Brief Update

Every morning, I get up and rush to check my email, to see when our court date is.  And so far, every morning there is no email for me.  And again, this morning, we still do not have a court date.  We are trying to be patient about this, but we are anxious to go back over and complete the process.  We know that God's timing is way better than ours, so we pray as always, for His will to govern (which of course, it will) and that we will gladly conform our desires to match His.

The Stairs

I can't figure out how to get the stairs video on the blog.  See my facebook page if you want to see them.  "The Publisher"

Safely Home

We made it home without much fanfare.  It was a long day(s), which I will describe below.  It is 5:00 am, and Libby, Virginia and I are all up.  Can you believe Virginia is out of bed at 5:00 of her own free will?  Libby was up a little after 3:00 am and already doing a load of laundry from the trip.  Hopefully we will all stay awake all day, go to bed at the normal time, and get up at a more reasonable hour tomorrow.  At least we have no reason to be late for church!

We really had no choice on our departure time from Kiev.  It was the 5:45 am flight, or some other insanely expensive ticket ($4000 per person via Moscow!).  Our lack of sleep story really begins Thursday morning.  We got up at the normal time, had a normal day, then tried to go to bed early to prepare for the trip.  Of course, none of us could go to sleep.  But by 10:00 pm, we were all asleep.  Then the phone rang at 11:15 pm.  Back to sleep.  Alarm went off at midnight. Libby got up to take a shower, then Virginia.  I got to sleep in until 1:30 am, when I got up as well.  So we are all starting the trip on 2-3.5 hours of sleep.  Had to carry all the luggage down the pitch black stairs, with Virginia leading me down with the flashlight.  (I will try to load a video of our stairs)  Loaded everything, driver arrived at 2:45 am, to the airport by 3:30 am, to beat the 2 hour early arrival rule for international flights.  Checked in, sat around, left on time.  Fortunately we flew out on Lufthansa, so I had a place for my knees.  We dozed a little on this short flight.  To Frankfurt, through the maze of halls again, through security, where they half stripped-searched me (well, not quite THAT bad), and to our gate.  Libby spied out what she thought was another American family adopting, and went over to talk to them.  They were, but not the family she thought they were.  We may wirte about their crazy story in a future blog.  On the flight back across the pond, dozed a little, to Atlanta.  Through a crazy twist of really bad scheduling on my part,  ALL of my grown children had scheduling conflicts and couldn't come get us, so we rented a car, prayed like crazy that I would not fall asleep at the wheel, and drove home.  No problems.  I still can't think clearly enough to figure out our sleep to awake ratio, but it wasn't enough, whatever it was.  Jim cut the grass for me last night, so I don't have to do that today.  But my car isn't running, so that will be my welcome home task.

We will keep you informed of the new timeline as it develops, and we have a few leftover thoughts to share, but the blog will slow down until we go back over.

St, Sophia Museum

We are taking it easy and mostly resting, repacking everything to get ready for plane flight.  But we had wanted to go to the museum, so we did this afternoon.  This complex was founded in 1025, I believe.  It is a fabulous facility that has lasted a thousand years.  Looking through the frescoes and mosaics and other embellishments of the church, it is a strange thought to think there may be fellow believers from a different time, a different culture who I have never thought about before, who may be in heaven with us.  We walked on the same stones and in the same buildings that they did.  It is fun to think about what life was like, and what those people were like, and if we sat down and talked to each other, despite all the differences, we might have very similar core beliefs and values, and perhaps could be friends.

I climbed to the top of this tower today.  What a great view if the huge city of Kiev.  

Headed Home

We have done all we can do for now.  We had to go by the notary's office again to sign yet another official resolution, and of course sign in the official ledger.  Svetlana had to do two hours of prep work to get the document ready.  It is also necessary to obtain a document officially separating two minor siblings, so no issues arise from that.  Svetlana has been taking care of that, too, during her several trips over to Sumy.  So we had an uneventful (thankfully) trip back to Kiev.  We went on a long, rambling walk and found ourselves on top of a high bluff looking down on the river.  I had my normal camera for this outing, so you will have to wait until I get home to see pictures of this.  The most humorous (?) aspect of this day is the steps up to our apartment.  We are on the third floor, accessed by four flights of steep steps that double back on themselves with something akin to spiral stairs at each turn.  Hard to describe - I will try to take a picture.  We got home from eating tonight and it was dark - outside and inside.  No lights the whole way up.  We had to kick forward every step looking for the next step.  No handrail either, so we leaned against the wall to feel our way.  But we found our door, got it unlocked, and made it safely inside.

