Days 8 and 9-Tuesday Pictures

Yeah, I know. Sideways again. Sorry. Just tilt your head. So this was so AWESOME!!! We were hanging out in the hallway of the entrance to the internat and these boys come traipsing down the hall towards us holding a TURTLE out in front of them. I LOVE turtles (and apparently all caps). I used to have a turtle named Izzy, he ate live gold fish. Keep in mind that all of this is gushing out of my mouth and being translated. 'What's his name? Where do you keep him? What does he eat?' and on and on and on. After a few seconds I realize that nobody is answering my questions and Huz says to me, 'Hon, I think they caught that in the pond and so they don't know what it eats and I don't think he has a name.' Still stuck on the pet thing, I say, 'What are you going to name him? Where will he stay? Did you really find him in the pond?!' By now the boys are pretty much laughing at me. They tell me that yes, they found it in the pond and I say, 'Let's go!!' But then Huz says we can't go to the pond right now and so we take the turtle outside in the tall grass and I don't know what came of him. the end

Team Ping-Pong. This is just a few of the many ping-pongers here at the internat. They can play for a really really long time. It's fun to watch. I tried to teach them around the world and they have played before but each using their own paddle. I explained the American way is trickier and they were willing to try and I played with them and I WON!!! This will be the only time that ever happens in my entire lifetime.

Ping-pongers:)

More ping-pongers. Pretty sure by the end we'll have more pics of ping-ponging than anything else.

A few of the boys shaking things up by playing some kind of soccer game while they wait for their turn at ping-pong.

A lady whom I have never met sent some hairbows to me through my friend/mentor Wendy to give to the girls at the internat. Here are a few pics of them. They were pretty pumped to get to choose their own and then keep it. They're not used to choosing things. Things are usually just handed to them and I suppose they either make due or trade. Anyhow, thanks hair bow lady for providing these bows for the kids and me with the opportunity to pass them out. You rock!

More hair bows. I know, side ways. I love their fake smiles. They don't really know what to do with a camera in their faces:)

More bows. This girl's name is Kat and she was sooooooooo shy and wouldn't come over to pick one out but I could see her eyeing this one so I picked it up and handed it to her and she had the biggest smile on her face-until I got the camera out.

This one's for you Renee! And Myck. Losha says thank you and hello. Romo was at an excursion so we haven't seen him. This is one cute kid.

Keeem! This one's for you:) He is a darling, sweet boy.

Monday Part Two

Be sure to scroll down and read the other entry from today. It's long, but I promise, you don't want to miss it. This second post is just more pictures.

Ladies, this is the front garden of the orphanage. Daylilies, lupine, daisies, peonies, and more. All here. All blooming. All beautiful. All the gardens are like this. Crazy, huh?!

BoyTwo's room. He shares it with nine other kids. His bed is the one to his left with the flower pillow case. The room is bright and clean and doesn't smell. The windows are opened and the air is circulating. There is no air conditioning so it is hot. Honestly, we probably got here a day after their shower day and laundry day. I'm sure that it will get a little stinky.

Huz and BoyOne. This is some serious ping-pong. Poor Huz. It's like 85 degrees.

Huz and BoyTwo who loves our phone games:)

The hall outside Larissa's office. Love all the plants.

A sampling of the sweeeet artwork in our apartment:)

This is just another angle of the family room. Huz is standing in the bedroom.

Day 7-Monday

So, yeah. Today was just another manic Monday. I've heard it before, but now I can echo it with experience: In Ukraine the only thing to expect is the unexpected.

I actually will back up just a little to Sunday night. We went for a little self-tour of the city we are staying in, Zap. I feel bad even saying this, but I really like it! To all my friends who have just returned from here, it is so much nicer now that spring is here!! There are little concession style stands on a lot of corners and tables set up so that people gather around to socialize. Kids are outside playing, babushkas sit on the benches together, sometimes chatting and other times saying absolutely nothing at all. People bike everywhere and are out and about. All the women are wearing sun dresses as the weather is very nice. Huz thinks it's a little toasty-especially when he's running around with a bunch of orphans, but I still think it's a little cool.

At the risk of scaring to death our mothers, I'm posting pictures of the outside of our apartment building. If they haven't already passed out, they should keep looking because once you get inside, the apartment itself is very, very nice. Our landlord is pretty funny. He has us take our shoes off. When he comes by, he'll sit on the little bench to remove his white slip on shoes. Then, when he leaves 30 seconds later after staying right where he was standing, he sits back down and uses this old, bent shoe horn to put his shoes back on. It's hard to not laugh. Huz and I have learned that we cannot make very much eye contact or else we might start laughing-not just with him, but in a lot of other situations as well.

