Back to Real Time

We are back to posting "live". Another interesting day. It started at 3:30 am when the alarm on the cell phone went off. We didn't think that we had planned to get up that early. The message on the phone said something about Jeri.

Our appointment was at 10:00 am and lasted about 5 minutes. The woman showed us the three files and asked if these were "our" kids. At least that is how Dima translated it. Since it was in Russian, we couldn't read anything, but we recognized Yulia's photo immediately. The other two, we had to examine very closely since the photos were at least 10 years old. Masha's photo looked like the first video that we saw of her when she was 6 or 7, but I don't think we would have recognized Igor. At least we hope that all three turn out to be the three we planned for. Two other families were there at the same time, one from Michigan and one from Ohio. We will see the Michigan folks in Odessa, but we don't know what region the other couple will be in. We don't have our appointment in Odessa until Monday, and can't see the girls until then. Our facilitator/translator Oles said that we may be able to travel to Igor's school on Sunday to meet him. We will find out more about that tomorrow. It is sad that Masha and Igor had to wait so long to be adopted, but we feel blessed and thankful that God has kept them safe for us for all this time.

We met Oleg after the appointment. He and Dima both seem to really care deeply about these children. Oleg asked us to take photos at the intenot so we can show other people in America all these kids who need families. From our trip in May, to Internot 4, we already have met many of these great kids, but three is our limit, even though we would love to take a couple dozen more home with us.

Oleg, Steve, Gail , Dima

Oleg and Dima thought that it was very cold, but the folks from Michigan and Nebraska thought it felt about like home.

After the appointment, we got into the VW minivan and headed for Odessa. It took nearly an hour to get out of Kiev. We just sat back and enjoyed the ride - yeah, we enjoyed the ride. We were thankful that we didn't have to drive. Gail said that she was glad that our kids would learn to drive in Omaha instead of Ukraine. We noticed that wherever there were three lanes on the road, there were usually at least four rows of cars in those three lanes. Some of the intersections were literally free-for-alls. Whoever could edge in wherever, first, got to go first. As chaotic as it seemed, we didn't see any accidents. Our driver was a good driver, often letting others in line ahead of us. Once on the open highway, we were often passed by drivers that must have been going 100 mph. As we neared Odessa, we passed a line of trucks, probably a half mile long and 2 to 4 trucks wide stopped along the highway. A couple of miles later, the same thing on the other side of the highway and in Odessa there were police directing traffic at many intersections. Steve asked what was up with all the trucks. Oles said that they had probably were being stopped to keep the highway open for someone important, to which Steve replied, "Would that be us?"

We made it to the apartment and got unpacked. Michelle came over and took us grocery shopping, so now we have food to eat and water to drink. Steve got the router set-up so we can use more than one computer at a time. Tomorrow the printer will get set-up on the network, so we can use that. He will also check in to his work and catch-up on a few things.