girls from the orphanage yesterday. We brought 2 large cakes, one honey and banana and the second of chocolate.

When we arrive at the orphanage the children were at church, so we waited until 11:30. The director arrived first with three large area rugs; the bus driver even carried the rugs into the orphanage and the director’s office. Shortly there after another bus arrived with the children, they filed out in an orderly fashion and some of the children were wearing new clothes, must be something at the church. We also found out later that the children also ate brunch at the church.

After meeting with the director and signing for the responsibility of the children, we were informed that our donation was used to purchase the three large area rugs and they would be used by the 10 year olds. The rugs were rolled out and placed in the play room, changing room and the largest in the class/lunch room. Everyone was very excited; the teachers because the noise of forty feet would be less and the children would no longer need to mop the floor. We gave the teachers gifts and the children cake and balloons, everyone was happy.

All the children were rounded up for one last picture with the girls. Several of the girls were crying and very sad to see their friends leaving. Dacha and Nadia (see picture with the fantastic foursome; Nadia, Era (Jordan), Dacha and Ola (Sara) ) were obviously upset that the girls were leaving. The director saw the girls crying and said enough was enough and we were escorted to the gate, the children said their good-byes and out we went. The girls didn’t even get to share the goodbye cake.

They watched the gates close and were looking very sad as we drove by the house they lived in for seven years for the last time. It was short lived as we drove by the beach and then into down town they started asking a million questions..why..why..why, what..what..what. Thirty minutes and ten thousand questions, good thing the girls don’t work for the court. We arrive at the Hotel Odessa, located ¼ mile into the Odessa harbor on a pier with cruise ships docked on both sides. The hotel is a western style hotel, 14 floors with 150 rooms. The girls jump on the beds, turn all the lights on/off and look in every drawer, cabinet, frig, tub, and even under the beds. It’s all new. The hotel has an indoor pool so the girls ask every five minutes if we can go to the pool, so after I hold out and give them tough love, NEIT (no) for all of fifteen minutes we are off to the pool.

I ask the reception “where is the pool” they reply it’s on the Second floor. We load back in the glass elevator and head down to the second floor. The girls pile out and start opening all the doors, nothings labeled, until we find the fitness room. The staff stares at us like we just arrived from mars. I ask “where is the pool”? Its closed today they reply. I ask when does it open? Tomorrow? No it’s closed for a month starting today. Reconstruction during the peak season makes complete sense to me……

Back to the rooms and the girls have an idea; fill the tub with water and splash, splash, splash for an hour. Seemed to work just fine, water is water. For dinner it was more tough love, the girls had French fries and milkshakes. Hey it’s their first day of freedom, what would you eat? Cheryl and I suffered with vegetarian pizza (very good). The girls watched TV for an hour or so and then kick me out so they can go to bed right at 9pm.
I finally sleep more than 3hrs and feel like a new man. With these two a tried new man.

PS: the new Hotel has Internet Access but its not working either

Day 4

Still trying to recover from day three. Our day started out with a trip to ILLICHIVS’K (girl’s birth city) to deregister the girls from a flat that was left to them by their mother. We drove the 15 miles in about an hour, single lane road over a floating bridge- only road from Odessa to Illichivs’k, only to find the passport office closed. They are open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 9am to noon.

We are told that they know what paperwork needs to be filed out to deregister the girls. After we knock on the door a woman opened the door pointed at the sign and slammed the door. We were at least hoping to speak to someone about what we needed for this paperwork. So we headed to the housing authority in the hopes someone could help us with the paperwork odyssey only to find the office is closed on Fridays.

Some days just don’t go the way you wish and you feel you should have stayed in bed. With dimmed spirits we make the drive back to Odessa to see the girls at the orphanage.

The girls are just waking up from a nap ( 1-3PM) when we arrive. They seem upset and I’m afraid they are mad that we haven’t removed them from the orphanage. After feeling absolutely terrible for 30 minutes I find out that the other children went to the park to play and the girls had to stay with us adults, oh-no not that. The drama was short lived as we worked on the final documents to remove the children.

I had to sign documents stating the girls are being removed and we are completely responsible for their welfare. The documents also had to be signed by the director of the orphanage and the regional inspector ( never heard of this process).

Tomorrow we are going to pick up the girls. They are planning a going away party; we will provide some cake and candy for the final day. I will need to bring a change of clothes so we don’t take anything from the other children. Now I’m excited and can’t wait until tomorrow.

Day 3

The day started off with great news. We received the ID numbers from the tax department at 10am and proceeded to the notary to finalize the paperwork for the passports. Now we are off to the orphanage to pick up the girls. Upon arrival the girls are dressed in there Sunday best (see pictures) and look adorable. They only found out this morning 8am that we were coming to pick them up. Are original schedule was not to arrive in the Ukraine until 8/9, so they were totally surprised and very excited.

No time to waste off to the notary to pick up the documents, We wait for what seems like hours, actually 45 minutes for the notarized documents. The “NOTARY” or “HOTAPIYC “ as it is spelled in Russian , is the busiest place in Odessa. All documents must be notarized to be considered legal (drivers license, marriage license, bill of sale, birth certificates, contracts, etc) Notaries go to school for two years to learn how to handle and manual record all types of documents, very serious business.

Arriving at the Passport office we find the inspectors are leaving for lunch and ask us to return at 2PM. So off to lunch we got…borsch soup and varyneki (dumplings with meat. The girls eat like we’ve been on a several day journey.. followed by a kids cocktail (cream soda).

