Day 59

Look what we found today!

I thought I had packed it somewhere!

We had Z's medical appointment this morning, and frankly, I was a little freaked about it.  He's a healthy kid, no history of any communicable diseases that might bar our entry into the US, but there have been a few adoptive families here who have been detained for several days (weeks!) because of a false positive.  On top of that, we had to wait until the day before our flights left to finish the medical exam and turn in the paperwork to the US Embassy to get his visa that will allow him to enter the US.  If the appointment didn't go well, then not only would we NOT be going home tomorrow, we'd have to pay more change fees for our flights, and I'd already sworn up and down on faith that that was NOT going to happen!

So, no pressure.  Ha!


We waited a bit in a hallway, and then for a bit in a kind of sad excuse for a children's waiting room, and then saw the doctor.  She checked Z all out, informed us of everything that we already knew...told us to have his thyroid tested ASAP to get him on the proper daily meds, and assured us that his heart was "absolutely clear".  Then she filled out a bunch of forms, and told us that his vaccines were up to date as per their standards, and that he had had recent tests for HIV, Syphalis, and TB (maybe for something else, as well...?) and since everything was negative, there was no reason to test again.  She had copies made, we paid, and then we were on our way.

That was easy.

Then we had our appointment at the Embassy a few hours later.  We walked in (no ear buds this time!), handed over his passport and medical information...we waited for maybe 10 minutes, then we were called back to swear that the information that we provided was true.  Then we had his visa within 20 minutes.

That was easy.

The only difficult thing about today was trying to get Z to nap after he snoozed in Niko's van for 10 minutes!

We met the Driedgers for play time at the park (love them!) and then we all went to Mafia for a farewell dinner on our last evening here in Kiev.

(Notice that it has been so cold here that I am now wearing not one of Bryan's shirts, but two...his thermal over my t-shirt, covered in his gigantic sweatshirt!  Bryan commented today- you know, we're not just here for the change of seasons anymore.  It's changed.")

We're really really hoping that both the Driedgers and the Laynes (yup, they are still stuck in Kharkov!!) will be out of here soon...prayers for both of them! 

And us?  Well, we're down to TWELVE HOURS before we're on a plane, headed towards home.  Bliss.



PS- While I was hitting "publish post", Zeke halfway rolled out of bed, and just stood like this, sleeping, until I went over to tuck him back in again.  LOL.  Love him.