Day 42 - Passport in hand!

Yep, got the passport! All done here but the crying, which will be prolonged into tommorow. There were no train tickets tonight so we will be leaving Saturday night. Got the first-class cabins too! Ha ha! The curse has been broken and I'll get to ride in Volf family style at last!

Rimma was officially signed out and released today after an act of God! I was freaking out around 2pm today. Me, my facilitator, Roman the orphanage lawyer and "Big Nick" met in the lawyers office to sign the release paperwork. "Big Nick" balked when he discovered that I was asked to sign for Heidi. He refused unless she too was present or I had an original power of attorney. It looked like I would have to call Heidi and tell her to book a flight! A faxed POA wouldn't work for them either.

It was resloved when Roman pulled out the Ukrainian statute and read it to him. It stated that the parent or parents had to be present to take the child out of the orphanage. Roman quckly opened the Word document, erased Heidi's name from the document along with her signature line and we all resigned it. This all took and hour and was the longest hour in my life! We had to make a quick trip to the inspector's office to have it restamped by her, a process Roman had already taken care of on the previous voided document.

So, we will arrive in Kiev Sunday morning, go to church with Karen and stay at her apartment. Monday's embassy visit and medical has already been scheduled for us by our facilitator there. We will fly out on Wednesday barring any more unforeseen obstacles. I may not have internet or I may too busy to blog and if so, I'll ask Heidi to keep you informed. Thank you so much for the prayers, we could feel them!