Off we go into the wild blue yonder...

We leave for the airport tomorrow and should arrive in London on Sunday morning.  We have about a 24 hour layover in London which we will use to do a little sight seeing (3 times in London and can you believe I have never seen the Tower of London!) and making sure to start our trip with a spot of tea.  

Monday, Dec. 3 we arrive in Kiev and are greeted by Alexander Ivanovich and Susan Kibler of Adoption Services International.  They will take us to our apartment and then off to go shopping for kitchen stocking and anything we realize we need.  From here we make a plan of what we will do while in Kiev.

Tuesday, Dec. 4 Diana, our translator arrives early. Alexander Ivanovich and Susan will meet with her for several hours. Then we will all meet together and go over everything and run a practice session for the next day.

Wednesday. Dec. 5!!! 10:00 - 11:00 am is THE meeting at the Ministry. Diana will get the information on the children we choose and we can enjoy Kyiv while Susan and Alexander Ivanovich make travel and accommodation plans wherever we are going.

Thursday Dec. 6  At 4pm we pick up the documents we need to present to the orphanage. Then we jump on a train, plane or bus.

Friday Dec. 7 We meet at the orphanage to get more background and meet our girls.

Sat and Sun - who knows!

Monday Dec. 10, Goal to get an doctor's examination.

In case things get crazy and I don't get to check in everyday this is an overview of our next week.  Tonight I look forward to finishing packing and enjoying some focused quality time with Rob, Alex and Zach...crazy that this is our last night as the family we know of today...next evening we all spend together there will be less room on the couch and more hands in the popcorn surrounded by a house bursting with love~

Will be posting pictures as they roll in :)

Bakah!

Then there were three...days that is!

We got information about our apartment in Kiev today.  

This studio (one-room) apartment is situated in the historical city centre; 200 m from St. Michael’s Square and 250 m from St. Sophia’s Square; 8-9 minutes on foot to Andriyivsky Descent, Khreshatyk (Kievan central street) and Independence Square. You will have restaurants, cafes, pubs, night clubs, shops and brand boutiques in the reach of a hand.

The parking in the yard. The front door has combination lock. Cozy and clean apartment with new furniture, recently renovated. The room has a comfortable double bed and a folding double sofa; the kitchen is fully equipped. The bathroom is equipped with a shower.

 From here you can easily get to any place in Kiev. First of all our METRO (we call the Underground in this way) will prove useful to you, it takes less than 20 minutes to reach any area from the main metro station called MAIDAN NEZALEZHNOSTI (that means Independence square). It costs only 2 hryvnias (0,25 $.) In addition, you will have a lot of buses and trolleybuses going to every parts of Kiev.

 Limitless Wi-Fi...we will be in touch as much as possible!

 The flat is equipped with:

 - refrigerator

 - TV

 - Internet

 - shower

 - boiler

 - hair-dryer

 - gas cooker

 - kettle

 - washing machine

Photos of our new flat are attached below.  (My blogging abilities and editing skills hopefully will improve as we go).

Of course it will not be as bright when we are there as it is winter and not summer but Rob and I both laughed that it looks very lower Manhattan.  

Today we are moving pets to their new home at Aunt Dawn's house (Charlie the snake and Gary the gecko)...now that's a cool aunt that will bring reptiles into her home for a month and a half...we have informed both that they are in for an awesome Christmas and it will be party time until we get home.  Our cats, Gracie and Arnold will be equally spoiled at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  

We are pretty much packed up and now just finishing the photo book we are bringing to 

familiarize them to their new world and family.  It is hard to fully digest that in a week our home and hearts will be changed forever...and for the better.  Thank you to all our family and friends that have supported us with their love and blessings during a very long journey to get to this point.  You will all be with us in our hearts and minds as we travel to the other side of the globe and back to bring home the missing piece of our hearts to share with you all.  Thank you to all the wonderful friends we have made through this journey, thank you Susan our angel at www.adoptionservicesinternational.com. 

Of course during the winter it won't be as bright but the colors should brighten even the dreariest day.... although something tells me that there will be so much sunshine inside of us we won't even notice ;)

and this is the view from it's location:

Bakah (See you later in Russian)  for now!

T minus 5 days...

(no we are not taking the space shuttle to Ukraine...this picture just illustrates how we feel right now...)

Wow, can't believe it but the shock is subsiding and I am really beginning to go with this awesome flow of ups and downs, joy and fear and am committing to enjoying the journey believing that the results will take care of themselves.  

What did we do today to prepare for the journey?  

1. Visited the school to share the news with coworkers and get the scoop on getting the young- ins in school as soon as possible.  Mostly to allow them to socialize with children, have a routine and immerse them in their new language.

2.  Take care of many things as they pop into our minds...turn off the water outside, stop the mail, pick up the dry cleaning and make sure our documents are all set.  We have our travel set to leave Saturday with a stop in London overnight and then arrive in Kiev early Monday afternoon.  

3.  We had our final meeting with our angel, Susan from ASI-adoptions and reviewed the interview scenarios again...Rob and I are becoming a well oiled machine that can hopefully process the biggest decision of our lives easily and confidently in the one hour appointment to find our daughters.  And we got the most amazing surprise that Susan is going to be with us in Ukraine initially.  We were able to Skype with Alexander Ivanovich our leader through the process and felt such an amazing connection (even though we were only able to understand maybe 5 spoken words in Russian the human language is universal).

4.  Alex's bedroom is almost complete and he will sleep in his new man cave tomorrow for the first time.  The girls' room is painted and awaiting the arrival of furniture and their giggles. 

5.  We celebrated the most wonderful event of the day...ZACH'S THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY TODAY!  Some kid's get a pony for their birthday...Zach gets sisters...lol...only in the Christian family :)

6.  We had our last Russian lesson before putting our new knowledge to the test!
Spoykoy Nochee!  (Good Night) and thank you for the outpouring of love and blessings from all our family and friends.  These little girls are just getting ready to start a new day and have no idea how much love and anticipation is across the globe all because of them!  Talk about special little gifts...I just hope they know one day how their existance has changed us all.

And we are off in 7 days!

Family Blog #1: 11/25/12

Yesterday I casually opened my email to browse through all the junk mail hoping to find something to read instead of delete...hmmm...subject of email 3 in the list was written in Russian.  Great now I'm on Russian marketing lists...I opened it and OMG!  After funny enough nine months...there it was...an invitation from the Ukrainian government to meet with them on December 5, 2012 at 10:00 am to review prospective children to consider for adoption.  Holy cow!  We are going to meet the little ladies that have been living in our hearts for so long to bring them home to live in our house!  Then, looking around the construction mess in our home as we prepare it for the for mentioned little ladies the realization that we are leaving on a journey that will forever change our lives begins in one week...yikes !  And, oh by the way...thanks Santa, this is the BEST Christmas EVER!