SDA Appointment ~ Letter of Referral

Sunday morning we were finally able to connect by phone with Yulia, our facilitator in Kiev.  Yulia informed us that she would be able to find out our exact time for our SDA appointment on Monday morning and that we should be ready for leaving at 8:30am in case we were the first on the list.  She then called us at 8:30 to tell us that our appointment was scheduled for 3pm.  This was fine because it gave us time to work on other things and to catch up on some sleep. 

We were ready to go and waiting on the corner at 2:20 when Sergei, our host at the bed and breakfast, came running outside to tell us that Yulia had just called.  She had arranged a taxi to pick us up and she would meet us at the SDA.  We had just been commenting on a taxi that had made a U turn near to us, but he was just sitting there.  Sergei went over and determined that he truly was the taxi on call for us.  Off we went through the city towards the SDA, which is located in the downtown area.  It was quite congested with traffic and we truly wondered if we would make it there in time.  We did make it with 10 minutes to spare and Yulia saw our taxi and came running over to meet us.  Since we had never met her before, we just figured the young lady running after our taxi and waving and smiling was there for us. J 

We were taken to the SDA and waited until the 2 couples before us were finished.  Other facilitators began showing up with their couples and they were all obviously from Italy.  Yulia informed us that this shouldn’t be a long meeting because we know the children and don’t have to look at any listings/pictures or make phone calls to get a referral going.  So, we went upstairs to talk with the SDA representative.  She was a very friendly representative and I mean that sincerely.  Her whole demeanor put us right at ease and she asked us to tell her about the kids and their visit to us 15 months ago.  We pulled out the only pictures we have of them and told a couple of stories and then it was essentially enough.  She and Yulia pulled together our official dossier and told us what was to transpire.  We are scheduled to receive our SDA referral letter on Tuesday at 5 to 6pm.  If the facilitator that is on our power of attorney is in town tomorrow, then that person will get the letter for us earlier.  Otherwise we will go at 5 to get it. 

Following that we’ll be taking another night train to Odessa and a facilitator for that region will pick us up and drive us there or we’ll go by train if that proves a possibility.  So, we are on our way and should be able to visit with V and B on Wednesday.  We’ve managed to secure a room at a clinic in the town of Belgorod at a substantially lower rate.   We don’t know if we’ll have internet, but we hope so.  Stay tuned…