WE'RE HERE...AT LAST in KIEV, UKRAINE!!!

PRIVIT (Hello) Everyone! Greetings from Kiev, Ukraine! We arrived in Ukraine today around 2:30pm (Ukrainian time) and met up with our VIP serviceman named Alex. He quickly escorted us to the baggage claim area where he told us that he would help us fill out the immigration customs form and help us take our baggage, get us through customs and direct us to where we would meet up with our translator. He was very serious about getting us to our destination as quickly as possible. He then proceeded to asked us if we were carrying more than $1,000.00 on us, however, his accent was so strong Robert and I were a little confused as to what he was asking. I could tell that Robert didn’t fully understand him either so I looked at him confused and told him that I didn’t understand. Well, that was the wrong thing to say. He obviously got annoyed and raised his voice (like I couldn’t hear him the first time) and even leaned in closer to me like he was yelling in my ear and asked the exact same question over again. We then figured we’d better answer the question (even though I was unsure if we should tell him how much cash we had strapped to our bodies). After answering the question, he helped us fill out our immigrations forms for customs and then we waited for our bags to arrive through baggage claim. We collected our baggage and he escorted us right on through customs (even though there were many more people in front of us). He put us right to the front of the line and they sent us on through. Robert and I are still reminising and laughing at the situation when the Alex didn't get an answer to his question. TOOO FUNNY!



After customs, and collecting our baggage we were in a crowded room where many people and taxi cab drivers were waiting for their families to arrive. While Robert stayed with our bags, I looked around for our translator holding a sign with our name on it. When I saw our name on the sign and looked at the lady and told her I was Karina Millilo she graciously greeted me and told me that she was glad to meet us. When I first saw her and was about to shake her hand, I became overwhelmed with emotion, because this lady, our translator, will be our life line to the adoption process and our go between to complete the adoption of our children while in Ukraine. I felt like hugging her, but I kept my composure and shook her hand and told her it was a pleasure it was to meet her. We then joined up with Robert and Alla, our translator, introduced us to our driver, Sasha. She said, he was her Big Boss and then laughed. Alla is not the original translator that we were supposed to meet up with, however, Alla is very nice and experienced at what she does. She has been working with Valentina’s team for 5 years and I have heard many good reports from other families on our Adoption Forum.



Alla and Sasha then escorted us to their car and took us down a long highway into the city part of Kiev doing approximately 170 kilometers/hour. I’m not sure what that translates out to in miles/hour, however, I know we were up there in speed. I just looked out of the side window at the scenery instead of looking forward. Sasha is a very good driver, I must say. He can even stop on a dime when needed, as we experienced when Valentina (our facilitator)was also with us in the car. We met up with her after stopping at a local market to get some food to heat up at the apartment for tonight’s dinner. When Sasha, stopped quickly because this large truck in front of us stopped, Valentina threw up her arms and told him EASY!!! EASY!!!....Alla interpreted Valentina’s reaction and we all had a good laugh.



We all then went back to our apartment, where we will be staying for the next couple of days, until we get our referral and permission letter to visit our kids that we select so we can visit them. Our apartment reminds us of a 1950’s style 4 room apartment. Kind of like apartment #2 at the Ventnor house. We have a living room, kitchen with a small table to eat on, bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen has a small refrigerator, gas stove that you have to light with a match, and all cooking utensils and pots, pans and plates. Our bedroom is a hide-away sofa bed with a television, desk and cabinets. Our bathroom consists of 2 rooms. One room has just the toilet in it and the other room consists of a small sink that is right next to the tub with a shower. An interesting thing we discovered was the faucet for the sink is the same one used for the tub. You just move the faucet part over to hang over the sink to wash your hands and then move it back for when you want to use it with the tub.



We then met with Valentina and Alla in the living room of the apartment and they answered all of our questions and asked us some questions regarding what we should expect, how many children we were looking to adopt, what was included with their fee etc. Both Valentina and Alla are very professional and experienced people with dealing with the NAC, the adoption community and judicial authorities. We then gave them the balance of their fee owed to them and they gave us their home phone numbers and cell phone numbers as well as what our phone number is in our apartment. If anyone would like to call us, feel free to do so….just remember when calling that we are 7 hours time ahead of you. Here is our apartment phone number for the next couple of days in Kiev 38044-248-20-03.



We had our first dinner in our apartment today, which consisted of chicken breast that was pre-cooked, potato pancakes stuffed with mushrooms and onions and a seafood salad that had corn, imitation crabmeat celery, and peppers along with some soft yummy bread. Robert and I shared with each other that we can’t believe we are actually here. The time has come for our children to join our family! Praise God!