Weekend Woes

Well, here it is another weekend with no news to report, not much going on, and not much to do. On top of all that, I am feeling rather poorly, very fatigued. I guess it's to be expected with all the bad news that's been going on about ever since we arrived in Kiev. Let's hope that's all it is so I don't have a bug to fight off while trying to figure everything else out at the same time. John is making me put more pictures of me on this posting and so the one on the bench is right in front of the SDA, trying to look happy even though they wouldn't let us see other files that day when we had to return the too old one. We wait for Tuesday to see what time is our appointment. There is no real waiting room for appointments there. There is one small couch in a wide hall; other than that you stand and stand and stand either inside where it's really crowded or outside where it's really freezing. I don't wear all those scarves and hats for nothing!

By Tuesday we should know when our next appointment is. That will be our last shot at adopting a child. Prayers are definitely requested that all goes well at that appointment and that a successful appointment follows. We'll try to update and let you know if we get a referral or not. That is truly about all that is on our minds right now, but to write on and on about it ad nauseum well would make you nauseous and so I will try not to mention it again until the end.

Meantime, back here at home, or at the apartment that's becoming familiar to us, we've fallen kind of into a routine. We're lucky enough to have been able to remain in the same apartment while here so far; other than the two nights we slept on those narrow benches on the train, we have been here the entire time. We like this apartment because it has two rooms and they are separated by a hallway so there is a door to the bedroom/tv room that can be shut if one of us wants to rest while the other can blog on the laptop at the kitchen table or on the little couch in there or if one of us (John namely) wants to watch a dvd on the laptop.

There's also a small, very small capacity, washer provided in the kitchen. You don't want to put much detergent in it for sure! First day we put maybe a third of the lid full of Tide in it and it sudsed up so much we had to run the rinse cycle an extra three times! They must have really soft water here because even a tablespoon of detergent is too much. There is no dryer in most apartments here so we are getting used to scattering our we clothes on chair backs and throughout the apartment.

I am going to put a picture on here of a "squatty potty" that I've referenced many times before. Usually, they are cleaner than this one looks, but I had my camera with me that day and paid my two grivna just so I could take a picture of it for those of you who've asked. I should also say that not all potties are ones in the floor. In our apartment we have normal facilities. The commode is in a separate tiny room; the tub and sink in another. Also, in some restaurants and in some of the shopping centers, there are normal commodes as well. McDonald's has normal ones and does not charge a fee to enter the bathroom. Toilet paper is included usually in the fee you pay to use the bathrooms; that means there's a roll on the wall by the lady who sells you the ticket to go into the bathroom so you obviously couldn't take a whole bunch of it. John told me that even in the guys bathroom, a lady sits at the table to take their money as well and then the urinals are in an open area from her. Still, I think it's unfair that they get normal height urinals when we are stuck with the squat pots. They have those inside a stall in their bathrooms as well. By the way, don't ask where a bathroom is when you're in Ukraine. Rather, you must ask for the "toilet." They understand that word.

While I'm on the topic of differences between here and home, be careful how you order water. I know I've referenced before that you should either buy your water or boil your water. You wouldn't believe how much you can spend on water here. But my point was going to be that most people here drink water with gas or with bubbles in it. So we have to always say, "No bubbles." If you are buying water at the grocery store, be sure you purchase the light blue colored lidded ones because those are the ones that have no bubbles. Being able to go to a restaurant and order a glass of ice water for free is something I'm really looking forward to back in America. Ice is not doled out here at all. Speaking of drinks, Coca-Cola is sold here. They do not know what you mean if you say Coke though. And you don't ask for Diet Coke; instead, you ask for Coca-Cola Light.

Our apartment building has a code you have to punch in before you can enter the building and then our apartment itself has double locks, so we have never felt unsafe here. We don't even feel unsafe carrying cash with us wherever we go. Of course we, or especially I, are so bundled up in the winter weather no one could get to my belt bag or hidden money belt anyway. My long coat provides a good cover up for it. Many places don't take credit cards so we had to bring some money in cash. We are careful not to exchange much for grivnas though because Ukranian money is worth nothing in the United States.

