On the train (backpost)

Once again, God has paved the way. I cannot begin to fathom why this adoption process has moved so smoothly when others don’t (including our first one!) but we are very thankful.

Our driver picked up our luggage at noon. The apartment service had called and said we could stay until 2pm, so we wandered around a bit before meeting back at the apartment to return the key. We then walked to the SDA. Right as we got to St Michael’s, Nicolai (Nico, our driver) called and said that our papers were ready and he would meet us at the SDA in 10 minutes. Of course we were already basically there, so we waited a few minutes for Nico, then went inside with him to get our papers. We also received from him money for Sasha (our in-region facilitator) and all of our documents to give to Sasha. On the way out we very briefly saw Luda, who I communicate with on a daily basis for RR. We didn’t actually meet, so I am hoping we can meet her on our way back through Kyiv.

We then went to the train station, hoping to make the train that would take us directly to the girls’ city. We were unable to get 2nd class tickets (4 to a compartment) but we were able to get 1st class tickets (2 to a compartment) for a little less than $200 total. Nico had to leave us at the train station to help a couple of other families get their referral papers. He was more than a little concerned that we would not be able to get on the train, but we reassured him that we were fine. After he left, we grabbed some food from inside the ticket hall (to the right of the main hall) and headed out to check on our train. Once the track was posted, we headed to our track and boarded the train. We knew what car number from our tickets (and Nico) so we got on and found our compartment. Now we’re sitting on the train, blogging (in Word) and playing games. I’m debating whether to leave the door open and deal with the smoke, or close it and deal with the heat. ;)

Sasha will pick us up in the morning and from there it’s on to the social worker and orphanage!