This morning when I got up, I hit Western Union to pick up some more cash.  What I have will be cutting it VERY close. I will have to count every penny.  The government here is full of blood-sucking leeches.  Can you tell that I'm ready to come home?

After that we went to buy Roman some clothes for when I can take him from the orphanage.  I get the boy but the clothes have to stay.  So Luda and I hit the open market and picked up 2 pairs of pants, 3 tops, a jacket, shoes, 4 socks, 4 underwear, 2 small towels, and 1 large diaper pad.  Roman is a bed wetter so I have to get him home without ticking off any landlords.  They do not have matress covers or special underwear here.  It was difficult to find a diaper pad.  I think we spent more time shopping for Luda than Roman.  Luda is a shop-a-holic.  I'd turn around and she would be in a vendor stall trying on a new outfit.

After shopping we went to the pizzaria for dinner.  The place is cheap and quick.  They sell salads, pancakes, and pizza.  A big meal there will run me 15 rph (less than $3).  After dinner I called it an evening and headed back to the apartment.  Luda caught a train later that night to head to Kiev so she can try to push the paperwork through the NAC.  She told me that the director does not like to sign letters of consent until after the paperwork has been at the NAC 5 days.  The director tells people 5-7 days but sometimes she is difficult (go figure) and it takes more like 8-9 days.  So cross your fingers that she doesn't try to play any more games with me.  I really hope that after the elections on 10/30 that she is out of a job.  I've heard she is friends with the current President.  So if the candidate from Donetsk wins she probably will keep her job - he is also friends with the President.

By the way... I was told that the NAC director has been visiting the regions to talk with inspectors to try and get them to lengthen the adoption time.  She is also pressuring the court system to not waive the 30 day wait.  AND she has made herself the bottleneck in several areas of the process.  For instance now SHE is the only one to accept dossiers where as before a translator could just drop it off to anyone.  She also has set this stupid policy of only accepting certain country's dossiers on certain days.  She also insists on reviewing all of the documents that return from the cities that were prepared for the adoption.  And she is the only person who can sign a letter of consent to adopt.  Its like she is trying to justify her existance.  Everything she has changed at the NAC is in complete opposition to PowerLean business practices.  What she is doing is making Ukraine a less desireable place to adopt.

When adoptive parents pick a country they (if like me) looked at overall cost, number of trips, age of children available, and time in country.  Well you can not adopt an infant here because the children must be held for Ukrainian adoptions for 1 year before they are available for foreign adoptions.  It use to be that you would get a referral to an orphanage and could see all the kids.  Now you can only see one child in one orphanage.  If you refuse the child then you return to Kiev and repeat the process.  The director has made it take a longer time to get a 2nd or 3rd appointment.  Couples are waiting roughly 2 weeks.  You can not preidentify a child in Ukraine like you can in other countries.  Now she doesn't want to have judges waive the 30 day wait regardless of the child's medical condition.  She seems to look for any excuse to reject papers - you misspelled the word "to" and put "ta" - REJECTED! She does not seem to care about the kids but rather keeping herself indespensible and making money.

I know my letter of consent will be typed up Monday.  No telling when the director will signed it.