Tuesday in Kiev

Hello Everyone, it is another cold day in Kiev waiting to travel tomorrow. Yesterday was disappointing in a way. We only had one hour to decide on a child or if we really were going to go through with this. I thought used car sales people are bad... It is sad you are talking about a child, a human life and they show you a couple of pictures, read a limited medical history and then they say ... make a decision. The child we selected seemed to look "normal" and out of all the children, appeared to have the least amount of issues. Although, we really will not be able to tell until we get into the region and meet him.

Tomorrow we will travel to Sumy. It is a couple hours away from Kiev. Because of the weather (snow and ice) I am sure we will travel by train. We will have a meeting at the local child services center then travel to the orphanage to meet Kolya. We decided to bring him candy (Kristina and Maxim loved candy so we thought he would be the same) and a few toys. We are pryaing the meeting goes well.

We met another couple from the US at dinner. We heard a southern accent and asked where they were from. They are from South Carolina. They are here to adopt as well. It was interesting hearing their story - it is so much like ours.

I continue to find Kiev very interesting. There are no children here.. no kidding... I think we have seen one. No teenagers and very few people that would be considered elderly. Most are between 20-60. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen. We walked around a mall last night and honestly did't see a child or group of kids any where. As I said yesterday, the woman are beautiful - men too. Maury has decided to stay here and go into public service... I will not mention what field he has decided to go in to (just kidding). There is a public bus stop by our apartment. Out of the 15 woman standing in line for the bus, 9 had full length mink coats on... it was the craziest thing I have ever seen. I wanted to take a picture (thought you guys would get a kick out of that) but didn't have my camera. Anyway, this city is a lot like New York City (very trendy, a lot of money and crowded). I am sure we will go into culture shock when we leave the fast paced city to the Sumy region. As a matter of fact, our translator said this is the only city like this in the Ukraine.

We do not have a dryer in our apartment and can not figure out how to work the washing machine. Maury and I washed our clothes in the sink and hung them to dry. My pampered self was fussing a little... Maury keeps reminding me that it builds character!!! I will not say what my response is to him!!!! :)

Well today is another waiting game. I think we will do a little shopping for Kyle and Karmon, explore the city and learn about the history. We are finally on their time zone (sleeping) so we feel better. I tried to work a little but forgot that it is 2:00 am there now. Our server is down for maintenance. I can not check emails until later this afternoon.

Talk to you soon!
Kim and Maury

By the way, Maury is on another computer checking scores. We see the Saints lost (sad) but feel happy the ULM beat Alabama!!!!! That is almost better than LSU beating them! Congrats Saban!!