We Made It

Today was kind of a surreal experience. Of course we'll never know the odds of actually making it here but I think we won the scheduling lotto as we were surrounded by cancelled flights. Needless to say, we are very thankful.

At the Frankfurt Refugee Camp (airport), we couldn't find our flight on the board so joined a long line of people at the Lufthansa counter. One of their agents was making his way down the line with a clipboard giving everybody the bad news. When he gets to us he says, "Oh, I think your flight is still going, go directly to Gate B50." I thought they liked the male / male kissing thing in Europe but he didn't seem to appreciate it.

Alexiy met us at the airport and the race was on. We survived the demolition derby and stopped at a mall to exchange money and get some groceries. Diane chose boring stuff like bananas, yogurt, water, etc. I had Alexiy pick out an assortment of beer for me. I thought about calling this entry "Beautiful Women and Good Beer" but that's not the emphasis my editor is looking for.

We then went to our apartment in downtown Kiev next to Independence Square. It's spartan but the price is right and we have to go through three locked doors to get in so it must be safe. We were on our own so walked over to the Square to do a little shopping and get something to eat. They have a restaurant called McDonalds here that was pretty good. We bought a couple of Russian dubbed Disney movies for the Alona's, Jungle Book and Up.
Nastya called later to welcome us and go over the schedule. We have our SDA appointment

Thursday morning and hope to get a referral and travel to Schors on Friday. The process is to get to know your child for five days before the next step in the paperwork process can happen. Evidently Alona R's guardians want to meet us as well, so that should be interesting.

Diane got really bad leg cramps during the night so a lot of screaming and crying involved until we could get her straightened out. Probably didn't make the best impression with the new neighbors.

Stay tuned ....