Small Town

Yesterday we receive the completed paperwork from the orphanage director.   Today (Tuesday)at 4:00p.m. Roman picked up the completed paperwork from the Inspector and also discussed a possible court date.  Roman left about 5:30 with the paperwork and is on his way to Kyiv to deliver it to the SDA and check on our Interpol clearances.  He will probably not return to this town until court.  Another facilatator called him and asked him to come to another region 6 hours away.  There is an American couple that is having problems adopting 2 siblings and Roman has worked in this region before and knows the director and inspector.  We have found that is a very important thing in the adoption process is to have a person that knows the region and the people.  If not, I think your process can be quite difficult and drawn out.  Roman has been great!!  He is soft spoken, but very knowledge, a hard worker and reads people well.  He also is part child psychologist..., with great insight into Alona's behavior and her past.
Please pray for a quick court date; they are talking about it being next Monday or Tuesday possibly.  Which would be a BIG blessing!!  It is not that we are tired of Ukraine, but this is a really small town we are in and sometimes it is uncomfortable.  Everywhere we go Alona knows someone.  Alona knew the young lady at the trampoline place, because she goes to the orphanage and cuts hair.

Maria and Alona

At the carnival, she knew one of the girls operating a ride.  She looked to be 16 or 17 and had been in the children's shelter with Alona years ago.  At the mall we ran into the librarian, on the beach we ran into a neighbor of Alona's when she was little.  Yesterday, we ran into another child that had been hosted by a family in our town.  Last night, Mike and Alona walked to this hamburger place and Alona insisted that the girl behind the counter was her "Sister".  We got Roman on the phone to talk to Alona because according to all SDA, orphanage, inspector, etc., paperwork Alona has no sister.  He found out that this young woman is more like a distant cousin of Alona's bio mom.  She is in her mid-twenties and married to a 43 yr old.  We know that Alona's bio mom lives in a rough section of this town, somewhere near the orphanage, which thankfully we are not near.  Her mother has many, many problems (like most of the orphan's parents have); however, we do not want to run into her or have her cause any problems.  Alona has never waivered in wanting to be adopted by us and since she is almost 12 she has the right to decide where she wants to live.  Her bio mom has shown no signs of wanting her in the past or of trying to straighten out her life; nevertheless, we would like to leave this town without any problems.  Everytime Alona runs up to someone she knows or they call out her name, Mike and I wonder "why didn't any of these people help her".  Even in the simplest ways, by just visiting her at the orphanage or making sure she had a toothbrush or toothpaste.  It just breaks our hearts, not just for her, but for all the children here.

These last two pictures are from the window of our hotel room.  New roofs are definetly needed.

Pictures & Trivia

If you are coming to Kyiv region and have allergies to cottonwood or similar trees... beware!!  It is like it is snowing cotton and the trees are just loaded.  Roman said that it will get much worse.  It piles up along the streets and there are people constantly cleaning it up.  So bring benadryl or claritin.
Also, the sun comes up at 4:55 a.m. and goes down at 9:05p.m.  much different than last January when the sun didn't come up until 9:00a.m. and went down by 4:00p.m.  It makes it a little difficult to sleep, but that is okay because the weather is much better this time of year. We have not seen many flowers here, but in Kyiv they were everywhere.  Also, every night that we have been here fireworks go off around 9:00p.m. for only a couple of minutes.  Do not know the reason why, but hope to find out before we leave.

Entrance to orphanage

Road that runs in front of orphanage

Inspector's Office

Father of the Day Award

Mike gets the "father of the day award" today.  For those of you who know him, you know he is a freak about germs.  He is definetly OCD about washing his hands and you better never want to take a drink from his cup.  The only one allowed to do that was our son when he was little.  Well today he actually swam in the river with Alona and let me tell you the water is brown, brown, brown.  In 6 inches of water you can not see your feet.  Ramon, our facilatator, reassured Mike that he would not get any skin diseases from it, but we shall see!!  Alona was so, so happy!!  Mike didn't wear his underwear to swim either; he went for a more full coverage look.  I knew that men wore speedo swimming suits over here, but did not realize that they also swim in their underwear.  Ramon verified that I was seeing right and he also pointed out women in their bras and underwear swimming. 

