This was the big day, or the first big day here in a series of many. Our appointment at the SDA (State Department of Adoption) was at 10am. Oksana, our facilitator (Gregory’s wife and business partner), came to fetch us at the hotel and off we went. After our first taxi ride through the streets of Kiev, and we pulled up the ministry. The older buildings of Kiev have a worn majesty about them and this building, bordered by a cobblestone street, was right out of an old European movie. They left us waiting in the lobby for half an hour and then the official government translator, a sweet young woman named Tatiana, whisked us into a waiting room. (We were not permitted to have our own translator present.)
Tatiana was there to translate for the psychologist, who would show us a group of available children. The first thing they asked for was our passports, which were stashed in the moneybelt in Michael’s pants. To get at them, he practically had to undress in front of them. Awkward, but we kept our focus.
After passports, introductions, etc. we began the review process. As we were preparing, Michael explained his grandfather was born in Zhitomir and his grandmother from somewhere near Kiev. The psychologist, who appeared to be well put-together woman in her sixties, and all business, lit up. She was from Zhitomir too! And that seemed to ignite in her a spark of inspiration.
The first children she showed us were a brother and sister from the Zhitomir region, Sasha (Alexander) 4 years old, and Nastia (Anastasia) 9 years old. It was hard not to smile at his cherubic face and she had a soulfulness that struck us both. We asked to see more kids. There were no other sibling pairs available, only groups of 3. So she showed us about six or seven young boys and they were all cute. But our eyes and our questions kept wandering back to Nastia and Sasha.
It turned out that today was Nastia’s 9th birthday. Sasha’s birthday was April 26, just 2 days before mine. And as Michael cited that Sasha had his very mouth, I was struck that Nastia was a sketch of my Nanny as a girl. And they were from the same location as Michael’s Pop Pop. There were many things that weighed in our decision, but overall, it was all in our gut.
We told them we wanted to meet Sasha and Nastia. A little boy and girl. And as we left the building, we couldn’t keep the smiles from our faces. Something just felt right.