The countdown is on...

For the last week or so I have been breaking down our remaining time here. It seems to make being away from home somewhat bearable that way. My biggest goal was the day when our mandatory wait period is up. That happens in about 36 hours from now. At 10a on Tuesday, July 12th we will go to the courthouse and pick up the decree.

Now I know it does not mean we can leave that day but what it means is the waiting is done. Everything after that involves doing something. Doing something means taking up time and hopefully means our days go quicker. The plan which of course is not set in stone yet is... Tuesday pick up the decree. Travel 40km to where Joshua was born and apply for his new birth certificate, apply for his social security number. On Wednesday we are hoping to pick Joshua up first thing in the morning and take him for his passport photos. We will then apply for an expedited passport. In this country, the government puts a monthly allowance into an account for the children of orphanages. We will go and close that account out and donate it to the orphanage. Here it is an unspoken rule that the money goes back to the orphanage which we have absolutely no problem with and feel very confident that the money will be used in a positive manner for the children. We are blessed in that this orphanage does not ever reuse disposable diapers. The director really does care for these children. We hope to have our passport in hand on Wednesday afternoon. IF it is then we will take a train to Kiev at approx. 5:30p arriving at 8a on Thursday. Embassy appointments on Thursday and Friday. Then hopefully a flight home on Saturday.

If we do not finish here in region by Wednesday afternoon we will not be able to get to Kiev for our 2 day embassy appointments and it will delay us until probably the following Tuesday to come home. Hopefully I will have some concrete idea on Tuesday if we can accomplish what we need to so I can set up the embassy appointments and order our flight home!!

We bought everything we needed for Joshua today. We were told by another family to purchase needed items here in region because it is cheaper and well.. in Kiev people buy by the diaper. Yep that is right.. they open packages and buy individual diapers. So it can make diaper purchases difficult especially when we have a child in tow. We bought diapers, baby food, wipes, formula and bottles. We attempted to have him drink from a sippy cup and it did not work well and we do not want to risk dehydration so we are going to go with bottles. We also do not know yet whether he eats table foods of any kind yet so we bought the baby food jars and we will deal with other types of food and textures when we get home. It is going to make packing interesting with the toys and all the baby gear that we did not have before but I figure much of the food and diapers will be used up while in Kiev so we should be ok on the flight home... lol I hope anyway. We still have some souvenirs to buy for our family. In region it really is not a tourist area so we have to wait till Kiev for that. BTW anyone who reads my blog who has been here- Do they have postcards ANYWHERE??? sheesh.. just one postcard for my niece and it is next to impossible to find.

So anyway thanks for hanging in there and reading this all.. or maybe you just scrolled down to the pictures and thanks for that as well.. HERE ARE PICTURES