Coming Home!

Tuesday night, I had trouble sleeping. Many dreams about getting in line to buy train tickets, only to discover I was in line at a bank. I would run to the train station, get in another line, only to find that this line was for a bus. I would take the bus, and it would not take me to the train station, but somewhere in Donetsk. At this point, I would be without phone or knowledge of where I was.

We got up early. I was in a hurry, so I went over to the train station (not the bank). What could I do? Nothing. I headed back to the hotel, and there was Olga, coming toward the train station. We went in. Did they have more berths today? Nothing yet, but if we put down some money (the whole fare), the ticket seller would watch for more available berths.

There were several things to do, and they would be quick (said Olga), so I went with her in a taxi while Eileen entertained the kids. [Eileen insert here what happened with the girls.] The first place, we both went in. We waited and waited. Olga went in, did her talking, came out with papers. I sat. The next place, Olga said I could wait in the car. So I waited. Another half hour went by. Finally the third place. Again, I should just wait in the car. Much more waiting. And then we had the passports. It was 11:30. We would never have made all the appointments Tuesday afternoon. And I really didn’t need to go to any of these meetings.

Engrish aside: in the glamorous part of downtown, an ad for something expensive, a watch I think. The ad said, “A toutch of elegance.” Very prominent, very funny. Our hotel had the guide book for behavior in the hotel, laundry rates, etc. trying to understand the page on unacceptable behavior, loud noises, paying for damages, was impossible. Like a legal document, except it really made no sense. Well, I guess exactly like a legal document.

Checkout time at the hotel was 12:00, so we dashed back. First, were there enough berths on the train. And finally, some good news. We got a whole coupe and two other berths. We had a ride to Kiev that night, and a place to sleep. The train would leave at 7:40, so what would we do for the next 7 hours? For lunch, we ate at Potato House, which is part of the family that Chelentano’s Pizza is part of, so my discount card would be accepted. We were told that Potato House in Kiev was good, and it certainly was a step up from Chelentano’s. After lunch, Olga had more translation work to do, and faxes to send, so she and Tanya took off. Eileen and I took the girls shopping in the outdoor malls just by the train station. We bought socks and shoes for the airplane. Then we went back to Potato House, and got something hot to drink. Hot cocoa for fifty cents really hits the spot. Sasha and Nastiya were hungry, again, so I started feeding them sunflower seeds. After several hundred, Sasha and I took a walk.

We went through the train station. We watched a train pull out, and felt the ground shake. We helped some old ladies climb up from the track level to the boarding level. We gave some coins to some beggars. Like many places, there were stairs leading to underground tunnels, so you don’t have to cross a street or walk over tracks or some other really good reason. In many of these places, there are a pair of flat tracks, a couple of inches wide, about 18 inches apart, that go down the stairs. I finally saw that these could be for baby buggies. But here, they were made of marble, and they had snow on them, and Sasha was able to slide down these without getting hurt. I watched her do this a dozen times, and then we went back to the restaurant.

Olga and Tanya came back, and we had dinner. It was just easier not to move. I had ribs and a baked potato for dinner. These were excellent ribs. Lots of meat, very little fat. After dinner, Olga helped Eileen fill out documents for the visas, until it was finally time to get our bags. We lugged them into the train station, so we could find out what track to board on. It took another 15 minutes to find out this information. And then, the loud music started. You would think that if you were seeing a loved one off for a long period of time, and they were just about to get on a train that would take them away from you, that you would want to say something meaningful, tender, golden promises. The train station thought otherwise. Someone thought that everyone boarding a train should swell with pride at the great achievements of some political party. So we heard loud, Ukrainian music. Finally, the announcement came for our track. We carried our luggage outside, and waited. The train was slowly pulling in. Where was our wagon? Another hike down the platform, in the snow which had been falling all afternoon. It was cold. We pulled a lot of luggage into our coupe.

This train was not quite as good as the one from Slovyansk. Older, less comfortable. But there was something special about this trip. There were balloons in the wagon. There was free tea in the evening. It must have been an anniversary. We made the beds, got the girls into pajamas, had a snack, and watched outside as best we could, which was very little since it was dark. Tanya and Olga had the two other berths in another wagon. The cars were hot. I had a thermometer: 80 degrees. Shake and bake is an appropriate phrase for the night train. I tried opening a window in the aisle. I even used the curtain to direct cold air into our coupe. The wagon matron discouraged me from continuing this activity. Tanya came over with a bottle of champagne we bought earlier in the day. Sasha and Nastiya had non-alcoholic champagne. Another night of difficult sleep: harsh screeching of brakes, banging as the train stopped or started. Do you open the door to allow some circulation of air? Or do you close the door so all your worldly possessions are safe, including that stupid money belt?

