It's a girl!

RACHEL ALICE USACHEV

Born on 12/7/1997
Became our daughter on 12/6/2007

Yes, our dear friends, we had a successful court session yesterday, which was a miracle in itself considering all the issues we were having. We wouldn’t be able to do it without your thoughts and prayers, so we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

It was a double special day for Raisa since she turned 10 today – what a great way to celebrate a birthday! We decided to change her name so that it’s easier to spell and pronounce it in English. Of course, she’ll still be Raya or Raisa at home, the same way Alex and Victoria have their Russian nicknames we always call them.

But let me start from the beginning. We started our day yesterday by going to the train station to pick up another paper from SDA. The most reliable way to send a package in Ukraine is by train. It’s very easy: pick a train that goes to the destination you need, give your package to the train attendant along with the fee (the ongoing rate is 10 grivna, though once we were charged 20), and call the person who’s supposed to receive your package with the train number and the time of arrival so that he/she can pick it up. Of course, this system is unofficial, but very dependable.

After the train station we went to the airport to change my ticket. Our original return tickets were for December 7th, and we planned for Oleg to fly home on that date and for me to change my ticket and stay in Odessa to finish the paperwork. When we found out that the court session is on December 6th, we were very relieved that Oleg can go home. I planned to get the final court decree after the 10 days mandatory wait on December 17th, get a new birth certificate and passport in a couple of days, be in Kiev on December 19th, have a medical for Raisa, get a visa at the Embassy and fly home on December 21st. We knew that getting passport can take as long as 10 days if not more, but we were promised our passport will be ready by the 19th. So yesterday morning we paid the penalty fee of $150 and changed my ticket from December 7th to December 21st. Then we went to the passport office to fill out some paperwork. And found out that the source, who promised to get us a passport in a couple of days, can’t fulfill his obligations. That was not a good news. But off we went as it was a time for the court session.

Our court session was at 12:30. I didn’t expect it to start promptly, as I read on many other adoption blogs how everybody is late in Ukraine. However, we were called in at 12:45, just 15 minutes late. But the inspector of the region wasn’t there, so the judge told us to get her and come back at 2:00. We went to get the inspector, and our court session finally started at 2:30. The judge’s room was very small, totally unlike our courtrooms in the States. Both Oleg and I were asked to stand, say our names, dates of birth, citizenship and address. Then inspector of the region and Raya’s legal guardian (our friend Lena) were asked to say their opinions in the matter, and after a couple of minutes we were done! The judge never smiled, even after the session, but I guess it’s normal for Ukraine.

After the court we didn’t have time to celebrate as we needed to go to a couple of more places to find out whether or not we’ll be able to finish the paperwork by the 19th. It was very important because the US Embassy closes for the holidays after December 21st, and if we don’t have the passport by then, we won’t be able to get an American Visa for Raisa until beginning of January. So we went to the birth certificate office and another office only to find out that it is indeed impossible to finish the paperwork before the holidays. And we made the decision to fly home for both of us. By this time it’s 6:00 pm, the rush hour traffic is bumper to bumper, we need to go to the airport again to change my ticket back to the 7th, and make it to the train station by 10:30 pm to take the train to Kiev. It took us a long time to find a taxi, but we made it to the airport, changed my ticket back to the original December 7th for another $150, raced to our apartment, packed in 15 minutes, and made it to the train station in a nick of time. Luckily we bought the whole cabin (4 bunks) for Oleg ahead of time, so I didn’t have to buy another ticket for myself.

The train tickets are a whole different story. The trains are the main way of transportation between different parts of Ukraine. They are always on time, and if the arrival time is 8:48, the train will definitely arrive at 8:48. But the tickets are often sold out. It’s hard to understand because if there is a demand for more tickets, why is it so hard to create additional routes? I guess they still operate in a soviet mode. So even several days before the departure we were told that there are no tickets available. But a little envelope always works a magic, so we had our tickets with no problems :)

The train was even better than the last time. It was a newer model, very clean, and we actually enjoyed our trip!

We arrived to Kiev at 7:30 in the morning today and went to the US Embassy. There are 2 adoption documents that must be signed by both parents in person under oath, so Oleg needed to sign these papers because he won’t be coming back. There was a big line in front of the Embassy, but our American passports worked in our favor and we were allowed to go in immediately. For those of you waiting to go, make sure you give all your bags (including purse) to your facilitator before going in. You can’t take anything with you except for the passports and the paperwork. But you can leave your belongings in a special room for just 10 grivna :)

All workers we saw at the Embassy were Ukrainians, but they were speaking English. We showed our paperwork to a very nice woman, and she called the Consul to administer the oath. The Consul was of course American, and as soon as we saw his genuine American smile, our hearts melted! It was so nice to see a friendly face! We quickly signed the papers and left. We saw another American couple there, Valerie and Richard, who also had a court date yesterday in a different region, and were flying home. But Valerie is coming back after the 10 days wait as in their region it’s possible to get the passport by the 18th.

And finally we boarded the Aerosvit flight and flew back to New York. Even though we were disappointed not to get Raya home in time for the holidays, we were very happy to finally go home! I’ll come back by myself to get Raisa after the holidays, so all of us will be together very soon!