Hurry Up and Wait

Monday we sat on our hands all morning. Natasha worked with the court to get final paperwork done to take the boys. We had hoped to visit the boys in the afternoon. But we got a call in the afternoon from Natasha of a new problem.

Supposedly, the boys were not properly registered at the orphanage, at least according to one office in Lutugino. So as far as this one office was concerned, the boys had lived on the street for 3 years.

Obviously, this was not the case. I am not sure whether there was missing paperwork, or an error in this office or what. But it added another day to the process.

We scrambled around from about 11am until 5pm from one office to another signing documents, waiting for documents, and signing others. Finally, at 5pm, we got to see the boys for just a minute. We told them we were working on documents and would be able to get them either tomorrow (Tuesday) or the next day (Wednesday).

Tuesday was the real mad dash. We got up early so we could get to the birth certificate office as soon as it opened at 8am. We got there a couple of minutes late and were behind several babushkas. As more came, they got ahead of us. They were not cutting in line. It turns out the office that does birth certificates also certifies death certificates. The death certificate is required for burial, so they get priority.

We finally got in after 1 1/2 hours. After half hour we left as they needed some documents notarized. Then we went to work on the woman who does passports. Back and forth all day from the birth certificate office to the notary to the passport office.

Finally, the day was over and we headed home. We never got to see the boys, but found that we should be able to get them on Wednesday.