At 7 am, the king of the train decided we should all enjoy more patriotic music. At least the coupes had volume control. What is the deal with loud music in this country? Why must every restaurant, store, public building, and park have loud music and televisions? Do they have these even in the libraries? OK, time to get the blood pressure under control. We put away all our sleeping gear (pads, sheets, pillow cases), and got ready for the day. The sun was shining. We were met by Sasha the driver. We managed to get all of our luggage and all 7 people into his car. Amazing. It was 8:45. What could we get done today?

Our first stop was the embassy. There was a long line of people, waiting to get in. Since we were American citizens, we moved to the front of the line. A short wait, and we were inside. We had to pass through security as tight as any airport. Then we went to the department that handles immigration and adoption. Although there were a number of people waiting, we were helped very quickly. Eileen started doing paper work, and I took the girls to a waiting room with toys, although the toys were more for toddlers. We had just started to play store, when Eileen came in. She had good news and bad news. The bad news: One necessary document needed translation, and the embassy would be closed on Friday. The good news: if we could bring back all the needed paper work by 3 PM, they might be able to complete all the work for the visas that day. Was this possible? We would try.

Off to some medical facility for exams. We got to the building, and found we did not have Tanya’s passport. This was bad. This was really bad. What happened? It was possible that her passport was still at the embassy, since it had been pulled aside for special treatment. After all, Tanya is special. Olga said the medical work could be done, because they should be able to start with just a fax of the passport. Assuming it was still at the embassy. So the girls get X-rayed, and blood drawn, and vaccinations. Olga never said, but I saw a black and white paper with passport information on it, and I assumed that the passport was still at the embassy. Which turned out to be true. The medical work was done, but we could not get Tanya’s medical papers until we had her passport. So Tanya and I and Olga got in the car, and zipped back to the embassy. It turned out that the lady who was doing our visa work was an old friend of Olga’s, so after we got the passport, the two chatted for what felt like a long time. Come on, don’t we have a tight schedule to keep? We got back in the car, but instead of going to the medical facility, we went to Olga’s house, I presume. She wanted to translate the final document. Tanya and I sat in the car, and Tanya slept. I sat. I’m getting good at it. After getting a lot of practice at sitting, Olga had the document done, and we went back to the medical buildings. We went inside, and waited. And waited some more. I got tired of waiting, so I took Sasha and Nastiya outside, to play in the snow. At about 2:50, Olga had the last paper work. We had all the pieces, could we get to the embassy in time?

The traffic was not bad. Sasha is a fast driver. Although we did not make it by 3 PM, it was not too far off. Olga told us that we had to go knock on a window, and let those inside know that we were adopting. There was no window. OK, there was a window, but it was for couriers. We knocked on the heavy metal door. We could see inside that some people were going through the security, so we waited. They let us in. Did we have an appointment? No, but we had the phone number of the woman who was doing our processing, and she told us we could come back. After a phone call, we were allowed in. The long talk Olga had earlier may have helped a lot. It’s good to know people inside. Once again, back to the adoption windows. This time, there was only one man from Ireland, who was adopting 3 boys from the west side of Ukraine. We submitted our papers, and then had to wait. Again, Sasha and Nastiya had troubles sitting, so I took them back to the larger waiting room, and we played store. After a while, we were all called back to the processing room. Eileen and I had to raise our hands, pledge to take care of the girls, we signed some papers, and some more papers, and then we had the visas. We were done with all of the paper work. The girls were ours, and they could come into the country.

Now it was time to go to our place for the night. We had help from our friend Becky. She had an acquaintance who had an apartment in downtown Kiev. We met the landlord there. The apartment was beautiful. But it had one bed. And it had a couch. OK, we needed to make this work, and we did not want to spend time looking for a cheaper hotel, so we took it. We said goodbye to Olga, and we paid Sasha in advance for taking us to the airport. After all, he could fit us all into one car. Then we got on the phone to try to find tickets home. And the big question was, could we do it Friday morning? Eileen was in the middle of the call, when the phone died. No more minutes left. Fortunately, I had another card, and we quickly put time on the phone. She called back, and we had 5 seats for America on Friday morning. That was only 12 hours away. Thanks to everyone for praying. After several delays, and what looked like even more delays, everything came together at the end.

If there are no problems, we should be back in Denver at 3:20 on Friday afternoon. The flight we got is a direct flight from Germany, so we have to go through immigration at DIA. We are coming home!

The five Christoffersons.