We made it to the homeland of our child...

boy it is a feeling I cannot explain, we feel so close to our child (whoever that may be). Here are some pictures of our trip so far. Our apartment here is very nice and we are very thankful for it...when we leave for our child's region we will be staying in a much much more primitive place. Today (Tues.) we headed out on our own to exchange money and soak all this in. We were hungry but before we could get anything to eat we had to find a bank...not so easy when you cannot read any of the signs or understand any of the language. After finding what looked like a bank and thankfully it was....we exchanged some money...seems so easy but it was a bit harder than that. We do have a phone on us and we can call our facilitator anytime he will translate to us or whatever we need...so far today we got by well enough on our own. We found this big underground market of stores and a very big nice underground mall. It really is a completely different world. Our apt. manager said 3% of Uk**aine are wealthy and they all seem to live here where we are. The other 97% are very poor and live in these regions outside of the capital. She said there is no middle class. If I could sum up today it would be with the word extravagant...people with big fur hats, big fur coats and very high heals. The people here are just beautiful. I feel safe and already alot more settled than I felt getting in last night. Please pray for us tomorrow it is a very big day for us...tomorrow (wed am) for us is Tuesday night for you. Pray God's will to be done and for the peace of God to abound in our hearts no matter what news tomorrow brings as we meet with the officials. Thank you for the prayers.

There were so many people I had planned on calling before we left the country but so much happened. To give a quick re cap...we made it safely to Texas with beautiful weather and we are thankful for that as a snow storm came through the same states we were driving through many hours after we made it through! Once in Texas we had some nice/sweet time with Mike's family and spend much time loving on our babies who were just happy to be with their cousins I think their minds were somewhat off of Momma and Daddy leaving, that is a good thing. Our transmission went out in our van after we got to Texas..thankfully Mike's dad will be finding someone to work on it while we are away, that kept us from having to deal with it before we left. So...we are especially thankful for nice weather and that God himself got us to Texas before our transmission went out. Ofcourse saying by to the kids was the hardest thing I have ever had to do but I know they are having fun and so far everything has worked out for us to talk with them everyday. Please continue to pray for Sarah and Jody and our little children, that God would be with them during this time.

As far as our trip here...we flew from Dallas to Charlotte( where my cell phone went dead and there was no where to charge it..another reason I did not get to call so many people). from Charlotte to Germany (our first taste in a new world) and then from Germany to here....boy the flight from Charlotte to Germany was a bit rough in that it was long...we we finally arrived here to our apt. last night my ankles and leges were so swollen! Our facilitator then had a driver (who spoke no English ofcourse but was very kind) pick us up and bring us to our apt. we felt very safe with our driver. At the apt. to meet us was a wonderful lady (our apt. manager) she was so kind and helpful to us...if you ever come here I would highly recommend her and her apts. to anyone!

Well...looks like I have got caught up.. we will be here until Thurs night our time) then we will head out on a train to our child's region. The tickets have already been purchased and if we need to change the destination we will for a small fee...we were told they should be purchased early before they sold out...our facilitator took care of all those arrangements for us. I am not sure when or if I will have internet again once we leave Thurs. night. I will post again when I can. Remember to pray for us, our safety, our meeting tomorrow, our children and Sarah and Jody.

Here are some pictures if you are interested. :)

 Mike and I at the Dallas airport...that refreshed look did not last very long :)

At Charlotte waiting on our flight to Germany. TSA walking around  and passport checks were happening alot...it was interesting.

 Our dinner..we flew Lufthansa airlines..highly recommended, quality service.

 In Munich, Germany waiting on our delayed flight to Kie*...at this point we were so sore and exhausted.

Ukra**an money. Grevna is how you say it :) One U.S. dollar for every 8 grevna