Nightlife in Kiev

We ventured out this evening into the streets of Kiev. It was some of the most beautiful buildings, fountains and statues we have ever seen. We realize that we are not in little Moore Oklahoma anymore!! We managed to order ice cream from a street vendor and even said Chocolat and she knew what we were saying. There were people dancing on the streets for money and other weird things going like a freaky man dressed in Shrek costume who comes up to take a picture with you and then wants a lot of money to do so. Really weird!! It seems like that are alot of people here doing something or another to make an extra buck. The buildings around us were amazing but some of the people made it a bit uncomfortable. We tried to load some pics but they would not work.

More pics

Here are some pics of the outside of our apartment. One is of the balconies outside our room and the other is of Michael on the balcony of our apartment. He was very tired when this pic was taken after our long day of no sleep. I think he still looks handsome!! I love him so much and love being on this journey with the love of my life.

Our New Best Friend

This is a picture of our wonderful facilitator, Sasha. He has been a blessing sent from God. He met us at the airport and took us to the store and dinner. It was nice to have someone with us that spoke the language and English too. We did not want him to leave but we will meet up with him again in Zaphorizhia. We brought him his first OU t-shirt from home. He was very thankful & excited. Can you believe he has never heard of OU Football?? Oh my, do we have some things to tell him on this trip. We will give him an education about OU for sure. We are trying to talk him into coming to Oklahoma someday so we can show him our home and take him to a football game. He has become a good friend already. It is amazing how God works!!

Kiev

This is the building across the street from our apartment in Kiev. It is the "Mandarin Plaza" which has a huge mall inside along with a 24 hour market. We hope to go and explore some it later today but for now we are hanging out in our apartment letting Emily sleep. The street we are on is very busy and reminds us of downtown Chicago. It has a TGIFriday where the servers actually speak some English so it is nice to go there and feel a little closer to home and the familiar. There are lots of shops on this street like a coffee shop with chocolate (I will have to check that one out), restaurants, clothing stores, etc. It is a pretty place, just shocking that we are not in Moore, Oklahoma. I think I am in culture shock!! Last night the street was very busy with people. A lot of the girls were dressed in short dresses or tight pants. It is a lot different here than I expected. We will be here until Wednesday when we will board a train for a 10 hour train ride to finally see our little boy. We have been told that he is very excited to see us so we just can't wait to get to him. He is described as a quiet boy that likes to draw and has several friends. We also found out that his little friend Sergiy who is also up for adoption is around 8-9 years old and not 13 years old as we thought before. So someone needs to get busy and make plans to adopt him so that Erik will have a buddy in Oklahoma, hehehe!! We have considered it but feel God is telling us that one boy is plenty for now.

We're Here!!!!

While it is early afternoon there in Oklahoma. It is time for bed here in Kiev. We made it to our apartment around 3:00pm and got all set up with Internet, groceries, Eating Dinner and visiting with our Facilitator Sasha. He is a wonderful Godly man and we really enjoyed our visit with him. We will try to post more later as I am falling asleep while sending this since we have not slept for over 24 hours. So sleepy!!!

Michael, Denise and Emily

We leave tomorrow!!

The time is almost here!! We leave at 11:45am tomorrow and our first stop is Washington DC. Then we head to Frankfurt, Germany and then to Kiev. We are supposed to arrive in Kiev around 1:15pm Kiev time so it will be 5:15am here in Oklahoma. Please pray that all of our flights will be on time and everything will go smoothly. We have 2 hour layovers in each place so that should be enough time to get from one place to another if everything is running on time. As soon as I have access to the internet I will post that we have made it. Our SDA appointment is Tuesday and we hope to be on a train to Zaporozhye by Wednesday night and meeting our son next Thursday. That means by this time next week we will have looked into the eyes of our little boy for the first time and you know I will be hugging him whether he likes it or not. I will not be able to help myself!! Please pray about the language barrier. My hope is that we will be able to communicate in many ways and that the bond of a family will start at the very beginning.

It is time to get busy and go pack all of our stuff. My next post should be in Ukraine. Wow!! I really can't believe that we are leaving tomorrow. At times it seems to have gone so slowly and then it has gone by so quickly, weird!! God has been so good through this whole process and we thank everyone for your support and prayers through our journey. We love you all and can't wait for you to meet Erik very soon!! Have a Blessed & Wonderful Day!! Denise

One week from today we are on our way!!

One week from today we will be waiting in Washington DC for our flight overseas. I can't believe it is almost time to go see our son Erik and bring him home. This has been such an exciting journey so far and I can't wait to see what God does next. We are having a picnic as a family tonight. This will be our last night as a family of 5. My mom, 3 girls and I are leaving for Branson in the morning and Emily and I will return on Tuesday to pack. The next time we are all together will be in July and we will be a family of 6 with a cute little boy in the mix. Please pray for us as we prepare for our journey overseas. I have a cold that I got a couple of days ago so now I am sneezing and coughing all over the place. I went to the Dr today to get some meds so hopefully I will be all better by next week. I am trying to keep the germs to myself as I do not want to share the love of my wonderful cold, hehe!! Thank you everyone for your prayers and support the past 7 months. We can't wait for you to meet our little boy in July. Denise