Sunday August 8th, 2010

After all the farewells and best wishes by our Vegas friends and co-workers we boarded our 7 am flight to Atlanta (all Delta flights go through Atlanta), where we met Emma's friend Jules who was returning to London on the same flight as us. After a few cocktails at the Delta Sky Lounge and a nice meal at TGIFs we hopped on our 5pm flight to London. Usually on these red eye flights we sleep like babies (with the help of a few Doctor presecribed Valiums...), but we were so excited about our trip we hardly slept at all.

On Monday August 9th (Happy Birthday Dad), we arrive in gloomy rainy England, cruise through customs, say goodbye to Jules and wait for 4 hours at Gatwick for our flight to Kiev. We have a little oasis at Gatwick where we have salmon and champagne - very nice quiet place. At 11:30 am we board our flight on Ukrainian Airways for our 4 hour flight to our new home for the next month. By this time we are exhausted and we both pass out before takeoff.


When we arrive in Kiev we are thrown into the typical airport chaos you would expect from any developing former Communist country. Three flights come in at the same time and people of all types (and odors) are scrambling to get their immigration forms, which remind me of something you would fill out in first grade with a crayon and push their way into the six lines for three hundred people. 


An hour later we are stamped and welcomed into the Ukraine (why do we always put the word 'The' in front of the word 'Ukraine'?). After a slight panic of not locating our bags at first we head out into the crowd of people hoping somebody will be there to greet us. Sure enough, a lovely woman named Irene all dressed up (we look like we have been 'dragged through a hedge backwards'), holding our wedding picture is welcoming us to rainy Kiev. She and our non-English speaking driver take us into town to our fancy uptown apartment. But first we stop to meet our co-ordinator Lesya at a grocery store to pick up a few needed supplies including beer and wine. Lesya speaks excellent English and is truly happy to meet us. She will be with us every step of the way and we couldn't have asked for a more positive and helpful person to guide us through this crazy adventure. It appears she really knows what she is doing and obviously loves her job. We all head over to our very nice apartment up on the hill overlooking the city centre where we get settled into our two bedroom flat complete with satellite TV, internet, AC and all the comforts of home.


We open a suprisingly good bottle of local wine and toast the moment while Lesya explains the process to us. She tells us how the kids get where they are and how the adoption process works. At one point she tells us of these two adorable boys aged 3 and 4 that will be perfect for us. We both start tearing up thinking about how perfect that might be. But she goes on to explain that their situation changed yesterday when their 11 year old brother decided he wanted to stay with them. As much as we would like to, three boys might be too much. Such is the saga of adoption.
By about 9 pm we are exhausted so we finish the bottle and Lesya and Irene say good night and we are left alone in our Kiev flat. Our first few hours in Kiev are wonderful and we feel very lucky, so far so good. Good night Kiev.