Gotcha! Now in Simferopol

August 6 and 7 were two jammed days with getting documents ready for the passport for Oleg. We have been graced with faster than expected results in obtaining birth certificates, and our trip to Simferopol though the car was packed, we all made it Tuesday afternoon.  We arrived with 20 minutes to spare - or wait 2 more days to apply for his passport. This application then required a full 8 hrs of going between the police records office - since Oleg has a new middle name and last name, they need to see a clear history for Ammala, Oleg Kevin as they say it here.  We then had all of our documents (Application for child Passport with USA permanent residence, from us, Application for Citizen Travel Passport from Oleg, and a letter of obligation from us to report on him to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington once per year till age 18).  notarized and then went to the Ukrainian citizen immigration office in Simferopol and finally got his photo taken. Notarization in Ukraine is done by lawyers.   Another family was at the exact same stages and the kids spent the day talking and being bored waiting for each appointment to finish.  Oleg knew their girl from a summer camp a few years back.  This family is from Louisville KY.  We then asked for permission to have our facilitator based here in Simferopol pick up his passport and put it on a train to Kiev next week.  This was granted, it's not common but does happen.  A prayer answered!  We can then all leave for Kiev on Saturday night. That will be our last long - 17 hr or so train ride. We will then have more appointments with physicians and the US Embassy there.    The consent to have someone other than a parent  pick up Oleg's passport saves us at least a half week.  We don't have a fly date yet, but it's much closer now!   We need Oleg's passport and visa before we can book a flight. Though perhaps all we need is the proof via an application number for the visa to do this.  The Embassy will weigh in on that.