This morning as Huz was getting ready to plug his shaver in, the following conversation took place:
me: 'You'd better use the surge protector.'
him: 'Nah. I'll be fine.'
Plugs in shaver minus surge protector and proceeds to turn on.
HORRIBLE loud, loud grinding noise.
me: 'How's that going in there?'
him: 'I think it's a goner. Maybe I can tinker with it later though.'
Any of you that know Huz will find so many things about this funny. I won't elaborate though:)

I made the mistake of asking Elena (Helen) our facilitator last night if we needed to dress up. When will I learn that it's better to ask forgiveness?! Sheesh. Of course she recommended we dress up. This is the THIRD time in five days we have donned our church clothes. Not such a big deal for Huz, but torture for me. I don't know, it just bugs. Anyhow, our driver's name is Zhenia, actually Euzhenia, and our interpreter, Yana, along with our facilitator Elena, were in the van already. On the way to the orphanage, we had to 'swing' by another village to pick up the region's inspector, which is in a way like a social worker. I really liked her. Her name is Elena, like our facilitator. She is a busy woman who I felt genuinely supports adoptions and the best interest of the children. We all rode together in our Mercedes minivan (did you even know there was such a thing?!) to the beautiful village that the orphanage is in. Again, I'm sure my friends that were just here are rolling their eyes, or vomiting, that I used the word beautiful in correlation with this village. Really, guys. Come back. Everything is green, people are out and about, flowers are blooming everywhere. Peonies, lilacs, lupine, roses, irises, and the day lilies are about to bloom. It's really amazing. Not like Hawaii amazing, but like Ukraine amazing. I'll post pics.

As we drove, Elena explained to us what was about to happen. We'd go in for our appointment with the director, she'd call the boys in, yada, yada, yada. We asked if the boys knew we were coming. Elena told us she did not think so. I asked if I could take a picture of them coming in, envisioning their surprised faces.

As we climbed out of the car, I could hear a child yelling "Mami! Mami!" I took a couple steps and saw a boy running towards us yelling "Mami! Mami!" Because I only have one brain cell, I thought to myself, 'That looks like BoyOne.' As he got closer I realized it was BoyOne!!!! He ran up to me and gave me the biggest longest hug! Oh my goodness!! It was so great to see him! He hugged Huz, too and ran to get BoyTwo who also came racing out to us and jumped into my arms, squeezing my neck. It was a fabulous reunion!!! We have missed them so much!

The director was finishing something up so we waited in the hall outside her office. It was a very attractive hallway. I'll post a picture. BoyOne was off someplace for a minute and we were with BoyTwo for several minutes alone. I pulled out a coloring book and he began to trace his finger along dot to dots saying the numbers. He is just so cute.

When the director was ready, she led us into her office. She is a very nice, busy woman. Her name is Larissa. She asked us a few questions and then called the boys in.

And that's when the crap hit the fan.

She immediately started by saying we were here to adopt them, we are a good family, our government gave us permission, their government gave us permission, we spent a lot of time and money to come here, he needs to think of his future, he has a hopeless future, nothing good will happen, and as if that wasn't going anywhere fast, she started in on his biological mom. I wasn't sure what my place was, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't have been a good move to tell her to back off. Instead I waited and watched BoyOne's jaw tense and his eyes glaze over and saw him get really ticked. She asked if he wanted to be adopted. He said no. She asked BoyTwo, he looked down and said no. Honestly, we weren't surprised by BoyOne's response. We were not entirely sure that he was sure he wanted to come. However, BoyTwo we knew wanted to be adopted and we were surprised to hear him say no, but suspected he did so because BoyOne had coached him.

If we thought the director had laid into him before, I don't even know how to describe the next set of lectures. She was very nice about it, just very frank and add to this the inspector and our facilitator. About thirty seconds into this he tuned them out. He turned his body away from us so that he would not have to look at us. I decided that more than needing to do what was right in front of all these people, I needed to do what was right as a mom and I got up off my chair and went over to him, sat myself on the floor next to him and held his hands and told him not to listen to them, it was okay, blah, blah, blah. I know he couldn't understand my words, but I know he could understand me. We were both crying. So on top of wearing church clothes, I was now crying. Two things that really bug me. Eye roll. It felt like they just kept going on and on and on. I would look over at BoyTwo and smile at him and he'd look at me and smile and then look at his brother or the director and stop smiling and look down again. I'm not sure he understood everything that was going on or that he knew about what they were saying, but like any little kid, he recognized the tense situation and was trying to stay out of it. Finally I said, 'Enough, enough. We are done. He is done.' And the inspector said he must think tonight and we will have another appointment tomorrow.