The town we are in is really small, and today when Mike was swimming this girl kept looking at him and then saw Alona and yelled "ALONA".  Guess who it was.  Olya the girl that our friends the Kyles hosted last Christmas.  She and Alona talked and swam for a long time together; unfortunately, Olya was shy and did not want us to take a picture of her ( I got one from a little far away). She did say she goes swimming a lot so maybe on another day I can get one.  She said she was doing well and she looked happy and very pretty.  The first question she asked Alona was "going to America with parents?"  Alona told her YES!!  We did tell her that her family "the Kyles" think about her all the time and that they all miss her (especially Brett).  Alona told Ramon that Olya was her best friend in America.

We made a morning trip to the orphanage, then to inspector's office, then lunch, swimming, and then back to play Go Fish and make puzzles.  I bought one 260 piece puzzle, but that only took about 1 1/2 hours and we were done.  So I might have to go back and get a 500 piece one:) 

Forgot to mention it before, but Alona has mastered backwards flips on the trampoline after about 6 times.  Of course she has the belt attached to her, but she managed doing 12 without stopping.  We have decided to enroll her in gymnastics when we get home.  She has a lot of energy and that will be one way to get rid of some it.

Mike's blog debut

I (Mike) am writing today. We started today with our morning breakfast provided by the Hotel. It is pretty good but I can see that it will get old after a few days. (I normally don't eat eggs for breakfast but they do a good job of cooking them.) We walked a few miles (going to the store, buying a bathing suit for Alona, buying groceries, the regular) and we stopped and ate at a place that has little log cabins to rent and a restuarant with indoor and outdoor seating. The place was very nice, it is close to the river so the atmosphere was great. I had barbecue ribs (I thing Texas has nothing to worry about) and Michelle was wiser and had a salad. Alona had calamari but she did not eat very much (a little chewy). Ramon our facilitator had sausage balls (his was pretty good).

We then took Alona swimming and I passed on swimming today. I did not bring a bathing suit but we noticed (Michelle more than I) that several of the men were wearing underwear as their suit. Most of the women had on bikini's no matter what the age or size. We are not in Kansas anymore! (Reminds me of The Wizard of OZ)

There is a park with carnival rides accross the street from the hotel, so we took Alona after swimming over there and she rode a few rides. The first one was a ferris wheel and I don't think we will have to ride that one again. Alona did not like the altitude. (I think I did see the space shuttle go by). Then she rode some swings that go around in a circle. She liked that one and rode it twice.  There was one really strange one, she looked like a hamster:

I can tell Alona wants to do everything she can at one time. I think she is afraid that she won't get to do anything tomorrow. She wants to eat everything at once also. I can tell that being at the orphanage has been hard on her. I wish I could explain how things will be and can be in America. That she doesn't have to try to go go go. We will be here tomorrow and one day she will be with us everyday. (She may get sick of that). Alona is still the same girl who wanted to give things away to strangers. She gave a necklace to a lady who worked a jumping trapoline ride. (She was very nice and helpful)

Well I am tired of writing and will let Michelle take over this. She does a great job I must say!

Please continue to pray that God will guide our steps over the next few days. We still think it would be great for Alona to have a sister, but it may not be possible from this region.

Today was a fun day!!!

We had no paperwork or anything today, so we celebrated by just having fun.  We have a young man, Ramon, who works with our facilatator and will be handling everything locally for us.  He has been working with adoptions for 11 years and is very knowledgeable about the paperwork but also about the children.  He has a very big heart for these children!!

The director of Alona's orphanage is different; but it has been beneficial in someways.  One way is that she lets us take her anywhere.  So today we took her and bought her some new sneakers.  The ones she had on were filthy and too little for her.  I actually think she will probably lose her toenails on her big toes eventually.  We then found this pizza place that had shuffleboard, these trampoline things, arcade games, etc.,  We then went and saw KungFu Panda 2 in 3 D (in Russian, of course).  Then we went to the river and went out in a canoe type boat.  We in between have played about 50 games of Go Fish.  So we are tired, but very happy!!

We survived a road trip!!

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but it was a paperwork day!!  I will start with the blessings!!