After hiking back to the passport office we find ourselves in a group of ten to fifteen waiting for the inspectors at 2PM. The building is a typical government structure, no AC - hot and many doors with very little information. Everyone who enters asks “Where is the passport office”. At 3PM the inspector moves us to the front of the line. This almost starts a riot, some people were waiting from this morning are arguing with the inspector to no avail. We enter the office under the stares of the small crowd and hope this will be over shortly. The inspector takes one look at the paperwork, two rather large piles (judgment from the court, birth certificates, adoption certificates, power of attorney, tax ID numbers and everything in doubled sided notary speak) and says this is no good.

The office will need to confirm that everything is order before we can proceed; she marches into another office speaking loudly about all the paperwork and comes back with a superior officer. They discuss the situation for a while and she again goes off about the paperwork. We are now back at the end of the line to the smiles of the angry crowd. Christina (our translator) is now negotiating the superior officer behind closed doors, she emerges after some time and says OK they will start the process today, take the pictures and fill out the passport request, but someone will need to confirm that all the paperwork is correct and has been processed correctly by the other offices (tax office, courthouse, records for birth certificates, etc,) So we wait again.

We enter the inspectors office to another tirade of loud complaints about the paperwork, she enters two or three lines into the computer and again starts to question the paperwork, she again brings the superior officer back to her desk and complains about the piles of paperwork and states the she can’t process the passports and will not take the pictures.

It’s now 4:00 and we are again at the end of the line. We wait to speak to the superior officer (she’s in a meeting upstairs with other employees). When she returns at 5pm Christina again pleads our case and the officer agrees to send us to a different inspector, so to the back of the line we go. But this time we enter to a smiling face, she notes the beautiful girls and how cute they look. She processes the paperwork in 15 minutes, takes the photos and wishes us the best of luck. They even convince someone to stay late to process the paperwork while we wait.


At this point we must look quite the site..only one last never, sweaty and pounding headaches all around. But we stayed fast and pull victory from the jaws or at least the desk of defeat. The only set back is that we must go back to the birth city to un-register the girls from their flat before we can receive the passports. The girls have been very good in a very bad situation, so we stop at the market for two ice creams and two larger watermelons for tomorrow.

The director of the orphanage has requested we return the girls back to the children’s house for one last night. I leave the girls we a little regret, but this has been their family for sevens years and they need to properly say goodbye. I think they are having a little party tomorrow to celebrate the children’s new births, the teachers and care takers look happy and sad to see the girls go.

Now we wait for the passports. I believe they are going to be printed in Kiev and shipped down to Odessa. All the information was entered into the computer, photo’s and signatures were scanned in the document. Stacks of the documents line the passport office walls, so I’m assuming the files are transmitted electronically and processed in Kiev.

My payers tonight will be for a swift delivery of the beautiful new blue passports.

Short update

GREAT NEWS, we have the ID numbers and are heading to the orphanage to pick up the girls. We will get the passport photos and apply for the passports TODAY

Day -2

We started the day with only limited sleep, but optimistic to get off to a good start. Christina picked up the final judgment documents at 9am and we were off to Illichovsk (birth place of the girls).We arrived at an apartment building with a small office built on the front and were treated like guest’s. The manager came in on her day off to help process the paperwork.

After several revisions we received new birth certificates and official documents making the adoption legal. Back on the road to the notary and sitting in very heavy traffic into Odessa, 30-45minutes for a 10 mile ride. We arrive at the notary’s office only to find she is leaving for lunch and we must return after 3PM. So we head to the tax office to get the girls identification numbers (similar to a Social Security Card). The clerk says he can’t process the paperwork until Thursday after 2PM.

So with little to do we head to the license office to register the new birth certificates and get the official stamp of authenticity. We arrive at the office only to find that the manager of the stamp is only available Tuesday and Thursday from 10-12noon and 2-5PM . After some long faces and desperate looks, someone steps out of an office and offers to process the paperwork to get the stamp. Then we are given a slip of paper and told to take it to the cashier. We arrive at the cashier fourth in line, after 30 minutes we are still three people from the counter ( one old man stepped in front of us to pay his bill) but at this rate we can’t pay the bill and make it back to the Notary.

So off we race to the notary, pick up the documents and race back to the license to see if the line is gone. Instead we stop at the Ukrainian back pay the bill and head up to the license office where we wait for another 30 minutes to received the stamped documents.

After a quick stop at the market to pick up water, bread and some cheese we arrive back at the hotel. Nine and half hours, two diet Cokes later we have made good progress, but are still missing the ID numbers to submit for the new passports.

Cheryl and I finish out the day with a trip down the beach for a Ukrainian burrito and beer….yum yum. Hopefully we can get a full night sleep. I think we are going to need our energy tomorrow. We will try to get the ID numbers and pick up the girls from the orphanage.

Wish us well, all the positive thoughts can only help.

2nd trip - Day 1

Hello everyone.
It’s finally time to start the last leg our journey and yes bring the girls home. This leg of the journey will be completed by my sister (Cheryl ) and I (Stephen. So I left Denver Monday morning 8am landing at JFK right on time 1:30PM met up with Cheryl (Lives in NYC) and left JFK 5:20PM just an hour late, I’m told that’s normal for one of the worlds busiest airports. A fantastic flight on Delta airlines and landing right on time, somehow the 9hr: 45 min flight was made in 8hr 30min. We then negotiated the passport lines in record time 20 minutes and only waited for the bags 10 minutes. On the hot streak we continued through customs with no lines or waiting. After chasing down documents in Kiev for several hours we left for Odessa around 12 noon . Six and half hours later we arrived at our hotel, a little less for the wear. Our home base will be the Grand-Pettine (www.grand-pettine.com). A wonderful resort right on the south beach of Odessa’s Black Sea.