Roadblock

Sasha, Sasha, Wherefore Art Thou Sasha,

Well, it would figure that the day Sasha has to perform his Firemen duties would be the most  challenging from a transportation standpoint so far.  We had the backup guy today (Viktor does not remember his name).  He is very nice and we used him on our earlier trip when we required two cars to negotiat the pot hole minefield that is the road to Zap.  At any rate, we were happy to have 'Bob' there promptly at 0730 in his not-so-late-model Daewoo Lanos to start our day's journey.  Off to Donetsk from Eniakevo.  Our task today was to get some extra documents required to file our final petition for our court date.  So, we were off to the boys' birth city of Matkivka to meet with the Inspector there in Juvenile Services to start this process.  There are certain details I cannot divulge, but Viktor was hopeful that we would be able to request that the Inspector and her Supervisor prepare a statement to speed up our process.  The Inspector was nice, but did not grant the request.  She is insisting on having a formal hearing on the matter.  This certainly is disappointing, but I can respect that she is following the letter of the law exactly.

So, after several conversations between Viktor and the Inspector we then had to take a trip from Matkivka to Amvrosiivka (sounds like a place to get ambrosia) to visit another orphanage.  This journey took us within 20 km of the eastern border with Russia.  The roads were a true E-ticket ride.  I was having flashbacks of the trip to Zap and wondering why Sasha had to be a Thursday Fireman.  Jocelyn and I were riding in the back seat pulling hair out of each others' arms during the most 'thrilling' stretches of the drive.  Once we made it to Ambrosiaville, the GPS unit took us to the wrong destination.  However, this was not the wrong destination as in dropping us off at the wrong Starbucks, we were literally on a dirt road in the middle of a field.  At this point 'Bob' began relying on his natural instincts to point us in the general direction where Viktor felt the orphanage was located.  We drove along a rutted dirt road for a bit as you could feel the undergrowth scraping along the bottom of the car, and then 'Bob' determined that we needed to paviernite naprava (turn right).  We hung a right onto a path....that's right a path going through the forest.  Here is a picture taken from my huddled position in the back seat:

As you can see, it is a leaf-covered path.  Luckily the Daewoo proved small and nimble enough to bounce our way in the general direction of yonder.  Eventually, we came to a real road with people burning piles of leaves on the sidewalk and then found our way onto a larger street.  At this point, Viktor exclaimed 'now I recognize where we are', and he guided us to the front gate of the orphanage.
This place was downright nice compared to Uglegorsk, in fact probably nicer than even Zap.  The Director was a very impressive appearing gentleman who was very kind and helpful, and the Deputy Director was wonderful woman who helped us get the documents we needed.  More importantly, Viktor was able to make a connection with them and they agreed to try and work together to get some of the kids connected for family hostings back in the States in the near future.  It just goes to show how God can work good out of bad situations.  Here we were bummin' that we now have a delay in our proceedings, but it led us to a remote orphanage where the connections will probably help Viktor to get more children hosted and hopefully adopted.  God is Good!

Finally, after we had what we needed, it was back to Donetsk along the asphalt-challenged road to get some Notary work done.  Then we had to backtrack again to Matkivka to get these documents to the Inspector for our upcoming hearing.  Finally, we had the hour drive back to Eniakevo where Viktor had 'Bob' drop us off at a pizza joint for some much needed nourishment.

It was a tiring day, and we are both tired of sitting/bouncing but grateful to be in one piece.  I can tell you that if anyone is going through this process with a Facilitator that is not well-versed in all of these potential pitfalls or is unscrupulous, they are in trouble.  Viktor handled everything in his usually wonderful way.  No way we could do it without him.  The big bummer, and thus the road block is we now have a delay.  It just so happens that Ukraine has it's national elections on Sunday.  The hearing that we need to have only occurs on Mondays.  You can imagine how much work will get done a federal agency on the day after the election....none.  Thus, our hearing will not happen until November 5th.  Viktor is confident that things will go well, but it will take a few days after that to get the final document to allow us to file for a court date, and then the wait for the assignment of a Judge and the actual court date itself.  Therefore, I have to go back home and leave Jocelyn here.  I am trying to get a flight out this weekend so I can get back to work for a couple of weeks.  I will plan to come back for a couple of weeks, the week before and including Thanksgiving, as we are hopeful our court date will be either November 15th or the 22nd.  I wonder if they have turkey and stuffing in Donetsk?  Oh well, God sure is teaching us patience through this whole process.  If we were back home, we would be calling Supervisors to try and see if we could get the process expedited, but that is not going to work here in Ukraine.  We just smile give them lots of "spyseeba's" (thank yous).  The delays are a bummer, as we are anxious to get the boys home.  I am bummed for Jocelyn who will be in country longer than we had hoped.  However, it is just going to make the victory of getting them out of the orphanage that much sweeter.

By the way, make sure you say a prayer of thanks for all of the people working on our roads back in Tulsa.  I have got to give them more grace for slowing down our traffic.

Curt