We're back in Kiev

Hi folks,

Well there have been no developments since our last post. This is just to let you all know that we made it back to Kiev in one piece. Our new apartment is literally within a 2 minute walk of the beautiful St. Michael Church that I've uploaded so many pictures of in previous posts. For sure we'll be there quite often.

There is really nothing new to report about our weekend other than the already obvious news; we rejected the referral for the two sisters. Once we had made our decision there really wasn't a whole lot to do in Khmelnytsky other than wait out the weekend until Monday morning when we could go to the Regional Inspector's office, obtain our neccesary paperwork and then return to Kiev to apply for our 3rd appointment. We did find out an interesting tidbit of info from the Inspector. Now if you remember, the SDA had told us that this referral for the two girls had never been rejected before. According to them we were going to be the first to see them. But according to the Regional Inspector, the two girls had been visited and rejected by families at least 5 times in the past. FIVE. Now I can see if the mistake was by a count of one but five? I smell a rat. In fact, I smell a herd of rats!!

We did have an interesting incident during the ride home today. About halfway to Kiev, our driver apparently got busted for speeding. After being ordered to pull over, a police officer came to the driver side window and showed our driver a radar gun. I think it said something like 146kph. Thats about 90mph. A 20+ minute argument ensued with both police officers looking like they were getting pretty irate with having their authority challenged by some guy who acted like he couldn't care less; our driver actually looked like he was laughing and mocking at the cops which I am sure didnt ease their tempers. Some of the "trialogue" got a little redundant - like when the three men would spend several consecutive seconds yelling "...nyet....Da.. ..nyet....Da.. ..nyet...Da..." - it reminded me of arguments between little kids when they rant "...did not....did to...did not...did to...did not...did to...". At one point they got our driver out of the car and took him to the police car. It looked like he was talking to someone on the phone. But the driver came back, started the car and drove off, acting as if the whole thing was more of a nuisance than anything else. In retrospect I wish that I'd've used my camcorder to record at least part the conversation and then have someone translate it to me. I would have loved to have been able to follow along. Judging from the voice tones, I am sure that at times the "poetry" got quite colorful!!

For the next two days, Shirley and I will actually have a nice apartment close to the center of the city. We have no idea how much this is going to cost us. Our facilitator knows that our resources are dwindling so I don't think he would set us up in a place with the price tag of a penthouse.


For dinner Shirley and I walked to a nearby McDonalds. Normally back home we don't go anywhere near the place. But we are so homesick and tired of being jerked around by this country, that we found McDs to be very "therapeutic".


And thats all there is to tell now. We were supposed to meet with our facilitator after we got back to Kiev but at the time of this writing it is nearly 9pm local time. Past us old folks' bed time. I am sure that all paperwork can be submitted early in the morning. Then we start another wait for another appointment. We were promised that this time the wait should be more like 1 week. I hope so. One way or the other we just want this to end.


To all of our "new" friends out there in blog-land, thank you for introducing yourselves and following our story. We've been following most of yours as well. To all of our family and old friends, thank you for your undying love, prayers and support. We couldn't get through this quagmire without it!!


God bless you all....



Steve