Clothes dryer

Washing clothes in the Romny hotel

To begin the process you soak a washcloth to serve as a stopper for the bathroom sink( the washing machine.)  Next you fill the sink with dirty clothes.  In one load I washed six pairs of socks, a t-shirt and a few undies.  You sprinkle laundry soap over the clothes and fill the sink with water.  For some reason there is not hot water for the sink.  It comes out lukewarm for a few minutes before it starts sputtering, which means there is air in the line and that is not good, so you switch to just cold water then.  You must hold the stopper washcloth in place with one hand while you agitate the clothes with your other hand.  After a few minutes the stopper will hold the water if you are careful and you scrub the clothes one at a time to make sure they are clean.  Now you can let go of the stopper and rinse the clothes.  I rinsed them one a a time to make sure all the soap got out.  Then you spread a towel on the floor.  You wring out the clothes by twisting them tightly to squeeze out as much water as possible.  If the item is large, like Andy's t-shirt, it takes two people to do the wringing.  Then you lay the garments on the towel, roll it up and this helps dry them a little more.  Finally you hang them  on hangers from the clothesline that my ingenious husband designed with loops tied in it to hold the hangers.  Any leftovers are left to dry flat in the window where the sun does its magic.  The next day the clothes are clean and dry!

Commission Meeting

Svetlana, the facilitator, had to run back over to Sumy to do more paperwork associated with the official separation of the siblings.  She and the assistant director of the orphanage rode back with Sveta, and as they got near to Romny, they called us to come over to the orphanage.  We hurried and put on our good clothes (for the commission) and went to see Sveta.  Unfortunately, due to the nervousness, or the trip, or the warm day, or all of them, Sveta had a seizure and so had to rest.  Svetlana took us to Main St and had us sit at a table of a cafe and just stay there for about an hour while she ran off to do some more work.  She came back and collected us and took us to the commission meeting place ( the office of the First Lady we met in Romny - Lilia).  There we finally saw Sveta.  We were all happy to see each other, but also nervous.  Lots of chairs were moved into the office, people started filing in, we went and sat, and the meeting began.  Lilia handed out documents and explained to the commission the status of everything.  There was a copy of the complete dossier there, which one man asked to examine.  There were a few questions for Sveta, the most important was if she wanted to be adopted by us.  She said yes, thank goodness! They had some lively discussion among themselves, then asked us how we intended to teach her English.  I told them of the several avenues available to us.  They asked about schooling, and I explained the several options for that.  Then I told them of my desire to get Sveta up to speed in English as quickly as possible and that seemed to please several of the members of the commission.  And suddenly, just like that, we were done.  And just as suddenly, we had to let Sveta go so she could be taken back to the summer camp. What a whirlwind afternoon this turned out to be.  As Virginia already told you, Sveta has dumped her entire name, so we have to adjust and call her Julia Elizabeth Perry.  I think she chose well.

Blah

The name of this post is blah, because 3/4's of the waiting period before the meeting was exactly that. Blah. Once we got to the actual meeting I felt like a fish. Everyone was staring at us like we were some weird zoo-animals or something. They asked us about three questions and then we were done. On a different note. Svetlana has informed us that she wants her name to be Julia Elizabeth Perry. So when we get back with her we all have to call her Julia. It has been a very exciting day! We will probably be returning to the states in a few days or so. I am very excited! That is all for today. Goodbye!