    1)  We get to spend a lot of time with Alona
    2)  Mike and I have both stayed healthy..., which is really a blessing since he was sick almost the entire time we were here last January
    3)  The food is really good (even Mike likes everything)  It is all so fresh from the vegetables to the homemade pasta.
    4)  We are staying in a hotel that has really nice people working in it, air-conditioning, free breakfast, and is close to the center of town.  We can walk to almost anything we need, so we are saving money on transportation.  We also have a complete kitchen in our room, so we can cook if we want to.  We had really planned on staying in an apartment, but they were all farther away and not much cheaper.  Oh, and the hotel only has 6 or 8 rooms in it.  There are only two rooms on our floor, so it is really quiet.
    5)  The orphanage director finished 95% of the paperwork we needed from her.  She said she will finish the last 5% on Monday.  This is a major blessing, because she had told us on Thursday that she probably could not do it for 10 days..., which would have been a major delay. 
    6) We are only 1 hour and 15 minutes from Kyiv
    7)  The van we took to Kyiv had padded headrests -- very much needed since my head hit them a few times




So yesterday at 2:30 we were down to just needing our signatures on a couple of documents and this is where the road trip began.  This small town has two notaries. One said she had 10 people ahead of us and could not do it until Monday.  The other notary said she had not done adoption paperwork for the last few years and she refuse to help us.  So a road trip to  Kyiv was necessary..., UGGH!!  Imagine driving in an older van (curtains in the windows), no A/C, windows down, driving 120 kilometers an hour, and only using the brakes to come to immediate stop never to slow down.  10 minutes of the drive felt like you were sitting in one of those massage chairs while getting a pedicure; the next hour and 5 minutes was a totally wooden rollercoaster drive.  I am just glad that neither Mike or I get car sick.  Mike just kept looking at me, would laugh, and say "remember this is an adventure".  I just kept thinking I waited 16 months to come and adopt Alona and I am going to die!! 

While the notary did the paperwork, we went to this neat little cafe to eat and they had ICED green tea with mint!!  What a treat!!  Then we went back and signed everything and back to our small town we go.  Unfortunately, we got stuck in Friday rush hour and we did not get back until 8:30.  We have learned to grab a bottle of water, protein bars, etc., because you never know when a simple task will turn into a 6 hour adventure!!

Reality of the situation

I don't want to sound like a downer the day after we finally got to see Alona; but I thought I needed to be truthful.  The orphanage was totally depressing!!  I had heard how awful they were before we even hosted Alona, but then somehow had been lulled into thinking they were just bad.  I guess I had read so many blogs that talked about loving caregivers, food that was not bad and buildings that were liveable..., not Alona's.  It makes me cry to even think of a child having to live there one day.  I can now see why the orphanage director wanted us to stay outside the whole time.  I had to use the restroom while we were there and the director let me use the one off her office, so you would think it would have been the best and it was gross!!  I took pictures on my phone and will try to post them later.  The water was out so you had to wash your hands in a pail of water that was sitting on the floor.  Needless to say, I did not use it!!  The hallways were long, dark and dreary.., literally no lights.  The little bit of playgroud equipment was needing repair and the grounds were overgrown with weeds.  I can see why the children don't play outside but roam the streets.  And only one caregiver ever smiled or even acknowledged us.  I could write it off as maybe they didn't like Alona, but I watched them interact with a precious little boy named Vlad (the youngest at this orphanage--he is 4yrs old) and they appeared heartless.  There was no supervision of the older children.  I actually saw a boy about 16 come out of one of the doors with a cigarette in hand (not lit) but totally out in the open for anyone to see.  This orphanage is for older children, ages 10 to 16 unless they are a sibling group.  But it was like they had already written these children off as hopeless or unworthy.  I believe there are good orphanages in this country with caring individuals; but please DO NOT get lulled into believing that these children are okay.  We got asked all the time "why Ukraine?", "why not help a child in the US".  Our response was always "God called us to Ukraine" and Mike and I believe that with our whole heart!!  After seeing the conditions of this orphanage, I also can not believe that the conditions can be compared to anything in the U.S.  I also know why Alona can be so strong-willed because if she wasn't she would have never survived-- not her previous life nor her life in this orphanage.  Sorry to be such a downer.., but this is the REALITY of the situation.  Promise my next post will be more uplifting, because God has truly BLESSED us by opening our eyes and hearts to Ukraine.  I have said many times, that even if we never were able to adopt Alona, she will always be our daughter; and I would never want our lives to go back to the way it was two years ago.

There are no words..., finally..., our girl!!

