Happy August 24th

Hey everyone - August 24th probably doesn''t mean much to you but it's a big deal here. it's their 4th of July. streets are closed off and the party is just starting. it's not even noon here yet, but looks like lots will be going on.

the waiting has been difficult, but appreciate your nice - and funny emails! you can not even believe how much they mean. we are hoping that we may get an appt on friday but not holding our breath. they are in no rush to take care of americans here. our facilitator is great and is doing everything he can to move things along, but you don't want to make them mad at the adoption center - then you'll never get an appt. the director is probably going to be replaced soon - so we're hoping we get in there before that happens as this director is who yuri has the connections with. once we get there should be okay as there are supposedly LOTS of older healthy children. very limited availability of younger healthy children. boyd and kirsten have requested a child under age of 5 - they looked at 150 files of kids -not one was healthy. the NAC finally gave them file of healthy 5 yr old girl - they were so excited - travelled TWENTY HOURS on train to meet her - found out that all the kids from orphanage were at camp and the child they had come to see was in process of being adopted by an Ukrainian couple. it amazes us that there are internet cafes on every corner here, but the adoptiong process here is all with hard copies - with outdated and incorrect info. yuri does do thorough job checking stuff out before you travel to orphanage so hopefully he will spare us a wasted trip. well, we are going to update blog, then go check out what's going on in the streets. we're on our own today - first day without yuri or victoria - vica - 'but we are feeling pretty comfortable here.
Love,
Mark and Kim