I'm in Love!!!

Okay, it's now official. I love Ukraine :-).  It is so amazing to think that most likely I would never have visited this country (much less learned anything about it or studied it at all) had we not met Sergey, and now it is one of my most favorite places in the world.  The people are beautiful, the countryside is gorgeous, the cities are alive and so fun, there are huge lovely parks everywhere, amazingly incredible churches all over the place, and we can eat at a really nice restaurant (food, drinks, dessert) for a price you would not believe (thank goodness for the strength of the dollar right now!!!). And yesterday I found a pair of boots on clearance in a little boutique in Kiev that I might just wear every day for the rest of my life because they are so awesome.  We may never come home :-).  JUST KIDDING - we will be coming home soon :-).

I last wrote on Thursday night, and now it is Saturday night here (we just found out that Spring forward is tonight, so we will be back on a 7 hour time difference, in case anyone was wondering :-).  Friday was another beautiful day - I am astonished by the beautiful weather we have had here.  We went to the United States Embassy in the morning to file our I600. It was an enormous building, and the area where you go to do adoption things had 18 windows for business.  But it was just us and one other guy :-).  We were standing there at the window finishing up when we heard Toby Mac's "Me without You" playing from somewhere. We both laughed out loud and thought of our boys (including Andrew Cook) - and they'll know why :-).  It was easy as could be, and then Alex took us back to our apartment. We went and got some lunch (I ordered a yummy pizza that I am going to try to make when I get home - SUPER thin focaccia bread, with caesar dressing, iceberg lettuce, bacon, and cherry tomatoes. It was like heaven - and less than $4!!).  After lunch we walked around Kiev some more and then Alex picked us up to take us to the SDA, where we picked up our referral for Sergey!!  It literally took one minute - we walked in, sat down, signed one paper, and walked out with everything we needed :-).  The woman who helped us was so nice and said Good Luck with everything!!

Instead of going back to our apartment, we had Alex drop us off at a place I had heard about when I was looking online for places to visit the night before.  It was beyond words - I took a ton of pictures (what a shock), but none of them even come close to showing you how gorgeous it was.  It was/is a monastery, and there were still monks walking around who are currently living there.  We went down underground to some caves where monks used to live - it was amazing.  If you ever go to Kiev, I would highly recommend you go see it.  Here are a few of the pictures:

When we left the monastery, we walked a ways to get to a World War II monument area, which was incredible as well.  Alex had told us that we needed to go, so that we could see the statue there. She was really impressive - a bit like the statue of liberty but shinier :-).  Here are a few pics from that area:

You can't really tell from this, but she is HUUUUGE.

We took a taxi back to our apartment and then went out for dinner. We chose the restaurant because it was called "Oliva" (Olivia minus one I) - we HAD to go there :-).  It was so fun - we had the cutest waitress who spoke lots of English and was so sweet to us.  I wish I had taken a picture of her instead of the restaurant :-), and I wish OUR Olivia could have been with us!!!

This morning Alex picked us up to catch the train at noon.  All of the other folks we know who have adopted from Sergey's orphanage have taken an overnight train to Odessa and then taken another one back to Kiev, so I had assumed that we would do the same.  However, Alex suggested the bus and we decided to go for it, since we would be able to see the countryside on the way, and be able to sleep in real beds instead of beds on a train!!  I am so very glad we did, because it gave us such a great picture of the country.  I have NEVER NEVER EVER seen so much lush, green, rich farmland, just mile after mile for 6 hours!!!!!  I took some pictures, but you can't really see what it was like.  The dirt was such a deep, rich brown, and the grass was just so green. I can't imagine what it looks like when they are growing their crops - I want to come back sometime in the summer with Sergey - I bet it is incredible.  One funny thing along the way - we stopped about half-way for folks to use the bathroom and get a snack, but you had to pay to use the bathroom! It was so funny - you went up to this window and gave them 2 grivna and they gave you a little coin. You put it in this turn-style and then could go into the restroom! We can't ever understand anything that people are saying, or read any of the signs, so we just follow the others and do whatever they are doing :-).  Thankfully this was a pretty clear thing and we figured it out okay :-).

