We have arried in Kiev, Ukraine

After a long flight, we made it to Kiev last night.  The flights were not as bad as I thought.  I think you just need to go into it with an open mind and don't stress about how long they are.  The flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was long and I thought I would just sleep, but my body had other ideas. I figured since I couldn't sleep maybe I would be able to sleep better once we got to the apartment in Kiev. I eventually got sick from being up so long. The flight from Amsterdam to Kiev I slept and felt much better afterwards.

Once we got to Kiev with Lori and Russ, which was really nice to travel with them, we were greated by our drivers. Sasha, our facilitator from Kiev, had two drivers with vans to pick us up in case we had a lot with us.  Good thing they did! We never would haveall  fit in one van. They drove us directly to the market to exchange money and get food for the next few days.  Sasha also helped get us a cell phone and an internet stick.  The cell phone is mostly for them to call us to pick us up for our different appointments.  Then they drove us straight to the apartment and showed us where we were staying.  Lori and Russ are in another apartment within a 10 minute walk.  Once we were shown our apartment we pretty much went to sleep after such a long trip.  The apartment buildings look a lot a like here. The room we are staying in is a lot different than in the US.  We really take for granted space! We are staying in a one bedroom apartment with a small kitchen.  I will try to download pictures, but I can't figure out why my pictures are not downloading onto the blog for some reason? The apartment is very clean.  We can't figure out if someone lives here or not as there is not much in the rooms.

We were able to meet up with Lori and Russ today since our SDA appointment isn't until tomorrow. We walked around the outside market and enjoyed seeing how the culture is here. You can buy pretty much anything at the outdoor market, and I mean anything! The fruits and veggies look great here! The meats I would not buy at the outdoor market.  We saw a meat that Russ said was dog, but I am trying to not believe him as I think about our pups at home:( Could never imagine eating a poor dog. Many dogs are stray here!!! I will not judge as we are in their region and they would probably question some of the things we do.

Lori contacted a lady here that showed another couple that adopted a girl from Dima's orphanage last month. She showed us around the nicer parts of Kiev which we really enjoyed! It is so nice to have a local show us around when we wouldn't have done that ourselves.  Downtown was beautiful. They have some Christmas decorations up which was nice since we will miss the decorations at home.

Tomorrow is our SDA appointment and Tuesday is Lori and Russ's. We heard we may take the overnight train to Krivoy Rog where Dima's orphanage is on Wednesday. Sounds like Dima and the other kids don't know we are here yet.  At this point, I almost wish they weren't told and they would just bring them in the room and surprise them when we get there. We will let you know how the appointment goes tomorrow.