In Kiev.....

We traveled by train yesterday to Kiev, arrived safe and sound.  It was a long ride with three little ones and a full train, but all went well.  We settled into our new apartment and today we had our first Embassy appointment then Arielle had her medical exam.  Her passport arrived in Kharkov today and is being sent here to Kiev on the overnight train.  It gets picked up in the morning and then we head back to the medical clinic to pick up our report, then back to the embassy to finish our documents and get her visa. One more day and then we leave for the USA!  We are ready to go home.  The kids miss their stuff and I miss my bed.  We all miss hubby and daddy.

Exciting couple of days....

Wednesday came and was extremely hot here, the girls and I piled into Tatyana's car and off we went. We started at the birth registry office.  It took about an hour to get the new birth certificate issued, then straight to the orphanage we went. That took about 45 minutes and we left with Arielle. Then off to get the tax ID number issued, why I don't know but you have to get it to get a Ukraine passport. After that to the passport office we went. Probably an hour spent there, it was hot with a lot of people in there. Luckily for us Tatyana knew people in every office we went to, she called upon our arrival and when we went in we always went straight into someone's office to do our thing.  Then Thursday we went to the bank and closed Arielle's bank account and went to the orphanage to donate the money.  Now one last thing, tomorrow we have to get Arielle's pictures taken for the US Embassy. Then we get on a train Sunday and travel 4.5 hours back to Kiev.  Monday morning at 9:00 is our first embassy appointment. Then Tuesday morning we will have our second appointment and get our visa (hopefully that is not delayed.) Wednesday we have flights booked and paid back to the US!! We are ready to go home, we have been here since June 24th and. I want to go home.  I like vacations and such, but not this long!

On another note, Arielle has been running fever and is congested.  I have infant Tylenol which I am giving along with cool baths, but we need to hurry home to her doctors appointment.

Please pray we will not get delayed with the visa on Tuesday.  The lady couple of weeks have caused thousands of delays because the computer in DC crashed and they could not get t
Visa printed.  Supposedly it's fixed praying!