Awesome.

So, in the middle of all this we found out that they are not willing to separate siblings in this region. They say it has to be in the best interest of the child. It was all I could do to not say, 'Really? Staying here another nine years is in his best interest?!' Actually, I did say it but then told Yana to not translate that. She agreed it was not a good idea. LOL.

Basically we knew BoyOne was pretty uncertain, but we were told that since BoyTwo wanted to be adopted and BoyOne would allow it that we could still adopt BoyTwo. And now, that was pretty much going to be a no go. I guess most other regions allow it, and until you are actually in a region, you don't know what they will do. I still can't get away from how this is not in BoyTwo's best interest. It may sound callous to try to separate siblings, but they only see each other a couple times a week, for Christmas family took BoyOne to visit, but left BoyTwo and there are other reasons. But, whatever.

We tried to pull ourselves out of shock and enjoy the rest of the day with the boys, which we did. They have a ping-pong table set up in their pavillion and Huz played ping-pong in his church clothes (longsleeved, no less) for three hours. The boys at the orphanage are hilarious. As soon as they would finish a game, they'd hold the ball up and say, 'Zero, zero.' Which meant again.

It was pretty crappy. I won't lie. We knew we had a meeting with the inspector in the morning and the boys had been told we'd be back to say good-bye then. I was seriously bummed for so many reasons. I was thinking, 'Gosh, I knew that my time here at the orphanage would go by so fast, but I had no idea it would be this fast!' and other things.

When we got in the car it was suggested to us to come back in two years after BoyOne graduated and then we could adopt BoyTwo. I think my eyeballs actually fell out of my head at that one.

Elena was talking to us as fast as Yana could translate. Basically she said she thought he may change his mind, don't give up. Both Huz and I really felt like he was pretty sure. He had gone back and forth several times and seemed pretty sure of himself just then. We agreed to go back for the appointment in the morning and to say good-bye to the boys but insisted that train tickets be purchased for us to go back to Kyiv Tuesday.

We are having a hard time sleeping. I know that everything happens for a reason. I know that there are 47 million other orphans, some of which would love to be adopted and who are absolutely wonderful. We just need some time to think. It's hard to put your big girl panties on after you just got a great big huge wedgie. As usual, captions are under the picture.


Our blue bedroom. It has blue walls, blue curtains, blue satin sheets with a red heart pillow?!



Our family room. We have an enclosed balcony that would've been used to hang our laundry in to dry had we stayed long enough to need to do laundry. I am standing in the doorway of the bedroom to take this picture.

The entrance of our apartment. Notice the bench. Isn't Huz a great model:)

Our kitchen. Very small, but it has everything we need including 5 cups that hold about eight onces of liquid all together, a microwave on the fridge, 2 bowls, 5 plates, 2 spoons, 4 forks and some knives. Did I mention it was small? I truly mean that it does have everything we need. It makes me want to reexamine my life when I get home and see if I can part with some stuff. It is also very clean which is an enormous plus.

This my friends is the outside of our apartment building. I apoligize that it is once again side ways. You know, looking at it right now it doesn't look so scary. Maybe our moms will be fine:)

