Ukrainian Food is the BEST (and other valid reflections on our trip)

Me and the love of my life.

We are home.

Ukraine was... well, a world away from anything that I have ever experienced. I really didn't know what to expect. I had heard a plethora of descriptions. But nothing prepared me for the deep love that I felt God fill me with when we landed. This is the birthplace of my child. My son.

We landed in Kiev on June 16, Father's Day at 1:15 p.m. (which is 6:15 am our time). We were exhausted. A businessman who we met on one of our flights advised against trying to sleep too much on the way over so that was the plan we went with. 

We arrived to the home of the missionary that we would be staying with and visited for awhile and then went out to explore Kiev.

Karen, the missionary, showed us how to get to where our appointment would be. It was pretty close, but once you reach about the halfway point as far as distance goes, you come to a hill and I think that it would be fair to say that the hill is about a 45 degree angle. (I now have thighs of steel!)

The road up the hill to Saint Andrew's Church is lined with what amount to a Ukrainian Shipshewana. (Flea market for all you who have no idea what Shipshewana is). I found a great Sputnik poster. The guy who sold it to me (for about $3 USD) was surprised that an American would want it. I think it is pretty cool.

That evening we went out to eat at a little restaurant that was close to Karen's apartment. It was DELICIOUS. Normally when I travel I miss my normal food. I have to say that now I am home I am feeling a little deprived. Ukrainian food is THE BEST.

The day of our appointment dawned hot. But it was a dry heat. We put on our nice clothes and climbed. And climbed. And climbed. And climbed. Long story short. I can eat like the above picture shows and lose eight pounds in one week in Ukraine.

I had heard lots of stories about how appointments go, including a little vignette that mentioned a "Volkswagon-sized woman." For us, the appointment went beyond perfect. D's SDA pictures were so cute. He was posing and sassy and ADORABLE. The woman who met with us was so happy for us and for him and the whole meeting was full of smiles.

We left the appointment with the promise that we could go the next day and pick up our referral between the hours of 4 and 5.


We walked around Kiev some more and Garth found something else that he likes about Europe. (Coffee here now tastes so watery.)

The next day we picked up our referral at the appointed time and were whisked off to the train station to begin our journey to our region.

We arrived in our region early Wednesday morning along with our facilitator. We went to the hotel and dropped our baggage off and then began the crazy paper chase.

Off to the social worker's office to get a permission sheet from them to meet D.

Off to the orphanage with the social worker, our driver, our facilitator, and the two of us.

The orphanage was a surprise as well. Very nicely tended. 

As we walked up the path to the front door I glanced over and saw a group of children sitting around outside. And I saw him. Just a quarter profile. But my heart KNEW.

The director was very kind to us. It was obvious that she cares about the children.

We met D, which I describe in an earlier post, we asked him what his favorite color is and he said red. I had bought this car for him back in the States. He loved it and he took this picture. Isn't his little hand so precious?