Ta Da!

Last time traveling with a one too one ratio...

And just like that, we're in Ukraine! With exactly one week's notice, we packed up our family, purchased plane tickets and 4,000 other items, boarded a plan and flew to Europe.  The week was so full of emotion it's hard to even describe it.  Every moment felt intensified, like I was experiencing an emotion for the first time, in its purest form.  I cried when I hear Lights by Ellie Golding (I don't know why), I cried when I put the girls to bed for the last time in their own beds (last time for quite a while at least), I cried when the plane landed in Kyiv.  Although that may have been the result of 24 hours of straight travel, little sleep, lots of stimulation, and no coffee.  Wait,  had an espresso in Frankfurt and coffee on the flight to Kyiv but since it didn't even dent the exhaustion, it doesn't count.

So the girls did fairly well.  We had a red eye to Frankfurt and on Condor airlines they apparently don't believe in serving dinner until 10pm at night which meant the girls were over tired and Evelyn actually had a bit of a meltdown.  And so did we :/ but all in all it went about as well as can be expected-the girls slept about 5 hours and were entertained and fine for the rest of the time. Bard and I each slept 2-3 hours.  Ugh. 

Frankfurt airport annoys me.  They sent our stroller on to Kiev (let's just blame them since that's easier), we had to ride the bus in, they dumped us in the middle of an abandoned terminal.  Not too many restaurants, and then some closed even though it was the middle of the day, we wondered all over, lost in the desert for 40 years.  Well.  Maybe 40 minutes but did you ever so tired, hungry, dehydrated, grimy, tired, and tired that you hated everyone and everything?  Yeah.  The nice terminal with good restaurants and shopping was separate from us and we would have had to go through security again.  And since they made us go through security when we got through the terminal I was not in the mood.  I somehow refrained from screaming "Argentina was robbed!" and we found a place to camp out.

It got better from there, a nice cheese Danish, a latte, and a refreshing baby wipe bath will do anyone a world of good.  Actually the best moment was brushing my teeth.  I seriously love brushing my teeth!  Bard crashed and the girls watched/danced to Frozen.  I bought a good book, took Cici on moving sidewalk adventures and we ate a great Italian dinner complete with a delicious-and probably my last for a long time-green salad.  A quick 7 hours later we were on our next flight.

Ukraine or bust!

The airlines were hilarious about the World Cup.  On Condor they had draped a huge German flag across the bulkhead and the attendants had painted their cheeks with the German flag.  But Lufthansa outdid them by singing "Don't cry for me Argentina..." over the loudspeaker to us as we boarded the plane.  Well played Germany, well played.  Just two and a half hours to Kyiv, passport control and customs was a breeze (the easiest ever, whew), and our wonderful driver,Vitaly, was right there waiting for us.  It was 2am so we couldn't see much but did drive through the center of town and it looked beautiful.  It may be the first major European city I've seen that is clean.  And I don't mean that as a dig against Europe, I mean after all, what a lovely morning  stroll down Fifth Ave in NYC without the aromatic presence of urine?  But I was expecting it to be similar to Moscow and it was not.  Thankfully.

Our apartment is great, nice, wonderful location, after the girls bounced off the wall we all fell asleep until I mercilessly dragged everyone out of bed at 10am.  No sleep for the weary.  Someone had forgotten his suit at home, but ha, there was a suit store just down the block and we had a fun time shopping; communicating in Russian, Ukrainian, English, a little google translator-ba da bing, ba da boom-new suit!  Complete with little paper butterflies that the wonderful salesladies gave to the girls, we were on our way.  Walking through Independence Square (Maidan-where the main fighting was last fall) was moving and I am thankful for the privilege of witnessing a historical moment in my adopted country.

After a 40 minute wait for two dishes of ice cream (Europe!) we did a little more shopping, picking up some groceries and items that we hadn't brought from home (okay, I needed a hair straightener, so what?!) Then off to dinner at a Mexican/Italian/Ukrainian restaurant where the waiter brought the girls a toy train to play with and they had live birds.  Silly :)

We heard from our in country team while at dinner and are now back at the apartment.  The girls are sleeping and we are getting ready for our SDA appointment.  After I post this update I will upload photos to a link on the left-check back for updates.  We're packing and organizing a bit too, as we likely won't remain in Kyiv for very long.  I feel tearful, nauseous, excited, and scared about our appointment.  I just can't believe this is actually happening. We talked to the girls about it tonight-about them being on their best behavior.  They have really done well, aside from a few comments such as "I don't want to be in a foreign country." and "Are we done getting baby brother yet?" they have learned to see please and thank you in Russian and Ukrainian and before going to sleep they both prayed for baby brother.

Please pray for us.  This experience is monumental, if the word monumental has never been used before and was just created for this one moment in time. Monumental.