OUR FIRST DAY IN KYIV

MONDAY, NOV. 22
Today we flew from Paris to Kyiv (I will use the Ukrainian spelling, "Kyiv" as opposed to the Russian spelling, "Kiev", which is now preferred since Ukraine became independant from Russia in 1991).

Leaving Charles de Gaulle

We arrived in Kyiv and were greeted by our translator, Lana, and our driver (I still can't understand his name and need to have him write it for me). Lana is very sweet and loves to talk! She immediately handed us a cell phone to use in country and swept us off to the grocery store to buy food for our apartment and money to put on our phone. The drive into town was interesting. We came across a humongous (I mean massive, Statue-of-Liberty-size) statue of a woman with her arms outstretched, on a hillside along the highway. Lana said this is "Mama Ukraine", a monument to mothers all boys who were lost in previous wars. I saw this as another tribute to how much Ukrainian moms love their families. Kyiv is cut in half by the Dnipro River, much like the River Seine cuts through Paris. The part of the drive along the river was nice. Once we crossed the bridge we entered the suburbs or  "bedroom community" as described by Lana, made up of block after block of 10 story, dreary-looking apartments. It was rainy so I'm sure the rain contributed to this depressed appearance.

The Ukrainian gorcery we visited was very well stocked! Lana explained we would be staying in a family's apartment in Kyiv at least 2 nights so we needed to buy food and water. She kindly directed us to food she thought we would like, that other Americans had bought...broccoli, chicken, etc. It was cute! I told her we'd rather sample some Ukrainian food so she began showing us her favorites of certain things...chocolates (I KNEW I liked Lana!), salami, bread, Ukrainian mayo, Kiefer (sour milk) and 3 types of Ukrainian beers. We left the store with 2 HUGE bags of groceries for only $40......those of you who know Scott, know this  made him VERY happy! Just to give you some idea of approx. prices in American dollars.......bread = 0.35,  Snickers bar = 0.51, Litre of Vodka= $6.31, 0.5 L bottle of local beer = 0.57.

We are staying in the apartment of in-laws of one of the employees of our agency. It is cheery,clean, warm, homey and comfortable! We are so grateful to them to allow us to stay here, as we definitely prefer this to any hotel with a bunch of boring expats.



The kitchen.



Gavin watching one of his Goosebumps videos.



Me blogging in the kitchen.




Note salami in Scott's hand.

 Lunch was our first meal in the apartment. We bought salami with lots of fat in it (for Scott) as opposed to the type we get back home since there were tons of different types to choose from. It turned out the fat pieces stay intact and float around in your mouth until you get up enough guts to swallow them whole. Ick. The cheese, dark/dense Ukrainian bread with thick Ukrainian butter and Ukrainian mayo (I thought mayo was an American invention?) were all great and we wolfed them down. After lunch, Scott and Gavin went out for a walk today and got lost since all the 10 story apartment buildings look the same!    They were also soaked since it is STILL raining.

Chornobyl carrot?

The owner of our apt. showed up tonight and did a "turn down" service, setting up the bed in the living room so Gavin would have his own place to sleep and showing us how things worked. He loved Gavin and kept mussing up his red hair! Conversing with him was difficult but I know he understood our "thank yous". 

TUESDAY, NOV.23
Lana called us tonight. We will be picked up tomorrow at 11:15 AM for our appointment at the SDA (State Dept. of Adoptions) at noon. This could likely be one of the most important times of our lives! We are excited but a little scared at the same time. We pray that things go well and we are able to choose a boy to go visit. We would leave on Thursday evening to travel to the region he is in. Wish us luck!