Ukrainian money

I have seen various spellings for the money, but I think it is Hryvnia, or some variant of that.  We just went to the bank to switch some dollars to hryvnias.  I forgot to save a 200 and a 5, but here are most of the others.  Conversion rate right now is roughly $1 to 8 hryvnia.  Fortunately, cost of living in Romny is pretty low, which helps tremendously with the surprise added expense of paying room and board for our facilitator.  For those planning on coming here to adopt, I did not do the mental exercise of actually calculating transportation costs.  $0.43 per kilometer sounds fairly benign, but from Kiev to Romny, then on to Sumy because Sveta is in summer camp right now, back to Romny, and then our driver returned to Kiev - he hit me with a $330 dollar bill.  I was not prepared for that.  It is in the manual - I just glossed over it.

Anyway, here is a picture of the local currency.

The park in which we walk

This is the same park with the golden pig.

Forced entry

News flash! I want to adopt all the dogs and their puppies and all the cats in Romny. They are sooooo o cute and fluffy!! They do not belong to anyone but they are very friendly and well-fed too. They all sleep by stores or in the weeds. This is a really boring entry because I am being forced to write and have nothing to say. And it has to be ten sentences. They have a naked mermaid statue in the park. And they have lots of screaming children in Romny. That is all for now. Farewell

This is a Ukrainian ghost looking over Virginia's shoulder.  She does not appreciate her wonderful father's good humor and jocular spirit in the morning.  Poor child!

Libby's view of the morning

After a short walk, we passed through a gate that we had walked past many times.  This time we went in.  We entered a dark, dirty building where we practiced putting on patience.  We were fortunate that there were many people to keep us entertained.  First, there was the cleaning lady.  She looked about my age, maybe a little older.  She had a resigned expression on her face, not happy, not sad, just there.  She had a short, stiff broom with which she swept the floors of each office.  She was very methodical as she went about her tasks.  After she swept she had to wrestle with a large white bag to empty the contents of the dust pan.  Then she mopped the floors with an interesting mop.  I probably would not have noticed this type of mop if Jill had not pointed out its unique make.  It had a long handle with a narrow board attached to the end.  The lady had a large rag that she dipped in her bucket of water. Then she wrung out the rag and wrapped it around the narrow board, forming a mop.  Every few seconds she would have to remove the rag, wash it out, wring it out and start over.  It seems a laborious way to do it, but very economical.  When she finished one room she would move all her supplies to the next room in the same order:  first the broom and dust pan, then the big, white bag, then the mop and last, the bucket.  She cleaned about five small offices  and the long hallway while we were waiting.  Every few minutes people would come out of a door numbered 2 and enter number 3.  Then they might go back to room 2 or go down to room 4.  In and out the same people came.  Some of them seemed to work there, but some seemed to be customers, maybe paying bills.  Everyone walked very quickly.  Several times we had people ask us a question and had to tell them we only speak English.  Someone else was always nearby to answer their questions.  For the first two hours we only saw grown-ups, but then two adorable children made their noisy entrance.  They looked to be about 3 and 4 years old and came with their grandmother.  They were full of smiles and energy.  Their favorite occupation was to bang the theater style seats up and down and to run away from grandma whenever she talked to her friend or received a phone call, which was often.  They chattered happily with each other.  After several minutes of banging seats the grandmother would speak very rapidly and sternly and they would stop until something distracted her, then they went back to the banging.  Finally, the grandmother had enough and really fussed at them and spanked the girl, but not the boy, and they were quiet for awhile.  Later, the little boy told the friend about some adventure that involved a cow, because he was "moo-ing". They were very cute, but I was glad not to be their caregiver!  After all this excitement we were finally called into the room to write our names on the document and in a ledger.  Every time we have had an official meeting we have signed a ledger.  We took a short walk to the orphanage where Sveta lives and met the director.  He seemed like a nice man.  He had a large office, complete with a tv, a collie dog and a large orange and yellow stuffed gecko on the sofa.  The orphanage looked clean and nice, but empty,since most of the children are at a camp an hour away.

Soviet era stereotype come true

We had a meeting at 8am this morning to have a notary sign various documents.  It's hard to know exactly what we were there for, but she carefully checked our passports and documents from our dossier.  This was apparently her first time to certify foreign documents, and she was hesitant to do so, but eventually she went ahead and produced her additional document to place on the ever growing pile.  One more thing off the list.

