We're here!

Hello everyone! We are currently in Kyiv, Ukraine. Today is the first day that we have had our internet access. We had some problems with getting our netbook to work with the aircard that they had for us. As a result, we haven't been able to talk to Ian and Lily yet, so we can't wait to call them later today (which will actually be tomorrow morning for you all!)

I have felt so honored to be in the homeland of my grandparents. I actually got tears in my eyes when our plane landed in Ukraine. It was such an awesome feeling to know that I was standing in the place where my family originated from.

We have been in Kyiv since arriving on Sunday. Tonight we are scheduled to leave for Sumy which is the region where Sergei's orphanage is. So, we should be seeing Sergei for the first time since January tomorrow (Wednesday), and we are so excited to see him! I have been anticipating that moment for months.

Kyiv is absolutely beautiful! We have really enjoyed the sightseeing that we have been able to do here in Kyiv. It seems that there's something in every nook and cranny here!

We had dinner with two other American families last night, one family who is leaving with their children this morning and the other who just arrived in Ukraine yesterday. We had a great time and just sat and chatted for a couple of hours.

Our facilitator took us to lunch yesterday at an authentic Ukrainian restaurant. Oh my, was that cool! Everything was in Ukraine and everyone there spoke Ukrainian, but it was a HUGE buffet style restaurant so you could see what the food looked like. I still don't know exactly what I ate, but it was quite tasty and I think that we will be heading back there for lunch today!

We had our SDA appointment yesterday which lasted probably five to seven minutes. It was basically just for their government to confirm that Sergei was the boy we wanted to adopt, and we got a very limited amount of info on Sergei. We will get more details once we arrive at the orphanage.

As I said before, we will be departing for Sumy later today. Once there, I'm not sure how good internet access will be. It's very slow here in the city, and, apparently, it will be even slower in Sumy. Posting isn't an issue but uploading photos (which I've already taken a ton of) is VERY slow.

That's all for now! We're off for some official sight-seeing today!

Be blessed!