Wednesday, November 21, 2007
We Made It!
Four flights and almost 27 hours later we finally made it to Kiev last night around 11:30 pm. Talk about exhaustion! The best part is that our luggage made it as well!We are staying in a very nice furnished apartment in the center of Kiev next to Independence Square and the underground mall. There is also a McDonalds and a TGI Fridays right down the street! We haven't had the chance to get out and explore as much as we would like as we had to wait around the apartment this morning to find out what time our appointment would be (our facilitator had forgotten to bring our cell phone to the airport last night, so we had to wait for the call on our apartment phone). We got the call around 1 pm that our appointment was scheduled for 3:00. We met our facilitator at 2:30 and drove to the SDA. Our appointment took less than 10 minutes since we are adopting a known child. They showed us Evan's file (which included a very cute picture of him at 6 months old) and told us a little about his birth mother (father unknown) and his medical condition. We should have all of the necessary paperwork by 5 pm tomorrow and it looks like we will be taking the train to Donetsk tomorrow night. If all goes as planned (I hope I didn't just jinx myself by using that term) we should be meeting Evan on Friday! I cannot wait!
We are planning to spend tomorrow exploring Kiev! It is a fascinating place and we are excited to really experience it! The internet is much more accessible in Ukraine than it was in Uzbekistan, so I hope to update frequently. Again, we appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers coming our way. Keep 'em coming!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
And we're off. . . . again
WAHOO! The necessary paperwork is complete and we are headed to Donetsk by train this evening! We should be meeting Evan tomorrow! I cannot wait!
We spent most of the morning wandering around the center of Kiev and enjoying the sights, sounds, culture and people! Outside of the SDA there are dozens of kiosks where you can buy gifts and souvenirs so we spent a decent amount of time there buying Christmas presents and gifts for friends and family as well as mementos for Evan.
Last night, a couple from Ireland, also with our agency, came back from a different region with their son and moved into the apartment across the hall from us. We spent some time getting acquainted with them and listening to their experiences last night and planned to spend some more time with them today. When we got back from our excursion in Kiev this afternoon we arrived at our apartment to find that the Irish couple and their son were moving into our apartment and that another couple was moving into theirs. Unfortunately we still do not have a cell phone so our facilitator wasn't able to contact us about the "move" so it was quite a surprise to come back and find we had house guests!! We are leaving tonight, so obviously this isn't a problem for us, but we all got a good laugh out of the chaos that had ensued! Honestly, it is nice to have fellow adoptive parents who speak English close by (really close by right now) as it can be a bit isolating when you do not speak the local language.
We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds! Never thought I would be dining on such fine cuisine for the holidays, but it was the closest thing we could find to home. We have so very much to be thankful for this year. There just are not words to express my gratitude for all of the blessings that we have received.
Unfortunately, I will have to cut this short as we need to get back to our apartment and get to the train station, but hopefully we will be able to find a place to post from once after we have met Evan tomorrow.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
We spent most of the morning wandering around the center of Kiev and enjoying the sights, sounds, culture and people! Outside of the SDA there are dozens of kiosks where you can buy gifts and souvenirs so we spent a decent amount of time there buying Christmas presents and gifts for friends and family as well as mementos for Evan.
Last night, a couple from Ireland, also with our agency, came back from a different region with their son and moved into the apartment across the hall from us. We spent some time getting acquainted with them and listening to their experiences last night and planned to spend some more time with them today. When we got back from our excursion in Kiev this afternoon we arrived at our apartment to find that the Irish couple and their son were moving into our apartment and that another couple was moving into theirs. Unfortunately we still do not have a cell phone so our facilitator wasn't able to contact us about the "move" so it was quite a surprise to come back and find we had house guests!! We are leaving tonight, so obviously this isn't a problem for us, but we all got a good laugh out of the chaos that had ensued! Honestly, it is nice to have fellow adoptive parents who speak English close by (really close by right now) as it can be a bit isolating when you do not speak the local language.
We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds! Never thought I would be dining on such fine cuisine for the holidays, but it was the closest thing we could find to home. We have so very much to be thankful for this year. There just are not words to express my gratitude for all of the blessings that we have received.
Unfortunately, I will have to cut this short as we need to get back to our apartment and get to the train station, but hopefully we will be able to find a place to post from once after we have met Evan tomorrow.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
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