But the best part of the morning was the experience.  We arrived at 7:58 am for our appointment, at an older building.  We entered and climbed the worn, chipped stairway with areas of plaster falling off the walls.  The upstairs hallway had long ago lost any floor covering, and was plain subfloor boards worn down by thousands of feet.  The knots were higher than wood since they are tougher.  A single bulb lit the end of the hallway.  We walked to the end of this hall, turned right into another hallway that had three single bulbs hanging from the ceiling ( one of them burned out while we were there, leaving that end of the hallway very dark, but they came and replaced it while we were there).  There were clusters of people standing near the doorways of the offices they wished to visit.  There about 7-8 people already at our doorway.  Our person showed up at 8:12 am.  There were old, wooden theatre type seats in 3s or 4s along the wall to sit in.  Wires were nailed to the walls on both sides, the linoleum was at least 50 years old and torn in multiple places.  The door across from our seats had been reinforced with some galvanized sheet metal nailed all around the perimeter.  We were finally called in around 9:00, handed over our passports, sat there a few minutes, and then were asked to leave.  Then we sat some more.  After a long wait, Svetlana stepped out, ushered us into the office, explained the document that had been produced, we both signed it, signed the ledger, and then rushed out of the office. ( I had the feeling we were getting out before someone changed their mind about something, but that could be wrong).  We got out around 11:00 am. 

We walked down to the orphanage and met the director.  He was described to us as a stern man, but he seemed pleasant enough to us.  Maybe he portrays a stern appearance to keep all the kids in line.  This meeting was very short, just an introduction, and we were done.  Time for more important things.  Virginia needed to go to the restroom, and Libby needed to find coffee that we had not had time to acquire first thing in the morning.

Sunday

A nice, quiet Sunday of rest for us.  We watched/listened to two different sermons on-line this morning, and then hit youtube and listened/sang along with some hymns.  We prayed for a few things we have seen either from church announcements, or on Facebook, so that was church this morning.  We could see the top of a church in the distance from our room, so we headed toward that to see what it was.  As we approached the church, we hit a large street market, so we walked through the middle of that, just to see it.  They had everything you might need in the market.  As we approached the church, the market wrapped all the way around the church.  The church had beautiful golden domes like the cathedrals from Kiev, but the building was in a state of declining condition. It did not really even look open, the best we could tell.  As we walked around the church, I wondered if this is what Jesus saw when he approached the temple.  Very ironic(but with no humor associated with it) that the market place wrapped all around the church, and was going wide open on Sunday.

We went to supper with our facilitator, to a Ukrainian barbecue place.  We had some local salads, and pork BBQ, more like shish-kabob meet.  All of it was very good.  Someone asked for a normal picture, not a tourist shot, so here is a picture of Main Street in Romny.

Quiet Saturday

Today was very quiet.  Since it is Saturday, no government offices were open.  Svetlana worked all morning on paperwork needed for Monday. We took several long walks, and wandered into a few shops just to see what was in them.  We found some gift bags for the several gifts we have for the orphanage director, et al.  We also went to a bigger grocery store that was a little further away.  Svetlana came with us to the store, so she explained what things were.  It was very helpful, and we were able to lay in enough food to get through Sunday.  Svetlana was too tired to go out to eat, so we had to decide whether we just eat cereal or Nutella bread, or venture out.  Virginia stepped up and decided we should go back to the pizza place.  She got out google translate, and wrote down all the ingredients she wanted in Russian (this part of Ukraine seems to tend more toward Russian than Ukrainian).  She must have done a decent job of it, because we successfully received our pizza.  Then we walked slowly home, visiting the pig again.  Lots of people out walking and enjoying the cool evening.  We are now waiting for someone to come change our bathroom light bulb, so we can see to do so many essential things.

Driving

Dad didn't cover Stas's driving well enough so it's my turn. First of all let me explain the roads to you. Imagine driving through Mount Everest and then imagine have craters every inch along the road. Now imagine driving slowly, about 75-80 km. across that road. Stas decided he was to good for speed limits so he made up his own. We never dipped below 115 the entire time. For most of it we were going about 140-160 km. wee!!!!!!!!! Mom was trying not to hiss the entire time, and Dad clutched the back of the seat in front  of him. Now were going 140-160 all the time and were swerving into oncoming traffic zipping around other drivers. If you can imagine that then you know what driving ini Ukraine is like. That's all for today folks. Excuse the grammatical errors as mom was not critiquing my work.

