What a Reunion!

Let's review the last few days to get everyone back up to speed including myself as I am loosing track what day it is.

We said our goodbyes to Janine Wednesday morning after she gave another outstanding performance in walking again - 5 steps without assistance. The day was such a beauty that we had Misha drive us to McDonald's and walk back - about a 1.5 hour walk.

We were preparing the last few things before Misha came to pick us up for our trip to Oleksandria as we could not get a ticket for the train in Kremenchuk when Rodica from CARC (our adoption agency) saying we had an issue with our immigration paperwork. This was serious as without it, the province could not issue the Letter of No Objection #2 that basically said they were in agreement with our agency and adoption practicioner in allowing us to adopt Janine. Without this letter, the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine would not issue a visa to Janine that would allow her to leave Ukraine and enter Canada. The province was missing documentation that we had a file opened with Immigration Canada for an unnamed child that we were going to adopt. My fear was that our immigration file was closed since I opened this file in March 2008 in preparation of our first adoption when we were open to adopting siblings so we needed two files. Since that never happened, I used the opened file for this trip. I had called before we left to confirm that the file was still open and active.

So my first call was to Lynne (my sister in law who has been our resource at home while we are here) to place a call to Immigration Canada - they have no number that can be used outside of Canada. She called the number while I am using Skype and puts her phone on speaker phone and holds it up to the mic on the computer - you just gotta love technology. We wait 10 long minutes (this was at 5:45pm and Misha was picking us up at 6:30) before we get to speak to an operator. I explain the situation and she does the usual security checks. Then she goes on to say that she cannot proceed any further because they do not allow 3rd party phone calls. Lynne could only participate if I designated her as representative. This could only be done by completing more paperwork that would take 10 days to process if I faxed it in. After pleading my case, she refused to provide any more assistance. So we hung up and tried again hoping we would not get the same operator. While this was happening, I was trying to purchase phone time on Skype and declining calls from Martha's mom and my boss at work that needed emergency assistance on an important matter. This time I failed to mention that Lynne was on the other line. But after 30 minutes of talking, I was no further other than to confirm that the file was still open and active.

With that, I had Lynne call the province to see what exactly they needed or what was missing from Immigration Canada. The problem this time was everyone was away from their desk for lunch so we left a message for them to call Lynne. The time was now 7pm and we had to catch a train by 8:46pm with an hour drive still left to complete. So you can just imagine me sitting in the front seat trying with the laptop open and calling Lynne to see if she heard anything. As we got further out of Kremenchuk, the cell signal dropped to the point is was non existant. We arrived at the train station at 8:20pm. Quickly, I powered up the laptop and called Lynne but the signal was poor but I caught enough words to know what documentation they were looking for. Luckily, I had scanned every single document, letter, receipt, etc that I received, sent, filed, completed etc. for this adoption and placed it on the laptop and an usb stick for backup because you just don't know when you need another copy or have to refer back to something. I found the file and sent it away counting the MB as they transferred. While this was going on, they announced on the loud speaker that the train was approaching and we should head out to the platform to wait.

Again, laptop in my arms trying to Skype Lynne to see if she received the document I sent (I had copied her as a back up just in case Rodica did not receive it). But I didn't have enough time to complete the call as the train had stopped and they don't give you much time to board before it leaves again. In our cabin (car), I tried again, reached Lynne, confirmed she had received it before we lost the signal again. And that was it as I never got the signal again until we arrived in Lviv. In the end, everything worked out (including my boss's emergency) but it was very nerv racking and stressfull moment for me and I am sure Martha will have more grey hairs to pull from my scalp.

The train ride would last 15 hours. It was smoothing sailing until Nathan woke up. You can imagine how a very active 4 year old would be in a cabin no bigger than 15SF and no room to move. It was a very long 3 hours after that. We arrived in Lviv at 11:45am just as scheduled and no sooner did we get out of the train station did we meet our landlord from 2 years ago who had saved us an apartment and would be our taxi driver that morning. We found out that he was the proud father of a baby girl since we last spoke to him and she would be 1 this month.

Nothing much has changed in Lviv. Yes there are some new buildings and some new establishments but the main things are still the same like we left two years ago. It seems like we are home again (we spent over 5 weeks in this town 2 years ago). We quickly place our bags in the apartment and were back out on the street trying to get to Nathan's baby house by 2pm as that was the planned reunion with the staff at the baby house and his church mother.

We arrived at the baby house and found our way inside through the back door to the director's office. We could hear talking inside so we waited. Outside her office, we found the wall with photographs of children that had been at the baby house who have since left or are currently there. To the left of the main board, we found another board that had three of Nathan's photos on it with a sign above saying "Circle of Family". Nathan was all excited to see this.

We knocked on the door, entered and waited for the Director and Daria (a caregiver that had brought Nathan to Kiev to have his immigration medical) to either recognize Nathan or us. It took a while before they realized who the grown up boy wearing glasses and talking English was. And then everything clicked. The director pulled our our letter and photos that we send just after Christmas saying we would visit her when we had an opportunity and to pick up his Christening chain that she said she had in a previous letter. After looking at him for a few minutes and reading the letter to the other staff members in the room, she quickly made a call. Shortly, three more people entered the room, one being the doctor we first met when we went to the baby house the first time to visit Nathan.

From there we headed out to see his old stomping grounds to visit his caregivers but they were no where to be found as they had moved to another building that was under renovation when we were there 2 years ago. To our disappointment, only one caregiver was there that we knew. The other had either moved on or were working on a different day. As for Nathan's church mother, she had called to say that she would not be able to make it so we planned to meet Friday morning in front of the Opera House at 10am. Nathan did not recognize anyone at the baby house and I didn't think he even remember the building but he did understand why we were back as he asked everyone he saw "do you remember me".

Friday morning we woke up to a light snow fall and a temperature of -3C. As we walked up to the Opera House, I was looking to see if I could spot Nathan's church mother - Natalia - so we could watch how his reaction would be. We even had him walk ahead to see if he would spot her first but she was no where to be found as she was running late. Natalia had invited a friend who spoke English to be our translator. And when Natalia did arrive, you could see from the smile and excitement on Nathan's face that he did remember her as he ran into her open arms and gave her a big hug and kiss.

We too were excited to see her as she provided such care and comfort for Nathan during his 2 years as the baby house. She also provided us with pictures from when he first walked, 1st birthday, christening, etc that we never expected to get. We talked for a while outside and took many pictures before heading to a Ukrainian restaurant where we shared stories from 2 years ago, brought her up to date on his current going on's, and why we were back in Ukraine. This went on for over 2 hours and Nathan was just soaking it all in. We found out that Natalia is getting married next year and we have been invited to the wedding - this should be interested as I ask work for more time off next year! She even told us the story how not too long ago she dreamed that one day she would meet Nathan again and see him all grown up to be a handsome young man.

We said our goodbyes and hoped to talk to one another again via email and then went on our separate ways again. We did some shopping before heading back to the apartment for the night.

Both Martha and I said that this day was so enjoyable for all of us and will be one of the highlights of our 2nd mission to Ukraine. Although Nathan did not realize the importance of this day today, we hope he will when he is older and I hope he will have fond memories as you just don't know if our paths will be able to cross again.