Ukraine Adoption - Day 4 (Sumy)

Natasha, Yuri, Cher - Sumy orphanage on the first day we saw them!

Natasha, Yuri, Viktor, Vlad

Marina saying hello from her bedroom window

We're so excited to take these kids home!

Yuri on his bed

Excited Mom and two cool kids

Pasha and Lena (Gledhill) - so much fun to see them again!

Marina right when we first saw her at the orphanage - so cute!

This says Sumy, believe it or not. This sign is just as you enter the city.

Oleg took us to a great "grill" for breakfast on the road to Sumy.

This is the fun post - the post where we get to talk about seeing our Natasha and Yuri (and Yuri for the first time ever, for that matter). Our joy is full, and I even get teared up as I type this.

On Day 4 we awoke at 4am to pack up and get ready for a 5:30am pick up time to head to Sumy. We said goodbye to our cute little apartment/neighborhood in Kiev and Oleg loaded us his very comfortable Suzuki SUV. He told us that we would stop to eat breakfast around 8:30am (the above restaurant picture of me and Oleg). Once outside of Kiev, we were blown away by the fact that it's 100% farmland on the drive to Sumy. Matt and I both noticed the very rich/dark soil and constant fields of agriculture (Kayla, we'll photograph the sunflowers on the drive back - they were in full bloom and there were massive acres of them - you would have loved it). It took us about 4-5 hours total and we picked up our interpreter, Masha, at the Sumy McDonald's (of all places), where I at least was able to use an above-the-ground toilet. Masha is great and very helpful - we'll post a picture of her tomorrow. From there we went straight to the Inspector's office - her name is Valeria and she has also become a frequent companian and very kind part of the team. With it being her birthday on Wednesday, Oleg was sure to bring her flowers to our appointment. They work together a lot and she is very helpful. She is a very pretty lady who is well dressed and conducts herself so professionally. We were impressed with her. She told us later that afternoon that Ukrainian's don't always express what they think/feel about people, but that she was very happy to meet us and liked us very much.

From her office we all got back into Oleg's car and traveled to the orphanage. Matt and I were like anxious kids on our way to Disneyland as we were SO excited to see Natasha and Yuri!! We pulled into the orphanage and I recognized the front door from the video that Arri had made for us in the very beginning, back in October. It was surreal to finally be there!!! We saw Marina immediately as we exited the car and ran over to her to give her a hug and to deliver the letter from the MacBeth's. She was adorable! We also saw Pasha and Lena immediately, who also came to say hello. We took pictures of all of this (above).

When we got there we had an appointment with Victor, the school director. He is very nice - liked us from the start and made pleasant conversation. He asked us questions about ourselves (how many children at home, etc.) and told us more about the orphanage and his position. Then Yuri entered the room - I got up from my chair and went right up and hugged him! He was smiling from ear to ear with his adorable dimples. Then Matt hugged him too and he gave us the best hugs in return. He took a seat at the table and they asked him if he wanted to be adopted, and with that same huge smile he interrupted them before they even finished the question and said "yes!" We were hoping that Natasha would arrive at this time but she was coming back from summer camp. So we finished our meeting with the director and walked back out to the car, telling Yuri that we were going to go finish some paperwork while we waited for Natasha and would be back after dinner. He joined his friends, but looked back at us several times as we parted. It was so cute to see that his excitement mirrored ours.

We went to the pre-school, where the Director also has an office as he is the director of both, and spoke with the doctor, who gave us a verbal medical history of both children (Masha translating the whole time, of course). Then we met again with the director, the inspector, Oleg, Masha, me and Matt to review other documents. The director asked us where our current children were while we were in Ukraine, and we explained that they were with their grandparents. He asked us WHICH grandparents, so we explained that Kayla and Nate's mom, Matt's first wife, passed away several years ago, and that we are very close with her family. Each summer Kayla and Nate go to their home in California for a week to see them, and their many cousins, and that trip coincided perfectly with our Ukraine trip. The director, Victor, looked saddened at the loss of Kara, and very sincerely looked at Matt in sympathy, and Matt thanked him. It was very kind.

After that meeting we got some dinner - our first not-so-great meal. It was considered a Mexican restaurant, but it really wasn't. Matt still hasn't gotten over his "burrito" but he'll survive. He's just picky because he makes amazing Mexican food at home, so the food critic comes out in him from time to time!! We then headed back to the orphanage, knowing that Natasha was finally back from camp.

When we got there they said that she was in the building where they slept, so we walked over there to find her. She was shy!! She was hiding in a bedroom nervous to come out - so Matt went in to give her a hug and bring her out to us in the hallway. She was making her typical Natasha squeals and I recognized her voice immediately. Yuri of course had no problem coming out adn was all smiles. So Matt brings her out of the room and she's covering her eyes and smiling in shyness and I just walked right up to her and said "hi, Natasha" and gave her a huge hug, and she hugged me back for a long time. She looked great - happy and smiling and excited. She was sunkissed, having just come from camp. We saw Pasha and Lena again, as well as Rita, Marina and Vlad. We also saw two cute boys we'd never met; both named Viktor. They are 11 and adorable. In typical summer fashion, the kids were all running around with wet hair and in bare feet. Matt high-fived the guys and they remembered him well. We chatted for a bit with the group and then made our way to a gazebo like bench area where we just spent time with the 5 of us for a while, while Oleg made some calls and arrangements. Natasha showed a very sweet and vulnerable side as she said things to us like, "I can't believe you're finally here" and was very verbal and happy. We spent a long time there, took the pictures you see above, and got reaquainted all over again. We didn't want to leave. Yuri even said that we should just stay there at the orphanage with them.

Tomorrow is another day of appointments... we need to start by 8am.