Greetings from Kiev!

After an exhausting (but blessedly uneventful!) 26 hours of travel, we entered our 5th floor apartment, right in the heart of downtown Kiev!

The trip went great, no delays, no trouble finding our connections, and Tristan was an absolute champ (largely due to the glorious gameboy, and several exciting new games). He loved riding on the plane, and watching out the window -- the whole thing. Even hanging out in the airport was pretty fun, with lots of things to hear and see. We were able to meet up with one of Ted's friends, Shortenhaus, during our 6-hour layover in DC. He took us to chic-fil-a where we enjoyed our last big greasy American meal and laughed with Scott while Tristan romped around in the playland. Then we boarded the plane to Vienna, where we had a row to ourselves, which was really nice. Tris slept about half of the time -- cashed out with his big head on my lap and his feet jabbing into Ted's leg, crotch, or head alternately. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep but were so thankful that Tris did.

Our arrival into Kiev was also easy -- we breezed through passport control and customs with no problems, and then met our interpreter (Lesya, the same person we worked with last time) who brought us to our apartment. We were so tired we didn't have the energy to do much -- so we decided to just go to good old McDonalds for dinner (which is conveniently across the street from where we are staying). After that, we cleaned up and all went to bed for a good 12-13 hour night's sleep!

This morning, we got out and walked around a bit. We got a little food at the local market, although our search for a pen (we forgot to bring more than one, which we promptly lost filling out our customs form) proved fruitless. We also tried a random Ukrainian restaurant, which was fun -- although the "macaronni cheese" that Tristan ordered turned out to actually be fried cheese sticks, which was also ok. Our apartment is actually fabulous -- we have a lovely, clean bathroom including a washing machine, a nice bedroom with a balcony, the kitchen is great (although it doesn't have an oven, weird), even a big TV with a dvd player! But by far the most exciting part is the internet connection, right here in the apartment! Ted is really hoping that we'll be able to stay here for a while... but that all depends on what child we get matched with in tomorrow's meeting and where they are.

So tomorrow's meeting is at 10am Kiev time (that would be 3am for you in Eastern time). This is where we will meet with a "psychologist" from the State Dept of Adoption, who will match us with a child. We learned that Lesya will be able to go into this meeting with us, and be our advocate -- this is a real answer to prayer! She is absolutely dynamite, a real go-getter, and she has lots of friends in the SDA -- and personal connections are always the way to get things done here in Ukraine.

Please pray for this meeting tomorrow, that God will give us favor with the people we meet, and that we will recognize the child He intends for our family. We are eagerly awaiting this meeting, and learning all about our next child -- as well as figuring out where we will spend the rest of our time in Ukraine. We'll keep you updated as Internet access allows!