Privyet from Kiev!

Here is the view from our enclosed balcony in our apartment. We have a drying rack for our clothes here. 

This is our bathroom and fancy shower. It has a fan, light, lots of jets (haven't tried them yet). 

This is our living/bedroom. 

 Last but not least, the kitchen.

Olga came to see us today and reviewed what we can expect over the next several days. She brought our cell phone and then took us out to get it charged (basically, it is a pre-paid cell phone). We walked through one of the underground malls which reminded me of the New York City subway. Many small shops selling glass trinkets, lottery tickets, beer, candy. She also took us to a small market. It was quite interesting... 4-5 small rooms with various items, in the basement of a department store. It seemed to be the same store, but we had to pay for the fruit in one room, the toilet paper in another, and all of other items in a different room. We bought some Nutella, ham, cheese, bread, yogurt, mayo, and mooloka (milk). I think we will spend more money on water than anything else. The tap water here is not drinkable (Montezuma's revenge is not limited to Mexico). And we drink a lot of water (voda). Trying to pick up a few more words as we go along. One challenge is the Cyrillic alphabet is so different than ours - so even if I can say a word, I wouldn't recognize it if I saw it. But, it's only day 2!

We were very blessed to be able to meet up with Mike and Meredith Cornish tonight and have dinner with them. TGI Friday's has a menu that is in Russian/English - the food was quite good. A little more expensive than back home, but not too bad. It is within walking distance of our apartment. Anyway... Mike and Meredith are bringing home 2 little ones, they are currently waiting for court dates. Spending time with them helped me to unwind a bit. I'm sure Mark would tell you that I've been a little "uptight." I know there will be many more days like that ahead, but my peace has returned tonight. So for those of you who have been praying, thank you!!

We found out a bit about our little one's personality today from Olga. Olga's description was "very aesthetic, likes things just so." On a recent trip to the orphanage, Olga attempted to take a picture of "little one" who had just got a hair cut. "Little one" was unhappy with how the bangs were trimmed and refused to have a picture taken. So, we are anticipating a stubborn streak - but I could already get a little sense of that in the pictures we have seen. :-) 

Continue to pray for us and our process. Our immediate prayer request is for our SDA appointment tomorrow. It will take place at 9am Monday morning (1AM CST). The SDA is basically the Ukraine governmental authority on children's welfare. They will give us initial information about "Little One" at our appointment, but most will come when we get to our region. Please pray for a favorable meeting and that we have peace with the information we receive as we move forward. Each day brings us closer to meeting our "little one!"