October 7, 2005

Our appointment at the NAC (National Adoption Center) was at 10 am. Sasha has another couple who have an appointment at the same time. That is the kind of thing the NAC does to make every step difficult. We walked down "the long hallway" that everyone talks about and sat down. Sasha went in with the couple from New Mexico and we waited. After a bit we went in and spoke to woman named Irina. I shouldn't say we spoke to her, we spoke to Sasha and he translated. She asked us about ourselves and what we were looking for. She gave us a binder of very sick kids to look through. Then she gave us a binder of older kids and siblings. Then we looked through a pile of newly released kids. When our time ran out Sasha told us to pick someone to visit because the NAC will give us another appointment quicker if we do. We chose to go visit a brother(5) and sister (7) in a city 5 hours away. We really debated about 2 brothers 2 &3 who have epidermolysis. It seems to be pretty severe. So we decided against it. Thanks Laura and Angie for the info on the disease. So on Monday after we get the paperwork we will board an overnight train to visit them. Ironically the couple from New Mexico is also going to the same orphanage.

After our appointment we went back to our apartment and took a nap. Remember we are 8 hours ahead of central time and not used to it yet. Then we ventured out into the city. It is very safe here. I definitely feel safer than I would walking around Omaha or even some parts of Sioux City. We walked past St. Sophia's Cathedral, the arch, Independence Square, and even found a three level underground shopping mall under the street. It is very clean here, there are people sweeping the leaves off the sidewalks as they fall. The dollar is worth 5x the UAH(ukraine money). So we get 500 uah for 100 dollars. We ate supper last night for 3 dollars.

Today our mission was to find an internet cafe, which we have. It is in the third part of the underground mall. I forgot the cord for the digital camera so I will attach some photos later. For those of you who would like to call our number is 0-11-380679777412. Someone told me that if you go to www.talk4cents.net you can call for cheaper.