Lots of Walking

We have actually been to the World War II Memorial twice now, and I think Matt is hoping to go one more time. Rich, I’m sure you would love it. I’m not sure that the girls will be up for a third trip, since it is quite a long distance away. We are doing tons of walking and we are really enjoying the exercise. People here walk everywhere, and what is considered walking distance in Ukraine, is definitely not walking distance at home. I think that by the second day here, I had figured out that when Kostya says “it’s right around the corner”, that usually means about a 20-30 minute walk, and when he is in a hurry, I think he can WALK a six minute mile. The unbelievable thing is that the women do tons of walking in 5 inch stiletto heels, and most of the streets and walkways are made of uneven cobblestones – beautiful, but difficult to negotiate, even in flat shoes. I have no idea how they do it. Soon I will try to post some pictures of the fashion here. The first time we went to the WWII Memorial, we walked the entire way, and much of it was up hill. Matt estimated that we walked about 6 miles, but I’m convinced it was more than that. We walked past many of the official government buildings, including the Presidential Palace (posted here), and the Parliament building. I was amazed at how we were able to walk right up to the front of many of these buildings, without encountering a significant amount of security. Then we walked through a beautiful park, where we literally saw dozens of brides walking through the park taking pictures in front of various historical monuments. Ukraine is definitely a country filled with MANY beautiful statues and monuments.
The memorial also had some missiles left over from the cold war. Kostya pointed to one and joked that that one was pointed right at our home city. We had a little laugh about the fact that we both used to hide under our desks during bomb drills, but we are so grateful for the fact that our kids don’t have to live with that fear.

The Golden Gates

The view from our old apartment window looked right out onto the “Golden Gates”, which is an important historical sight in the city. The first picture is the view of the Golden Gates from our balcony, and the second one is taken from a different angel, and is the location of the Gate to the City prior to the 13th Century Mongol invasion.

Ukrainian National Memorial Museum

If you like war history, you would enjoy going to Ukraine’s National Memorial Museum in Kyiv. Besides the large display of Soviet weapons, they have magnificent bronze sculptures depicting the Ukrainian/Soviet citizens and soldiers who fought so valiantly during the Nazi occupation. Prior to the war, Kyiv was a city of 500,000 people. After the war, its population dwindled down to 80,000. Tens of thousands of citizens were executed.

I was most impressed by the “Motherland” statue which is comparable to our Statue of Liberty. It is over 100 meters tall and weighs over 500 tons. It was built during the 70’s and commemorated on May 9, 1981. It sits on top the river bank overlooking the Dnepr River. We are looking forward to taking a river boat cruise so we can look up at the statue.

You can see from the picture of the tank with the flowers painted on it that the Soviet Union had their own peace movement. The girls had fun climbing on top of it. I hope all is well back home. Thanks for checking in.

Back in Kyiv

Here are a few pictures from our day back in Kyiv. We have a great view, and we watched the city come alive this morning. Most of these pictures are taken from our balcony or in our aparatment.

Khmelnytsky and back to Kyiv

Matt did a great job of describing our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day yesterday. It was a long day that was both physically and emotionally exhausting, and at the end of it, I had brief thoughts of putting the kids on a plane and sending them home. Although after another great day in Kiev today, I am over that for now. We are in another great apartment, and we had a really relaxing morning just hanging out in our apartment. We all slept until 7:30. This was the first time that I have made it past 4:30, so I was really happy. We had bread, pastries and coffee for breakfast, thanks to Kostya who went out very late last night to pick up groceries for us. The girls took a bath in our huge tub. At 2:00 we went back to the SDA to turn in paperwork, and make an official request for a second appointment. They are going to call us at the end of next week to let us know when that appointment will be. So for the next week or so, we will just be hanging out being tourists, I guess. Tonight we went to dinner with another American couple from Mississippi. They are a lot of fun, so it was nice to be able to spend some time with them. They are also working with Kostya, and they are waiting for their second appointment too. Our day in Kyiv ended with a summer thunderstorm, followed by a beautiful rainbow.

