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.