Back in Kiev

We're back! It's funny how it feels like we never left. We just fell right back in step. Our flights were uneventful. Boy, that trip from NY to Kiev is brutal. You can handle about the 1st 5-6 hours and then it starts to go downhill fast. We're in a new apartment. When we got in we were incredibly exhausted but our apartment wasn't ready yet so we went to a coffee shop to hang out for a couple of hours. Larry got "hot chocolate"...well it was hot and it was chocolate. It was about the consistency of pudding and tasted like cake batter.

When we got back they told us that the last person had broken the sink in the bathroom and a technician was putting a new one in. He had to run to get some supplies but we could go in. We walked in, dumped everything, and fell asleep until he arrived to finish with the sink. We hardly stayed awake while he was here. When he left we fell asleep again until someone came by to bring us some drinking glasses. FINALLY we got some sleep and as much as we wanted to stay asleep we knew that if we didn't get up we would be wide awake tonight. After exploring the room a bit we learned that we have a washing machine and a skillet but no drying rack or dinner plates. Oh well, you take what you can get! Larry thinks they got a 2 for 1 deal on the designer :).


Look! We can do our laundry while we go to the bathroom!


The view from outside. Our last apartment had a better view but it came with the sounds of honking horns and screeching tires all night. This time we are in the back of the building which is much more quiet but not much to look at.



We met up with the Dove's for dinner and met their newest addition, a 5 1/2 year old boy! Their other son is with them and he was adopted from Ukraine a couple of years ago so they now have 2 handsome boys! I will never be able to say enough about what a blessing the other adoptive families here have been to us. They have provided encouragement, laughter, understanding, and English! We all share a unique common bond and the friendships are instant.

We talked to Nadya and she told us that she and Oleg did as much for us as they could without us being present. We love them :)! The next step is to pick up Oksana's new birth certificate which we need in order to move forward with more paperwork. We can't do that until Tuesday so we have tomorrow free. We really debated going to see Oksana but we are struggling with whether or not, in her situation, it is best that we show up after our absence have another visit and leave her behind yet again, leaving her confused and upset, or if we should just show up when it is time to take her out of the orphanage. At this point we've decided to wait it out a bit and see how things progress. We still aren't sure when we will get her out. We have lots of paperwork running to do and she isn't the type of kiddo that will happily hang out while we do that so we will wait. I know many people immediately get their kids out after the 10 day wait but after much prayer and seeking the counsel of others we have decided that this is not the best option for us. Good or not the orphanage is all Oksana knows and we want to minimize the confusion and impact that pulling her out will cause as well as do what we can to increase the chances that her first days with us in this apartment are positive ones for all of us.

So...there won't be much excitement tomorrow. We will head to a children's store to get some gifts for the orphanage, I'm sure we will fit a nap in, and we will meet up with some new families that have just arrived to start their journey as well as more "old timers" like us ;).