Tuesday March 25, 2003 - Our appointment date at the NAC!

Clarke:

After enjoying sleeping in, we were greeted by a sunny view to the west of our “Mother Land” statue.  Out of our 18^th floor window, we watch the progress of a construction project addition to our hotel.  

At certain stages of concrete work, the work continues all day and night.  Kris and I venture to the near-by street market and fumble thru ordering (pointing out) some poppy seed roils and an apple Danish.  We took them into McDonald’s to sit in the very clean inside and enjoy our baked goods, coffee and orange juice.  The glass windows of our McDonald’s gave us a view of the busy intersection, which included a bus stop, taxi stop, hotel, train stop and market.  All of this was thriving with the most interesting people watching.  We see many business at 9:00 A.M. with a beer in one hand and a briefcase in the other.  

The overwhelming look is of dark colors of leather or wool.  Almost all still have hats.  When approaching people, all have been very pleasant and courteous.  Even the youth are quite “respectful” of others, even in their dress.  One thing we haven’t seen is jubilance or exuberance by anyone.  Life is serious, especially among the older people, who seem to long for the way it was before their country's independence.  

Our time has finally past, and now, we meet George for our appointment at the NAC.  Again we take the Metro, this time a few stops past our usual stop to the “University” stop.  A short walk later we arrive at the NAC and enter a steel gate into a wide alley.  Just then, a firecracker goes off not far from us and I think to myself, “They know we’ve arrived.”  This is far better that saying something negative.  Having watched the BBC display continuously our bombing of Iraq on TV, I think of how easy some child’s play can promote paranoia among Americans and foreigners entering the NAC.  The building is typically decorated in the taste of 30 years ago with the mileage to show it.  We are funneled to a 6’ wide long corridor, which is filled with couples from all around the world, translator, and local workers of the NAC.  We are instructed to stand against the wall, and do so accordingly.  With the hallway packed and people scurrying back and forth thru these many closed doors, we come to realize why they call this the “Scooby-Do hallway”.  This random opening and closing doors with people in a rush leads us to think they are all looking for something. 

We look so young...and rested.

After nearly an hour, it is obvious that they’re not running from a “ghost” or Scooby-do, but conducting business.  However, even the seasoned professional translator has great difficulty trying to figure out the system, predict behavior, know the order of even feel comfortable with what is going on.  For a moment, we see a couple who is the first to appear to be American, come out of an office and get escorted past us to the entrance where we came in.  We later make contact through email.  We find out that it is Tory and Janelle Schaffer and realize that it was them we saw in the hall.  Too bad we didn’t even say hi at the NAC.  I had just overcome my feeling of complying and obedience, standing where told against the wall, when the Schaffer’s had exited the “corridor”.  

The hallway is adorned with pictures of kids who have been adopted from all over the world.  We are called in to see Dr. Valentin.  Our office was about 10’x12’ with 3 desks shoved in it.  Each desk had a psychologist on one side and translator and couple in stress on the other.  A mysterious looking man with thick wavy hair and even thicker glasses stood where he could observe all three proceedings.  This was the only remaining space in the room anyway!  I believe we are the only Americans in the room.  George slips the $15.00 liquor filled chocolate box to the side of Valentin’s desk and mutters in Russian.  Valentin is almost 70 years old and fully white haired.  He trembles constantly and is not smiling.  

After only brief eye contact with only me (not Kris) , no handshake and no real introduction, George engages in a short conversation.  We hear a few words, which resemble brother and sister and can tell he is forwarding our request for under 8 years of age.  He has a few tattered binders of documents and a handful of sheet protected pages scattered on his desk.  Each one has 8 ½ x 11 fact page and a small 1”x1” black and white old photo telling their vitals, parents name, (if known) and diagnosis.  We are first presented with a pair of boys, 4 and 8 years old, then a pair of 6 & 8 year old boys.  Both sets of brothers are healthy and cute, but not what we think will fit into our family as well.  We are then shown two sets of 3 siblings, which cannot be separated.  This is, of course, not even possible with our paperwork.   Finally, we plead for more options and are given a book of the Sumy region.  We are searching for “Lena” but only see invalids, downs babies, water babies, and FAS children.  (George informs us that the children “in the works” are not found in these books!)  But rather, they are shuffled about like cards on the table.  Valentin looks at me, as though to strain from his natural hunched posture.  Being the second eye contact now in 20 plus minutes, we feel immense pressure to make a choice.  A woman scurries in (and closed the door) she hands George about 7 girl pages from ages 7-9 years old.  Most are from a region with a bad reputation and George will not work there.  Two we pick out, and start thinking very seriously about.  We are starting to feel very un-easy, and feel our backs are against the wall.  We now know the director will not make exceptions for non-siblings with only one dossier.  The moments pass like hours.  

