We made it!

12:00 p.m.

We finally made it to Ukraine after two airplane rides that seemed to last forever. Daniel did really well after getting up at 4 a.m. happy as a clam to catch the plane. He slept about 7 hours in total on both planes. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived in Kiev and saw that most of the signs had both Ukrainian and English on them. We made it through customs and found our translator Olga and our facilitator Sasha without too much hassel. After a quick trip to the grocery story we arrived at our apartment. It is totally adorable (despite the five flights of stairs we had to walk up). It opens to a hallway that has five doors: one to the frontroom, one to a closet, one to the bedroom, one to the kitchen and one to the toilet. There is a bathroom off of the kitchen as well. Oh I forgot the coolest part. There is a little room off of the frontroom that has windows that open and you can look down onto the street. Of course this is Daniel favorite part of the apartment. The apartment is located on a street that ends at a square that is basically the middle of the city. We are all so excited but I have to say that I think Daniel may be the most excited of us all. Either that or he just has the hardest time containing himself. John keeps saying “I can’t believe we are here” and Daniel keeps saying “when do we get our kid?” I am just happy and can’t believe we have this opportunity to add to our family in such a cool and unbelievable way. This country really has a good feel. When I get up I think I will try and find out where the temple is exactly compared to where we are. We are going to get some sleep now. John hasn’t slept for basically 48 hours and I have only sleep a couple of hours during the last 48. Good night.

9:30 p.m.

Tonight we walked down the street to a square which had a cool little McDonalds where we ate dinner and even bought some ice cream cones. I am happy to say that they had happy meals and toys. They were the Shrek toys but a little different. It was a happening place and almost everyone was buying ice cream and hanging out. Then, we walked around and saw some cool buildings and restaurants and John talked to anyone who would try and communicate with him. It was really fun. This country has a really good feel.