Ukraine the breadbasket

I had heard that under the Soviet Empire, Ukraine was the breadbasket that kept the USSR alive.  After our drive to Sumy yesterday, I believe it!  Rich black soil that stretched on as far as you could see.  Beautiful corn fields and sunflower fields.  Some wheat, and pumpkins, apple trees loaded up, plums, etc.  interestingly, almost no animal farms.  Individuals might have a cow, or a few goats or chickens, but that was all.  The country is very nice - rolling hills and trees planted in wind rows.  Not too many wild animals in these parts, because there aren't many forests.

We went out walking today and found sveta's pig.  We HAD to take a picture by it.  It is another gorgeous day -low this morning was 51, with a high forecast of 78, and a light breeze.

Local Romny meeting

Today at 9:00 am, we met with a local official.  I believe she is responsible for all the orphans in this region.  She has to approve the adoption locally, just as SDA does for the country.  I told our facilitator (Svetlana), that Ukrainians are always so serious when they talk, I don't know if things are going poorly, or everything is fine.  Svetlana kept looking at me and reassuring me that everything was fine - just paperwork.  We found out later that this official came in from her vacation to take care of us today.  That was very kind of her.  She seemed to care personally for Sveta.  Then we were off for a couple of hours, while S took care of other matters.  We walked up to the local grocery and bought a few items. It is more challenging this time, since we don't have a stove, microwave, or electric kettle.  So everything we do in our room must be cold.  Fortunately, the cafe associated with the hotel is relatively inexpensive.  We just can't read the menu! We have spent the last two days during free moments, working on translating the entire menu, so we can take our notes with us and point and grunt.  That worked for breakfast today.  Then, we were able to drive over to the regional capital city, Sumy, and surprise visit Sveta at the summer camp she is attending.  It was very funny and heartwarming to see her run toward us and nearly tackle us.  We had lots of hugs and kisses in front of the whole world.  Here is a picture of all of us.

Dnieper river

A view of the river from Victory Park

Catching up

Yesterday we did a lot of walking, just to kill time.  Virginia felt compelled to by little souvenirs for family and friends, so we walked back up near St. Andrews to the tourist traps there. We picked up Libby and headed to an Azerbaijan restaurant for lunch, then changed our minds and tried to find a place recommended by someone else.  We walked and walked, then just ate somewhere because we were hungry, then found it on our way back.  Then stopped by the office of the apt to pay the bill, then back to St. Andrews since V wasn't done yet.  Back the the apt, finished repacking everything.  Stas, the driver, and Svetlana ( not our Svetlana - yes, this will get confusing) came to pick us up, we drove to SDA for our 4:00 pm meeting to receive our official referral to the regional authorities, signed the official ledger, and headed to Romny.  We did not even get out of town, before we made a stop.  There was a big park commemorating Victory Day, which also had a good view of the river down below.  We loaded back up and headed east . . . And immediately hit traffic.  Once we cleared the city, we made good time on the highway.  Then we turned off on a back road to Romny, and words can't describe the terrifying ride the rest of the way.  Your prayers for safe travels are GREATLY appreciated.  This is not a "please give me a safe trip to Grandmas" kind of a prayer.  This trip required serious, intense, constant (on my part, at least) kind of prayer.  But we made it!

In Romny

We are in Romny.  It's late, so will try to catch up tomorrow.  Tomorrow is busy, too.  We meet all sorts of different layers of local officials, and then drive out to Camp, where Svetlana is right now.  She is not at the orphanage, which we are only about three blocks from.

