birth certificates and passport

In Ukraine all marriages and births have to be registered at a place called Zurgs (but the "g" sounds more like a "k" to me.) Before we could do anything with the US Embassy, we had to work out all of the Ukraianian details first. The hospital issued us a Notification of Birth which Ken took to Zurgs with a translator from school. If there's one thing that we've observed here is that customer service is more of whatever is convenient for the worker--the customer is not always right, so to speak. In this instance, there is no phone number that you can call to find out which paperwork you need to bring to the Zurgs' office, you have to go wait in line for your turn, then they'll let you know what you need. So taking the morning off from work (oh they're only open Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9am-1pm) with our Marriage License (luckily someone in the States had told us that we would need that) and our translated and notarized Passports Ken and Sasha went to the office. After waiting in a packed tiny entryway, Ken found out that we both needed to be there (so that we could have Kenneth as Rawly's middle name-George is Ken's given name and Ukrainians always use the father's name as the middle name) and our Marriage Certificate needed to be translated and notarized. It was Thursday. The translation wouldn't be ready until Friday afternoon. The next Tuesday, Ken, Katie, Elysa, Rawly and I piled in a mini school bus for Rawly's first trip. Elysa stayed with Rawls so we could wait in line. We had to wait awhile because there's only one guy who does these "specialized" documents. The process--once it started--went pretty smoothly.

Next stop: Quadrat--the mall for Passport photos. So much for keeping him away from people while he's building up his immune system. Unfortunately for us, he was zonked out and would not wake up for us--eyes have to be open for the photos. After 15 minutes of failure, I finally said we'd have to take him outside with his coat open and hat off. Sure enough, that did it! It was a bit tricky to get a shot, but it finally turned out.

As for the Consulate Services, they are also only open from 9-1 and you have to have an appointment. The soonest appointment was for 9 am on December 8--we needed to get his passport quickly because we are planning on leaving on the 19th of December for a week in Italy. Luckily we were able to get his Birth Abroad Certificate and Passport on the sixteenth and are ready for Christmas with Grandma Pat in Florence!