I have been trying for the last 30 minutes to put into words the emotions of seeing Alona after 16 months.  Our morning started with driving from Kyiv to her region, then stopping at the Inspector's office to have paperwork done, then off to the orphanage to meet with the director.  We were then told to wait in the courtyard outside and about 5 minutes later; here she came running full speed around the corner.  She yelled "Mama" "Papa" and barreled into our arms. There were many teary eyes..., Mama, Papa, Alona and even the facilatator.  We then met some of the other children and a couple of the caregivers.  Alona had said that only one caregiver was nice to her and we could tell which one right away.
I can't go into details until we are back home; but suffice it to say that today was full of surprises!!  The director is something much..., to say the least.  But the most important thing is that Alona wrote her letter that she wants to be adopted by us.  And I think between the Inspector and the director she was asked aleast 15 different ways if she was sure.  She never waivered..., one of the plus sides of being strong-willed.  We will be picked up in the morning and the paperchase will begin. The director of the orphanage is suppose to sign the papers in the morning.  So please be praying for that and that everything keeps going smoothly and we get a quick court date.   We know that there will be a lot of waiting and waiting before then.  So pray for our patience!!

I will write more tomorrow.., today we are a little drained emotionally and mentally.

"You know what I like" stage

Box the cake came in

We are just 3 days into this journey, so I am in the "you know what I like about Ukraine" stage -- a month from now I will be in the "get me home NOW" stage.  But one of the things I liked about Ukraine last time and this time is how hospitable the people are.   The very first night we were here, Anja (the sister of our translator in the U.S.) came to our apartment and brought us the cake pictured above.  She has been delivering packages to Alona (on her day off from work) for almost 9 months now.  Tonight, we ate with our translator, Marina, that we used last January and have stayed in contact with since.  Another thing I like, is how people seem to be sitting everywere just talking.  On benches in the park, outside their apartments, on benches along the street, at outdoor cafes and everywhere in Independance Square.  In the U.S. everyone seems too busy to just sit and talk.

 Call me crazy, but I laugh everytime I see someone driving on the sidewalk or making a 3 lane street into a 6 lane, or pulling up and parking 2 feet from a door.  I like when Mike trys to order a chocolate/vanilla ice cream cone by pointing at a picture and the lady says "Nyet -- no" and gives him a strawberry/vanilla one.  Like I said before, this is because we are only 3 days into this journey!!
One thing I don't like is all the cigarette smoke!!  Everyone seems to smoke here and forget about the non-smoking sections of resturants they are 1 1/2 feet from the smoking section.

One more note on the weather, it has been really warm here but today it rained and tonight it is suppose to get down to 50F.  So maybe a light sweater would come in handy.  I think it is suppose to warm up quickly again over the next few days; but tonight it feels great with our windows wide open. With it being so warm, we've had a hard time sleeping.   We are use to our A/C and ceiling fans..., basically.., we are spoiled.

Referral in hand!!!

Us,  Natalia (facilatator) & Quintero's

We picked up our referral from the SDA this afternoon at 4:00p.m., as did our neighbors & friends the Quintero's.   We will be picked up by Natalia at 7:00a.m.(5-26) for a 9:00a.m. appointment with the Inspector of Alona's region.  If all goes well, then we will head to Alona's orphanage and get to see her before noon.   I can not even think about that moment without tearing up.  We have seen a couple of pictures of her in the SDA file and also on her passport and she looks like one solemn little girl.  Hopefully, we can turn that back around to the always smiling and slightly mischievous little girl we remember.

I did make a comment that everything had been so hard before (locating Alona's registration papers, putting dossier together, waiting) but now the SDA has been so easy.  Our facilatator reminded me that court is ahead of us and sometimes the Kyiv region is not the easiest to work with.  So keep up the prayers. 

One more thing..., we have found in Ukraine that if you are given a time for an appointment or pickup that it means around that time (within a half hour usually).  As you know Mike is really punctual, but he has adjusted well.  He just laughed this afternoon and said "______" would fit in great here.  You can fill in the name of the person.

Apartment pictures



Front door to our apt. -- love the parking!!

Stairwell in our building

Our living room.., complete with tiger skin throws

Bring your own sheet & pillowcases -- it will make that 4"inch mattress feel much better

Successful SDA referral

Our SDA appointment went smoothly and we will pick up our referral tomorrow at 4:00p.m.  We will leave for the region on Thursday morning (it is only about 1 1/2 hours away) and hope to see Alona by noon.  The SDA building is very non-descript.  They let us in a side door and up a stairwell to a small office.  We sat on a small couch and our facilitator, Natalia, and the social worker sat across from us.  The social worker looked to be in her mid-twenties and was very nice.  She asked a few questions about our background and family.  We then showed her the photobook we had made of Alona and our family.  The social worker really liked it and I would highly recommend bringing one with you.  She really did not ask another question after looking at the pictures.  There was only one minor hiccup during the interview, when the social worker and Natalia started talking real fast and everyone looked serious.  There was one document missing from Alona's file, but they made a call to the Inspector and it was going to be faxed right then to the SDA.  We were then told to come back tomorrow to pick up our referral.  We were in there only about 20 minutes and then went across the street and celebrated with a latte -- it was really pretty good.

