Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

We arrived safely in Ukraine on Sunday afternoon, and were greeted at the airport by Vanya. What a nice, young, Christian man he is! We enjoyed being with him. We went from the airport by taxi to the apartment Vanya rented for us. It was located right in the heart of Kiev, within a block of Kiev square, which is the hangout location of the city, surrounded by statues and fountains, and is on top of a large underground shopping mall. Our apartment was small, but quite nice by Ukrainian standards, and was very comfortable for us for the one night we stayed there.

We really enjoyed our short stay in Kiev. It is a beautiful city - full of history and culture. There were grand gold-topped cathedrals all around us. There are also statues and war memorials on every corner. We went walking a little on Sunday night after Vanya left us for the evening. What fun! The city has that old European feel - similar to Paris, but with a lot more military history. We'll come back to Kiev with the girls at the end of the adoption process. Then we'll get to shop at the many booths in the open air market.

Yesterday was a hurry up and wait kind of day. Vanya met us at 9:00 and we went to breakfast. We enjoyed Verengya (not sure about the spelling, but they are cheese or meat filled dumplings), along with potato pancakes with sour cream (latkes). It was a good breakfast, which was a good thing, because we didn't know it was going to be our only meal for a day and a half! We were at the SDA (State Department of Adoption) long before our 11:00 appointment, which didn't take very long at all. We were readily given approval, but then the race was on. When we left the office we had to go to the copy center where Vany made copies of our entire dossier. We then returned the original dossier to the SDA so they could combine it into book form and get the last approval there - hopefully by the afternoon. Meanwhile we walked blocks in order to go to the notary's office (notaries here are more like attorneys than in the U.S.). We then presented the documents and waited and waited and waited for them to be signed. If we had known it would take so long there we might have left and returned later, but we didn't want to miss it when the documents were ready. When they were finally signed we took a cab to the apartment to hurriedly pack, and Mark walked back to the SDA with Vanya to sign the finalized documents. When they returned we raced to the train station in a cab, headed for Mariupol, and the girls!

It was a traveling experience we'll never forget. We took an old Soviet-era sleeper train on an overnight 12-hour journey. The train itself was quite a different experience - creaking and swaying through the night as we slept in the clothes we'd been wearing all day in a small compartment with Kostya (Vanya's partner, whom we'd just met), and another Ukrainian woman who just happened to buy a seat in the same compartment (she snored loudly, by the way!). We hadn't eaten lunch yesterday because it was rush, rush, rush all day trying to get all the documents approved and ready for us to bring here. Then we had to run to catch the train and didn't have time to buy dinner, so the only food available was potato chips and cookies. That was our supper last night on the train. When we arrived at our destination this morning we were picked up at the train station by Vanya's brother, Slava, who doesn't speak any English. So we couldn't ask if we could stop anywhere for breakfast, so no food then, either! It took 2 1/2 hours to drive to Mariupol. Slava has a modern, very fast car, but a large part of the trip we couldn't go very fast because of all the enormous potholes in the road, which Slava carefully drove around - even into oncoming traffic. The rest of the time he made up for the pothole slowdown by driving extremely fast and passing as many other vehicles as possible. We saw several cars with 3 or 4 50-lb. bags of vegetables (cabbages, radishes and cucumbers) strapped to the tops of the cars. It was an interesting sight! A couple of times I was afraid Slava was going to collide with one of those cars and we'd all be waist deep in cabbages! At other times there were Soviet-style military trucks on the road that we swerved around. In the towns we drove through we passed the old busses full of people going to work - many babushkas in scarves tied under their chins, as well as young women or men dressed in very tantalizing, and sometimes revealing fashions. Ukraine is a study in contrasts between the old Soviet and the new modern Europe. It is sometimes hard to juxtopose the two.

When we arrived at Mariupol, Slava drove us to the TLC (transitional living center) where Tanya greeted us warmly. She asked if we'd like some tea or something and we explained we hadn't had anything to eat and she and another woman (Sveta) pulled out all kinds of wonderful leftovers. It was one of the best meals we've ever eaten!

We are still wearing the same clothes we had on yesterday, but we have an appointment shortly here in Mariupol with the next authority in line in the adoption process. We have no idea how many steps this will take, although Tanya and Vanya seem to clearly understand the process, so we just trust them to get us where we need to go and see whomever we need to see. Tanya is taking care of us here, because Vanya had to travel to Odessa with another couple adopting from the orphanage there.

We don't know yet when we'll see the girls, but we can't wait. Tanya says they are ready and excited to see us.

We are so appreciative of the prayers! I felt the presence of God especially strongly this morning at about 7:00 am here as we were sitting on the train before our exit stop. I wondered if some back home were praying for us before they went to bed. God has certainly sustained us, with energy and strength - despite strange sleeping conditions and sometimes no food. He is giving us everything and more than we need.

We'll be able to use the computer here at the TLC in Tanya's office for the next few weeks, so I can check my email and write in the blog. Thanks to all who are praying. God is good, and HIs presence is very evident now that we are here in Ukraine. We've waited so long to be here. We'll be with our girls soon!

Love,
Dawn and Mark