What a DAY!

Well, we got to the NAC in plenty of time, and I enjoyed looking at the pictures hung in the hallway. It was nice to see familiar faces of children that I knew from our adoption group. I saw the Transoes, Cathy Harris', and a few other families. We didn't wait long though. The lady invited us in (dark hair, young, very pretty). She was in a great mood *whew*, and asked us three questions. The first one was "Why did you want to adopt from Ukraine?" - To which I answered, "Because there are beautiful children here." She grinned as if she liked the answer. Then she asked our occupations, and then she asked who we wanted to adopt.

The last question sold her on us, I guess. Lemme do some confessing before I go much further. This spring when we received our approval, I thought, "ya know, we should get our INS/homestudy approval for three kids and just see what happens." After that, everyone and their grandma kept saying, "So, are you getting three kids?" It was rather FREAKY actually. (Especially because we weren't sold on the idea yet either, we just wanted the option open.)

Ok, fast forward to today. We told her we were open to 2 or 3 children from 0-9 years old. The lady broke into a huge grin, and excitedly started to flip through books looking for the "good" children to show us. She told our interpretor that she liked us and that we were a nice young couple. *shrugs* Anyway, once she heard "THREE" there went the "twos" out the window! (Well, not really, but she was excited to find a home for a sibling group of three and she said that "not many people come looking for three") She first showed us three *very* young boys ages like 2,3,6 or so (maybe younger, not sure). They were nice, but we wanted to look ourselves. So, we looked through hundreds of pictures/files of children and she handed us a few others to review too.

Sooooo.... *drum roll here*..... We have decided to go and visit a little boy of 9, and two little girls ages 3 (almost 4) and 5 (almost 6). They all look like blondies, and one child has green eyes (if I'm remembering right... we looked at a bajillion files today, so they're all blending together right now). They are in the Odessa Region and in the village of Bilgorod-Dnesdrovsky down by the Black Sea. Tickets will be hard to find, I'm afraid because it is summer, so it looks like we'll be hiring a driver. Vika is working on that.

This region has a CASTLE in it!!!! :O) Vika says it is BEAUTIFUL and that we'll love it. *excited dance*

Yesterday we went sightseeing, and it was wonderful.

Vika says we should have internet access in the region, but we're not sure yet. Our cell phone is with us 24/7 in John's pocket so here's the number, and please call us if you can! (John says I should add "during the day") 011-38-050-149-86-87