Hello friends! I was unable to update last night because we were on a train 13 hour train ride and had no wifi! Yesterday, we enjoyed a lazy day in Kiev and ate lunch with one of A's friends and her father who are in Ukraine currently waiting for her passport to be printed so they can go home! After lunch, we packed up and headed to the SDA office. I can't go in to details, but the meeting was extremely high charged, and I can tell you that it is only due to prayer that we walked out of there with our referral letter!! Praise the Lord!!
I told you there were a ton of pigeons in Kiev:)
After the SDA appointment, we headed straight to the train station to catch our 13 hour train ride. The train was not terrible...the train bathroom was another story. After going once as soon as we got on the train, I swore to myself that I would not step foot back in it again. I took one sip of Diet Coke with my dinner, and preceded to dehydrate myself for the remainder of the trip. We did not have time to get anything yummy for dinner before hopping on the train, so we ended up with McFoxy!! McFoxy is a lower quality McDonald's here in Ukraine.
McFoxy...it's whats for dinner:)
Chicken "Nuggets" from McFoxy
Beginning of our train ride
Ukrainian Countryside
Nighty night time
This picture cracks me up...this was at about 12.5 hours in, clearly, I was exhausted
We finally arrived!!
Surprisingly, Ryan and I slept off and on for several hours on the train. We are very thankful, because we assumed we would go straight to our apartment to change/shower when we arrrived. Wrong!! We were picked up by our fabulous facilitator Angelina, and were off to the orphanage!! Our day was spent chasing papers between the orphanage and the "inspector's" office. I would love to tell you that I know what the inspector does, but I have not a clue.
I cannot put in to words the emotions that were going through me as we pulled up to the orphanage for the first time. We were so thrilled to FINALLY be at the place our daughter has called home for many years. We went straight in to the orphanage director's office to collect some paper work. As we were in there, I looked out the window and saw A walking around with her friends. The first time Ryan and I laid eyes on our daughter will be a moment forever etched in our hearts and minds. Unfortunately, we were unable to talk to her right away, and had to hop in the car to run across town to the inspectors office. After that, we returned to the orphanage, and got to meet A!!! We were in the office, and out of nowhere, A walks through the door. I was not expecting her to, and it totally caught me off guard. I will never forget hugging her for the first time! She pulled up a chair right next to me, and I pulled out some pictures of our house and recent pictures of the girls to look at. The language barrier is already driving me nuts, but I know it will get easier and easier over time.
We were told about her medical exam, and her director asked her if she wanted us to be her parents. She said yes:) At this point, it was time for her to go eat lunch, so we ran to lunch at a nearby restaurant while she ate lunch at the orphanage (we aren't allowed to take her off campus). We went to a yummy restaurant that had a middle eastern flair to it.
Our table bed:)
After lunch, we ran back to the orphanage to pick up the paper work to take BACK over to the inspector's office.
Grounds of the orphanage
Our girl and our facilitator
We made it to the inspector's office just after 4 pm. Of course, the office closes at 4 but thankfully she was still there, and we were able to get her to sign off on the paperwork. PS....I have NO IDEA what all of this paperwork is... I have learned not to ask too many questions:)
We ended the day with going to the supermarket to stock up on groceries, and then landing at our new home away from home.
Ukrainian drink I tried today...Kvass. Pretty yummy!
Ukrainian Superkmarket
Inside the supermarket
Who knew that you could buy scented AND colored toilet paper???
Loaded up!
Now to our apartment... I have to admit, I had a minor meltdown. It really isn't all that bad, but after not showering, changing clothes, or brushing your teeth for over 24 hours, plus running around like crazy, plus meeting your child for the first time, plus being incredibly home sick....well, it just seemed pretty bad when I first got here.
Here is our lovely apartment!
Our bedroom
Kitchen
Living room
As you can see, it could be worse. We just got spoiled in Kiev! I cannot give higher compliments to our facilitators in Kiev and in our daughter's region! They have been on top of things every single day, and we feel that we are in excellent hands. We were able to get some paperwork done today that could have taken up to 4 days!
Specific prayer requests...please pray that I get used to this apartment, and that we can rest well here. Please pray that I will get over my homesickness so that I can fully enjoy being here. Please pray that we can get past the language barrier with A, and that she can truly see and feel how loved she already is! Last prayer request for today, we must locate her brother to have him sign an agreement to be separated from A. NO ONE knows where he is!! Please pray that we can quickly locate him, and that he will sign off without a problem.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!!
No comments:
Post a Comment