Part 20 Goodbye to Friends

So on Saturday we moved into the Church, it is as close to america as we have seen in 4 weeks. By the way it has been 3 1/2 weeks and it feels like 3 months!

So on top of the joy of being in the apartment that we had been anticipating for weeks we also were right next door to the Dipiazzos. The other American family adopting. We have been spending time at the beach and camp together and going to dinner everyday but there was something even better to have them as neighbors.
The bad news was that they only had a few days left before they went home. They were leaving Tuesday.

To be honest we were never friends with the Dipiazzos back home in Williamsburg. We saw each other at church but our lives rarely crossed paths outside of those four walls. Yet in a short time I feel we have had the opportunity to know them better in some respect then we would have if we were friends all along. All though they are gone now we will forever be tied to each other through this experience and I hope we always stay in touch.

We had front row seats to the bitter sweet departure for the dipiazzos. They were of course estatic to go home but they also had formed close bonds with children other then Dima the one they were adopting. Saying goodbye to Sasha was particularly hard for the Dipiazzos and Dima. They had been here 6 weeks and everyday and every moment they spent with Dima they spent with Sasha as well. Watching the difficult farewell could only remind us of the reality that we too would have to say our goodbyes to Iliahs Siblings.

On Tuesday the dipiazzos left for Zaporishia@ 5:30am that night they took the train to Kiev. By now they are finished with there paperwork and are just counting the days to flying home. We are so happy for them although envious.
We got to talk to them last night and it was nice to hear about what they had been through over the past few days since we too will have the same path. Also it was surprising to hear about the additional $2,500 in expenses that they had, some of which we knew about but other things were a surprise. I guess the Hemoraging of cash won't stop until we hit american soil.

I tallied our expenses for this adoption yesterday. YTD we are up $21,400, Ouch! These are the adoption expenses since Jan 5th 2010.

Looks like we will be close to $26,000 when its all said and done.

When adoptive parents we know said it will cost more than you think they weren't kidding.