Hi everyone. We had an appointment at the adoption center yesterday. The director (head honcho) wanted to meet with us. We weren't sure what to expect but apparently she wanted to know why we did not accept the first referral for adoption. We told her because the child was very ill and would never be able to walk. It's funny talking through a translator because you say a few words and they start to talk and it goes on and on. They just don't translate everything. Well, we actually met with the assistant director because the director was busy. It went well enough. She told us that we were a young couple and we should adopt siblings and asked us if we wanted to look through the files. It was late in the day and we knew that it was unlikely to find anything but we had to say yes. So they brought out files of siblings. We told them that one sibling had to be under four and the other sibling could be up to 8 and one had to be a girl. We did not find any that met our criteria. The youngest we found was a set of sisters--one 6 the other 11.

Then the helper got snitty with us and told us we should come back in 2006 because they were very busy. I said no that we can not and requested a 3rd appointment. We explained that we wanted to experience raising a child from a young age since we have not been parents before. Plus--I am not ready to bring a child home and have them start dating in a year or two! They did not show us any files of single children. We felt like we were being pressured and we basically ended the appointment. Needless to say, we are both very upset. It is so difficult communicating over here. I asked the question to our translator--What percentage of people in the last 3 months have had a successful 3rd appointment? He said 99%. It is stange though. I am not saying that it is not true but something gets lost in translation and you don't know what to believe.

Now, for now--we are going to wait. I think we are going to request a meeting with the head coordinator. I am just not sure--I doubt--that we will get any information. The problem is that this has significantly postponed our trip. It is just not possible to stay a substantial amount of time longer. We planned on 30 to 35 days--who knows now. I hope I have some better information the next time I post. Thanks for everyone's support. It means so much to us.

Today we are going to the WW II memorial. They have a big statue that looks similar to the statue of Liberty. There are so many sculptures in this city.
For Ned: No, they do not have any Anheiser Busch products--believe me Darren asked. Not bad Ukranian beer.
Christine and Darren