Commission Meeting

Svetlana, the facilitator, had to run back over to Sumy to do more paperwork associated with the official separation of the siblings.  She and the assistant director of the orphanage rode back with Sveta, and as they got near to Romny, they called us to come over to the orphanage.  We hurried and put on our good clothes (for the commission) and went to see Sveta.  Unfortunately, due to the nervousness, or the trip, or the warm day, or all of them, Sveta had a seizure and so had to rest.  Svetlana took us to Main St and had us sit at a table of a cafe and just stay there for about an hour while she ran off to do some more work.  She came back and collected us and took us to the commission meeting place ( the office of the First Lady we met in Romny - Lilia).  There we finally saw Sveta.  We were all happy to see each other, but also nervous.  Lots of chairs were moved into the office, people started filing in, we went and sat, and the meeting began.  Lilia handed out documents and explained to the commission the status of everything.  There was a copy of the complete dossier there, which one man asked to examine.  There were a few questions for Sveta, the most important was if she wanted to be adopted by us.  She said yes, thank goodness! They had some lively discussion among themselves, then asked us how we intended to teach her English.  I told them of the several avenues available to us.  They asked about schooling, and I explained the several options for that.  Then I told them of my desire to get Sveta up to speed in English as quickly as possible and that seemed to please several of the members of the commission.  And suddenly, just like that, we were done.  And just as suddenly, we had to let Sveta go so she could be taken back to the summer camp. What a whirlwind afternoon this turned out to be.  As Virginia already told you, Sveta has dumped her entire name, so we have to adjust and call her Julia Elizabeth Perry.  I think she chose well.