Hello Again, Kiev

Tuesday, December 23 - Wednesday, December 24

When I got this morning it was hard to believe that by the end of today we will be on a train to Kiev. I feel like it has taken us three months instead of six weeks to get to this point. I know that Ira will be coming back to the apartment to pick up her brief case sometime this morning but we are not sure when. I also want to have things packed up as quickly as possible. Ira came by after 9’Oclock to get her things. She had already been to the Tax I.D. office and passport office. She said be ready to go get Alex in a couple of hours. We also need a few things from the market, so Jacob and I rush to there and back. Ira calls around 11:00am and says she will pick me in 10 minutes. We head thru a lot of back streets trying to find a different notary than the one we used before. Ira wants to cover all bases and wants another document notarized just in case. We also need another translation of my passport and Ira calls some to help us with that. She has made many, many friends while she has been here. We pick up some coffee and chocolates as a thank you and then go to the Huge flea market to find boots for Alex. We want to make a good impression on all the boarding school staff. Ukrainians always wear boots in the winter and they keep their children very warm when they go outside. After this we rush back to the apartment to pick up all the clothes for Alex as well as Jacob. Alex is so proud of his clothes. He is just strutting around showing everyone his new clothes. We go to his teacher and show them and say da sviDAniya, Goodbye. Then to go see the board school director, who is also very happy and proud of Alex. He gives Alex many good words of well wishes for his new life in America. We head back to the apartment but Ira of course has more things to do before we leave and she goes with our driver. I manage to get everything in our big duffle bag and the extra bag I brought just in case. Ira comes in around 5:00 and gets on the phone to complete all the loose ends. The apartment manager calls and asks if the cleaning lady could come by and start cleaning at 7:00pm because of tenets coming the next day. The cleaning lady did a great job the last time, she took over two hours to clean and I sure tonight will be no different. Ira calls our faithful driver to pick us up at 7:45pm and I get all our stuff downstairs and into the taxi. Mother, Alex, Jacob and me are in the backseat of this small car, luckily we do not have to go far. We will miss our wonderful, faithful driver. The train is very nice, we each have a two bunk compartment. We are cooler than the other train but it is still very bumpy, jerky ride to Kiev. Mother and I do get some sleep and the boys do fairly well too. They were very excited to have their own compartment, we just had to get them to sleep, which they did around 10:30pm. After awhile I see about a foot of snow on the ground, it will be interesting to see how much snow Kiev has when we get there. We arrive in Kiev about 9:30 and manage to get down the steep stairs of the train, through the stairs and escalator of the station with our luggage. Ira has ordered two taxis to take us to our apartment. It is interesting to see all of the streets and Christmas decorations. I am trying to recognize stores to try to get my bearings since we were here last. Our apartment is very nice two bedrooms with a sleeping fold out couch. We have an oven and washing machine that has English words Yea!. After we settle for a bit we head first to the bank to exchange money and then to MCDONALDS Yea! Says Jacob. This is Alex’s first cheeseburger and he gives it the thumbs up. An McDonald’s employee comes We also get a few things at the market and back to our apartment up two flights of stairs and no elevator. Poor Grandma. We are relaxing for the rest of the day and trying to keep two boys entertained. We do have many more channels on TV and one of them Cartoons. At least Mother and I can watch CNN to get some news in English. Well we have made it another step closer to coming home. Ira is very hopeful to get the passport on Saturday, Dec. 27. This would wonderful, so that we could get to the Embassy on Monday to do the physical for Alex. We will just have to see if it will be the 27th or 29th. We have booked our plane tickets for January 1st. We have gone ahead because the seats are filling up and are completely booked on Jan. 3,4 and 5. We pray that all goes smoothly.