A Week in the Life

Not to compare our stay with the Gulag, I just resist a good play on words :)



A once beautiful square still shows signs of the Revolution.

So what is our life like in the Borderland?  After being here a week we are pretty settled and have developed a few norms.  We all get up at about the same time in the morning, although I've woken up earlier many days and read while drinking a cup of Via.  Bard got up early this morning and worked for an hour before the rest of us woke and joined him.  Breakfast has been a lot of the instant oatmeal packs that we brought, with some fruit purchased at the "Magazine Producti" - Grocery Store - around the corner from our apartment.  We've made scrambled eggs with veggies as well as toast, and even found Multi grain Cheerios-which thrilled the girls!  Just like breakfast at home we have our Suzuki piano music going throughout the morning.  I am so accustomed to hearing it during breakfast I probably couldn't eat without it!  After breakfast is the chore of washing dishes - by hand- and brushing teeth.  Tasks made complicated by the fact that we don't trust the water so are using bottled for drinking and teeth and pouring boiling water over the dishes after rinsing.  A few things that may get old after 5 weeks. . .go right now, turn on your tap water, put your head under it, and drink!  Now remember that you are in one of the few places of the world where that is possible :)

Our bathroom cabinet, and yes, that is what you think it is!

After breakfast we begin our day.  The girls sleep on a futon that is in kind of an alcove just off the kitchen/dining room, so we make up their bed and get dressed-which is a lot easier now that I've organized everything.  Ahhh. :) Today we are just having a quiet morning while Bard works for a few hours.  The girls are playing Legos while acting out Frozen-pretty typical day!  And Evelyn discovered that she could pop the hair off her Lego figures, put them on the tips of her fingers, draw dresses on her hand, and act out a finger puppet show.  Hmmm.  Most days after breakfast we've either gone to see Baby Brother or done some sightseeing.  A driver picks us up to go to the orphanage-it's a bit far to take public transportation-but other than that we walk or take the subway (Metro.)  Our apartment is on the third floor and although there is a small elevator, we just use the stairs, it has a security door and we head out, down the alley, past a beautiful garden which we watched them plant in three days-fresh sod and all-and out to our main street. Past the Ukrainian restaurant or the Irish pub, our little store, the "Bankomat"-ATM-or the Wine House. Turn at Rachel Salon, which will eventually be utilized by yours truly for a hair cut, pedi, or massage-all sound delightful-and past the suit store, which is probably hoping we'll come back and drop another small fortune!

We're right next to the main square, with additional shopping, restaurants, beautiful churches, and a street market that sells everything from Matroshka dolls to t shirts that say just about anything unfavorable regarding Putin.  Pretty typical for Slavic countries, and many places in Europe, there are lots of little stores, like the one next to us, where we do most of our daily shopping-water, fruit, basics, and then a bigger "Supermarket" in a central location. Same as Russia, the mall and best shopping is in the Metro.  From top down, expensive to cheap.  I checked out the 4th floor and found towels for $30, designer children's clothes, and jewelry.  We kept going down and found a good umbrella, body wash, and the bigger grocery store.  We bring our own bags-although unlike most stores in Russia-this store did have bags, but we would probably only get one, and we use our own bags at home anyway, so this is not new to us.

Spaghetti!

After a day of sightseeing, errands, orphanage time, and lots of rushing and waiting, we are pretty tired.  The weather has been warm too, so that makes us all a little more exhausted.  It's very similar to East Coast climate, 80s, kind of muggy, intermittent thunderstorms that drop the pressure down, then the cycle starts over.  Our apartment is cool in the evening though-we have a little air conditioner that we can click on with a remote-it's attached to the ceiling.  It took us a while to get organized enough so that we could cook dinner, but that will be the norm for at least half the days while we are here.  So far we enjoyed dinner at a Mexican restaurant, an Irish pub, McDonalds (okay, maybe enjoy is not the right word there) and a traditional Ukrainian restaurant-where Evelyn surprised me by liking Borscht!  It might have helped that she ate it by dipping the most yummy garlic bread ever into it.  I don't know what is wrong with American bread, every time I come to Europe the bread is so much better here!  C'mon people, what are we doing wrong?!  And of course, last night we made spaghetti.  The sausage was actually very good and we found a very yummy pasta sauce, full of veggies, plus cooked our own -onions, sweet peppers, and (I think) a cucumber.  We're avoiding fresh veggies (and I am now in day 5 of fresh salad withdrawal), but are trying to cook up as much as possible.

The girls have crashed each night after dinner.  Bard and I lay them down in our bedroom, so we can fall asleep, I mean put them to sleep.  We have bedtime stories and the Jesus Storybook Bible on the Kindle and then play their lullaby music.  They have fallen asleep within about 5 minutes each night.  Then we can use the front room and kitchen without worrying about disturbing them.  Bard works or does dishes, I edit pictures and blog, and that's usually about the time you all are getting up so I get to see your facebook posts :) We've gone to bed a little bit later than normal each night and need to be better about that, although my two Vias in the morning helps ;)

And then we do it all over again!  The basics will be interspersed with some fun tourist activities-the Ukrainian art museum, World War 2 museum, an aquarium, and the Kyiv Monastery of Caves are on our list of things to do while here. Plus there is a little park near us with a playground, and we plan on attending Hillsong while here-maybe getting there a bit earlier so we can find translators. That way I can understand more than, "Listen" "People" "Jesus" "Peace" and "Amen"



We have a washer about the size of a grocery bag and a dryer the size of our balcony!

Of course that schedule will be interrupted by various adoption expeditions.  Besides seeing him everyday, there are papers to be filled out and turned in to officials.  Notaries, courts, hospitals, all sorts of government offices.

Our hope is that all that goes as smoothly as possible, allowing us to return home as a family within our planned timeline-end of August.  I love being here, I love the culture, the city, the sights, the whole experience.  It's a blessing that we can soak up as much of his birth country as possible.  But, there are also worries in the back of my head-what if one of us gets sick or hurt?  What if I run out of Via packets?  These thoughts plague me throughout the day...and really, little man is tiny, we need to get him home, fatten him up (maybe I'll sneak some McDonalds into the orphanage!) and get him to every different doctor I can think of!

Dear Premera, remember that super high premium you stuck us with? Well, I'm about to rock your world! :)

Thanks for spending the day with us, miss you all, lots of love!