Don't believe the guidebooks or internet sites that say movies are offered in English here at some cinemas. We've gone to two different ones which supposedly either played a movie in English or subtitled it only to have wasted our time.

There are a lot of stores here in Kiev. They line all the streets and underneath as well as I've written about before. We thought we'd explored them all, but today we found one rather nearby that we hadn't explored yet. Though not very many speak English here or are willing to let us know that, you can bet your bottom dollar if you want to buy something, they manage to magically speak English enough to tell us the prices. Though much of the Ukranian alphabet is different here than ours, the numerals themselves are the same. We just have to remember that around eight grivna equals $1.00 when it come to figuring out how much things are really costing us.

People here are always in a hurry. You don't make eye contact with them, and unless you know them, you don't say good morning or anything. They bump you just to get on with their day, not really to be annoying, or at least that's the way I'm choosing to look at it. There is never an "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" uttered--not that we could understand the words anyway but no word is spoken when they run into us.

John loves the coffee here. It is very strong. The waitress always asks when he orders coffee if he wants it "American." No, he does not; they make it about the way he does.

Just about everyone smokes here. Thank God our translator doesn't; our facilitator does but we're not around her very much at all.

We have yet to really figure out the metro and bus system. We know that if we get on Bus 16 or 18 that we will eventually get back to where we got on, which is the stop near the McDonald's, about a long, long block from us. Kind of convenient sometimes it is. The Metro we braved last weekend but don't know if we'll be up to that tomorrow or not. We need to figure out something to do though because moping around in this apartment isn't healthy for any of us.

Our new friends over here, Gail and Craig, are fighting to make their second referral work for them. It was as sibling set, with the younger sister living in a different orphanage from the older one. The younger one turns out to be mentally retarded and will be institutionalized the rest of her life. The older one is okay, with just a little delay caused from living in an institution which is called "institutional delay." The problem is the orphanage director of the younger girl will change paperwork so that the two can be separated for adoption purposes, but the other girl's director won't. The director has such power it amazes me. Anyway, Gail and Craig are trying to fight this and figure out a way to make it work so that the older girl is not penalized by having to stay in an institution because the half sibling is too ill to ever be adopted. It's not like the girls ever see each other anyway. So I'm wishing them all the luck in the world that this can all be resolved so they have their little girl to take home.

If any of you do or can use skype.com, you can communicate with us. Since this is a public blog, I'll not put our skype name on here, but e-mail me if you're interested and perhaps we could have a live chat. It's totally free too as long as it's online chat and video and not a phone call through it. : ) Remember we're seven hours ahead of most of you.

The other pictures on this posting are of St. Sophia's Cathedral. Some shots are taken from a few flights up in the Bell Tower. After paying to be able to climb it, John and I as well as Craig fatigued out after a few flights, but Gail made it all the way to the top. At least we got to see a panoramic view of that part of this large city. These ancient cathedrals with extremely tall ceilings and enormous rooms do make me feel like I'm in a church; well, of course I am, but the feeling is hard to describe. Awe-struck might sort of get at it. The paintings inside, even on the tallest of ceilings, are also phenomenal. We just stare and stare with wide-eyed wonder at them. How in the world were they able to paint up that high. What kind of scaffolding must they have used back then? We were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, though I think John took some with his iphone with of course no flash so they didn't turn our very clearly, but you can get the idea of how every wall and ceiling is painted so I'm posting a couple here anyway. But you will at least see the outside of St. Sophia from many angles.

A good friend of mine lost her husband yesterday after almost a year long struggle with cancer. Please keep the Sallees in your prayers.

Today (1/24) would have been my mother's birthday, may God rest her soul. This child we hope(d) to have from this adoption was or is to be named after her. I had hoped we'd have had it all figured out by today, but maybe next week will allow us to still do so. Please pray so.

That's about it for now. We'd really appreciate some more comments from you folks out there reading this and/or some e-mails just about humdrum topics as well. As you can tell, we've had a rather trying week and it helps to know there of those of you out there following us on our journey and cheering us on every step of the way. Thanks. : )