We know that this chaos is missing something.  It is missing organization, truth, interest for the kid’s well being or what?  With the slight of a trembling hand, Valentin pull from below his desk a fresh data page with a cute little blonde girl on it.  He asks George for our approval on a 3-½ year old girl.  We nod, and are shown Natalya!  We are encouraged to accept this most generous offer from Valentin by George.  We look at each other, and turn to smile at Valentiin.  Valentin smiles for the first time, and makes eye contract with Kris.  

Our load is lifted, we feel blessed!  

We exit the room to a now dark empty hallway.  We have so much to talk about.  Natalya will not be available until tomorrow, and this means one more day in Kyiv.  We are so distracted that when we part from George, that we take the subway in the wrong direction.  We figure this out when everyone gets off at the end of the line.  We then return to the hotel for our “important” meeting with Valery.  We greet in the lobby of our hotel, but say no words until in our room.  Wow, it feels like a KGB movie!  We ask for more information and decide the 2-hour flight is better than the 16-hour train ride to the city of Lugansk.  We pay cash for our room and cell phone.  

Valery scares us with a threat of the Ukraine government closing all adoptions.  He then leaves our room.  The news stinks and we are left alone to discuss our “situation”

Soon we receive a call from George, he is on his way to discuss “problem”.  We gather thru a lengthy discussion, that George is afraid to fly.  We are in agreement to take the train.  George is moved about our decision, and begins to share his personal life of stories for the next 2.5 hours.  We have made plans for departure tomorrow, and he then leaves.  

Before George arrived, we celebrated with a phone call to the kids and the Yuska’s our cell phone is very clear, but we consume $40.00 US in nearly 12 minutes.  Even our hotel phone is only about US.80 a minute.  Dinner is again the hotel “buffet” We enjoyed stuffed cabbage, liver, noodles and salad.  All is very good and costs a total of $4.00 US dollars.  

Returning to the Internet room for two hours drains the last remaining strength to our busy day.  We can hardly take the only English TV of BBC reporting on the war, but it puts us to sleep in a hurry.

The famous "Scooby-Do" hallway at the NAC
(National Adoption Center)  this photo was taken from
the window end of the hallway, by the plant.

Kris:

Here we sit in what everyone calls the “Scooby Doo” hallway.  Doors, opening and closing.  Seven doors total.  You hear a door either open and close ever 30 seconds.  Doors on the left side of the hallway, chairs on the right- window with plant at the end of the hallway.  Each door has an office number.  I am sitting at the very end one (door #316-recpetion)  Door #315 says “General Affairs department”.  I have finally cooled off after the run up 4 flights of stairs.  We are waiting – I think we saw and American family but we did not get to talk to them.  They did not look too happy.  Like Clarke said, they looked “compromised”  George is writing down things and so is Clarke.  We look so important LOL

Clarke and George doing business

Fast forward – we are back at our hotel room.  We had our meeting and what an experience!  We received a referral for a 3.5-year-old girl.  She is adorable!  

Her name is Norka Nataliyia.  (last, first)  She was born on August 7, 1999 and is at an orphanage in Lugansk.  When we first started out with our appointment, our doctor that was helping us was only showing us boy sibling groups.  I could not imagine 2 boys.  It just did not feel right.  They were so cute, but it was not right in my heart.  And then they showed us sibling groups of 3.  We are not approved for three kids with the INS.  That would not work either.  

We told George that we would like to look at 2 children, but they did not have to be siblings.  But with the new rule at the NAC, (2 dossiers/2 children) they would not make any exceptions.  We started to look at only 1 child.  We looked at older girls.  There are so many children that need families!  We looked through the Sumy region book for Lena and had no luck.  We looked at older girls, ages 6-9 and had several picked out.  

And then, magically, out of no where, our Dr. Valentin pulls out of his desk drawer the page showing a beautiful 3.5 year old girl named Natalya (Natalie).  Clarke and I originally thought that a younger age would be nice, but then we thought we had a better chance if went for older children.  We really have been praying for 2 children, siblings, but there were none available! Only boy sibling groups.  We talked it over quietly and thought if they only have girls, we don’t have any sibling groups, that younger would be better.  This age would be easier for language development and I don’t think that one child would feel “left out” if they were younger.  

I have to trust this is what God wants.  

We hope, maybe, if there is a small miracle that we can maybe still adopt two children.  Once we reach the orphanage, and maybe if there is an older boy, maybe, jut maybe, they will make an exception!  

Clarke and I have it in our hearts for two Ukrainian Angels.  It may be a fight, but we feel strongly about it.

Anyway, for now we are very excited to meet Natalie.  We leave Wednesday, March 26^th by train to see her.  We wanted to fly, but George said the train would be better.