Hello from Kiev, Ukraine!

Our Saturday morning started out at 4:00am after only a couple hours of sleep (Darrell got one hour). Joey, Noah, AND Austin slept with us and we stayed up LATE talking. I "think" Joey was really starting to sense something was up after days and days of me telling him I am going on an airplane to get Isaiah. They wanted us to wake them to say goodbye. Noah had shed his tears earlier that night...Darrell and I let loose saying goodbye that morning. It was so hard. We actually sat in the car on the driveway for about 5 minutes as we cried and prayed...thanking God for all the blessings He has given us up to that point and for safety for us all so we all come back together at the end of this journey...all safe and sound.

We met up with a South Dakota couple in Minneapolis. They are adopting 2 kids from Ukraine after adopting one last year. They have 6 bio kids. Great family. Unfortunately we won't see much of them as they are adopting from a different region.

We were to take off from New York at 4:15pm and we did but didn't get very far...just to the runway. They started up the engines and one was not working properly. We sat on the VERY warm plane for 2 hours. It was a GREAT flight with hardly any turbulence...my kind of flight. I've never been on a flight where they have updates on a screen of how far you've traveled and also with a GSP system. Pretty neat.

My first experience with customs went really well except for no air conditioning while wearing tennys and jeans and carrying heavy bags. We were told by someone today that yesterday was Kiev's hottest day...110 degrees. Today was 104. Totally miserable. Our driver was waiting for us. He took us to exchange money, to a grocery store to get a few things including drinking/cooking water and then to our apartment. We are on the 50th floor...well, ok...it's only the 5th but as hot as it is and NO air conditioning it very well could be the 50th. I don't think the hot water heater is working but right now I could care less. I told Darrell he is getting a taste of "labor"...but it will all be worth it just like labors always are.

On the long flight I sat next to a sweet young gal who lives really close to Isaiah's city. She grew up in Odessa and was coming to visit her mom and update her passport. She's been living in the USA for 6 years. She told me alot about the area and even gave me her phone number in case we need anything. We are debating on trying to find a way to drive around the country side...maybe over her way...as Darrell is really itching to see some farm land.

As we were walking down to a main area in Kiev we noticed 4 people walking on the opposite side of the sidewalk so Darrell said we should catch up to them as they look like American's. They sure were...from Wisconsin. They were visiting their son who is in the Peace Corps. The son was offering us advice as to where good places to eat are and stores to go to etc. We ate at TGIF's for supper. Was nice to see English in their menu. When we were leaving Darrell, once again, said he wants to talk to this guy we noticed while we were eating. He said he noticed us too and figured we were American's. When we asked him how he knew he said because he saw us smiling/laughing. He wasn't American but spoke it very well. He teaches English around this area. He gave us his cell phone number and offered us help in anyway we needed.

We talked to the kids on Skype. Wow! It was hard seeing Joey but SOOOOOOOOOOOO good. He kept signing mom and dad. 2 days are done for us already. Hope the rest goes this fast.

We found an underground mall and we plan on hanging out there part of the day tomorrow with this crazy heat. I HATE weather like this. I would have NEVER planned a vacation to go somewhere this hot but we are following the road God has us on. Our SDA appointment is Tuesday at 9:00am and there is a chance we could be on a night train to Nikolaev that night.

I had asked my dad a couple times if he wanted to go with me to Ukraine (jokingly) and he never even had to think about it...his answer was NO. Well, there was a man on the long flight that looked 98% like my dad. He was up maybe 10 rows but he was standing alot during the flight. I kept telling Darrell he should tell my dad to sit down. THEN our driver looked alot like him too. Too weird. So, Dad, in a way you were kind of with me on the trip.

Until next time.

Spah-koy-nay noh-chee from Ukraine.