We arrived in Odessa at 6 pm, and were greeted by another one of the folks working with us, Svetlana. She is so kind - everyone has told us how wonderful she is, and they were right :-). She brought us to our apartment, showed us where the grocery store was and suggested a few restaurants, and then headed home.  We settled in a bit and then went out for another great dinner - I am not sure I am ever going to be able to cook again.  I am getting so spoiled - what a treat to sit down night after night to a delicious meal that someone ELSE has prepared, and that someone ELSE is going to clean up!!!  And to be waited on by such lovely people - when I look back on this trip it will definitely be one of my most favorite memories of it. It has been a COMPLETELY unexpected blessing and gift.

I wish you could see this better - it was one of the most beautifully decorated restaurants I have ever seen.

Speaking of gifts, and things unexpected, I just want to share a quick story that I know some of you will think is silly/ridiculous, but I know that some of you will love as much as I did.  Tonight at dinner they brought us a bunch of different kinds of homemade bread, with a plate for dipping into, that had olive oil and some different spices and herbs (see pic above). It was to DIE for - I think I could have licked the plate.  It definitely was heavy on the garlic, as were the veggies we had, and so I was thinking how much I would love a piece of gum.  Let me say that I have literally not seen one piece of gum since we've been here - no one seems to chew it, or at least anyone that I've seen.  I had just had that thought when our sweet waitress brought us our bill (they never bring it until you ask for it - it's so nice because you can just relax and talk, and not have to feel like you need to rush out as soon as you are done).  They always bring the bill in something fun or pretty, and this time she brought it in an envelope.  Clint reached in to pull it out (picture below so you can see how nice even the BILLS are!!), and then a few minutes later he looked back in the envelope and said "Look! Two pieces of gum!"  To me (probably not to Clint, who most likely thinks I am crazy), that felt like just one more way (one of a MILLION things) that God was reminding us that He is right here with us and that we are exactly where we are supposed to be!!!

the bill - isn't it so pretty????

We are now back home, getting ready for bed.  We got to talk to 2 of our 3 kids in the States, and unpack all of our things in our new teeny tiny apartment :-).  Tomorrow is totally free, since it is a Sunday.  I think that we should go rent some bikes (we saw a place tonight as we were walking around that you can do so), and ride them to the beach.  In case you don't know, Odessa is right on the Black Sea.  I cannot wait to explore tomorrow - it definitely has the feel of a beach town, with tons of restaurants, hotels, shops, and happy people everywhere :-).  It is so quaint - cobblestone streets, lights hanging everywhere, a gorgeous park that we walked through tonight, and beautiful churches.  

Then, Monday is THE BIG DAY!!!!!!!!  We will pick up the social worker at 10:00 am and meet with her.  We will all drive to Sergey's orphanage, where he will have to sign the papers to say that he does wanted to be adopted by our family.  We will likely only see him for a matter of minutes before we head out to take the social worker back.  I think we have to file some papers or something, and then we will be done.  We will most likely spend the night here Monday night, and then take the bus back to Kiev on Tuesday, and then fly out on Thursday!!!  If everything goes as planned here (praying like crazy that it will!!!), we will be done on Wednesday. We are missing our kids at home so much that we checked in with our travel agent to see if we would be able to come home a day early if we are finished, but it would cost us $600 plus any flight difference, so we will just enjoy one more night in our luxury apartment in Kiev :-).  We are so enjoying ourselves, but missing our kiddos more and more each day.  At least we'll get to see this kiddo for a bit on Monday!!!!

Thank you for all of your prayers - I told Clint that I wish we always had people praying for us like this - it has been (almost) beyond words.  For me, I don't think anything is truly beyond words ;-).  Our next post will most likely be Monday after seeing Sergey, so keep us in your prayers!!! LOVE, Jen