How to cross the road

There are two (safe/legal) ways to cross busy streets in Kiev.  The first is to use a crosswalk.  These are spaced periodically, but not at every side street.  The game, however, is the cars are not going to stop until you step out in front of them.  And you can't hesitate, or they will get mad and honk at you. This game is made more fun, by the fact that our street is fairly steep.  So the cars going downhill are moving along pretty quickly, and the cars going uphill are hitting the gas trying to make it up.  I'm pretty brave stepping out in front of an uphill car, but real selective on the downhill cars.
   The second method is used at major intersections.  These all have tunnels going under them.  The cool thing is when you get to the bottom of the steps, there is an entire shopping area hidden down there.  Bakery shops, tourist junk, flower shops, etc.  Not just a few, but multiple hallways of shops.  You have to pay attention to which direction you head in, because often there are three or four different stairways that come out on different corners of the intersection.  Twice when we went below ground, we discovered entire high-end malls.  These were full-blown major retailers, and even food courts like in the US.  There was even a McDonolds in the food court.

More Cathedrals

After our SDA meeting, we went home and cleaned out leftovers (believe it or not).  We rested a bit, because neither Libby nor Virginia slept well last night.  We saw the Martins for just a few minutes, and gave back their butter knife in exchange for two of our spoons, which they had for some reason.  We also got in touch with the apartment managers to help us get the washing machine running. It is an Italian machine in Ukraine being operated by Americans.   We finally got it running - an itty-bitty machine under the kitchen counter, that held a handful of clothes, had a run cycle of nearly two hours! Finally we went out walking again.  Our first stop was St. Sophia Church, which has been turned into a museum.  We got there just at closing time, so we could not go in.  Then we wandered down to the Golden Gate, which I'm not quite sure of the significance.  I think it was an ancient gate into the old city, or fortress, but not sure.  Then, since Virginia was STARVING, we went to a Ukrainian restaurant recommended by Konstantin.  All of the food was very good and nicely presented.  Libby had borsch, an Ukrainian traditional soup.  Virginia had a really nice pork chop, and ate the whole thing!  And now we are home settling down for the night.

SDA Meeting

The short version (if you are in a hurry) is that the meeting went fine.  We go back between 4:00 - 5:00 tomorrow afternoon to sign our referral, and immediately leave town for Romny.  We won't get there until late in the evening.

Now the longer version.  This government building is like any other government building you have gone to.  It has the feel of an old county court house, especially if you enter at ground level, or go into a basement level.  The doors were a little short, and you have to duck to go through them.  There was a mysterious door off of the short hall that we were waiting in.  We took a seat on a couch in the hallway.  Konstatin had to drop off a different dossier.  There were other people coming and going, similarly dropping off documents.  People would go in, talk for several minutes and come back out in the hall.  They all knew each other so they chatted with each other as they waited.  Then one of them would suddenly go back in for half a minute, come back out, and another would run in.  Eventually, it was time for our meeting (about 50 minutes late).  Apparently the people before us were having some difficulty deciding on their "blind" child choice.  Our case worker was a pleasant lady named Maria.  She showed us several pictures of Svetlana over the years, told us a few things, we signed her ledger accepting Svetlana as our child, and we were done.  All of our documents were in order, so it was as simple as that.  Right next to the SDA building is another old cathedral.  We did not have time to go in, but here is a picture of it.  This is St. Andrews Cathedral.

From virginia

Today was an interesting day. To start it off we went exploring and found St.Michaels cathedral. Not noticing the note banning all cameras we went inside. After about 10 minutes a man came up and told us, all in Ukranian, that we were not allowed to take pictures and we were told to please leave the cathedral. So we left. 24 hours into our stay in Kiev we were already kicked out of something. After leaving we decided to go look at some other monuments. What could be worse than being thrown out of a cathedral? Well here's something. How about being assaulted by a furry creature man. And no I am not joking. Dad was really assaulted by a giant fury teddy-bear-alligator thing. You see, these creepy life sized animals were walking around getting pictures with people. And one of them decided he was going to steal from dad. Fortunately, he was unsuccessful. So where am I? Oh yes,  thrown out of a cathedral and assaulted by a teddy  bear- alligator thing. Well now  we get to the fun part. Apparently Ukraine does not serve m&m mcflurrys but chocolate ones. They were very good. That's about all I have to say, and supper is ready so I will be done retelling my adventures to you. Adios amigos.  -Virginia

