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I almost can’t believe I was sitting in Duluth only a week ago, it feels like it was ages ago! So much has been happening in the days since we arrived here… We’ve been out looking at apartments, getting cell phones, and finding highchairs among many many other things. It’s worth noting that simply surviving here is much more difficult then in the US. Everything from buying and preparing food to cleaning dishes, washing clothes, buying medicine for those of us who are sick… all these things take much longer and are harder to finish then in the US. For instance… there is no dishwasher (12 people use a lot of dishes) the washing machine can’t hold much and there is no dryer. Just not having those two pieces of machinery that I took for granted in the US makes life much more difficult for all of us. Especially my Mom, please pray an extra prayer for her. The good news is that all of the apartments we’ve looked at have dishwashers and our translator and friend Yura (sounds like “you’re a”) found a store in downtown that has a dryer for sale. It was pretty funny when he told my Dad he found it… he was so proud because he knows how badly we’d like one and how hard it is to find one so he proudly announced to my Dad while pointing at the machine “Look! I found you a hairdryer!” My Dad just smiled and said “Yura, we don’t put our heads in that… it’s for our clothes.” We all got a good laugh out of that. Guess you had to be there. ;c) (And in case you were wondering he just got mixed up with his english, he knew it wasn’t a hairdryer.)

Yura has been a huge help to us. He’s a Christian Ukrainian and lived in Israel for 3 years (I think) and met his wife Olga in a DTS. He usually doesn’t work as a translator but for Americans who want to adopt Ukrainian children. He knows the orphanage directors, the government officials, the court officials and a bunch of other people involved in the adoption process. (He has also worked a lot with the street children here in Kyiv.) He takes care of the paperwork on the Ukrainian end and helps facilitate the entire adoption process. Just days before we arrived his last family of the year left for america and someone from YWAM asked if he’d be willing to translate for us, he accepted and here we are. He’s helped us immensely with looking for apartments, getting cell phones (he got us some incredible deal on two phones) he’s helped Mom with finding medicine for the little ones, explained the metro (subway/train) lines and stations to us and many many other things… not least of which was introducing me to a place that sells (real!) hot dogs wrapped in bread dough and then baked… Yum!

The home we’re staying in. (We have the 2nd floor.)

Today was our last day in the apartments. We’re now living on the second floor of a house here in Kyiv. We have 4 bedrooms, a really big living/dining room/kitchen and a bathroom. The people who own the house live on the first floor and are a very nice Christian family. Normally their grown daughter and son-in-law live on the second floor but they are in Turkey doing missions work until the end of April. They were kind enough to allow us to rent the upstairs for the next several months. This will give us more time to look for a permanent place to live. Many people were looking for housing for us months before we came to Ukraine but apartments and homes go so fast (and many people don’t want to rent to such a large family) that nobody had been able to find anything for us. Even now that we’re here it’s been hard to find a place. It is nice to know that we’re taken care of for the next few months though.

I’ve uploaded some pictures from our trip to Flickr you can see them here. Enjoy!

We’re here in Kyiv now. Mom and the girls (and Paul) are in one 2 room apartment and Dad, Steven and I are in another. We’re in different buildings but we’re really close to each other and it’s only ’til we find an apartment for all of us.

The flights were not fun at all but not as bad as i thought they would be. There were two times that someone wasn’t crying… other then that though someone was crying the whole time. Especially with the pressure changes because the little ones can’t have gum and wouldn’t drink or eat when their ears hurt. They also didn’t have much to eat until last night. (It’s 10:00 am here on Wednesday now.) The airline people were all very helpful and we had no trouble in any of the airports. (Except the TSA people didn’t like me taking video of the airport… I got searched… with the wand and by hand… I think it’s called a frisk or something… anyway, that was fun. Not.) I did find a lot of change in various pockets though and I joked with the TSA guy, he laughed. They were all helpful, we got to go straight through security in front of everyone else. We also boarded the planes before anyone else. In Frankfurt the Luftansa Lady actually carried Grace for us while leading us to the gate for the flight to Kyiv. All in all it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined but it was no fun. One thing was clear: God had prepared a way for us. It could have been much, much worse.

Ukraine isn’t as bad as I thought it would be either. It’s not the US that’s for sure but it’s not so bad. (Haven’t been to a public bathroom yet.) Anyway, we got through immigration (or whatever it’s called) with no trouble. (They put us in front of the line too.) Getting our baggage was hard though, Dad went and found some guys to help us and after a while I think we realized that they were probably mafia. One reason I think so is that they loaded our 27 huge bags onto 5 carts and just went straight through customs and not one of the many uniformed people told them or us to stop. Meanwhile everyone else has their bags x-rayed and the officers were going through them. Our bags had been gone through too but that was at heartsfield with the TSA (and probably the Ukrainian baggage handlers, although we haven’t found anything missing yet.) Praise God!

There are a couple inches of snow on the ground and it’s in the 30’s. Not really as cold as I thought. (I couldn’t imagine what the numbers 20 or 30 actually felt like.) I am glad for the jackets and boots though… and I’m not so sure about January… it’s going to be COLD! Right now I have jeans, long t-shirt and a polartec fleece on and I’m fine.

We went to an indoor market last-night and it was neat, and some things are quite cheap. (Other things are more expensive.) The YWAM people are all being very helpful and gracious. They are taking care of lunch and dinner for us for this first week. An american family brought us dinner last night (a casserole similar to spaghetti) and gave us lots of tips about things like the water and the market and food and phones and shipping. The apartment also had a welcome basket in it from the YWAMers with food and stuff in it as well as a little handwritten book with ideas and tips for meals in ukraine as well as recipes for american style food using the food available here.

Today we’re going to go buy some highchairs, learn about cell phones and the internet and look for an apartment. ;c) The battery on my laptop is almost empty so i need to go. (I can’t plug it in now, need to find an adaptor… not sure which bag that is in.)