June 23, 2011 - Coming home!

Paul and Kirill are coming home on Friday, June 24!  We are so thankful everything worked out today and Paul and Kirill will be able to catch their 5:30 am flight out of Kyiv on Friday.  They are scheduled to land in Minneapolis at 5 pm.  Max and I will be anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Sounds like it was crazy afternoon for Paul, Kirill and our coordinator as they were still waiting to receive Kirill's passport on Thursday morning. Fortunately, the US Embassy allowed Paul to do the first appointment on Wednesday without the passport.  The medical exam was completed mid day today without the passport but the doctor would not sign the exam report until they had the passport and she was not available after at 3 pm.  The passport was not obtained until 2:15 pm today and they were only able to obtain it before 3 pm due to the assistance of our coordinator (we are so appreciative of all of his assistance throughout this process).  They were able to get the doctor's signature on the exam report and get to the Embassy for the second appointment by about 3:30 pm.  When they arrived at the Embassy they were told that they had not been able to print visas all day due to a printer problem (its sounds like this is a common problem at the Embassy - how much do printers cost?).  Without the visa, Kirill would not be able to travel to the US on Friday morning.  Thankfully, they were able to get the visa printed and Paul and Kirill were done with the process by 5 pm.  A long afternoon, but a very satisifying one, for both of them!

I am sure Kirill has anxiety about leaving Ukraine and unfortunately he didn't have a chance to just play and have fun on his last day there.  It sounds like he and Paul had fun yesterday and got one last visit into the indoor skating rink at DreamTown.  He will hopefully have some fond memories of the time he spent in Kyiv with Papa.

It will be a long trip home for Paul and Kirill and those of us waiting for them to get home!  We are looking forward to spending the weekend together as a family.  Our niece, Kristina, has her high school graduation party on Saturday afternoon so it will be very special that Kirill will be here to celebrate this milestone in her life with us.

Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by loving family and friends.  So many people have helped us out during this time and we are very thankful for all the help we have received.