One more day down!

Well we just got back a short while ago from our day trip to that other city in this region, don't get me to repeat it, something like Deepro. Thats the wrong spelling but sounds something like that. Anyway we left early so we could get to the proper office and hopefully be one of the first in line. We were successful in that except we were told to come back at 2 pm, I don't know why?? At that point our translator made a decision to catch a bus back from wence we came. She felt if she waited she would get back too late to get everything done here. She left our driver in charge with insructions and off she went. With some time to kill we took in some of the sites, actually it was quite a beautiful city and lots to see. Finally we went back to the office, picked up our paperwork there and headed back for here. In the meantime Our translator ran into a bit of a snag as the one person at the police station that needed to sign one of the documents is out sick for the day. This causes more confusion and what happened is Debbie and Nastya head out for Kiev tonight to be there early in the am to go to the Canadian Embassy to take care of something there. The reason I need to stay behind is one of us must be present tomorrow at the police station. So thats our status right now. Hopefully we can catch a bus out of here at a reasonable time tomorrow and catch up with everyone in Kiev. Never a dull moment here in Ukraine, and as Keith knows there never seems to be an actual end to it. I told Debbie tonight we ought to wallpaper Nastya's room with all the paper work once we are home as a reminder to all we have been through. I don't know if I'll need any reminder, I'll never forget our journey as long as I live thats for sure. There was a point today when Nastya had one of her meltdowns. She just wasn't doing real well and when I asked her to hold my hand as we were in a very busy area she had no intentions of complying. When I tried to force the issue she ran on me, at this point I was in no mood for the games so when I got to her the game was over. At this point we are nearing Mcdonalds and thought this will calm the waters, wrong made it worse, wasn't going in period. Well after wondering if we would cause a scene or not we went for it. She continued her defiance and the tears and the sobs began. Debbie went to get us something to eat and I tended the fort. All around us people were kind of wispering and I'm sure wondering what was up with this poor little girl and her mean old dad. I could have cared less at this point at one anyone was thinking, I would have maybee said something to the ones closest but can't speak the language so just grin and bear it. Soon Debbie returned and Nastya was still wanting nothing to do with us or her food. Within a few minutes she stopped the crying at least and then it was one of those moments I won't forget. She reached for her happy meal and began to join us. She wouldn't take her jacket off or her hat and by this time with all the tears and such she looked terrible. Her hair was a mess under her hat that had become twisted in all the commotion. She was pretty well done and we were just kind of ignoring her a bit trying to avoid another scene. At that moment I looked her way and through her tear stained eyes and messed up hair she held out her last chicken mc-nugget to me and said, for you daddy. I just about lost it and then she broke out with one of those tootless grins and I was no good. I realized something at that moment and it was simply this , she's worth it all. All of the fustration, and there's been plenty, all of the heartache for home and there's been plenty, its all worth it. I for maybee the first time can actually see the end of our time here and our new life that lies ahead of us. To tell you the truth I actually held up better than Debbie today, first time. I could see that finally the whole thing was taking a toll and I had to comfort her for a change. Its been a real test of all that we're made of and we have grown together through it all and are still standing. We both can't wait to settle back in our seats on Sunday and head for home. I kind of took a double take of all the sites on my walk down here this evening and realized that this part of the world will soon be a distant memory to me. I do believe I'll never forget my path back to the apartment, I can just about do it with my eyes closed. I'd even give it a try , but there are those man-holes and I have a great deal of respect for those suckers now. Well it'll be a quite night back at the apartment but it'll be the last night there so it'll be ok. A good time to reflect on all thats taken place in our lives over the past number of weeks. As always thanks for the comments, Jared we will be in touch soon to let you know where we can meet. Thats all for now , will try and post from Kiev tomorrow. With lots of love, Randy