Our first 5 days

Hello everyone

Where oh Where do I start, I think I will add more from the start of our trip.

The airport - Laura was very anxious to get on the plane and really did not understand why she had to line up at the security gate and really wanted all the people to move so she could get through quicker, but with some talking to she calmed down and we got through with no problems. We went to a store were we bought a cuddly moose with a Canada hat and sweater. We were lucky that at our boarding lounge they had slides which kept Laura busy till we boarded. Once on board she was fine, and as we went down the runway she was giggling away. The first part of the flight went well, but when it came time to get her to go to sleep, she was not interested, some time playing the DS helped to calm her down, and by 11pm she was asleep, this only meant she got 2 hours sleep. The lay over in Amsterdam was really really really long 6 hours felt like 12 hours, and oh ya Laura never layed down and went to sleep. Once on the next flight Laura went to sleep for the whole flight. Horray.

Our first glimpse of Ukraine was of snow, strange seeing as when we left Toronto there was no snow. Martin and I are convinced that on landing, the plane was not stopping because there was snow on the runway. We got of the plane and on to a bus to take us to the terminal and boy was it cold. The woman at passport control almost did not let us into the country as we did not have a destination on our paperwork, we were very lucky that a man from our plane could speak both languages and explained for us and very reluctantly she stamped us into the country. Talk about stress at the start of the trip

Lesya was there to meet us, and all our luggage fit into their car which I was glad of, for the airport is quite away out of town. Once in the city the traffic was bumper to bumper nothing like I have seen before. We were taken to a store to buy the cell phone and then to a grocery store, which is the size of a Macs store to pick up a few things to get us through. Then it was time to battle the traffic again, once at the apartment we were glad to see an elevator to get all our luggage up to the 3rd floor. The apartment is very sparse but it is warm and has the main things we need. We have our own bed and the couch pulls out to a bed for Laura.

On Tuesday we went out exploring, we are a 2 minute walk from Independance Square, underneath the square is a big shopping mall, you cross the roads by going underground and once on the other side you walk a little ways and find more steps down and low and behold there is another shopping area it is really amazing. At the top end of the square is an out door ice rink, and at the other is McDonalds.

Wednesday we went away from the square and up the hill that our apartment is on, which by the way everthing around here is very very hilly, my legs will be very strong for Mosport this year. We found a great park area that looks out over the Dnipro river. On the other side is more of Keiv and we really get a feel of how high we are. There was a childrens area and Laura got to go on the swings and climb on a tower. We then went to St. Michaels Cathdral which was an amazing site. The outside is blue and the paintings inside on the walls and ceiling well words can not describe them. That evening we got together with 2 other couples that our here from Canada, 1 already has a son called Oscar and the other couple will be going to the SDA for there second time on Tuesday. We went to an Itialian resturant and it was really nice to speak with others going through the same thing.

Ok now to Thursday and our appt with the SDA they proposed a little boy to us that mentally was healthy, then I think 5 more of unhealthy children. We left and talked it through about this little boy, who did have some health issues from before which may be bigger in the future, but we decided to go ahead and meet him. It was going to be a 12 hour train ride south to a city called Danetsk. Upon coming home and really thinking about things though we have decided not to go see the boy and instead go back to the SDA for another appt. We are hoping (fingers crossed) that this will be next week.
So for now we are still a family of 3 but we have hope that their is the right child for us out there some where. In the evening we went to the skating rink at Independance Sqaure and Laura and Martin went skating. Martin was by far the best skater out their. We then went grocery shopping.

Today Friday it has been snowing and we decided to stay here at the apartment for the day. Tomorrow we are going to an area called St. Andrews Decent were they have lots of vendors selling souviners. We are then hoping to meet up with our new friends Helen and Dave and Peter and Wendy.

I am going to try to find an internet Cafe so I can up load some pictures as it cost more here at the apartment to do this and I really am not sure how much this is costing me.

So far our first week has been good but with a lot of emotion