The Luippolds: Love Hurts-Catch Up, Part 2

Woke up still held hostage in pain and nausea. I knew it would be a tough day, hot and long physically, heart breaking emotionally. I'm so glad that we have been able to connect with a bit of his Ukrainian family. It is a huge blessing and one that will continue to give years and years from now. I'll be ready to share more details after everything is final, but I am so thankful for the time and experiences we are having together. It's beautiful.

It's just hard. So, so, so, hard.

Our visit was sharp and sweet, capturing memories that should have never happened and will never be forgotten. One word keeps coming to mind.

Honor.

Whether it was the heat of the day, the emotional toll or just luck of the draw, my head felt worse by the afternoon. So I did what I would have done back home-went for a massage! Kinda scary, how do you say in Russian, "Ouch, that's too hard you're hurting me!" I still don't know but left for the appointment banking on the fact that shrieks of pain spoke a universal language. Actually, I had called the salon next door to us and knew they had some ladies there who spoke English :)

My masseuse was very sweet and practices "natural massage because it doesn't abuse the organism." Sounds good to me, no abuse here, thank you very much! Just a funny side note on translation. I love hearing and reading funny translations because it makes me feel better about the fact that I am butchering their beautiful and ridiculously over complicated language ;) For example, when we were at Dream Town on Saturday, getting gelato, Evelyn chose, "Chewing Gum Flavor." Now, I am fairly sure they did not intend to communicate chewing up pieces of gum and putting it into the ice cream. They probably meant bubble gum flavor. But regardless, I've been laughing about it for days. Meanwhile the google translation for my salon's website says, "Doubts about the excess hair can be folded passing waxing, and believe me, you will visit the tactile sensations of the child." Not only is that gibberish, in the States it might get you arrested! Okay, I can guess at their meaning, but still pretty funny.

Now what was I talking about? Right, enjoyed a nice massage, not sure if it would have worked or not because as I was still standing outside our apartment door, I could hear the children speaking their own gibberish, "The water is out again Mama!" They scream with obnoxious glee.

Crick goes my neck.

Back and forth on the phone, with the workers who have now dug a hole in our alley and say they don't know what the problem is, they don't know when it will be fixed, but sometime soon. Lies. That is essentially Russian for sometime or never. On the phone with other hotels, landlords, our team. Oh, it's 94 degrees, we haven't had dinner.

And did I mention I have a *^&^$$#*&*^@!! MIGRAINE!

The Russian word for migraine is Putin.

I never lose my sense of humor, I just become more mouthy :)

Buckle up!

That was our alley.

So of course the apartment we want is unavailable for the week. And of course he doesn't even have anything else available in that building. But he does have a three bedroom in another unit, across town. We decide to pack everything up and just get the heck out of Dodge. I do not like flushing toilets with buckets I do not like dirty dishes rotting in the sink. I do not like them in the night. I do not like them in the day. I do not like them in Liberia. I do not like them in Ukraine. I do not like them here, I do not like them there, I do not like them anywhere! We'll have to move everything or pay an extra night and then we'll move to the apartment we want (the one we stayed at Saturday night) on Friday. And it's now almost the girls bedtime. And here's a fun little fact-while we are running around like Putins with their heads cut off, a dump truck and a backhoe showed up and blocked our alley from any cars coming or going. Hmmm. We not only have all the luggage we brought-two suticases, 6 carryons, stroller, suit bag, but also all the food and gifts we have bought and been eating/using at the apartment. Did I mention that Bard had gone to the grocery store while I was getting my massage? Four extra bags. So, elevator doesn't work, we can't just take stuff down and leave it, and someone needs to stay with the girls anyway because they are bouncing off the walls trying to kill themselves-or get me to kill them-one of the two. So we took a big trip down and then I sat with the girls and growing pile of luggage. Forty minutes later the apartment was clear. Now, just to get everything down the two blocks of alley to the main street where our driver had to park his car. And you know in the States where we have codes about pedestrian safety and blocking off work zones? No. I am not exaggerating, getting our luggage around the dump truck we had to turn sideways and were still scraping against the wall.

Das Vadanya!

Just a quick and squished drive across town and we carted everything up to the fourth floor to our nice Soviet Apartment. Comrade Kristin.

We slept well though and had a nice visit this morning. The heat has dropped a bit and although my back and neck still hurt quite a bit, the headache is gone and I'm hoping the muscles ease up a bit more tomorrow as well. The massage was only $30 for an hour so let's not be surprised if I end up back there :)

The good news is...we are waiting again!

Ha, I LOVE waiting! We hope to hear our court date tomorrow and fingers/toes/prayers crossed that it is soon! I think you need to meet my little man, you will love him, I promise.