long drive

Okay, here are some of the pictures from the time we were in Kiev. This Internet cafe will allow us to upload pictures....it is just hard to use the computer and remember the icons and hope my Russian is good enough to read the words that pop up!!!

The top two pictures are of local churches. The one on the left is of St. Paul and is the prettiest church in Kiev. The one on the left is St Sophia and is the oldest church in all of the pre existing USSR...it was build in 1099-1107. Can you image how old that is. It is really neat to see the existing paintings and stone that made it through many wars...of course there have been fires too. I wish we could have taken pictures of the inside, but it wasn't allowed.

The next picture is of our apartment that we stayed in during our time in Kiev. It had hot water and from what I understand, that is a good thing. Definitely 60's-70's style. The next picture is of a portion of Independence Square downtown Kiev. The next picture is of David in a very expensive restaurant downtown Kiev...we didn't know how expensive it was...but wow.. for 3 people it was 85 dollars without any alcohol or dessert...our next dinner was 10 dollars for 3 people...it was a costly lesson. :) The last picture is of David and our translator Kostya who has been taking care of us. He is extremely kind and for those of you who know me well, you will not be surprised to know that I am already eating from his plate!!! He shares part of his food with me at each meal so that I can try it. Who else would eat someone elses food when they have known them only 24 hours!!! David thought it was a hoot.

Well, I have to tell you Chris...you are right about the driving. It was scary when we drove all night, but especially when we were stopped by the cops a couple of times to check our papers. YIKES. The drive actually took us 11 hours. We were exhausted, but we didn't have anytime to waste. We headed to the inspectors office (who gives us the papers to approve us to visit the orphanage). He laughs a great deal and processed our papers very quickly. From what I understand, there is one family here who has been in the region for a couple of days and they still have not been able to get these papers to visit the child. Then the inspector went with us to the orphanage. This is the moment we have been waiting for. I can't describe the feeling that came over both of us when this little boy walked into the waiting room. He is SO sweet and little with the most adorable smile. It was hard to get a picture of him because he was shy, but he did like looking at the pictures on the digital camera after we finished taking them. He wrote down letters for us to show us how smart he is. David tickled him alot and I think that made him comfortable with us. Aunt Marilyn, we also gave him the stuffed animal that you gave us. This was a BIG hit and he hugged on it alot. We only got to visit with him for 1/2 hour. We did ask him if he wanted us to be his mama and papa and he said yes.

Christopher Nicholas (his given name) Raskin is going to be his name and his birthday is October 7, 2000. This is also David's fathers birthday. I am going to post pictures of him next because I need more space.

After we finished with Chris (we will have to call him Nicholai until he is comfortable later) we had to jump in the car and pick up another translator to put together many more documents. Then we rushed back to the Inspectors office to do more documents then we rushed back to the orphanage to meet the director and get her blessing. She was very kind and very pretty. By the way, this orphange is wonderful. This place is not run down and is actually used when Ukraine does commercials for adoptions. She does a wonderful job with what she has!

We finally got to our apartment at around 8 oclock. The Inspector was kind enough to take us there since we had no idea of where we are. (We have made many wrong turns, but it has been an adventure).

David was a little surprised to find out that a lady lived in the apartment and she was moving out and renting it to us. Her son came to pick her up. It is strange, but a good price. The cost is 30 dollars a night as opposed to the 60 dollars a night for the apartment in Kiev. The place is older, but is all we need and only a couple of miles from the orphanage. We will take a Taxi to the orphanage two times a day, every day to visit. The walk is rough and the area is not the best if you know what I mean?

I want to thank EVERYONE for the comments. It is good, because I have to say that it does get very hard when you hear Russian all day long. You really feel like an outsider. You would be proud of me, I started using my limited Russian today and people could understand me. I just can't understand them when they respond!!! We have found a restaurant that is inexpensive and the waitress is very friendly...so I think this will be our spot. Oh, and they have a western bathroom. After going to the squatters...you don't know what a relief it is to see a regular toilet!!

By the way, David is no different here than he is at home. We actually got into a fight in the street because he wanted to go to the apartment so bad and I told him that I would just go by myself to explore. Can you imagine his stress. He went with me, but he wasn't happy. When we got to the apartment, he immediately headed to the DVD player!!!! Just like home!!

Teresa,

Tell Tracy welcome home and Kelly hello. Chris, good luck on your adoption. Linda...I will eat everything, just for you. :) Everyone else, thanks for the well wishes.