Post from Monday...Internet has been down

We had a busy and productive day today. We got up early (8am has been early for us since being here. Can you believe it, early at home is 6am when the kids wake us up!! Though sleeping has been tough and not consistent. Neither of us has had a good night sleep yet). We went straight to the orphanage to start paperwork. The Director was not there when we arrived; he did not come until an hour later. We met with him and discussed why we wanted to adopt Iryna and that we wanted to start the paperwork. Well of course nothing can go smoothly for us. He immediately stated that Ukrainian law is that the parents need to spend at least a week with the child before starting paperwork and that he didn’t want us to take her from him. He asked if we were wonderful and why do we know so soon that she is the one for us. He said that if we adopt her, he will have to let go of three of his workers because his numbers are low even though he knows that this is the best decision for the child. I started to shed tears. He also said that his social worker was not in and would not be back until Wednesday (on Friday he said she would be back today). We offered to pay for transportation for the social worker to return so that we can get the documents needed and then allow her to return to her location. He said he will see what he can do. We sat out in the waiting room for about 30 more minutes before he came out and told his secretary to allow us to make copies of Iryna’s file that was sitting on the desk the whole time (he had told us that it was locked up in a cabinet and only the social worker had a key). We were so happy but still trying to not celebrate because the day was not over. While Oksana and the secretary prepared the papers, Shawn and I went and got Iryna from her classroom and took her out to play. She ran and gave us the biggest hugs and held my hand as we walked. We had a wonderful time as always. We brought her back to the office to color and play with things we had brought in her backpack. We brought pears today and she loved that. She also loved my bottle of water. She said it was her first time drinking from one and you could tell. Iryna put her whole mouth around the top and spilled it down her face. Once we showed her how to do it, she did very well. We were also able to teach her to say water and she continued to use the word throughout the visit!! Her first English word! When we took her back, she asked if she could keep the water. Yes!! I will now bring her water everyday!! When we were done with the paperwork from the office, we needed to get her medical records. Well what do you think happened….the doctor was not in and would not give permission for us to retrieve her files. We will have to wait till tomorrow. Ugh. We left and came back to the hotel. Oksana took our papers to the adoption inspector to start some of the process and an hour later, we went to a notary in a different town to get petitions written to adopt and a petition to the adoption inspector to expedite the process to the courts. We were hoping to get it all done today but at least we know we can get the rest done tomorrow. Prayers were answered that the director would sign the papers!! We are now waiting for our driver to take us to a local fire station for Shawn to experience how they do things over here. I am hoping they will allow him to work so he can make some money! J Our internet is down as well and we were hoping to skype with the boys. I pray that it will start to work soon.