Power Of Attorney, bad info. and Idol worship!!

October 28th, 2008

The Swiss Alps are amazing from 35,000 feet. They appear as jagged edged, dark ice-bergs in a sea of clouds. It’s a lot for those like me who do not fly much. I can never get enough of sitting in a window seat and just staring out. This time, however, that seat is occupied by Anya who left her country for good about two hours ago. She didn’t cry, didn’t talk much; it was rather solemn. I can only wonder what that must feel like. When I left for Ukraine five weeks ago, I knew I had to endure the loss of language for a short period of time. Anya is now faced with the anxiety and loss permanently. She said goodbye to Sergei this morning about 7AM, our driver for most of our stay in Kiev; he was awesome. He NEVER stops talking, knows the city’s history, is proud of Ukraine, and is nothing short of professional. He will forever be the last person from her home country whom she would speak with her native tongue before she boarded the flight to take her to her new home. When we lifted off she left her resident soil. I think it caused me more sadness than her as it is doing so as I write this. I can only hope that I do not dismiss that loss and provide the support and empathy she will need to transition; we’ll see. We got to spend our last day in Kiev going to the US Embassy again. We were told early on that Anya was party to civil action involving her mother. Her mother “illegally” sold an apartment/flat that was Anya’s property as well. The orphanage has to have “Power Of Attorney” to represent her now that she can no longer personally attend the hearings, which she has been doing. We composed and signed the necessary paperwork last Monday in Mariupol for the Ukraine Social Services to allow the orphanage this power (it is overseen and approved by them). Monday we were informed that the court hearing had been set for next week! We were told this would not occur for quite some time and would have time once in the states to compose this letter, have it reviewed and submit it at a later date. In typical Ukrainian fashion, everything changed last minute and they had to have it before we left the country-thanks for that! 9AM; US Embassy for an hour having them help us compose and submit the “Power Of Attorney” and get notarized there. Then off to the Ukraine Ministry Of Foreign Affairs for two hours of fun and games. At this point in the process I’ve had it up to my eye-balls with Ukraine lines and the non-stop pushing to the front mentality. I make myself as big as possible and dig-in!! No one is getting in front of me. I was immovable, made it obvious and didn’t mind responding in broken Russian, fluent English. They are actually irritated that I was ahead of them and I won’t let them by-too bad! This loss of patience manifested itself Sunday night in a taxi ride home from St. Michaels. Earlier, the ride to this area (around Independence Square) cost me $6.00USD (three times the cost of similar rides in Mariupol). This moron tried to charge me $15.00! Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but I’ve had it! A rapid fire exchange in Russian/English developed and fast. I gave him $10.00 (more like wadded it up and threw it in his lap), told him a few things, as only one can when not from the country AND, the frosting on the cake….SLAMMED THE DOOR! Remember, they hate that! While we were still at this office, the, “…language superiority” subordinating reared its ugly head in a manner that finally had me turning to Anya and making it very clear she was waiting outside. She was stunned that I actually thought that, as an adult who didn’t speak the language, I felt as though I could manage this without her snotty sneers, document snatching and loud, obnoxious comments. She wheeled around as if to say, “You poor, inept, bumbling, language-challenged, idiot; you will come running for me to save you”. Nope! 10 minutes later I had composed all the right paperwork, in Russian, had it paid for and submitted, receipt in hand and walking out the door. Dad (at this point) =76; 15 year old Ukrainian female=0! We then spent the next four hours going to THEE biggest monastery, “The Kyiv-Pechorek Historical Preserve” and the Military monuments that are about one kilometer away. If you go nowhere else in Kyiv, go to these two places first; they are absolutely incredible. St. Michaels, St. Sophia’s and St. Andrews would be next on my list. The military monument is very moving and full of every type of weaponry imaginable.

We went back to the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs where, once again, I make my stand in the “line” to pick up the equivalent of an apostiled document. 45 minutes later I’m out. It would turn out to be the last prolonged wait in a line for this process.

November 1st, 2008

Although I had the above paragraphs composed on our flight over France last Tuesday, they are a part of this post for good reason. As I drew near to the end of the last paragraph, I paused for a moment and, for whatever reason it hit me that Aimee and I had completely misinformed those who wanted or needed to know of our actual return date! All the flight information was correct-we had simply failed to remember we gain nine hours! We are about ½ way across France. I turned to Aimee to inform her. In that moment, I knew that I was about to start a wave of panic that held the potential of reaching monumental status in our history of “panic-stricken” moments (and we have had more in 6 years of marriage than most people have in a life-time!!). It came out, though; “We told everyone the wrong date”. With the ticket as a visual, I thoughtfully, lovingly, quietly and correctly explained. Aimee has, without doubt, the most amazingly large, beautiful, almond shaped eyes I have ever personally seen-they got bigger, and I watched the realization of my insight become reality!

