The Great Paper Chase

Today the 10 day wait was OFFICIALLY over and Vi' became ours.....legally and forever-more!

Of course, that meant it was time to get a nice healthy dose of some good-old-fashioned bureaucracy! Fun!

Here is a basic run down of the Great Paper Chase Day. Prepare to feel tired after reading.

0700- Go outside to meet our ride as instructed. Wait in the snow. Try not to freeze to death.

0710- Ride arrives! Weeeeee!

0900- Arrive in the town of Vi's birth. Sit outside of "administration building" while our facilitation team-member, Sveta, goes inside to do something.

0945- Sveta comes back out. Informs us there is "no internet", we are told to "wait for it to come back, maybe some hours." ???????

1014- Sveta goes back inside, comes out and says we are to wait "some one hour." We elect to go to a cafe, hoping for sustenance and bathrooms. There is only one, and it is not bathrooms. We are sad.

1032- We order hot chocolate and chocolate cake, because it is my friend Lisa's Birthday (and she is here with me now instead of Jane. We wish you were here too Jane!) We are served what appears to be microwaved chocolate pudding.....with whipped cream on top. We remain thirsty, but the pudding and cake is still good even if it made us look like fat, greedy Americans.

1100- We take advantage of the delay and wander about town, taking photographs of buildings, statues, and random people. The random people don't appreciate us as much as the buildings and statues. Sveta and our driver, Lida, do not come with us. They think we are also very strange. Note: Lisa's pictures are much better than mine, these are taken with my phone and she has a fancy Nikon. But I am too tired to upload them. So there.

1136- Return to admin building. Still no internet. We are told "they will type old-fashioned way." What a good idea! How about we go back in time and do that two hours ago! Dang it, I forgot my time machine....So we wander out to find a bathroom in the meantime. We find them, and Lisa is tempted to take a picture, but refrains. Be grateful. We opt for crest and flag pictures instead.

We learn this town is 2500 years old. We are duly impressed. Take more photos. But on Lisa's camera, so you can't see them. Sorry.

1220-I go inside the building at long last with Sveta. Admin Lady is trying to size the new birth certificate to fit on to the template properly, and this is causing a great deal of grief. She is measuring and cutting, measuring and cutting, printing and re-printing, and holding it up to the light to see if the words will line up properly on the birth certificate paper. I am told it is "old program with new certificate, no good!" But she keeps working at it, and I am so grateful.

                                        

It's mildly entertaining to watch, too. And it was worth it all for this photo:

(I might need to turn this in to an adoption t-shirt, because there have been many times on this 9 month journey that I have felt much like that frog.)

1252- I HAVE HER NEW BIRTH CERTIFICATE IN MY HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!

1256- On our way back to the big city. Eat peanut butter and pretzels and fall asleep.

1510- Take Sveta to Hotapyic (this is not a novelty story, it is in fact the name of all the Notary's here and notaries are really more like lawyers.....it's all very complicated.) Wait outside and eat a chocolate bar.

1532- Arrive and Vi's orphanage. No one looks please to see us. They tell is Vi is "sleeping." We wait about 20 minutes. Then they tell us she is "eating", we wait some more. Our driver gets annoyed and starts tell people in the office off in Russian. We try to blend in the tree in the foyer. Take advantage of the toilet situation. Wait some more.

1600- Get Vi. She is practically squealing with delight walking to the car. She is pleased as punch to sit on my lap, and keeps grabbing my arms to make me hug her tighter. Her crazy-pigtail whips me in the face every 5 seconds. I couldn't be happier! There is an "orphanage escort" who must also ride with us. She does not seem happy in the slightest to be coming along, but I guess its protocol or something. The car is very cramped now.

1615- Drive to some building. Meet back with Sveta. There is more arguing in Russian. This is about a "new number" (like our social security number), and how they don't want to give her one till tomorrow. Sveta calls in the big guns, directly phoning some head administration person, who tells these other ladies to give us a new number. They comply. I *heart* Sveta.

1710- Arrive at passport office. Vi talks to every person she sees and asks them what their name is and what they are doing. She is beginning to come a little unglued from being out of the orphanage, and giggles like a maniac, falls down repeatedly, and manages to win over the front desk lady who gives her a donut.

1745- Vi's passport photo is taken!! Only takes 4 tries, she is so sweet and lovely, and tells them they should take more pictures and can she please play with the camera? They tell her no.

1800- Drive to a different place, sort of like Wolf Camera? Get a photo taken for her "visa". Not totally sure why they couldn't do this at the passport office. Too tired to really care though. Mostly focused on trying to keep her from falling over and smashing all the picture frames and other glass ornaments. Not the best place for a 5 year old who never leaves an orphanage to be at 6 o'clock at night.

1824- DONE! Visa photo is good, the driver and orphanage escort will take Vi back to the orphanage from there and we will walk back to the hotel (we are very close to our hotel at this point, and grateful not to have to ride all the way to the orphanage and back, because we are starving and in great need of toilet facilities again.)

1900- Dinner. Pizza. Coca-cola. Yum. We are so tired and full, we pay for our food and leave, forgetting to wait for the nice young man who was boxing up our leftovers. We expect to regret this tomorrow.

And now, Lisa is asleep on the couch and I am about to face-plant on the computer if I keep typing. It was a productive and eventful day, but one I am glad to have behind us! Hopefully the passport will be ready in a few days and we can head to the capital and then.....HOME!!!