Picture: A group of Anna's baby friends in an outdoor playpen at the orphanage in Odessa.

Jonathan, Elizabeth and I arrived in Kiev on Tuesday, July 18, 2000. We met with Mrs. Kunko at the National Adoption Center on Wednesday, July 19th. We were given a referral to an orphanage in Pryluky in the Chernihiv region (a 3 hour drive by car from Kiev). On Thursday, July 20th we visited one child at that orphanage. I chose to not accept this referral, but to keep looking. We met with the NAC in Kiev again on Friday, July 21st and accepted a referral to an orphanage in Odessa (an 11 hour overnite train ride from Kiev). My husband arrived on Sunday, July 23rd. My husband and I, Jonanthan, Elizabeth, and our facilitator/interpreter, Oles, took the overnite train to Odessa that evening.

We were unable to get coach tickets for the train and very happily had to take first class tickets. We had only 2 people to a compartment, it was air conditioned, and while the bathrooms were not like home - they were clean! The 11 hour ride was quite enjoyable!

Picture: Anna with 2 of her caregivers on the day that we said good-bye at the orphanage.

We arrived in Odessa on the morning of Monday, July 24th. Our first stop was the orphanage. We spent all morning and afternoon there. Much of the time was spent waiting for the director of the orphange to be available to us. We met four children over the course of the day. By the end of the day I was feeling quite discouraged. Either the children had medical conditions we did not feel equipped to handle or there was just absolutely no connection for us with that child. We left the orphanage and spent some time praying with our interpreter. I cannot express to you how encouraging and helpful Oles was to us at these times. He is really a wonderful person! I was so tired I could hardly face the prospect of going through the process of getting a referral to another orphanage. And we truly believed there was a child there in Odessa for us. An hour later we returned to the orphanage believing for a miracle. As the caregiver brought Anna in to meet us, both my husband and I looked at each other and knew before we even held her that she was our child!

Picture: Oles, our wonderful facilitator; myself; Natasha, who was gracious enough to share her home with us and feed us absolutely fabulous meals; Anna, our beautiful baby girl; and the director of the orphanage. This was our final good-bye just hours before our train left for Kiev.

The following two days were filled with running around from office to office obtaining necessary paperwork and stamps. We met with the judge informally on Wednesday, July 26th so that she would be able to allow Mike to return to Kiev that day. He needed to be at the U.S.Embassy on Thursday to complete his portion of the paperwork (They are closed on Fridays). His plane was scheduled to leave on Saturday, July 29. Mike returned to Kiev by train on the evening of July 26th. Thursday, July 27th, Oles, Jonathan, Elizabeth and I raced to the clock to get all the paperwork in order for our scheduled court date. By afternoon we were in court and Anna was made officially ours!

Picture: There were 6 Italian couples adopting children from our orphanage the week we were there. Five of the mothers and I posed for this picture with our new children.

Friday, July 28th, was a day that lives in my memory as a blur. From early morning until minutes before our train left Kiev at 8:30 p.m., we were on the move. We were able to get Anna's birth certificate and passport, spend an hour at the orphanage saying our good-byes and leave for Kiev yet that night. I don't know that I have ever run that far that fast with a baby in my arms! We made the train with 2-3 minutes to spare! Anna was ours and we were on the first leg of our journey HOME!