Forming a family through international adoption.
We got up about 8:00 this morning. Loonya had got up earlier and went to give the inspector a ride from her home to work. He picked up the new letter of conclusion from her for Luda to review. I took this opportunity to walk to the internet cafe to read emails. Loonya & Luda picked me up there around 10:30 to go to the orphanage. We had to get the corrected documents restamped and signed by the orphanage director. I only got to spend a short period of time with Roman. We then hunted down the director. She was suppose to wait for us there but got a call and ran to Simferopol. So we tracked her down there and had her sign the documents. The assistant director had stamped them for us at the orphanage. When we finished, we had to go see the inspector again. She had a typo on the 2nd draft of the letter of conclusion.
After visiting the inspector we went to the lawyer and judge. They wanted $1200 from me to give a quick court date and to waive the 30 days. Ugh.. here we go again. From what I hear though this is "cheap" for Simferopol. It would cost me $2500, if the 30 days weren't waived - new plane tickets, 1 week stay, plus $1k to facilitation team. So I opted to pay the $1200. I had brought a credit card for emergency use and would have to use it.
After paying the expediting fee, we went to pay the regular fee for a new birth certificate. I sat down and figured up my remaining costs while we waited on Luda. I need to pay another $2500 to get through the American Embassy and get the hell out of the country. And this meant I had to put the boy's plane ticket on c.c. along with items for the orphanage (ie orphanage donation) and the hotel in Amsterdam. Well, I have like $100 USD left plus some grivena. I have spent like $15,000+ so far in Ukraine and between $11-12K prior to coming. The government here is full of blood-sucking leeches. They love to exploit foriegn adoptive parents. So I called good-old Dad for help and prayed he would be able to get us out of Ukraine.
After paying for the birth certificate, we went to the train station to send the documents to Kiev. Luda will have a driver, Vitalik, pick them up and then her friend Svetlana will take them to the NAC to get them registered. The NAC usually responds with a letter within 5-7 days. Luda will catch a train or plane to Kiev tomorrow to try and push the documents through the NAC. Of course the director already doesn't like me because I insisted on this 2nd adoption. She played games with me in Kiev which cost me 20 days. So I won't be surprised if she delays this letter.
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