Ukraine Adoption Melitopal December 15th, 2008

Hi Everybody,

Its been a  few days since I have updated the blog and I am sure you check it everyday to see whats going on :) Ha Ha... We are in Melitopal now and at our little hotel as before. I have been taking copious notes on my little Iphone recorder for the book I hope to write and the funny thing is that when its smooth sailing ( for Tom and India) there is not alot to write about. 

We met the girls at the orphangae and they ran up and hugged us and would not let go. We then started the task of getting the state paper work done, which included meeting with Nadya's 16 yr old brother and her grandmother, who both told the Director that they refused to let Nadya be adopted. In Ukraine there are many laws governing siblings, permissions , etc. Depending on who you pay and at what time the outcome can be very different. 

On Saturday we headed out to meet Nadya's grandmother and her brother who now lives with her.  We had no address and only knew the village name. The village was very big , maybe 10,000 residents, but Vitaly and Sasha, stopped frequently and asked people once even disappearing into an old broken down apartment building that smelled so bad we refused to go in. Eventually we found the aunt, who took us to the grandmothers home, a one room house built into a barn  with a wash basin and 2 beds.  Nadya, by the way, said she didn't know the aunt, but she did lead us directly to the grandmother.

She was not happy to see us but hugged Nadya closely. Her brother did not look mentally handicapped (supposedly, he had been in an orphanage for mentally handicapped children) and was a good looking young man (Nikolia) , probably 6'3" and reminded us of a tall Brad Pitt. He was frowning as well. Nikolia took Nadya outside to the bathroom and we (Vitaly) talked to the grandmother who was about 70 and Paula and I sat helpless in the conversation not understanding a word. Only seeing the grandmother cry did we understand that she was a caring person and not out for money which they obviously needed.

After about 15 minutes of continuous talking Vitaly turned to us and said " She thinks it is a good thing you do for Nadya" We were very releived... Nikolia came back into the room with Nadya and she sat in his lap laughing, and then  we asked him if it would be OK to give his sister a good home. He said " Nadya, if this is what you really want I will not stand in your way" You could tell that they were very close, and Nadya just smiled. 

For the next hour we talked with the grandmother and she told us the sad story of how Nadya ended up in the orphange, shared old pictures of her and her family with us , and went through all of her belongings (which were very few) and gave clothes and costume jewelry  to Nadya. We spoke about how we would make sure they never lost touch with Nadya and left feeling as though we had done what was right , and they also - for Nadya.  Everybody was sad, but smiling.

Today - we go to Zaparyshia to meet the local inspector and Albina's sister who is in college to get a consent from her. It is about a 2 hour drive and could be a tough day politically because of the sibling laws and our lack of knowledge of the local authorities.

Stay tuned

Michael and Paula