We Made It!

So far we have been unsuccessful at getting internet in our apartment, so I am writing this and saving it to post later, hopefully by the time I post it I will also have more exciting things to share.

We arrived yesterday and our facilitator was waiting for us with a little card that read “Stumbo.” I waved at him as soon as I saw him, and even through the mask he was wearing I could see some confusion on his face. But we did walk to him and once we called his name he knew it definitely was us. At the car, he looked at us and said, “You two are a very young family!” So I realized that he was expecting someone older!

We had been e-mailing back and forth before we came, and I am sure he pictured us very different. We were lucky to have a picture of him ahead of time so we knew what he looked like, but, before we saw his picture, we too pictured him to be a lot different!

Driving here is a lot like in Mexico City. And I mean a lot! As a matter of fact the city reminds me of Mexico quite a bit. The problem is that in Mexico I can read the signs and I understand the language. Here, we are clueless! Not only are we clueless about the language, their alphabet is so different that we cannot even read the signs!

We got our apartment and our facilitator took us around a little bit, showed us where to go eat, where to exchange money, etc. He gave us our cell phone and took us to buy a SIM card. Just a note, if you ever travel and get a SIM card, calling the US will automatically use all your minutes in a matter of what feels like seconds! After our unsuccessful internet connection attempts, we called my mom to tell her all was well, and our card ran out right before we got to talk to Ellie!

We were of course exhausted, traveling all day and ready to sleep. But we knew that if we gave in to our natural rhythm (which was telling us to sleep now!) we would not sleep at night! Some friends that are here through Reece’s rainbow had called and invited us to go out to eat. We almost went, excited to be here, but realized, we just wanted to lay down and hang out.

After a while however, we realized we needed to venture out and find a grocery store or something like it. We had nothing in our apartment and for sure we would need something to eat or at least some water to drink. Andy’s parents have good friends right here in Kiev, and they had called offering help. Well, they came all the way to our apartment and took us out, showed us where to go shopping and gave us a few tips. It was wonderful having them with us! We said this morning how great it is to have someone here to be like our “mom and dad” because we know that if we need anything they are only a phone call or a bus stop away! They brought us back to our apartment and we tried to stay awake as long as we could.

Finally at 8:30 pm we went to bed. At 2:00 am I was wide awake, and I know so was Andy, I tried to talk to him but he insisted we try to sleep. We both eventually fell back asleep. So at 6:45 am we finally got up!

Well, how was that for a summary? LOL

We might be able to go see Nina today, we are not sure, this is a wait and see deal. For now we better start getting ready for the day, go get another SIM card and venture into the cold.

We hope to have internet access later on in the day.

Please pray for my health, pray pray pray! I have a cough and a somewhat runny nose, I would not want this to stop us from meeting our sweet girl! And pray for Andy too, so he does not get sick! Thank you all for your love and support. Until later J