Odessa and back to Kiev

Sorry it's been so long since our last post, but we've been incredibly busy and there's really been no time at all to go to the internet cafes. Unfortunately there will be no pictures this time as the cafe I'm at apparently doesn't allow uploads (or I can't figure it out). So here's the update on our activities since Monday...

We rushed off to Odessa to pick up his new birth certificate and certificate of adoption. Fortunately we had the first appointment of the day as the place was packed out by the time we left - 2 hours later. The lady in charge was really very, very nice and said lots of nice things to us. Then we were off to have the birth certificate authorized for international travels which was at an office on the other side of the city. While we waited for it to be done, we went to a Mexican restaurant that Oksana knew of. Kelly has been craving Mexican for weeks and it was nice to have some familiar food. Afterwards, we picked up the papers and hurried off back to the orphanage which was about 1.5 hours away. We cut across a very small section of Moldova so we can mark another country off on the way.

Once we got to the orphanage, there was more paperwork. After having a nice final meeting with the orphanage pyschologist (super nice lady), we headed downstairs for Daniel's farewell "party" with his group. We had fruit juice and cookies and the kids were really wound up. The caregivers were all very sweet and gave us lots of advice about our new boy. Afterwards we changed Daniel into his new clothes, loaded up in the car, and went back to the clinic where we spent our first night together as a family.

We didn't know how Daniel would respond to his first night away from the orphanage and there were no issues whatsoever. After about an hour of tossing, turning, and whispering to his teddy bear, he fell asleep and lasted the whole night.

Yesterday morning we got up and headed back to Odessa to start the paperwork on his passport. After getting that done, we had the rest of the day to ourselves until our evening train to Kiev. Odessa is a beautiful city - lots of nice restaurants, stores, museums, parks, etc. Daniel got his first taste of "American" food when we went to McDonald's for lunch. He seemed to really like it - particularly the fries (surprise, surprise). There is one geocache in Odessa so we went to get it and "Sergeant Squash" (Daniel's geocaching name), got his first ever find! He was so excited and grabbed several foreign coins out of the container. He did well with the short hike and managed the last big hill all by himself. We then went to an archaeological museum which was fascinating; they have many artifacts from Ukraine where the Greeks, Romans, etc. set up colonies. Unfortunately Daniel was not very interested at all so we had to walk through pretty quickly.

Oksana got us to the train station and we departed Odessa for Kiev for the last leg of our journey. While we are very ready to wind up our trip, we were sad to leave Oksana, Simone, the Czeropski's, and the other folks we met while in Belgorod. Daniel slept the whole night through on the train while the parents didn't fair as well. It was all bananas to them.

Anyhow, at about 6:40a Galya met us at the train station. We've really missed her in the last several weeks and it was awesome seeing her again. She took us to our new apartment in Kiev and showed us around the local area. We have a market, internet cafe (where I'm at now of course), a McDonald's, a playground, and a grocery store all very close. We've settled in and getting accustomed to our new surroundings. EVERYTHING is so new to Daniel - he's mesmerized by all of the new sights, sounds, and smells. Galya was tied up with other obligations today. We're hoping to get together with her tomorrow so we can do a little siteseeing.

We're praying that our passport comes through tomorrow - which is a slim chance it seems. If so, we can have Daniel's medical appointment Monday and head home on Wednesday as planned. We really hope the timing doesn't slip as we are quite anxious to head back to Kentucky to our friends and family.

So... we ask that your continue to pray for us so we can get home expeditiously. We love and miss all ya'll (how's that for Southern?). Thanks to everyone for your support.