Catching up on our journey.

We are going to start at the beginning of the trip and catch everyone up to now. We left to go to Uncle Mel’s house for a ride to the airport. Mike Andrews was waiting to say good bye. We had a group prayer before we left. It was very nice riding to the airport in Melvin and Joyce’s hummer. We did not have to worry, just enjoy the company and relax. We arrived at the airport 3 hours early as they stated on the website, walked through security fairly quick, with no problems and had 2 hours to kill at the airport. We ate at McDonald’s, did some shopping, made some phone calls and such. The plane ride was not the best. It was very cramped, we had to sit next to strangers because there were no seats left for us to sit together. It was a very long flight, and very hard to sleep. We did get a little sleep but felt very tired when we arrived in Amsterdam. The airport was very small and had 2 toilets per rest room that had lines very long and moved very slow. We did not have much time before we had to board our next plane. The plane was very small itself but had more room for us. We got to sit together so that made it a lot better. When we arrived at Kiev there was no terminal for the plane so we were let out on the tarmac and had to be bused to the terminal. Everything we were told to do did not happen from this point on. The line we were supposed to check in to was closed, no card to fill out for customs, no customs check, no driver with our sign to be seen any where. We checked in through the Visa line and was free to get our luggage and was pointed to the exit. We walked out the door and there was an isle for us to walk through with people waiting on both sides. We walked 30 feet reading signs before we found our driver with a sign that read “McClarg”. We were very happy to see him. He helped with our bags and out we went for our first sights of Kiev. Our driver, Vitaly, was very nice but knew little English. He provided us with our cell phone in the parking lot of the airport and then we were on our way. They drive like you have never seen before. There seems to be no traffic laws or police. We drove 140 KM in a 90 KM limit, no one stays in their lane, they make up lanes where they do not exist, drive on and park on sidewalks, drive around people stopped at stop signs… You can not believe it. Cars are backed up as far as you can see and you bob and weave through town to get where you need to go. So as we start getting further away than we expected from the airport we started getting nervous and then the neighborhood started getting a little shaky we started to get a lot more nervous. When we finally pulled up to our apartment building we got really nervous!! This is the point we started praying hoping that are faith in God and our hopes that he was leading us to adoption were not wrong. At this point we were trusting our adoption facilitator had not led us astray. It was a locked gated alley way to an open court that had more locked doors and the building was very old like from the1900’s and had not been updated at any time since. After walking up 3 ½ flights of very old stairs we finally get to our apartment. When we opened the door it was with great relief that we realized it was actually very nice inside. We were glad to know we did not die in the courtyard and were not sold for body parts. Once we were inside we signed papers for the apartment and cell phone and off he went. All we had was the phone number for our facilitator, so we called to find out what we should do because we had no car, no food, none of thier money and did not know what to do. He assured us we were safe, told us to walk and get to see sights, find a restaurant, eat a good meal, and get a good nights sleep. We did and now love walking the streets (except for the bitter cold) and seeing the sights. The buildings are great, that is the best part for us. Most of the roads are brick and/or stone. Everything looks very old but is very cool. We will add pics to the blog.

Today was the SDA appointment. Our appointment was at 10:30 am. Konstatine met us here at 9:45 and we walked to the appointment. Everyone here walks very fast!! We waited in the hall for our name to be called. Our meeting was with Deanna, she was very nice and spoke no English so Konstatine translated for us. They asked us to tell a little about our family, reviewed the children’s files with us. They had only general basic kind of information but approved us for visitation to meet children. The paperwork will be ready Thursday before 5:00 pm our time and we will be leaving on the night train at 8:00 pm with our translator George to travel to Kerch. We take the train to Crimea and then will rent a car to drive the rest of the way to Kerch. Along the way we will pick up the orphanage director and bring her with us to the orphanage for our meeting. How do you think that sounds? We hope to see the children Friday at 1:00. We are not sure if we will have internet access in Kerch. We were told we may be able to find a business that has it. If you do not see us post and worry you can always call. It is free for you to call but we cannot call out. You have to dial the country code of 38 before our number so the number to dial would be 38(066)6930631. Sorry about the mix up on the number.

Miss you all, thank you for the prayers and support.