St. Michael's Cathedral

From Libby

Our arrival in Kiev was a little taste of heaven, with David's smiling familiar face and our driver waiting to greet us and take care of us.  We had a joyful reunion with Jill and Shirley at the very nice flat that our facilitator had rented for us.  after a delicious meal of chicken soup, fresh peaches, cheese  and crackers we visited and prayed and found our toothbrushes and re-learned how to brush our teeth without using tap water.  We had a comfortable night's sleep and then The Martins took us sight-seeing before we said good-bye.  Tomorrow we have our first appointment.  If we are approved we go on Thursday to Romny to see Sveta!  It seems so strange that we are really here and that our prayers are being answered as Suzanne requested, "Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap." we are so blessed in every way and are grateful for your continued prayers.

Trip stories

Since the trip went so well, I thought I would give all you world travelers some details.  The Frankfurt airport continues to amaze me.  We fortunately had a 5 hour layover there, so none of what I am about to tell you really mattered.  

It would seem that as the Frankfurt airport has grown, they have built terminal space anywhere they could find space, and interconnected that space any old nilly-willy way they could.  We were dutifully following the signs to concourse D, and walked in big circles through deserted hallways.  There were seats, and places for future gates and even the electronic boards with flight information, just no people.  We walked on and on.  We were headed to gate D9 because a man at an information booth way back in terminal 1 concourse A had told us that.  That is the ONLY time we ever heard or saw that our flight would be at that gate.  Each set of gates had their own security checkpoint, so gates D1 - D4 had a security checkpoint, gates D5 - D8 did as well.  Then we walked through another long deserted hallway, down an escalator, and found D9, with the doors locked tight and no one there.  The flight information boards continued to only show concourse D as our destination - the " D" gates run up to number 54!  Finally, security screeners started to show up, but none of them had a key.  Then a tall guy (at least 6'6") rode up on a small bike (there were frequently airport personnel zooming by on bikes) and unlocked the doors.  The security folks started processing people even though a bunch of us did not have boarding passes.  "It's okay" is all they said, so we processed through.  Security in Germany is different than US.  Much more thorough, but polite.  Looked through, opened up, dumped out much more from carry-on, lots of people searched and patted down, but very professional.  We made it through fine.  Finally, an airport guy showed up to do boarding passes, but the printer inside the security area was broken, so he had to go to the counter outside the security area.  That meant we had to go through security again.  Fortunately, the guy let me get all three tickets for all of us, so we could leave our bags inside the security area.  Everyone got processed, the departure time came and went, and it was time board.  No tunnel to the plane - in fact, no plane!  We walked down four flights of steps, out to the Tarmac, and boarded buses.  The planes for this area of the terminal are all parked out on a remote apron.  I guess when they extended the terminal for the D concourse, they did not think it important to leave room to actually park a plane at the gate.  So we drove out to the plane in a packed, standing room only bus, climbed the stairs, and found our seats.  The Ukrainians must be big on efficiency, because the seats were tight!  I literally could not sit in my seat with my legs straight in front of me - I had to spread them a little so my knees were on either side of the seat in front of me.  Good thing it was Libby next to me, because I was definitely in "her space".  But all went well, good flight into Kiev, took a long time to get our luggage, but all of it was there and in good shape, and our driver, Stas, and David Martin were both there to greet us as we escaped through customs.

We're here

This will be short because we are all tired.  But we made it.  Nice apartment.  Jill and David got up here from Odessa and had supper ready for us in our apartment.  More tomorrow.

Frankfurt Airport

We have made it to the Frankfurt airport.  What a maze!  But we think we on the correct concourse of the correct terminal now.  We flew in on Lufthansa, which is to Frankfurt as Delta is to Atlanta.  We finally figured out we had to ride a train from Terminal 1, which is loaded with Lufthansa flights, over to Terminal 2, where all the cats and dog flights are located.  We slept a little on the flight - Virginia watched the movie "Cars" three times trying to fall asleep.  We have 4 more hours till our next flight, so we are hanging out and planning on getting some food before we go through security again.  Till next time . . .

Getting Organized

It's time to make decisions.  Most of this is for the backpacks, but each pack must weigh less than 17.6 pounds.  It looks like we have a bit of work to do!