A much needed day

We arrived in Lugans'k on time and Melissa actually got some sleep.  I managed to work until we lost cell service without getting motion sick... apparently 2 dramamine work well though I fell asleep shortly after losing signal.

From there the plans all went out the window... but we've come to expect that on this trip.  First thing was that the inspector had not responded to S&D's separation and we can't ask for court until then.  We were surprised to find the paperwork already approved this morning.  This of course comes with very mixed emotions.  Now this does NOT make S&D separated... that doesn't happen until court actually happens but we have approval to do so.  In fact if/when we adopt one or both of the other two we have to shred this paper and get a new one drawn up.  This document is only good if we only go to court to get Dennis... essentially all our paperwork is done for that and we will file for a court date for him on Friday as our backup plan to leave that option open -- one of those things if we don't start now it won't be an option later.  You have to pick a name for him when you file paperwork... Dennis Robert Macy.

We ate and went over to the orphanage at 2p.  We happened to see Snezhana and who we believe to be her gma in the main room.  "Not" boyfriend came in at the same time and wasn't so happy to see us.  Snezhana and gma moved quickly to another room.  We were told Dennis was sleeping and to come back at 3p.

It took until a little after 3:30p until all the notary stuff was done.  I actually spent a lot of the time outside by myself praying and humming hymns... I suspect I was mistaken for one of the many that are drunk by noon in this town.  Our facilitator had to do some stuff at the inspector so Melissa and I went to wait at the orphanage.  As a side note, we got a call that the "vote" got pushed back to the 23rd.

Ok so at this point you are asking why this is titled a much needed day...

As Melissa and I were standing there without a facilitator, I saw Snezhana through the glass doors and waved as friendly, without looking like a crazy person, as I could.  She waved back, singled "1 minute", thought again, and just came right out the doors and gave Melissa a HUGE hug and then me.  This was the real genuine Snezhana back and it choked me up.  We spent a great next 3.5hrs with our girl back with humor, chatting, and Melissa got several spontaneous hugs.

The only thing that came up about the adoption -- we won't bring it up -- was her saying her gma had come today and was very upset at her for letting Dennis go -- at least today Dennis didn't come to us like Pig Pen as he did the first day.  Her gma has visited her 8 times in 3yrs and two of those in the last week -- no pressure there.  Sounds like her aunt showed up too to tag team.

I can tell you, her saying no is hard and heartbreaking but her distancing herself from us the last 2 of the 4 days we were there has been killing me.  I was afraid we were going to have missed out on the rest of our time with her.

We are going to call her each day we are with Y&V so she can talk with them.  They don't get to talk and apparently even when she saw V at camp this summer people were telling V they weren't sisters.  We made plans to be with her and Dennis the last two days of our trip here and hopefully finally get her clothes/shoes that fit.  Also started laying out ways to communicate... I think we've decided that I will leave a little money for postage, we will buy a bunch of pre-paid cell cards and SMS her the numbers when she needs them, and she can SMS us to call her in addition to us calling her.