Wednesday, June 18, 2008

WE MADE IT......Our luggage didn't!

It has been a looong day! I've been up now for 30 hours and it'll still be a few more before we go to bed...a little scary considering our appointment at the adoption centre is tomorrow!!! Our flight leaving Toronto was delayed (BTW we had not problems at the airport in Toronto....very easily caught our connection), but due to the delay, we only had about 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight in Paris. Airport staff met as as soon as we got off the plane and rushed us through security so we wouldn't miss our flight to Kiev. Thankfully, we made our flight, but our luggage didn't. After standing in the customs line in Kiev for over an hour, we made this discovery. Then we were in the lost and found for another hour to fill out forms. They tell us our luggage will be here at 8 pm tonight. The unfortunate thing is, we had to give them keys to all of our locks for the bags to be able to go through customs. We're not very happy at the thought of them going through our bags while we're not there, but there's not much else we can do.
As soon as we went through that ordeal, we met our facilitator and driver. (who drives VERY fast!) They immediately took us to meet a special adoption doctor to help explain some terms we might hear during our appointment tomorrow. He was very good and spent a lot of time with us. Once we get our referral, he will travel to the orphanage with us to make sure the child's health is in line with Canadian immigration.
After the doctor, we rushed to get some documents notarized, then we went to eat. That was a little scary. We went to this little buffet place. I guess it was nice in the fact that we could just point to what we wanted. We had chicken, potatos and pickles. The funny thing was, we picked what we wanted, they put it on a plate for us, then they threw the plate in the microwave to warm it up...weird! But I'm happy to say it was very tasty. We were starving as the airplane food served once we got to Europe was not edible!
We just arrived a few minutes ago at our apartment. It is very scary looking on the outside. The elevator barely held the 3 of us...it was really dark and rattled and banged up to the 4th floor. The apartment is quite big...2 bedrooms, a living room and a little kitchen. The decorating is very outdated, but it will do the trick. I'll just be happy to lay down in a bed tonight. Once our bags get here (which I hope they do, otherwise I'll be wearing running shoes with my dress clothes tomorrow) I'm going to bed!!
The culture shock here hit us a little harder than we expected. We just follow our facilitator around like lost puppies. Kiev is not quite the city I expected. The buildings are extremely old and run down. Although I've noticed that once you get in them, they are not so bad.
Tomorrow's the big day.....hopefully we'll have an update for you. We've scored some free wireless internet in our new pad, but the laptop is almost dead and we can't plug it in until we get the converter from our luggage. Sorry to ramble for so long...hope you're not bored reading all this!

Tara

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a bit of bumpy road getting to Kyiv, although its good to know you got there safe and sound. Thinking and praying for you at your appt at the SDA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to hear you made it O.K. :) Love You Guys - Our prayers are with you !!

    ReplyDelete