Day 6-Sunday Road Trip

Sunday was a good day. I was a little nervous about our road trip, but was very pleasantly surprised. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to see this side of Ukraine, it may just be the highlight of our trip! It helps that I don't get carsick and that I set my expectations very, very low. I found the bouncing and winding of the roads very soothing and the dodging of potholes, along with the occasional slam into a pothole, kind of fun! Huz was good as long as he was either asleep or looking out the front. There is a little bit of a freeway coming out of Kyiv, but then, the road just starts winding through towns and villages suddenly veering wildly to the right or the left, across railroad tracks and then back again, and around wandering animals. That can be good or bad, depending on how you choose to look at it and what your stomach can handle!! I don't get carsick and enjoyed every second of it!! We personally weren't in any hurry and I was thoroughly enjoying looking at the beautiful scenery we passed. It was like a step back in time. While Kyiv is somewhat advanced or at least nearly up to speed as far as technology goes, and visiting that city is similar to other European cities, the rest of the country appeared to be set back in the 1940's. Since I wasn't alive then, that's just an estimate:) Picture run down houses with makeshift fencing set up around the perimeter of the yard. Old men, always without shirts on (why is it that men that should wear shirts never do??) sitting on the porch smoking or chewing on wheat. Elderly women, babushkas, in the yard working in the massive gardens or selling produce on the side of the road. Their hands and faces are worn and weathered from years of hard living. Their heads are always covered with a colorful scarf. The houses are probably, at most, 800 square feet, the gardens easily an acre. This country knows how to grow a garden!! Children can be seen walking with a parent, each wearing a hat. Usually only one child per family, occasionally two. Goats, sheep, cows and chickens roaming dangerously close to the road with an unattended leash dangling from their necks. The only pavement is that which you are driving on, and that road is at best, rough. The slight hills are lush with green grasses and young wheat. On the outskirts of villages farmers mark their land with a perimeter of birch trees, their humble homes barely visible. Fields of flowers, yellow (saffron maybe?), purple (probably just a weed, but at least it's pretty) and poppies dot the landscape. The rivers run clear, although I know that just a month ago they didn't. Maybe this is due to the spring run off? Who knows, but they are beautiful now. Small ponds attract groups of people for sunbathing, swimming, fishing, and picnicing. The only cars are those being driven through town, the people in the towns don't have cars. Bikes are ridden everywhere and young couples can be seen either biking or walking together (it's charming even if the women are riding with their high heels and no bras:)) As we near Dnepropetrovsk, the sky begins to cloud with the pollution that the factories produce. The haze means we are getting close to Zap, and the pollution, that people have jobs. Many live on a mere $100 each month and never dream of leaving the only home they have ever known for even a neighboring city. The people are taken aback when you smile at them and, if you greet them, their eyes become curious as long ago the idea of extending oneself beyond their own was forgotten and survival became the only goal. The younger generation is more hopeful and willing to reciprocate at least your 'hello' and will usually answer if you ask how they are doing. The elderly still appear suspicious of strangers in their land and I can't blame them. The lives they live are those we read about in our history books, stories to us, reality for them. It is odd to be in a country that is so old, that has so much history but yet is so young and struggling. The thing that makes me most sad is to see so many people with so little hope. You can see it in their eyes, or rather can't. You can see that life has been hard and that they have very few expectations for happiness. The younger generation has more hope, more to look forward to and be happy for, but only time will tell if they are able to progress past this era, or if they will also grow old and wearied from the difficulties life presents. I see all this and am so grateful to live in our country of freedom and opportunity. Moreso, I realize that the true giver of freedom and hope is Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to live in a country that evolved to protect our right to know and love them. I'm so blessed to know of their love and healing power. I know that the hope I feel and the peace that I have is through them and because of them. Enjoy the pictures-wish I was more of a photographer! Erica-this should've been you!!h

Day 5, Saturday

Today we started the day with breakfast at Pizza Celantanos. We had omelets and crepes. Their food is less expensive than their drinks. Go figure. Good food, though. After eating, we stayed around the area and wandered all over their open market. It was super fun and we learned that lots of the vendors spoke English. Sweeeet. On our way up to breakfast, there was a HUGE bike race going on. There was quite the crowd and we took several pictures, all side ways. Oops. It was kind of interesting to see the variety of people participating. There were both genders, old to young, all walks of life, dressed in all types of clothing. Seriously, some of the women were totally decked out riding along with their super high heels. Kyiv is beautiful right now, the weather is beautiful, the sky, the landscape. We are very fortunate to be here right now while it is so picturesque. After our little walk through the market, we headed back to the apartment where we waited for Oleg, Natasha, and Oleg's son, Daniel. After they picked us up, we swung by the Presidential Offices. Their president doesn't live there, like our president lives in the White House, he just works in town. He has a lovely estate outside of Kyiv. Maybe kind of like Camp David, only closer? Anyhow, it was cool.

Ukraine just passed a law prohibiting the adoption of children ages 5 and under, unless there is a medical problem. Too bad for people trying to adopt younger children, but from what I understand it was quite difficult to get a child under the age of five in the first place. The problem, though is that included in this law, unprotected from the medical provision are children with Downs Syndrome and HIV. Can you believe that?! Those two things don't currently qualify for the exception provision. Oleg has spent a significant amount of time trying to have that rewritten. He told us that only .01 % of Ukrainians that adopt will ever consider a child with medical problems. And there aren't even that many Ukrainians who adopt! We hope that this addition is made to the provision to allow the adoptions of children with those medical conditions to be available for adoption.

After seeing the Presidential Offices, we headed to see Big Mama, as the Ukrainians call her. Big Mama is formally the Statue of the Mother Land. She is sort of like the Statue of Liberty for Ukraine. Side note, her sword was taller than the cross on the bellfry tower which is not customarily appropriate, so the government officials just had her sword hacked in half. I was impressed that they paid heed to that religious tradition when so many governments pay less and less attention to God in their dealings.

