11-7-2004

I haven't sent any general emails because nothing much has changed in my life.  I see the boys during the week.  On weekends, I return to Kiev.

I am currently staying in an apartment just one block away from the "statue of Independence".  This is the true heart of Kiev.   Yesterday was the site of a major demonstration in favor of the opposition candidate.   They were giving out flags and of course I took one.   I now have a part of Ukraine history, which I will give to my kids!   Maybe you folks saw the demonstration.  Estimates are that almost one million people jammed the square, that is if I understand Ukrainian news broadcasts.

Suffice it to say, there were a lot of people.   Of course, standing up that long listening to Ukrainian speeches and Ukrainian music isn't my idea of a blast.  Even still, it was something to do in an otherwise non descript boring weekend!

You might say, how can you be bored in a large city like Kiev.   Well...  it isn't exactly fun to go wandering by yourself in a city where no sign is readable, most people have absolutely no idea what you are saying and I "did" the historic stuff last weekend.

I don't have any real need to go shopping here as the kids aren't with me.  I am certainly in the most expensive part of town.   Yesterday, I ate lunch at the mall food court.  I ate at their equivalent of KFC and Baskins Robbins.   (It even said Baskins Robbins on the sign, in Ukrainian).  

Ukraine seems to have taken to heart all American culture, at least here in the ritzy part of Kiev.   I was watching "Who wants to be a Millionaire" on TV last night and took pictures of the TV screen, just to give you guys laughs as to what the show looks like in Ukrainian.   Afterwards, I saw rerun episodes of "Survivor".  

I don't know if this country is adopting US culture too quickly and not selectively enough!  

One of the interesting side notes of my observation of Ukrainians is that few if any of them wear glasses.   Have you noticed how many of us Americans have bad eyes?  Nowadays, its harder to tell, since many of us wear contacts.   But I don't see any evidence of contacts being prevalent here.   None of the kids in the orphanage wore glasses.   Very few people in Kiev seem to.   Just curious, maybe they have better eyesight.   I can't believe its a cost thing, since there are so many dental offices around here and even in the Kaniv village.

The weather here has been unusually warm, I'm told.   That being said, it is starting to get colder.   I am hoping to be out of here before the winter really sets in.  I haven't seen snow or ice here, nor do I want to!   I hate to see how people and especially traffic gets along in the winter.

For those of you who don't know, this is the current projected timeline for the following week:   All eyes will be watching my "court hearing" 9 AM Tuesday.   I will be in Kiev tomorrow, Monday because we need our approval letter from the NAC.  The NAC only issues approval letters on Monday & Wednesday.  I know I said Wed & Fri before, but I screwed up.   And then, they only issue these letters after 4 PM.  So Sveta will have to sit at the NAC from about 3 PM on, hoping and praying that she gets the letter, rather than having the internat paperwork "rejected".   She tells me that a little birdie told her the paperwork would be ok.  But, life here is nothing if not unpredictable. 

Assuming we get the NAC letter tomorrow, we will drive  VERY EARLY to Kaniv Tuesday, for the all exciting court hearing 9 AM.   Now, the suspense begins.  The judge has given us a good indication... don't ask how.......  that he will grant us "full waiver" of the 30 day waiting period.   But the judge is not the only individual to weigh in on this weighty matter.  The "prosecutor" (lawyer) must also agree that reasonable circumstances exist to waive the 30 days.

We have a letter from the orphanage doctor, with a copy of Tim's sonogram which proofs he is missing a kidney .... and is on deaths doorstep if he is not rushed to the US to get more tests to find that darn missing kidney!   We didn't even bring up Kyle's heart murmur... and the heart will go beep beep if we tell Kyle his 30 days aren't being waived.

