Friday, July 9, 2010

Ukraine Adoption - Day 2 (Kiev)

On Day 2 we had to be at our SDA (State Department for Adoption) by 10am, so Natasha arrived at 9:40am and we walked over together. The appointment went smoothly - we simply had to talk with a psycologist and review Natasha and Yuri's file together, produce our passports, and let Natasha handle the paperwork. We did learn an interesting fact, though... our Natasha is a year younger than we had thought all along! Somewhere her real age got lost in translation and I have been going around telling everyone for the last 8 months that I'm going to have 2 sets of twins at home now - two girls at 15 (Kayla turns 15 in August and we thought Natasha followed her in November) and two boys at 12. Ooops. Her birthday is actually in 1996 not 1995, so she's 13 now, turning only 14 in November. This is JUST fine by us... the more time we get with her in the home before she graduates high school the better!

After the SDA appointment we went to get some money exchanged, our sim cards loaded on our phones, and a wireless internet card for our computer. We had lunch (trying to get as exposed to Ukrainian food as we can while we're here) at another great place that served food cafeteria style, and Natasha explained all of the traditional dishes to us. We were informed that our letter from the SDA would be ready the next day. Natasha showed us around the city a little bit, but then I noticed that my feet were huge (swollen) - and I hadn't noticed that yet. Probably a combination of the flight/altitude and my pregnancy. I called my doctor at home, as well as my mom, and was given the same advice (gotta love when mom's are as smart as doctors)... drink lots of water and elevate. While elevating I did some work on the computer. Elevating did the trick and then we went to dinner to an Italian place where we had phenomenal pizza's and a greek salad. I am in love with all of the fresh produce around here - since Matt and I love to garden, we have noticed repeatedly the produce as well as the dark Ukrainian soil. We parted ways again and had plans to meet up the next day.

No comments: