From John's Point of View

Yes, I finally get to put in a word or two. It has been very hectic since I last wrote anything. It is amazing how much red tape the country has. I think they have even improved on the concept of red tape and on 'hurry up and wait'.

We are now in another apartment. The last one was about three or four miles away. Of course that is a rough guess. It is two stops by Metro (subway). And it is a long ride on the subway between those two stops. It was frustrating being in a new area. You have to learn the shops and ins and outs there. And it takes a while to get back to the central area where SDA is. Plus that area was not as nice as here. A lot of it was sort of run down. I guess every place has in between areas, not ritzy nor ready to be torn down - just regular and sort of tired and old.

But enough of that. We are back in framilar territory. Up the hill is SDA, down the hill is the large street with lots of shops and underground shopping areas.

Oh, for any of you who have ever worked as a cashier, especially in a grocery - the grocery cashiers here sit down and ring the purchases up. Cool! Wait till I tell the cashiers back home at Kroger.

Had a big surprise yesterday. Charlene insisted I get my hair cut. So we went to an indoor four floor shopping center accross from Independence Square (which is down the hill from our apartment). Wow! I have never had my hair given such luxury treatment. It was cut, washed, massaged (I don't mean scrubbed but a real head massage), dried, cut some more, then styled. I took a picture of my hair stylist. Not to make Charlene annoyed at me, but my "barber" lady is beautiful and could not have been older than maybe 22 or 23. And yes, I tipped her--tipping is not common practice here.

We have also been looking for some clothes for our new boy. We figure that he has very few since he usually has the same clothes on. And he desperately needs shoes that fit. And maybe a toothbrush and tooth paste. At least it gives us something to do on off days from adoption work. We'll have to have things for him anyway when we finally get to take him with us from the orphanage since they don't get to take anything at all from the orphanage when they bid it farewell.

Another American couple we have got to know remain hopeful about getting a little girl. But I do not know any more at this time. I hope the best for them. They are from Minnesota. We enjoyed hanging out this couple a lot--now that they're gone to a distant region to visit that little lady, we are really missing them.

We got Maxim some games that work with memory skills, logic skills, and some other areas we were curious about. One of the games we got him is 'Memory'. The one where you turn pictures up and try to find the matching picture. He is really good and has beat us each time so far--without us trying to let him win even. His favorite colors seem to be orange and yellow--we can tell because those are the two crayons that already need sharpening!

Another game he likes is 'Connect Four'. He gets so excited when he wins. Though I guess the game was new to him, he picked up the idea and rules very, very fast. Maxim also likes puzzles. We have had to get some tougher ones for him. Charlene got a 3-D Cat. It comes apart into 24 pieces. It was for ages 8 and up, but Maxim worked it well. We were not sure that we could get it back together, since the few little clues to working it are in Ukrainian, but were successful after a bit.

I guess we are spoiling him. We found out that he likes bananas and potato chips, plus juice. So we try to take him something like that each day.

Which reminds me, you know the saying that 'boys are boys' or 'boys will be boys'? Well Charlene found out that boys everywhere like pirates. I got Maxim a small set of pirate figures and a small ship and cannon. He was the most excited we've seen him yet and proceeded to get really involved playing with them. Then he gave me some figures and we had a mock battle. Of course he beat me.

Well we finally have internet and a couple of English TV channels. It is nice not to have to go to the internet shop. And it is nice to watch the news and know what is being said.

Got some unhappy news yesterday about illness in my family back home. I am waiting for more information.

Back home has been having severe winter weather. Ironically, here in the Kiev are we have been having above normal temperatures. But a few nights have dipped from 8 to 10 C below. And it seems rare here to see sunlight. Almost every dday has been overcast and downright dreary. Heaven help you if you suffer from that illness some people get when they do not get enough sunlight. And that also explains why so many people here look pale.

A small comment for anyone who has ever had to use a tow truck. Most of the tow trucks here have a big long arm (kind of like the one on the space shuttle) that reaches above the car and lifts the car up onto the tow truck. Have seen it done a couple of times. It takes a team of three men to pick up a car.

One last thought at the moment from me. I am so looking foward to getting water from the tap and being able to drink it. To not having to go out, buy 2 gallon jugs of water, and lug them upstairs to the apartment.

That's all for now. LOL John