Nov. 10, Nicky says "Goodbye Berdyansk!"

What a day!! I have to start with what Olas did last night. He searched out a cab that would take us to Zaporozhye, back to Berdyansk, and then a final trip to Zaporozhye. The cab had to be reliable and big for all us and our luggage. Here is the proposed itinerary: (keep in mind that it normally takes 2 ½-3 hours to get to Zaporozhye!) Olas and I would embark on this journey at 6 am to go to the Birth Certificate (BC) lady in Zaporozhye to get her written approval to make a new BC for Nicky. Go Berdyansk to court house, vital statistics and get Nicky out of the orphanage in time to make a 2nd trip to Zaporozhye to finalize Nicky’s passport and make the 7 p.m. train to Kiev.

Olas found the perfect cab, so we all headed to bed to rest for our big day. At 0600, Olas and I went out of the hotel to find two different cabs there. Evidently the guy from the night before couldn’t make it. Instead there were two “not so nice cabs” (I’m being gracious) there. After talking to the drivers, I found out these weren’t the second or third choice either!! We ended up in a LADA (wonderful little cars that they are!!) that only ran on propane. We got to Zaporozhye at 9:30 got the paperwork done and Olas hired Berdyansk in 2 hours flat, hightailed it to court and then ran to the hall of records had just closed for lunch! We did not get Nicky and the luggage till 2 PM. But should be no problem getting back to Zaporozhye by 4 PM with the cab driver we had. Well, not exactly – The engine started to overheat as we left Berdyansk. After 5 stops to fill the radiator we realized that the water pump was shot. This guy still drove the car all the way to Zaporozhye with the temp gauge pegged although he could only get it up to 10 MPH. Not too mention that he also took a wrong turn and we went 100 kilometers out of the way! The cab driver finally gave up and order us another cab on the outskirts of the city. Needless to say, the BC authentication is on hold till Monday. We arrived at 7 p.m. and waited 30 minutes to get our room at the “Hotel Intertourist”.

Leaving Elliott was very sad. We all tried to be brave but it wasn’t easy. We are still trusting God to bring it to fruition and are thankful he we were able to go to court and adopt before his 16th birthday.

We met American families (in hotel lobby)from Indiana & Ohio in process of adoption. They are still waiting on paperwork and they came just to visit their soon to be adopted children.
Nicky has been so excited since he left the orphanage he can hardly stand it. The 3 of us were in a half of the back seat in the taxi to Zap for 5 hours and he didn’t even care. He kept saying “Hello America” with tons of hugs, kisses and smiles! Our first night in the hotel with him was priceless. When it came time for bed, he got out his Bible and read for about 15 minutes, knelt by the bed and folded his hands and prayed. God was smiling and so were we.