Thursday August 30, 2007

Hello Everyone:
Our journey in the Ukraine brought us back to Kiev today. We left Donetsk at 5:40 AM. That means we rolled out of bed at 3:30 AM today. The flight here was easy, even fed us a snack. However, the ride from the airport was unbelievable heavy traffic. You think we have traffice anywhere in Iowa - NYET - NYET- NYET ( very expressive Russian no). Four lanes of traffic on the interstate became five even though there are only four. And a bicyclist was crazy enough to be riding between the traffic on the interstate and beat us to the turn-off!! We also learned that traffic in the Ukraine if not moveing fast enough, just drive on the sidewalk and push in whereever someone will let you. Sidewalk driving was a totally new concept in driving today. Also, if you do not like the stalled traffic in your lane and there is no oncoming traffic, just do a u-turn in the the oppostie lane of traffic and find a different route. For those of you following our blog and were in Italy with us - Italy was totally tame!! We saw a scooter get traffic jammed today on the freeway because the vehicles were packed so tight there wasn't even room for the scooter to wiggle through. Due to the heavy traffic we were about ten minutes late for the medical appointment, but that did not seem to matter either. The doctor just took us in five minutes after we arrived ahead of the next person. It seems adoption appointments get special privilieges.

The medical clinic is attached to the hospital. It needed a good cleaning. This was not a surprise after our courtroom experience Tuesday. The public buildings seem to need better janitorial standards. By the way, the doctors here are very efficient, but the rest of the system (staff) needs PINNACLE applied!!

After we finished the medical appointment we went to the Embassy. They took us an hour early which was very nice. We were finished before our appointment time. Later in the afternoon we went back and picked up the visa information and the passport. So all the paperwork has been completed here. When we get home we have several more registrations to complete. We also will have ongoing home study visits that will report back to the Ukraine over time.

Our flight home is on Saturday. We leave Kiev 11:50AM - arrive Amsterdam 1:50PM. Leave Amsterdam 3:35 PM and arrive Minneapolis 5:40 PM. We hope for very smooth sailing through customs and luggage pickup.

Tonight we found an Internet Cafe five blocks from our apartment. However, this one has no games for Sergey, so he is getting restless!! Tomorrow will be a challenging day trying to entertain him.

Thanks again to everyone who is following our journey. We appreciate your comments.

See you in the US very soon.
Rex, Liz, & Sergey