Hello From Ukraine!!

Well we made it!! We are writing this from our little apartment in Kiev... we are both a little tired, but made it in one piece, with all our luggage!!!

We dropped the kids off at the Faulkners around 2:30 on Friday afternoon. They were very excited to see the Faulkner kids and go to the birthday party. In fact, I think the only tears were on the part of Todd and myself! Kristen, you'll have to let us know if that was not the case, but I am sure they are having a great time.

We then headed to the airport. We were able to spend about an hour with our friend Dana and his wife Karmen who were in Peoria for an Easter Seals event last night. Dana is the person responsible for building so many orphanages here in Ukraine, and it was incredible to hear his stories. The inspiration both Karmen and Dana provided and the encouragement they gave and the prayer they surrounded us with truly left Todd and I sobbing as we headed to the gate. It was the perfect way to begin this journey.

The flights were pretty non-eventful. Watched lots of movies, tried to get some sleep. It was good Dana and Karmen helped start us strong on the faith and good Christian attitude... I think it was their influence that helped me not to hurt the man sitting right in front of me... you know the guy who as soon as you get on the 7 1/2 hour flight puts the seat all the way back, so that I couldn't move or see the movie screen! Dana, I think you can add that man to the count of people you have saved... saved in a different respect, but he has you to thank for seeing another day!!! :)

We got to Keiv and headed to the B&B we had contacted. After driving around for about an hour trying to find the place, it was empty!!! No one was there and the whole area was pretty quiet. Anatoly, who is a fantastic man, took us to dinner (we had borscht...very good) and called and secured us a different apartment. It is actually working out quite well, this place is right in the middle of the city, has internet and is very nice. It has worked out just fine.

Tomorrow we will meet Irina, our translator, and we have our SDA appointment on Monday at noon. We will head to the region to see Alina on Wednesday morning.

The city is very beautiful and we are anxious to go out walking tomorrow to see some of the sites!

For those who have the emergency contact numbers, please know that our cell phone has changed. When I get it I will email you all. Oh and Traci, I delivered your package to Antoly. All set!!


Anyone who has skype that wants to add us we are at anne_hollis! We'd love to chat!!

Good night (we'll, it is only 1 pm in Illinois... I can't believe we've been gone less than a day... it feels like a week!!)