Embassy Appointment ~ Day 29

Today I realized what it is really like to have a teenager who can sleep in! Holy cow. It is so strange. I am used to thinking I had it made because my kids sleep past 6:00 am and usually past 7:00 am! I had to wake Vika up to get ready for the embassy appointment this morning around 10:00. She was great and got right up and ready. Today was monumental in a lot of ways.. The shower and laundry last night helped with one of them, and today she wore a different shirt! I have never before seen her in anything other than the polyester purple turtleneck she lives in. I’m not saying it’s a bad shirt, but it was so great to see her in something different. As she was brushing out her hair I pulled her into the bathroom and made her let me flat iron her hair. It looked so great. She was pretty surprised by the way it could look I think. I don’t think she’s ever seen it so smooth. She liked it. She even wore it down all day long.

Natasha came over to help me fill out some embassy forms and we packed up our apartment and headed out for the day. We are moving closer to the Central Square area and to an apartment with good Internet access for my skyping and blogging needs!

The embassy was nothing like I had pictured it in my head. The security was more what I would expect, but the people were still Ukrainian’s who spoke English. Natasha couldn’t come in with us because she is not an American citizen. That was weird to me. It has always made sense I suppose when I have known that watching movies, etc. but to be in the embassy and not have my friend who is facilitating my adoption allowed in was a strange thing. I’ve always expected an American Embassy to feel more like a ‘safe house’ type place but it really felt like any government building with glass windows and bored employees. We paid our first installment of the money we will be dropping here, turned in all the paperwork Natasha had prepared for us, waited for them to be ready to fingerprint Victoria, and we were done. I have never realized just how great our adoption facilitators really are until the couple after me showed up at the window. They had no idea what they needed and just had a pile of papers and couldn’t decipher what was what. The woman at the window was patient but compared to my experience of just handing him my folder and letting him get what she had prepared for him was so much less stressful.

This is what the embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine looks like from the street.  I would pass it and not even know what it was if I wasn't driven there and walked to the front door!

We left and were taken to our new palace apartment in Kyiv. I am excited to end this trip in such a great apartment. I love it here. I think Vika does too.   This is our entry way. 

 The kitchen..

 Love this kitchen..

 Our stand up shower...

 Bathroom...

The jetted bathtub..

Our living space.. 

 Love the chandelier...

 Vika modeling the couch..

 The best full view I could get..

 The king sized bed..

She never wants to leave to go out into the city. I finally convinced her that we need to eat lunch. She was not interested in long sightseeing walks. We headed over to McDonald’s but she wasn’t interested. I wasn’t either, but it seemed the easiest.
Hopefully someday she enjoys having pictures of herself in Kyiv..  Today wasn't really one of them.

 I love this picture of her.  It was a warmer day and so she borrowed my sweater.  It was fun to see her in a different outfit.  Finally.

We ended up at this great café. The Cerans met us there and that was fun. She seemed a big annoyed when they first showed up but they are very easy people to feel comfortable around. She warmed up very fast. She was very interactive and just laughed at everything Gary did.
We both got a delicious dessert..

Trying to hide from me.. I'm much too persistant for that to work.

 This girl loves her ice cream.  That much I know.

We were there forever it seemed and when we finally left she headed straight for our apartment. I told her we would walk there another way. Not good enough, “Mom.. house?” How do I say no to that?! We walked to the main street so I could get some groceries. She was not happy about it. The rain didn’t help. We came back to the apartment and the Cerans joined us. She was thrilled to be back and to just play with the DS for a while.

I wanted to go out walking but with the rain and a girl who just wants to be inside that didn’t happen. We will see if it’s better tomorrow. We made dinner of Rice-a-Roni, apples, and bread. After our dinner she was very insistent to clean up the dishes. Not a trait I am used to being around! We watched the rest of one of the Pirates movies while we snacked on chocolate and popcorn then went to bed.

The best part of today was that we really are starting to help each other with our languages. She is very helpful with my pronunciation and forgetfulness. She had great pronunciation but has the same forgetful problem that I do. It’ll come. I think she really likes that I am trying and it helps her to want to try as well.