Call us "Charlie Brown"

We have been here for 5 weeks. Remember when Lucy would let Charlie Brown try to kick the football. She would assure him that this time she REALLY would let him kick it if he would only try - only to pull the ball at the last minute so he would miss and fall. Well, we feel like Charlie Brown. We have not had internet access for the last 3 days so, even though not alot has changed, let me catch everyone up on what is going on. Things are starting to move, just very slowly. You may recall that Zhenia was supposed to call the court on Thursday to see about our court date. When he called he was told that a date had been set and he needed to pick up the paperwork on Monday. The clerk who he spoke with did not know the date, but said Zhenia could call back on Friday to find out. Of course, he called twice on Friday only to be told that the judge had the paperwork, a date had been set, and we will have to wait until Monday to find out what it is. Zhenia was told to come pick up the paperwork and deliver the documents to the people required for court(orphanage director, social worker, etc). Now, supposedly, having to deliver the paperwork may be a sign that the date is too close for the documents to reach everyone by mail. It is nice to say "I'm trying not to get my hopes up", but of course they are high. We are praying the court date will be sometime next week - the sooner the better.

Friday evening we went to a party at the Canadian Embassy. We met many Canadian and American families currently living in Ukraine. We had a very good time speaking english to others for a few hours and even enjoyed American-style pizza.

The good news is that we finally saw Viktor!! As the orphanage director would not let Viktor come home from camp early, we had to wait until everyone returned. The kids from orphanage 21 returned today @11:00 by train. We were there to meet the train at the station. It was so good to see him again. We were hoping that we could finally have him stay with us, of course, Alla said "no". At 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, all the of kids who have graduated will leave for trade school and live at the hostel. Since we won't find out the court day until tomorrow he will have to go with the other "graduates" to trade school in the morning and, if we have the papers, he will be able to go with us then. UNREAL. At this point I know there is a possibility that the papers will not be ready when we go get them in the morning. Viktor was not happy to be left again and does not want to go to the trade school, I don't blame him, not too happy myself. Even though we had sent many messages to him at camp - even spoken to staff who were supposed to communicate with him, no one told him we were still here working on the adoption. Alla would rather him have to go to the trade school and hostel instead of spending the night with the American Family who have waited 5 week in Kyiv working on this adoption. We have been approved by the SDA and inspector, completed all our paperwork so I don't think we pose any real threat. The insensitivity of the way these kids are treated is heartbreaking. We have assured him we will not leave Kyiv without him. We did get to spend a few hours with him and took him to lunch. Coming back to the flat, childless again, was very depressing. As I have said, many, many times, hopefully tomorrow will hold some promise. Right now we are flat on our backs looking at Lucy holding the football above our heads - OUCH!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO- Phillip & Cassie