Quick update-the trip-SDA

We left early Wednesday for Ukraine stopping first at Salt Lake City, we enjoyed that short flight. We arrived in NYC and got stuck on the tarmac for 1 hour. It made us very late for our connecting flight to Ukraine, and they had already shut the gate. Thankfully they consented to reopen it and let us on, but said our luggage may not be coming along.  I packed extra clothing, but not shoes, Tom did not pack an extra outfit, he forgot.

We put Meghan in the stroller and we ran as fast as we could to that other gate, they had the doors open and were telling us to hurry. When we walked into the plane it felt like we had already left America; not one person seemed to be speaking English, it was a bit of culture shock for all of us. We sat down in three of the 5 center seats and received a phone call from GOAF, their board had an emergency meeting and had approved a last minute grant for us, we would be receiving and extra $3000 for our adoption! It was the best news, and such a Godsend.

We arrived in Ukraine on Thursday, and stood at the airport wondering where Anatoly or Alex were. First thing we learned, they were not allowed in the area we were at. LOL We went through the line to have our passports checked, but did not have a hotel written down so the man at the booth threw it back and told us to write it in, I said we do not know we are staying, he said "That is your problem" and turned away from me in disgust.....welcome to Ukraine!! So after putting a random hotel on our forms (as directed by the soldier patrolling the airport), we finally went through passport check area. After looking for our luggage for a while, we realized it is not coming. Went went through lost and found and learned our luggage did indeed stay in NYC and would not be here for a couple of days.

We finally made our way out and found Anatoly with a sign Livario, we knew it meant us. What a sigh of relief to know someone was there for us. He walked so fast to his car we could barely keep up, he kept looking over his shoulder at us with an exasperated look on his face. We were so exhausted from the flight, we did not care if he was annoyed, we were just grateful to finally be in Ukraine.

We finally make it to our very nice apartment and Tom runs out with Anatoly to buy a phone. Meghan and I collapsed in exhaustion.

We were told on the way to our apartment that Alex had somehow managed to get us an appointment for the 9th after all, so we were wondering if it is true, last I spoke with Victoria, our appointment was the 13th. What a great gift, but oh no, all I had to wear was a yoga hoodie set because my second outfit was a skirt, and cross trainers would not look right with it... We are not going to be able to dress nice for our appointment. Meghan however, did have some cute things to wear. :)

We waited all morning for Anatoly, as we were told we would have to be there at 10:00, 10:00 came and went, and still no one was there. I told Tom I heard that things were more loose here where timeliness was concerned. What we learned though, was that Tom had put the time wrong on his watch, and hour ahead, so we had to laugh at that later.

We arrived at the SDA and were taken upstairs for a very short meeting, apparently whoever had given us an appointment for that time, made a mistake, we were not supposed to be there yet. We went outside to wait in the car. We ended up waiting in that care for 4 hours, though we did go out for a time, the cobblestone streets broke the wheel off of Meghan's stroller and we had to come back.