A VERY LONG DAY-Wednesday, July 11th.

Let me begin with the important matter. After a lot of wonder and anticipation, we finally met the boy around noon on Wednesday. Both our daughters were fully sold on adopting him. God bless them for having such open hearts. He was quite sweet and cute which made the decision a little more difficult for me and Tami. Unfortunately, he had unexpected health problems. Quite simply, we are not prepared to adopt a child with these types of health issues. We had to say no.

The day began around midnight when we boarded a train from Kyiv to Khmelnytsky. The sleeper car had four pull down beds where we slept most of the way which helped speed up the five and a half hour trip. Around 5:30 AM, we exited the train with lots of time to kill. Our first meeting was at nine.

If Kyiv is like New York, then Khmelnytsky is like Fresno. It is the agricultural hub of the region and does not offer much for tourists. It was nice to see this part of the country as well.

Basically, this day was all about waiting. We waited for a while at the social workers office. Then, we waited for a hours at the orphanage. Then, we waited for a couple more hours for the orphanage director to complete her post visit report. Then, we scrambled in the pouring rain from one place to another so we could complete the post visit paper work before the end of the business day.

You see, time was critical because we needed to get back to Kyiv. The SDA (State Department of Adoption) only accepts requests for second appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At 4:15, we were done. So, we bolted for the train station to catch a 4:45 train. You guessed it. We missed the train. So, we ended up taking a 6:00 bus back to Kyiv which proved to be a far less desirable way to travel.

In a way, missing the train was a blessing because it gave us a chance to eat. Remember, we are spoiled Americans. We get irritable when we miss a meal or two. Fortunately, we found a pizza place near the train station where we ate our first meal of the day.

The bus was packed with people sitting and standing. Perhaps, the most interesting part of the trip was the three or four congestion problems we faced. The traffic was not bad at all compared to Orange County. Our problem was related to a large bovine creature. On several occasions, hundreds and hundreds of cows blocked the road. They were NOT crossing the road. They were walking down the road seriously impeding traffic. The driver honked and honked for about fifteen minutes each time until he was finally able to squeeze through an opening in between these darn animals. Amazingly, we all slept on the ride back despite our comfort level. We were exhausted.

We arrived in Kyiv at 10:30 and jumped in a taxi to get us to our new apartment. While we were loading the vehicle, a mentally ill man started yelling at our translator. I thought he was going to hit Kostya. To top things off, he repeatedly kept trying to get into our taxi.

We arrived at our new apartment just before midnight. It too is very nice. We all quickly crawled into bed and enjoyed a good night’s sleep. Today, we are taking it easy. We will be leaving for the SDA in a little bit to see when we can get a second referral. Thanks for your support.

The SDA Appointment-Monday, July 9th.

I was definitely nervous this morning as we were getting ready for our appointment. Kostya suggested that we all pray together before we left, and that was very comforting. We arrived at the SDA a little early, which gave me just enough time to get even more nervous. We were escorted in by the SDA English translator, Tatiana. We met with the social worker who said that they don’t have any young male sibling groups available right now, and she said that the wait could be up to one month. As Matt mentioned, we have chosen to go visit a little boy who is 2 ½ years old.
Kostya has been so incredibly supportive of us, and is constantly doing all he can to make sure our needs are met. It is almost like having our own personal concierge traveling with us. He is so patient with us and our kids, although I’m sure having them here really does add to his work load.
The girls have been keeping busy with games, and DVDs. B has been working on a story on the laptop, and I think she is on the fifth page already, and they both are keeping a journal. Both Matt and K have said that so far this trip feels like a really great vacation, and they are right. It appears that everyone is recovering from jet lag except me, as I am still waking up around 4:00, which is also about the time that the sun rises here.
Tomorrow night we will take the train to Khmelnytsky to visit this little boy.