PANIC! We discussed what to do-and by that, I actually mean; Aimee decided what to do (some things are just better left as a “one-way” conversation). We would simply give as much notice possible via the “in-flight” phone. Who cares that it’s $11.00/minute, right? We would simply call two or three people who we knew could relay the information for us. We spent nearly 20 minutes trying to use the phone with no success. We asked the stewardess; she has no answers but will ask the captain, however, he’s busy announcing over the intercom that there is a medical emergency and if there is a medical professional on board, their assistance is required. Shamefully, my first thought; I have a call to make! It was actually my first, second and third thought (we ALL tend to be self-serving). Don’t give me any of that, “Oh, how could you?”, or, “I would never have had those thoughts-my first thought would have been for the person in distress!”-Shut up already! Human nature is exactly what it is-nature. We don’t “naturally” have the right thoughts immediately, or, perhaps, ever! We may eventually get there. By “eventually”, I mean; it can happen within seconds or even years. Were our thoughts immediately “righteous” and/or “pure”-we would have no need for a savior; we would be so unto ourselves. If you’re wondering about my statements, are disturbed by them or have never even pondered this, try actually reading what the Apostle Paul said about “human nature” in the book of Romans. I am by no stretch of the imagination a theologian or pretend to know things in detail or great depth, but I do actually read my bible and never cease to be amazed at those who prescribe to “Christianity” and couldn’t even begin to articulate one intelligent thought about this, or other subjects and would be humiliated if asked when it was the last time they opened up God’s Word and familiarized themselves with it. We have many more important things that occupy our minds and time.

Has anyone else noticed that we have entire cable channels devoted to the complete understanding, breakdown and analysis of NFL Football games, college football games, MLB games, NBA games, how to build motorcycles, home improvement, cooking, golf(which I hate the most and I like golfing!), history, music, and even entertainment TV that reports and breaks down entertainment events-it’s obscene!!!!!!!!!! This list goes on and on. Can you imagine a group of pastors or bible scholars with an ESPN type format? Picture, if you will, the shows that have segments where former NFL greats, now “analysts”, get on a miniature football field (in suits) and proceed to walk through the elements of a developing “football play”. I actually get embarrassed for these guys. In ridiculous, slow motion fashion, they play touch football for a few seconds, talking to each other and informing us. What's worse is that there are in fact, people out there who watch this stuff. Now, if you will, we have our ministerial team doing the same thing; only they get to act out things like; “The Fall of Satan”, The Creation”, play-by-play analysis of, “The Original Sin”…the list is endless! Who wouldn’t want to watch these guys, on a miniature set, build the ark, analyze the Pentecost, break down the altercation between Samson and Delilah, the talking donkey, and the Book Of Revelation-are you kidding me? Instead of “Monday Night Football”, we would have “Monday Night Plan Of Redemption”. My point (and this may be my #1 pet-peeve): I believe that our culture has strayed so incredibly far and has become so clever at “self-justification”, that our “Idol worship” has morphed into a form that is so subtle and so indiscriminate that we don’t have a clue that it rises to the same level as the blatant idol worship of the bible. I could go on and on about this, but this is an adoption blog, right?

We used a BlackBerry from a gentleman sitting across the aisle from us to compose an E-mail to those we could. He had overheard out plight and became involved. I don’t fly much, but there seems to be a lot of “overhearing” of things on airplanes. We sent this message as soon as we landed in Chicago. Aimee was able to compose a text-message and sent it out at the same time as well as making calls, but, of course, the phone’s battery was almost gone as was my laptop’s battery. We landed nearly 30 minutes early. Great!!! Wrong! The aforementioned medical emergency ended with an 80 year old woman passing away about 200 miles west of London. Because she was from Michigan, they kept flying. They made us sit on the plane while they tended to this issue. Here again, I have to tell you my first thought: let us off the plane first! Remember in Romans when Paul really hammers it home, “…that which I don’t want to do, I keep doing!”-that’s me! We needed that extra time to navigate through US Immigration, US Customs, recheck our baggage, get on the train shuttle all the way from terminal 5 to terminal 1, run through the concourse to the gate to attempt to get Anya on our flight. We made it by five minutes and were able to do so-no thanks to Swiss Air. Don’t they know I have a plane to catch? Aimee and Anya were able to persuade a couple people to change seats and sit together, I was relegated to aisle 43, seat E! That’s right, folks, the center seat in the center aisle! I think the Lord reached down and physically shut my eye lids so I would survive. I don’t recall the take off and woke when I felt the jarring of the wheels hit the runway at DIA. I had no idea they could fit that many people on an airline.

I’m going to post this now as my new 15 year old just came down the stairs like a herd of buffaloes and informed me that we need to go on another bike ride like yesterdays-it was 6 miles and 30 minutes of quality time for us. It’s 8:00AM and I’ve been up since 3:30AM. Former orphans DO NOT let you forget how important they are to you and demand your time, relentlessly. Do not take such a decision lightly-it will change/improve your life dramatically because you don’t have time to be self-absorbed; and I like being self-absorbed! There will be more, like: Halloween last night (handing out smoked sausages from our outdoor fireplace), the arrival at DIA, Anya seeing her room for the first time, roof repair, her sisters, bowling, and, my favorite subject: AIMEE!!!