Day 4-Referral and Notary

We started off the day by sleeping in. It was lovely. We didn't need to be anywhere until we met Oleg, Natasha, and Irina at the SDA to pick up our referral. We didn't really need to meet all of them, but Irina and Natasha were taking the Ceran's to the airport (sorry, I don't have any flight information for them except that they left today) and Oleg was meeting us there in case the girls didn't get back in time.

Turns out everyone got there at the same time! After getting our referral, Natasha told us that we had a 'change of the plan' and we jumped into Irina's car and hustled to the notary to get our power of attorney notarized so that our facilitator, Helen, could act as our facilitator. Ukraine uses the cyrillic alphabet. I pointed the notary sign out to Natasha and said the Russian word, notarious, to see if I was pronouncing it correctly. She said yes, that is how Ukrainians say it, but Americans say HOTAPIYC, pronouncing it 'hot-a-piece'. It was so funny. I guess you had to be there:)

After the notary, we went back to the apartment and Tyler was able to do a little work before we were picked up by Oleg for the play/musical that his wife Oksana is in. The name of it is Welcome to Ukraine. The world cup is in Ukraine next year and the country is doing some reconstruction and building things in preparation for that big event. The play will also be for during the world cup. It is about a man and woman who meet on the internet. The man is from Ukraine, the woman from France. She comes to visit him in Ukraine and they fall in love. The story line is that he is telling her about Ukraine and its history/heritage. Because I highly doubt you will see it, I'll go ahead and tell you the ending. She goes back to France because she needs time to 'think' and he is devastated. In the end, she returns and they get married. It was really great. The one part we didn't get though was during the Christmas scene, there was a grim reaper and a couple random animal costumes. After, Oksana explained that traditionally they have a holiday two days before Christmas that is comparable to our Halloween. People dress up and go to houses where people give them either candy or money. I'd be all over the money thing! Anyhow, the grim reaper standing next to Father Christmas made a whole lot more sense after that. Oksana's mom was visiting from Israel and we were able to meet her and their oldest son, Daniel. Erica, I told Daniel hi from Little One and he blushed and smiled. It was awesome:) Oksana's mom was darling, just like her. Don't you think it's amazing that here we are in the capital of Ukraine, speaking to a woman from Israel who speaks Hebrew?! America is so boring:) Boring but free.

I wanted to do a top ten of things that will tell you that you are in Ukraine:
10) no drinking fountains
9) cars park on the sidewalk
8) plaid and stripes not only go together but are very popular
7) all the children have white hair
6) we are the only ones who do not speak a second language
5) undergarments are not necessary (?!)
4) there is a picture of a cat on a milk bottle (I guess you can milk a cat?!)
3) the dollar is worth a lot
2) every entrance has two doors and LOTS of locks
1) you throw your toilet paper in the garbage can

Sunday here is Kyiv day, the day of Kyiv's birthday. Apparently the Ukrainians like themselves a good celebration, because already today decorations were going up and tonight we were graced with a fireworks show and a lot of music. The Ukrainian team was explaining to us that the reason there are so many holidays dates back to the Soviet period. They outlawed all celebrations of family and country and God, allowing only celebration of their crazy leaders. The people realized more than ever that they needed to have things to celebrate, rejoice in and to look forward to. Now, they have many holidays and celebrations, sometimes lasting several days. After it was explained to me like that, it made perfect sense. It's like when I'm pregnant and can't eat anything. After I have that baby, I eat and eat and eat. Even if I'm full. I'm so excited to be able to finally eat that I just keep going. I guess it's that way for them. They can finally be happy and make their own laws and cheer and celebrate how they wish and by golly, they are going to do it!

We are well, it's all good. We miss our kids. We are excited for our friends who are preparing to travel and for those hoping to submit soon. It is still the rumor that they SDA will continue to accept dossiers, so keep praying:)

As Natasha says, We'll talk to you!

p.s. Tonight for dinner I ate a bowl of Kosmostars (cereal that tastes like Honeycomb) and Tyler ate, get this, a peanut butter, nutella, and cherry jelly sandwich! bleh!!