Final Trip, Day 2

We slept well last night, our first night in Kremenchuk.  We’re staying at hotel for this final trip, which has a restaurant (and breakfast is included in the stay), so we woke groggily at 8:30AM (Kremenchuk time…8 hours ahead of Texas time) and got ready for the first day of the final paper chase.

 

Our hotel is directly across from Lenin Square in Kremenchuk.

We went to the hotel café for breakfast, and were surprised to see how much food came with the various options.  We could select from three options, each with a variety of items we would not normally find on a breakfast menu in the US.  Things like caviar and cabbage salad (cole slaw).  We opted for option 1, which included fried eggs and bacon, among other things.  I don’t care for eggs much, so I gave mine to Matt (who said they were superb).  I like my bacon crispy, and this bacon was pretty much raw.  I asked them to cook it more (using Google translate), and the waitress seemed really confused.  Either they don’t eat crispy bacon here or Google translate told her something other than what I intended.  Needless to say, the cook attempted to cook the bacon again, but it still wasn’t really cooked when the waitress delivered it.  Oh well.  I purchased a Snickers bar on our way out instead.

 

That’s bread, butter, cheese, and red caviar that came with breakfast Option 1. 

 

At 10:15, our favorite driver, Sasha, came to pick us up, along with our translator (our facilitator’s husband), Denis, so we could start on the required first steps on the final journey toward bringing our boys home.

 

 

The first step was to get both boys new birth certificates, listing us as their parents.  We stopped at the Kremenchuk City Hall to get Cooper’s birth certificate (he was born in Kremenchuk), but had to wait a few hours because the chief was gone (and only the chief is authorized to make these changes). 

City Hall décor. 

 

Shortly before 2PM, Cooper’s new birth certificate was ready, so we headed off to Poltava, Conner’s birth city, to get his new birth certificate.

 

Matt and I snoozed during the 1.5 hour drive to Poltava.  Our bodies don’t yet know what time it is!  The process was much faster in Poltava, and after waiting in the car for about an hour, Conner had a new birth certificate, too.  Yippee.

 

Then it was off to the tax office in Poltava to apply for passports for both boys, which only took another hour or so.  Then back to Kremenchuk where we ate yummy brick oven pizza for dinner.

 

Now we’re back in our hotel room.  We didn’t get to see the boys today since we were gone all day, but we’re hoping tomorrow will allow us time to visit them.  (We are only allowed to stop by the orphanage during set visiting hours.)  Our translator needs us to do more paperwork at 9:30AM, which we’re not sure how long will take, but we’re sure hoping to head over to the orphanage after that.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

PS  Selah slept through the night last night and Sawyer no longer has fever.  Hallelujah!  Thanks so much for praying for all of us and supporting and encouraging us.  We’re so grateful for you!