Day 4 - Visit Bogdan!

Today was the first day to visit Bogdan!  We left the apartment at 8:30am to head to the Metro to meet Halya for our journey to Brovary, where his orphanage is located. It's a very warm day and I am having a hard time keeping up with long legged Tim on our 20 minute walk to the Metro. Halya is there waiting for us and we take off.  McKenney's station is at the end of the line and we have to take the subway all the way to the other end.  It is about a 40 minute ride.  It's nice to be the first ones on because most of the time you can get a seat.  At the end of the line she directs us to the bus station to catch a marshrutka (mini bus) to Brovary. The drivers love to pack the marshrutkas full of people. It's a 30 minute ride, so it is nice when you get a seat! Taking public transportation is the cheapest way.  Riding the subway costs about 25 cents US and the marshrutka is about 55 cents US.  A taxi would be anywhere between 20.00-25.00 US (one way). That would add up real fast. We are the last stop on the marshrutka and it drops us off right on the edge of the orphanage property.  The main gate is about a 5 minute or less walk. SOS Village is a cluster of houses (I think there are 16, that pretty much all look alike.) on a large, wooded piece of property surrounded by a fence.  Across the street is a dense forest. I pull out my camera and start videoing our walk, hoping to catch a glimpse of Bogdan through the trees. When we get to the gate Halya tells me to put the camera away, when I ask why, she responds "so they don't think we are spies!". OK! As we enter the grounds a rather gruff looking Russian man approaches us and starts speaking (in Russian of course). Halya answers them and they appear to be having a heated conversation.  (But then again, Russian conversations always sound like that! :) She tells us that we must return to the gate because he wasn't informed of our arrival.  He goes to the office building and soon 2 smiling ladies walk out. They are Ol'ga, the case worker, and Natasha, the psychologist. They warmly greet us and invite us to view the apartment that we will be staying in.  In the distance I can see a boy about Bogdan's size sweeping a walk in front of a house.  He turns around, but apparently doesn't see us and continues sweeping. We then go into the building that houses the apartment. After several tries to gain access to the locked apartment they give up and say they will try later.  We go back outside and head down the lane toward the boy sweeping the walk.  Someone says "there is Bogdan!".  I was right!  As we get closer, one of the ladies yells his name and he turns around and gets a big smile on his face.  I look over at Tim and he has the ugly face, trying to hold back his tears.  I'm getting all choked up too.  Bogdan walks quickly toward us and holds out his arms to me and then to Tim.  We embrace him, both crying tears of joy. We walk with him to his house and are met by Zoya, his foster mother/guardian.  She is a pretty woman, tall, blonde hair and a warm smile. She invites us in to sit down in her living room.  We chat for a few minutes through Halya, our interpreter. Zoya then begins to fix us something to eat, yelling for Bogdan to help her to get this and that. She had him working hard running after dishes and food to set up the table outside. She is the only one that has a small, wooden shelter in her yard.  It is just large enough for a long narrow table and benches that surround it.  Perfect place for a picnic! This is my first meal served by a Ukrainian and I'm a bit nervous.  Each place setting has a bowl of steaming potato stew.  She has a plate of sliced bread, meat and cheese; sliced fresh veggies, a variety of cookies AND a plate of fat!! Halya explains that it is pork fat and that we  don't have to eat it if we don't want to!  Thank God for Halya! Whew. Blech!  Ewww!! Everything is tasty and we end up sitting there for 2 1/2 hours while Halya talks with several different people that stop by.  She would occasionally explain what they were talking about.  Once she stopped and grabbed my arm and said "i'm sorry, but we are talking about ukraine politics". Ha.  OK.  Don't really care about that. Later on they show us the apartment and it is very nice.  Clean,modern, safe, quiet.  I am so thankful!  We leave SOS with our hearts full of thankfulness for the work the Lord has done in this situation.  The people from the orphanage promise to do everything quickly as possible. We have apparently passed the test!  The guardianship termination should have happened weeks ago, but they were afraid to do it until they met us and watched our interaction with Bogdan. If termination had happened and the adoption hadn't gone through, Bogdan would have had a whole new status and would have probably had to leave his home at SOS Village.  We are thankful that they care so much for him and are concerned about his future. Today is Friday and Monday Bogdan and his guardian will go to Children's Services to write out statements for termination of guardian rights.  Halya tells us that Bogdan had been agonizing for awhile about his decision to be adopted.  His biological mother had begun regular visits with him and the orphanage allowed her to take him to her home for extended visits.  We knew about this and were troubled by it.  I had prayed that God would use these visits to help Bogdan make up his mind.  Halya said that the more time he spent with his bio mom, the more he talked about us and being adopted.  God did indeed use this time to help him. Bogdan's mom, Natasha, is an alcoholic.  She left him at another orphanage in 2009or 2010.  Even though she has been back in his life the past few months she has never indicated that she wants him back in her life to live with her.  Very sad.  We head back to Kiev.  Elsie and Dave are waiting with a yummy, homemade dinner of sweet and sour chicken. (No pork fat!! Yeah!)