March 11

Here is some video of Sasha and Pam playing that gummy thingy game.

Oh, we have picked some names now.

Alexander (Sasha) Paul Langewisch

Jonathan (You Make Me Giggle) Valera Langewisch

Here are some transportation observations that also make us giggle:

Question: How many people can you fit on a marshrutka (a small bus)?

Answer: One more.

Question: Suppose you are driving erratically in rural Ukraine and the police pull you over. Why can’t they ask you to walk down the road a bit in a straight line?

Answer: There are too many potholes.

Question: When should you NEVER eat chocolate?

Answer: After you have used it on an overnight train for an air freshener.

Here's a video of me playing a giggling game with Valera.

Here are a few details about the process, as it has applied to us. Note first: We chatted for 3-4 hours with a woman named Alison from Germany whose adoption story has been FAR more difficult than ours, so please do not attempt to generalize based on what I write (which is only half-truth anyway). In both Kramatorsk and Mariupol we met with attorneys who have excessive staffs of young secretaries whose only jobs are to fetch photocopies or lock and unlock doors. After some very long conversations about how last year's new adoption regulations might be interpreted, the attorney in Mariupol drafted a letter saying we had visited these children and we want to adopt them anyway and we understand the implications of adoption and we are not crazy and so on.

This attorney, fortunately, was good enough to share his approach with the attorney in Kramatorsk, so it will look like we're all on the same page, even though I'm always a page behind. Add the usual certifications and scribblings and stamps and pretty paper presented in plastic sleeves, and the packet was ready to go to the SDA office in Kyiv to be registered.

I needed to go to Kyiv anyway, to initiate paperwork with the U.S. Consulate saying we wish to adopt these children who had these old names and lived at these old addresses and now would have these new names. Furthermore, after the court date, I will be heading back to Concordia, which so graciously let me leave for 2 weeks of school in the middle of the semester. As you can see from the picture, we have just switched from teaching 18-year-olds to teaching 8-year-olds. Anyway, I have to get back to Nebraska, so I needed to give Pam power of attorney to finish the process.

So, to expedite getting the packet of pretty paper to Kyiv and to take care of my consular business, I bought myself a couple of train tickets. I did this Sunday evening for a Tuesday evening trip. I think it's a good thing I didn't wait any longer, as I was only able to get a 3rd class, upper berth ticket. This means there are no doors and the beds are shorter. That wasn't too bad, as the trip was only 12 hours.

I arrived at the consulate at 8:30 am, and was dismayed to see there was a line outside the building with maybe 100 people in it. I asked a couple of people if there was only one line for all purposes, and a Ukrainian woman said that because I was an American citizen (my glasses must give me away), I could go right to the front of the line. Is that embarrassing or what. After all night in 3rd class, the ugly American cuts in line.

I heard some interesting stories while in the waiting area. One American woman was there with her Ukrainian husband of 5 years. He had been deported, and she had exhausted all her resources trying to sort out why. She was clearly frustrated. After some checking, it was not easy for the U.S. Consulate employee to inform her that her husband had entered the U.S. illegally through Canada. She did not know this when she married him. Boy was she mad at him then.

I gave the packet to Dennis, a friend of Masha's who submitted it, and we hope it will be ready Friday. Then Dennis will fax the approval back to Kramatorsk. We have a court appointment at noon on Friday. The judge is okay with a faxed version, but initial reports are that the persecutor (oops, prosecutor), who represents the state, is not. In that case we will have to wait until Monday.

I bought some boy toys and picked up Pam's ratty old pants from the tailor and visited my cooperating professor at Kyiv Polytechnic University and then traveled 2nd class back to Kramatorsk. One of my cabin mates was a very sharp Ukrainian marketing professional for a German machining company. We chatted for several hours about important stuff like ... world peace. I had a chocolate bar with me, just in case, but I didn't need it.

Court is a big deal. If there's any schlip up, this could change everything. So please pray for this--we know you have been, as we have indeed been blessed at every step.