For those of you who follow our blog, you know that I read from a devotional "Streams in the Desert" everyday.  Well God definetly has a sense of humor because here is today's Scripture:

      Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.    Genesis 21:2

It then talks about being prepared to wait on God's timing.  It is precise, for He does things "at the very time" He has set.  It is not for us to know His timing, and in fact we cannot know it -- we must wait for it.  
Who would have thought that Mike and I would be given a child so many years after our son,  so many years after giving up on the dream of more children;  and two years after we started down this adoption journey.  We know we aren't done with this adoption yet, but each step brings us closer to having Alona home with us forever.

We are here & We have Internet !!!!

WooHoo!!!  We just got our Internet working.  We arrived in Kyiv yesterday afternoon and got settled in our apartment.  It is on a very pretty, quiet little street about a 10 minute walk from Independence Square.  It is warmer here than I expected.  I had been looking on the Weather Channel and it said the low was in the 50's and highs in mid 70's.  We landed on Sunday afternoon and it was 93 F. 
When we were here last year it was 0 to 20 below -- so quite a change.  Also, last year everyone had on black everything..., hats, coats, scarfs, sweaters, pants; but now everyone is dressed in colors!!  We have seen people in dresses, capris, shorts and flip-flops; but what most of the women have on are very, very short, tight dresses with high, high, high heels!!  Most of these shoes are really pretty but I am not sure how they walk in them.  The sidewalks have hugh potholes and there are a lot of hilly, cobblestone streets.  I already tripped once and I had on flat shoes.

Tonight we actually had dinner with our neighbors & friends, The Quintero's.  They actually live about 3 houses away from us and started down their adoption journey in the summer of 2009 as well.  They are in Kyiv for their second SDA appointment which will be tomorrow afternoon -- they are adopting 4 children from a different region than we are.  We are praying that everything continues to go smooth in their adoptions.  How cool is it that our Alona will have Ukrainian friends right down the street.

Tomorrow morning at 9:00a.m. (Tuesday) we have our SDA appointment -- that is 1:00a.m. Texas time.  We appreciate everyone's prayers and we will let you know how it goes tomorrow.  I am hoping to post some pictures soon too!!

The time has come... we're leaving!!!

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  
 John 14:18

The time has come, our plane takes off in less than 11 hours!!  I think we are packed and everything is within the weight limit..., I pray.  We will be landing in Kyiv Sunday afternoon, about 29 hours after leaving Texas.., UGGH!!  I am trying to keep in mind that there is an 8 hour time change, so it really is only 21 hours!! 

Please pray for safe travel, no problems with customs and that our luggage makes it there.  More importantly pray for our adoption(s).., that everything would go smoothly with the SDA, regional officials, social workers, orphanage director, judge, etc., 

Ukraine on my mind

It the midst of this craziness, I have to stop and thank all of the people that have been sharing their travel & packing tips.  People have also shared the "this is where we messed up" stories, which I greatly appreciate.  It has been so encouraging hearing from people that have walked this path before us and been successful.  Today, I ate lunch with someone who adopted at the end of last year and she was kind enough to loan me her Ukrainian computer stick (don't know real name for it -- just know it will enable us to have Internet service..., hopefully.)  Also, lent us some travel bags, an electrical converter and a money/passport pouch.  This evening we are eating dinner with a young couple that are considering adopting from Ukraine.  Who would have thought that two years ago, when we were asked to host a child from Ukraine, I had to look it up on a map.  I knew it was near Russia, but not exactly sure where.  Fast forward two years, and Ukraine and its orphans are constantly on my mind and in my prayers!!

65 hours and counting...,

Being goofy

It is now just over three days until we leave for Ukraine and I really can not put into words my emotions.  I am so over the top happy and excited to think we are so close to adopting Alona.  Yet, I find myself tearing up at everything..., when I think of the families waiting on their SDA submissions or invitations, when I think of the children waiting for them, when I think of seeing Alona for the first time in 16 months, when I think of things that could go wrong with our adoption, etc.,   Or maybe these tears are because we seem to have several people, whom we love very much, going through some really tough times and I hate not being here for them.  Bottom line is.., I know I am being goofy!!