Next to the Statue of the Mother Land is the Museum of the Patriotic Wars. It was dedicated to all the wars in which Ukrainians fought in and had history from each one. It was very interesting to hear the Ukrainian impressions of WWII and what was going on from their side of things. Like our Holocaust Museum in D.C., it was a solemn, reverent place to be.

On our way back to our apartment, we stopped briefly at the Famine Memorial. I have read about this and was really looking forward to visiting it. My pictures aren't great and most of them are sideways, so I'll only post the one of the wheat. I just read a book before coming to Ukraine, the autobiography of a woman who lived through all of these events and her story and perception of things as a young child all the way to adulthood. The famine is an unbelievable nightmare that so many people didn't even know about. It makes me wonder about the atrocities that are taking place right now today that we aren't aware of as we hustle and bustle through our lives.

Tonight we had dinner in the underground mall. It was kind of wild to be in a two story mall that was all the way underground. And, of course, we had some ice cream:)

Tonight we heard fire works again. We have decided it is because they know we are here and are so happy:). We also did some laundry. It took way too long to figure out how to make our washing machine work. Hopefully our clothes are dry by the time we leave in the morning. I'm a little hesitant about this 6 hour car ride we will have. I've recently heard a road trip in Ukraine described as being on a rickety roller coaster. You know what the first thing that comes to my mind is-the white roller coaster at Lagoon. I hate that thing! I feel like I'm getting shaken adult syndrome when I ride it, so I'm hoping the car ride is not that bad! Either way, it is an adventure and I will be sure to let you know how it goes. We love and miss our girlies!!! Like yesterday, the caption for the picture will be underneath.

The cut wheat symbolizes all the wheat that was harvested and the bars symbolize that the Ukrainians were not allowed to have any of it resulting in a man made famine in which 7 million people died.

The Dnepro River and the 'left' side of Kyiv as it is known. I think it is beautiful!

Oleg, Daniel, and Natasha, our Ukrainian team in Kyiv. They rock!!

Huz and Wif in front of the Presidential Offices.

The bike race, side ways (sorry). It was very cool. Bikes and people for miles!!

Pictures from Day 1-4

This is a picture post. I figured it out! Yeah me! The caption for the picture is underneath it. There is a post for day 4 before this one. Sorry, I can't quite figure out how to turn the pictures.

This is the Ukrainian countryside. Isn't it gorgeous?! I love it!!

This is Huz, a babushka at the open air museum, and me. Isn't she the cutest little grandma ever?! And look at her piercing blue eyes. She told us that she didn't want to be in the picture because she would ruin it because she thought she looked like a monkey. I told her to get her buns over here:) Natasha probably didn't translate that word for word...

This is a traditional Ukrainian home from the 1800s. The white pipe thing on the left with the brown paint at the bottom is their stove that they cooked with and heated the house with. The little bench thing behind it is where the children would sleep. Pretty sure my kids would've loved that!! The bench to the right that is covered with the blue plaid is where the elderly people would sleep. The entire room is about 15 x 12. A bench lined the entire room and that is where they slept. If they ran out of bench room, they threw straw on the floor. Little house on the prairie here I come!! Doesn't that sound awesome-for like a week?!

This is our apartment. The dark colored door is the outside door. It is a double door and isn't quite as safe as some of our friends have had. It only has 3 bolts:) You can see the handle to the bathroom door. Do you just love the loft area? Oleg thought that we were bringing our kids so the apartment is a little bigger. Do you think those rails would pass a U.S. safety inspection? :) I am standing by the bed at the far wall. We haven't even tried to turn on the tv yet.

This is our bed. Ahhhh. Love it. Really. I think we were tired enough we would've slept in that 1800's house we just showed you! I'm taking this picture from the doorway of the bedroom area. We really like our apartment. It's perfect for us-more than we expected!

This picture is taken from the doorway into our apartment. Straight ahead is the kitchen. To the left is the bathroom, you can kind of see the door jamb. To the left is the bedroom area.

In this shot I am standing in the bathtub. Notice that the toilet flusher is on top of the toilet. Cool, huh.

This is a shot of the bathroom from the hallway. That is a washing machine. I think that a load with one pair of jeans would fill it. No dryer. Everything is air dried. Think of the power they save!

Kitchen. I'm standing next to the refrigerator to take this shot. The entire kitchen is about 6 feet wide and 12 feet long.

In this shot, I am squishing myself against the counter.

Cool church in Frankfurt. Can't figure out how to rotate picture.

Okay. So, this is the bicycle bar. Tyler took this picture and didn't zoom in so you can't even see it! When I get home I'll zoom it in and repost it for you. Promise. It's funny.

This is a picture of Huz at the floating restaurant.

The darling soon-to-be parents again.

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!!