Passport and Visa in Hand!!!!

Phew! We can breathe a little easier now because we received Dima's passport and visa this morning!!!!! I purposely got up early in case Dima would take a while to wake up for us to leave at 7:30am.  Thank goodness he is easy to wake up as I only had to tell him once to get ready.  We were ready in plenty of time.  Our driver and Syvette picked us up to take us to Dima's medical exam.  When we got into the van, Syvette cheered and gave us Dima's passport!! Dima and I were very excited to finally see it!  We got to where Dima would get his physical and ended up getting there too early because traffic was not as bad as we expected.  Traffic is crazy here since about 5 million people live here in Kiev.  People here can afford cars and the roads are not condusive to handle that many cars. 

Once the doctor saw us, it was very quick as he asked Dima questions and checked him over.  Once we were done, we received the needed paperwork to go to the US Embassy.  We didn't have our appointment for another hour so we went early to see if they could take us.  They were closing early for their holiday so I was nervous we they wouldn't have time to get his visa prepared today.  Luckily, they allowed us to come in early and I ended up having the same man that I had yesterday.  He took all the paperwork that was needed and said he would have the visa within the hour....I about kissed the guy! Dima and I sat there in the waiting room with two other adopting parents.  One from Colorado and the other from the Boston area.  In that hour we all talked about our experiences of how we met our children, our crazy flights and train rides, and how the children are doing.  It was refreshing to talk to other Americans that are going through the same thing.  You would have thought we all knew each other by how we were talking! Next thing we knew, we were all being called up for our completed visas.  That hour was the fastest hour yet.  This process you hurry up and wait...and wait...and wait! I can't tell you how many hours we've sat and waited for appointments or paperwork.  It definitely taught me patience, but I realized how patience Dima is as well.  He's been absolutely amazing through this whole process! Walking out of the US Embassy after we received his visa, we gave each other the biggest hug! The smile on his face said it all.

Tonight, we are enjoying Lori and Russ's cooking again.  I can't say enough about these guys and how wonderful they have been to me and Dima through this process.  The kids are enjoying their time together speaking their own language because in a couple of days, Dima will be in my situation here with few people speaking his language.  Tomorrow we will try to fill the day to make Saturday come sooner.  We fly out around 1pm and we have a direct flight to JKF.  We will drive home Saturday night into Sunday morning and we will be home!!!!!