So, lets pretend that it is now 10 AM Tuesday and we have received a full waiver.   We now need to drive 60 kilometers to the village of birth and get a revised birth certificate.   We then need to get this notarized and apostilled.   We also need to apply for and get Ukrainian passports, somewhere in Kiev.   This procedure will take most of Wednesday and Thursday?   On Thursday, I need to get the kids to see the official doctor who pronounces them fit, despite the above mentioned "near fatal" kidney and heart problems....

Finally, on Friday, we hopefully will go to the American Embassy to apply for visas and complete the immigrant paperwork which will allow me to bring the kids to America this weekend (Saturday or Sunday), provided Aerosvit can accommodate us.

Plan B:

The judge decides the kids need to spend another 30 days in Ukraine, counting from the first day after the court hearing.   In that case, we can complete all of the above mentioned paperwork excepting that requiring the actual presence of the children.  This is called a "partial waiver" and of course, you appreciate the judge a lot less for this.  (I would prefer to really appreciate this judge)!

If this circumstance becomes reality, I will return to Kiev each weekend and perhaps take sometime to see the rest of Ukraine, maybe a side trip to Crimea, etc.   Still not my idea of a fun vacation, but Kaniv & Kiev for the next 30 days will drive me up a wall.   I don't think its time or cost effective to return to the US, but ask me again after Tuesday.

I've already started thinking about where I go from here.   I like these kids and I have seen other kids I like as well.   I have discussed the possibility of more than two kids many times.   Seeing this process and meeting other children, the likelihood is, two is not enough.   Still, I promise I will come home and spend time with these two and see how it goes, before making any definite commitments on taking more.  Even still, I plan on checking out some other boys while I am here. 

You guys always said I was crazy, you just didn't know How crazy!  I always said, if you are going to do something, do it in a big way.  I am very happy I got two boys this time, one boy would certainly not have been a good idea.   Kyle and Tim together will have it much easier than either would have had it alone.

When I get them to the point where we can have a meaningful discussion in English (4 to 6 months) I plan to discuss this with them to see what they think about having a non related brother (or brothers!)

I know more about the children's mom.  Apparently Kyle and Tim have another brother or sister.  Nobody knows more than that.  There is no (easily obtainable) record about this other child.   I suspect that's not true, cause I have a feeling somebody knows everything about everything that goes on in this country.   The mother is probably still alive and (per Sveta) probably out there still making babies.   Which of course means that there may be even more than one brother or sister out there.

Kyle and Tim were left with a man (born in 1932...making him 72 yrs old for those of you poor in math skills).   This man is apparently unrelated, but was known to Kyle as Uncle Victor.   The man was good to the kids, at least as related by Kyle.  This old man I guess decided he didn't want to take care of the kids any more so he called in the authorities.

I met with Kyle and Tim's teachers.   Everybody at the internat has nothing but good things to say about these kids.  They seem bright, studious and just about normal in every way.  

I cant think of much more to say in this email.   If any of you want to call me on my cell, please do so.  It is hard to be out of touch with so many of you.  Also, would appreciate emails from you... bgoldfield@tspartnersinc.com.

Its hard to know how many people are actually reading these little "novels"  I kind of get the feeling I am writing these to myself?     Interesting to find out how widespread is the readership!

By the way, this morning I saw a documentary filmed by Gary Moore, (you know, the political filmmaker).   Anyhow, somebody needs to go out and shoot that guy!  I definitely don't think it is helpful to our American image that we have a documentary on TV for 1 hour on Sunday (10 AM) in Ukraine talking about how awful our prison system is, that there are 900 prisoners in a small town in California that are being held without conviction or trial and that our trial system only works for rich people.   I am sure he is twisting something around.  I can't believe that we have 900 people in a small town in California imprisoned for no good reason.  

What he is saying is that they are being "railroaded"  forced to take sentences arranged by the public defender and the judge with no opportunity for public trial.   The biggest problem with this, is that foreigners only see a negative side of this situation and extrapolate this to our entire criminal justice system!

Give me the worst of our prison system ... compared to other countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or even here in the Ukraine.