SDA Meeting

The short version (if you are in a hurry) is that the meeting went fine.  We go back between 4:00 - 5:00 tomorrow afternoon to sign our referral, and immediately leave town for Romny.  We won't get there until late in the evening.

Now the longer version.  This government building is like any other government building you have gone to.  It has the feel of an old county court house, especially if you enter at ground level, or go into a basement level.  The doors were a little short, and you have to duck to go through them.  There was a mysterious door off of the short hall that we were waiting in.  We took a seat on a couch in the hallway.  Konstatin had to drop off a different dossier.  There were other people coming and going, similarly dropping off documents.  People would go in, talk for several minutes and come back out in the hall.  They all knew each other so they chatted with each other as they waited.  Then one of them would suddenly go back in for half a minute, come back out, and another would run in.  Eventually, it was time for our meeting (about 50 minutes late).  Apparently the people before us were having some difficulty deciding on their "blind" child choice.  Our case worker was a pleasant lady named Maria.  She showed us several pictures of Svetlana over the years, told us a few things, we signed her ledger accepting Svetlana as our child, and we were done.  All of our documents were in order, so it was as simple as that.  Right next to the SDA building is another old cathedral.  We did not have time to go in, but here is a picture of it.  This is St. Andrews Cathedral.