On the flip side, I think we are pretty close to having everything covered on the home front.  We have someone that is going to stay in our home, take care of our dogs, our yard.  I have most things bought and packed.  This evening I tried to write thank you notes in Ukrainian for the caregivers of Alona's orphanage; but I gave up.  It looked like a right-handed 3 year old wrote it with her left hand.

One WEEK!!!!!

I feel like I am constantly saying this, but it is so hard to believe that we are finally going to see our girl!!  We didn't get to talk to her this week because they said it was too late when we called.  They have told us to call at 5:30 or 6:00, then switched it to 6:30 or 7:00, then when the time changed they switched it to 9:00.  I personally thought that 9:00pm was too late to call, but that is what the nurse told us to do.  After calling at that time for a few weeks, they decided yesterday that we need to call earlier again.  Oh well, next Thursday will hopefully be the last time we ever have to call that orphanage to talk to her.  I appreciate that they have let us call her once a week, but they are not the friendliest bunch of people.

I have finally started packing the piles of stuff I have everywhere.   I really like being organized, so these piles have be getting on my nerves.  Unfortunately, I am also having a very hard time staying focused..., but in ONE WEEK whatever isn't done or packed just won't get done or packed:)

P.S. I hope that the blogger computer problem gets figured out, because I miss my blogger friends/families!!

10 days and counting

If I don't count today (because it is 10:00p.m.) and I don't count the day we leave for Ukraine (because we will be flying out early in the morning) that leaves 10 full days to get ready.   There have been so many times during this adoption journey when time seemed to creep by -- especially, after we submitted our dossier and were waiting for our SDA appointment.   But beware, once you get that SDA invitation --time flies!!! I am not complaining though; I would leave tomorrow if I could. 

Just FYI if you are planning on adopting from Ukraine -- the cash you bring with you needs to be new, crisp bills -- no creased/ wrinkled money.  What we have found is that it takes 2 or 3 days for a bank to order and receive the bills.  Also, our bank only orders money once a week, so make sure you don't wait until the last minute.  I also didn't realize it would take a little bit of telephoning to get a two month supply of a prescription.  My doctor said no problem and sent the prescription to the pharmacy.  The pharmacy told me that I needed to call my insurance company to get a "vacation???" supply okayed.  After my insurance company okayed it,  then the pharmacy said the doctor's prescription needed to be rewritten.  Our doctor also gave us perscriptions for an antibotic and one for dysentry -- we are not going to Ukraine without prescription drugs this time.  Tomorrow, I WILL get started organizing all the piles of necessities I have accumalated; then I will see if we have any room left in our suitcases for clothes:)

Is it the end of the world in Texas?

We are not sure how to interpret this question, but it did make us chuckle.  We called our girl today and the first thing she asked was "Is it the end of the world in Texas"?  We assured her that it was not and that we were coming to get her soon!!  My immediate thought is that she had been telling other children we were coming to adopt her and they told her the "end of the world" was coming to Texas.  Then I thought maybe she had seen something on the news about all the fires and bad weather some have been experiencing here.  My husband thought maybe it was some caregiver trying to scare her, just like the "they are going to sell your body parts" stories. We know she wasn't talking logistics.  We don't know what prompted the question, but she sounded sooooo serious!!

But how could the "end of the WORLD" only happen in Texas.

Oops.., reality check

I went and got my hair cut today, and of course was talking about our upcoming trip to Ukraine.  When I was leaving she asked if I wanted to book my next appointment and I said "yes" -- there is no way I am getting my hair cut in Ukraine.  I asked if they had an opening the day before we leave and she said "yes" but that is only 16 days  away!!  Oh my Goodness!!!!!!!!

Tickets Purchased!!

We are making progress!!  We purchased our airline tickets and I am starting to check things off my lists.  Of course, as soon as I check something off my list I turn around and add two more things "not to forget" to my lists.

We talked to our girl last Thursday and told her we had an appointment right about the time she would be getting out of school for the year. We have tried to explain that it will be a process; and that we are not just flying there, picking her up and flying home.  I don't know if she truly understands, but we will just take it one step at a time.

We are all so excited and it seems surreal to think that we will be leaving in less that 3 weeks.  The days seem to be flying by since we got our SDA appointment -- what a blessing!!