Bringing Dariya home: We got our referral from the SDA

We had today open until 3pm when we were to be at the SDA again to pick up our referral for Dariya. 

We spent the morning in search of a camera shop to get a cable to be able to download our pictures to this computer.  There happened to be a shop down the street from our apt.  The shopkeeper spoke little English but, was super helpful and even let us connect the cable to our camera and her computer to make sure it would work.  We thought it would be really expensive but it only ended up being about $7!  Wow Walmart can't beat that.

We wandered around the city for a few hours and decided to try a local pizza shop.  We sat down and got ready to order and realized the price of a pizza was $70 (not grivna but dollars).  We politely said we had to go.  We found a great street vender and bought a lunch of water, sausage rolls and meat and potato pastries for 24 grivna (I will do the math for you that was $3)! 

After lunch we wandered and took in more of the sites before heading back to the SDA at 2:30.  We were met by Nico at 3pm and waited until 5:15 as the director had not signed the referrals yet and wasn't in. 

We spent the few hours chatting with two other RR families, the Johnson and Birschbach families.  We also met two other couples here adopting from the US.  One from Wisconsin the other from Michigan.

SDA appointment day June 9, 2011 11am

Our facilitator, Yulia, and drivers Nico and Eugene

St Andrews, directly behind the SDA

Alex, shop with him after the SDA he is up the hill and will give you the best deal.  Tell him the Cannons sent you!

Our apartment building, not much on looks on the outside but our apt is a nice studio with AC!

View from our apartment, we are on the 15th floor.  Jason's knees go weak just to get near the window!

Dinner with the Jill & Pat Birschbach.  They are so sweet and had many great tips for us since they were just here in December adopting Elijah.

Waiting outside the SDA for our referral June 10, 2011

I am still waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to sleep so I am really tired.  Hoping tonight is a full night's sleep. 

We will head to Dariya's region tomorrow on a bus.  Sunday and Monday are holidays here so we can't go to the orphanage or meet her until Tuesday morning. 

We are sad that we don't get to meet some more families this weekend like the House family or the Cox family who are both finishing up and heading home next week but it is half the price for us to stay in region so we must move on.

Please continue to pray for our journey.  Pray for court to happen quickly, for all the necessary paperwork to be done when needed so there are no hold ups, pray for our meeting with Dariya, protection on Aidan & Alayna and strength for my parents as they stay with them.

We are loving the emails, FB posts and prayers that you are showering us with !  Thank you!