Luhansk Hotel

... hearing we got our things together and took a 2 hour drive to Lugansk to catch a 7:00 P.M. train to Kiev. It was no fun lugging 3 heavy suit cases and several carry-ons over train tracks to get to our train station. I had read about Ukraine trains, and all I read was true. The restrooms were pretty filthy and the rooms hot. The rooms were much smaller than even cruise ship rooms! The ride was bumpy, but I slept well. We arrived in Kiev at 11:00 A.M. the next morning.

... nice gifts. We gave each kid a gift bag with alot of small gifts like flashlights, bubbles, etc. and one large, more expensive gift. After the kids opened their presents some other people came so we decided to get lunch. We went to the restaurant near the orphanage that has an English menu. After lunch we went back and spent some time with Anastasia. When it turned dark ...

... infected filling she recently had. There's nothing more we can do adoption wise until our court hearing on Thursday. So, we are spending our days mostly shopping. At night we usually watch a movie on the PSP. We brought about a dozen PSP movies. Yesterday a small grocery store opened up right next to the hotel- attached actually. Now we can buy groceries next door. It's nice not having to lug groceries a mile back to the hotel. The opening of the ...

... beautiful name! We absolutely cannot change it (as many Americans do change their foreign-adopted child's name)." My second thought was, "Oh! Anastasia is royalty!" In order to fully appreciate this, I must go back. Before Arno and I ever started having children, I used to kid Arno that when we had a little girl someday, I was going to name her after his father- King Quon. I would say, "Oh, we will name her Princess...this or Princess...that." So, back to the day we ...

... farm fields which reminded me of South Georgia, except the fields were covered with snow. Our young taxi driver (looked to be around 17 years old) got lost because there are no signs anywhere. It's pretty in the countryside, but the pine trees have no bark on the tops of the trees. Our driver stopped to refuel on the way. His car used some kind of natural gas for fuel. The driver opened the trunk and refueled through the trunk. He made ...

... the kids in the orphanage. Every day we take some kind of treat to the kids in Anastasia's class. They are very grateful and draw us pictures and say "thank you". The kids are all adorable and we wish we could bring home more than one. Ukraine law only allows one child unless they have a sibling. We continue to practice English words and phrases with Anastasia. She is facinated with Color Wonder ...

... to get to the hotel, restaurant, food stores, and the orphanage. That's all we need, other than that we,ve explored a little, but there's not a whole lot to do in this city. It's spread out, but mostly with apartments, dotted with a few little food shops. There is no paperwork to be done until Wednesday, when our paperwork from the orphanage is to be complete. By then Luba will have returned and will initiate the process of getting a court date. This takes at ...

... in different pictures. We discovered she knows how to knit. Perhaps she could teach her new mama a thing or two! Her sense of humor is really coming out in questions and facial expressions. When she asked papa to open a toy and he couldn't figure out how, she pointed to mama and held up "strong arms", then pointed to papa and drooped her arms down, to show he was weak. We all got a big laugh out of that. Arno replied "Oh! She is going to fit in perfectly into our family"! Upon ...

... and an English menu. Best of all cheap! Things are much less expensive outside of the capital. As I am sitting here at the hotel writing, a soldier who appears to be escorting a man, entered the hotel with a machine gun! What a different world. Later found out it was their equivalent to "Wells Fargo". In Kiev we saw a squadron of soldiers doing their daily march through the city park. Back to the subject: Yesterday we had quite a good visit with Anastasia. We spent probably 4 ...

... turned out she meant 1500 rubles (this happens quite often here, so I think English numbers like 15 and 50 must be difficult to distinquish). As tempting as this comfort was (along with my desire to watch the world cup), I decided against it ("nyet, spasiba") because I need to save the money - I'd already spent a lot for the ticket. Besides, I didn't want to confine myself to solitude - even being around other people will make things more interesting, despite not being able to ...