KYIV ARRIVAL

We arrived at 3pm yesterday to KBP and had that always nerve wracking interaction with the customs agent. Olga had a sign for us and I spotted her quite quickly in the large mass of people standing outside the luggage area. She has short blonde hair and I instantly gave her a hug. I don’t know if that was courteous but I’m going on instinct. She took us out to where our driver was waiting and we got into a van. The journey took about 20 minutes and reminded us of being in Italy where the driving is like a roller coaster ride. We are very glad to have a driver. Kiev is a walking city and we are positioned very close to the main street. We have a wonderful apartment with 2 bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen. It is very clean and has windows to the street and a back area where we have watched cats on the neighboring rooftops. We got to our apartment, then off for some dinner around the corner, and then to the grocery to get water and some bread and cheese for breakfast. Finally a full night sleep, not! We were up about 2 am, Greg on his computer and I was forcing myself to sleep. We did fall back to sleep at some point and woke about 9:30am. Olga went over the whole process with us this morning. She has given me confidence. She is exact in her wording, direction and has done it with sincerity. We are going to meet with the physician that will help us decide on any medical questions. He is going to spend about a hour or so going over the terminology and diagnoses in their medical system. Terms that we are used to may have different meanings. After that we may go out for a walk and find some dinner. Tomorrow will be a sort of day off. Our big day will be Wednesday when we have our meeting at 2pm with the SDA. (this is the national department of adoption) We will be interviewed, showed children that are available and then in about 20 minutes decide who we will go to meet. Most likely Olga will also attend the meeting with us so that will give us another resource in deciding. If we find our child we will leave to go meet them by Friday. This will certainly be a big week in the process and hopefully a magical one.