A DAY IN KIEV

While we wait (as patiently as possible) to travel on Sunday to the orphanage, we're enjoying our time here in Kiev.

Today, we went to the Chernobyl museum. It was saddening, to say the least, the see the countless photos of people - especially children - who lost their lives because of the accident. It's hard to believe it happened over 20 years ago.

We then went to a buffet-style place for lunch, you know the kind where you go through a line and eventually pay for everything you chose. We had potato dumplings, chicken Kiev (duh!!), real sausage, and some wonderful salads. The sausage was definitely authentic, with big hunks of meat, bits of grissle, and even some small bone parts. Stephen was much more enthusiastic about eating it than Pam.

We shopped a great deal of the afternoon, with Pam leading the charge up that hill. She bought some outfits for a small girl and even some hangers for us grown-ups.

We're getting used to our apartment. We have a washer that's really been wonderful, with the exception of one problem. It was installed in the very small bathroom, so you have about 6 inches between the front of the toilet and the washer. To sit, you have to take your pants completely off and lift your leg over the toilet as if getting on a horse. If you don't like that option, then you just sit sideways on it, which feels awkward but works just fine.

We have a couple of grocery stores nearby and Stephen never passes on the opportunity to visit them. Every evening, we stop at one and buy for breakfast the next day... juice, pastries, and perhaps a couple of pieces of fruit. Stephen originally planned to do some cooking, but it turned out to be too big of a hassle here in Kiev. We can get freshly made deli sandwiches at the grocery store for $3. Some street prices are even cheaper.

Calls back to the U.S. are easy to make and cost less than 20 cents per minute. We really enjoy calling the boys everyday (we miss you 2 guys so much, you too Nana, Popeye, and Zippy). Internet access costs about the same and we found a place that has both and is open 24 hours per day.

Some miscellaneous things...
1. There are many, many small casinos here, some with only 10 to 15 one-armed bandits and no other games.
2. People drive and park on the sidewalks, so walking on a sidewalk is an adventure
3. It usually costs money to use a public toilet
4. Most toilets are flush (no pun intended) to the floor (women - stand and aim or squat)
5. Stewed rabbit and black olives is quite good
6. Soccer in Ukrainian on TV is just as boring as soccer in English on TV

We received our referral

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday morning we met with the adoption ministry and selected a 16 month old girl who is approximately 6 hours from Kiev. Today is a holiday so we are not able to meet her at the orphanage until Monday morning.

We do not know much about her other than she is supposedly healthy and small for her age as she was born premature. We will receive more info once we arrive to the orphanage.

We have hired a driver with a van to drive us to the city where she is. We leave Kiev Sunday morning and should arrive late in the afternoon to our new apartment. That will allow us time to get settled in before things start on Monday.

If all goes well we hope to post pictures of her next week. While at the orphanage we are going to try our best to get another girl (or two). Right now that is our best option to getting two children.

We hope all is well with all of you. Things here in the Ukraine are very different from the States. Please keep our future girl (s) in your prayers.

Pam and Steve

WE'RE IN KIEV

Hello everyone from the very beautiful and interesting city of Kiev.

We arrived yesterday right on time but with only one peice of luggage. We were delayed in getting out of Dulles because of a clogged toilet (of all things). We got to Frankfurt with only enough time to get quickly to our departing flight. Unfortunately, three pieces of our luggage weren't so fast. So, we've got on fourth of everything... toiletries, clothes, computer necessities (i.e., a digital camera but no firewire cord to download photos to a computer), etc. They found our luggage and hope to have it to us tomorrow.

We've got a great little apartment right near the downtown area. No AC but a nice little kitchen with a modern bathroom. The bed is rock hard and the pillow cases feel like sleeping on sandpaper. We do have cable TV and a small veranda.

At lunch today, Pam went Ukrainian and had some sort of chicken cooked in stewed tomatoes and vegetables served with plain spaghetti noodles. It was quite delicious. Stephen stepped off the deep end and had (1) an assortment of pickles which included 2 pickles, 5 pickled tomatoes, stewed egg plant, and red cabbage and (2) fried pig ears (see the photo). It was better than good. The pig ears, by the way, state like and have the consistency of calamari. We're extremely grateful to all those deaf pigs!

Prices for goods differ dramatically. Last night we ate at a small hole-in-the-wall pizza-by-the-slice place. We had 4 pieces of pizza and 2 drinks for $6. This morning, Stephen ventured out for a nice coffee at a quaint coffee shop and spent about the same amount ($6) just for the coffee.

We have a 24-hour grocery store nearby with just about everything we could want. A large retail shopping district is also juse a few blocks away.

We'll find out about children Wednesday morning when we meet with the adoption ministry. That evening we'll post what we know. We hope to have photos of the child or children by Friday.

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

WE'RE OFF!!!

Finally... we leave in the morning (Saturday the 23rd). We'll get into Kiev in the middle of Sunday afternoon and have 2 and a half days to kind of relax before our ministry appointment Wednesday morning.

Starting Monday, we plan to post to this blog every other day or perhaps daily concerning our travels. Hopefully, on Thursday or Friday we'll be posting photos of children (or a child).

I know many of you reading this have been through or are currently in the adoption process. For the rest of you let me tell you what an emotional roller coaster ride this is! We seem to have tremendous mental, emotional, and spiritual mood swings more than once a day. We can't wait for the next week to pass and some of the unknown goes away.

Thanks so much to everyone who has left us a comment or sent a personal email. And thanks to everyone who dropped off donations for the orphanage. We're taking 4 full bags and plan on leaving everything there but our clothes (which could have easily fit into a single bag, believe it or not). Of course, we'll be returning with new "luggage" in the form of a new member (or members) of our family.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

BEFORE... HAIR CUT... AFTER

It seems we have a lot of people interested in seeing us with short hair. Here are two photos... one before and one after.

WE'RE FINALLY GOING

It's been almost two years (we started the whole process in August 2005) in the making and we're finally going to the Ukraine.

Our original intent was to get two girls younger than our two boys - Darian who is now 7 and Trevor who is now 6. We picked out two beautiful sisters - Katarina and Anastasia - we began all the necessary paperwork, home studies, etc. We thought we were on the verge of going over several times but delays occurred and the Ukraine closed to international adoptions for about 8 months.

We finally got word about 10 days ago that our appointment date was scheduled for June 27. You can imagine our excitement. Then came the bad news. Katarina and Anastasia were no longer available for adoption. Further, we've been told that the Ukraine will not allow non-sibling adoptions and our chances to getting two young girls who were sisters was slim.

So, we're going over on the faith that whatever child or children we find will be ours according to a grander and greater plan by God (or whomever you choose to subscribe to).

We're traveling over on June 23 and will arrive in Kiev on June 24. That will give us a couple of days to adjust to the time change and emotionally and mentally prepare for our wonderful journey.

We expect to be in the Ukraine for 3.5 to 5 weeks, hopefully returning home before August 1st (Darian's 8th birthday).

We'll post more entries along as our trip nears. While in the Ukraine, we'll find an Internet cafe and post entries and photos.

Keep us in your prayers.

In preparation, we've cut our hair and each donated about 15 inches to the Locks for Love program, which provides wigs for children with cancer. We'll post some before and after photos a litlle later.