Wow! Part of the struggle has been our lack of technology. We have a laptop and two telephones, and yet things seem quite complicated. I have journaled since we left the US on our laptop. However, we only have internet through a local computer which is in Cyrillic alphabet. I have not mastered that yet! Ha! I wish I had before now for Nina's sake only. Communication is our biggest hurdle. Here we go.
3/23-3/24/2009
Note: some things are journaled for Nina's future benefit!
Our flights to Kiev were uneventful, which is so great! I felt everyone's payers. Jordan was able to sleep on the flight from JFK to Kiev, but I was not. So, now I have just awakened from a nap at 9:30pm, about the time Jordan came to bed!
On our flight into Kiev, we met one couple adopting through a Christian organization (from Pennsylvania) and another family with three kids adopting. They were from Florida. They seem really cool. I hope we meet up with them again. The mom was great and talkative and the dad is a baseball coach. All very tan from the Florida sun. We called the kids before we left NY. We left them a few new toys by their beds the morning we departed. They were thrilled. Wiley was obsessed with the new race cars, and the girls loved their new "Fur Real" dogs, which moved and barked. They also had new outifts for the American girls dolls (Target knock offs.) Mia told me she was saving those for tomorrow. :) Karly told me they were having so much fun. Denae took them swimming and to McDonalds. What more could a kid ask for! I'm so glad they sounded so contented. Thank you, Lord for Denae! It was really hard for me to hear the kids. I missed them so much and it had been only a short time. I cried so hard, but I think it was the prospect of being gone from them for such a long period of time. I hurt to see them again, and I knew it would be a long time and they will have grown and changed. They will experience so much without me. This was a very hard moment for me. And, cried the ugly cry. I think Jordan was very concerned about me, since this was probably the third time I had had such an emotional break down.
Our arrivl in Kiev was not stressful. We filled out all of the appropriate paperwork, followed all of the rules, and no one ever stopped us or asked to look at our baggage or anything. Kelli sent us some encouraging notes to open along our trip. We opened Day Two's note, and the words were just what Jordan and I needed. We were washed wtih His presence at that moment when we needed it. He knows just what we need: encouraging words and friends like Kelli to make sure we have them. Thank you, Kelli! You're an angel.
After our smooth arrival, we met Nicholay. He does not speak English, and we told him we were working on our Ukrainian. He talked most of the time as if we could understand him. We tride, but that part is exhausting, especially when you are already exhausted. My little dictionary was very limited. But, he took us straight to this museum about the war and the Germans in the Ukraine. It was heart-wrenching. One of their displays was a wall sized picture of tiny Ukrainian-Jewish children standing behind barbed wire fencing in a concentration camp. They wore little gowns, had shaved heads and their little bodies wee so skinny. We couln't read anything in the museum, but the pictures told a thousand stories of events we need not forget. The museum is beautiful, but all of the pictures were very graphic. Nothing was left to the imagination. Above the museum stands a statue of a woman hodling a tablet in one hand and a torch in the other, I believe. I asked Nicholay what you call her. He said, "Big Mama" in English. We got so tickled, and so did he! We never determined her real name or maybe that is it!
The car had a low tire, so Nicholay stopped to borrow a bicycle pump from someone and hand-pumped the tire. Jordan offered to help, but he would not allow it. He wouldn't let us carry anything, including a large bottle of water. He was so gracious!
Then, he wisked us off to a monastery, where we entered and took a candle. Before we entered, Nicholay asked me to pull my "sharf" over my head. Then, we continued down tiny underground tunnels and into little chambers where (Jordan and I determined) the Saints were buried, or mummified. It was very unusual. There were pictures of Jesus everywhere along with these Saints. People were hugging their glass tombs and kissing them and praying over them. We felt a little like we were intruding on some personal moments. There was a life-sized nativity scene outside enclosed in glass. I mentioned baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph, and Nicholay nodded yes. On our walk, we passed by buildings with beautiful wood lined windows that crank out. And, they were covered in these ornate iron grates. There are lovely details like this all over the city. You see such care and tedious work in small things. Yet, so many things seem in disrepair.
At this point, we went to a bank, where I almost stepped out in front of a car crossing the street. Nicholay jokingly grabbed my hand and walked me across the street at the crosswalk. He laughed about it. We exchanged money, one dollar to their 8.08 (grivna). It was a little uncomfortable doing this since we exchanged so much money and were being watched (or felt like it.) We crossed the street again, and Jordan grabbed my hand as we crossed. Nicholay laughted.
Then, we went to the grocery store. That was very stressful. I couln't read what anything was... ham? turkey? roast? swiss cheese? smelly cheese? Who knew? I did find chocolate, sour cream and onion chips, yogurt (very cheap!) water, bread, oranges and laundry detergent. Poor Nicholay found this equally frustrating, because he ended up ordering our meat and cheese for us. And, he had to show us how to buy oranges and get them weighed (all produce gets weighed before it goes into your basket.) It was about $20. Then, we went to our apartment. It is so nice and clean. I was quite surprised at how nice it was. We got settled, ta some lunch and I could not keep my eyes open. It started snowing, and I enjoyed the view of the city street from our window. McDonald's is right down the street, which is great since we will need coffee in the morning. After all of this, I crashed! And, now I'm headed back to bed at 10:07pm, anxious for our appointment tomorrow morning. We have yet to see Natalia. Hopefully, we will see her in the morning. Good night!
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