US Embassy and Medical

Today started off to be a bit confusing but we made it through the day. We never got a phone call like we were expecting to let us know what time we would be picked up this morning all I knew was that I talked to Marina a couple days ago and she said Yulia would call to let me know the time and would probably be by sometime around 9am.  Well 9:30 rolled around and we hadn't heard anything.  I had tried to call from our Ukraine phone but realized we were all out of minutes so tried calling through skype but no one would answer the call since it of course rings in private no.  After calling Marina several times she answered and asked if she could call me back in a couple hours till she realized who I was and then she quickly said hold on a minute and called me back and told me Nikolay would be here in 10 minutes to get me.  She called about 20 minutes after that to make sure he had picked me up and we were on our way to the embassy.

Well it took about an hour to get to the embassy because we had to go pick up another guy and his son that was adopting through another organization.  We arrived at the embassy went in and filled out paperwork for the Visa and then waited in the car about 20 minutes for the other man to be finished up. Then we drove to a place for the Medical.  That was extremely quick and the doctor acted a bit suprised that Mina has down syndrome because she didn't think she looked like it. Mina weighs about 14 lbs fully clothed. Well we then waited about 45minutes for the other guy to get x-rays of his son and then we had to go drop him back off at his apartment and then finally we were taken back to our apartment. 

Our girls were extremely exhausted, fussy, and starving by this point.  Mina had eatin her baby food I brought her and they had gone through all the snacks in the bag but it was 2 1/2 hours past lunch and naptime.  Once we arrived at the apartment we had to pay Nikolay for driving us around that day which was a bit frustrating because here we shared a ride with someone else and most the day was spent waiting on the other guy and we were charged by the amount of time (not to mention we were confused and thought that was included in the facilitators cost.) So for any RR families using Yulia just to warn you in advance you will be paying for the travel fees to the embassy, medical, back to the embassy, and airport.  You probably know this but just in case I'm putting it out ther :)

Tomorrow Nikolay will be picking us up around 1:20 and then going back to pick the other guy and his son up and then to the Embassy to our appointment at 2 to get Mina's visa. Hopefully tomorrow we will both be finished up around the same time and will not be waiting around on him.  We could call and try to get another driver but that just seems like confusion plus our phone is still out of minutes and we need to go find a place to put more on it.

After we returned to the apartment Myla was sleeping so we just laid her down, Mina we fed and put down for a nap and then Jim left to run grab us some lunch cause we were hungry.  Later that evening we got out and ran to the store to get more diapers, wipes, baby food, water and a few other essentials to get us through tomorrow.  Of course we went to 3 different places to buy all those things we needed and went into about 4 others looking for what we needed. LOL Oh how I miss Target (where everything is under one roof.)  Ha ha!

So excited that tomorrow is our last day!! Horray!! We will get Mina's visa tomorrow and then Friday early morning we will be picked up around 4am to head to the airport.  So happy we will be headed home so soon and can't wait to introduce Mina to her new world!

We met some couples from RR tonight at TGI Fridays. That was great to get to visit with everyone.  We met Lyndi (adopting Fedia), Sandra & Marshal adopting Mallory & Peach, and the Stratton's adopting Ivanna.  We really enjoyed our visit with them and it was great to get to introduce Mina to them all. Both the girls did wonderful at the restaraunt. Glad we got to meet some RR families and put faces with names and children! It was also wonderful to get to meet Lyndi because she has been so wonderful and helpful to us through our whole adoption process with all our dossier documents so it was nice to get to meet her in person.  She got to hold Mina tonight a couple times and Mina actually cried for me to take her back and reached for me.  That definitely made me feel good that she feels comforted by me and can already distinguish the difference and know that I am her mama.

Sorry I ramble on and on... this blog has basically been our journal of everything we've done and gone through since we've been here so I don't like to leave anything out so that we can have this to always remember everything :)  So if you all get bored of reading I do apologize :)  Off to bed now!! Nighty night!