The Ball Is Rolling

I'm sure you are anxious to hear what's been going on since I last posted. This is the first time I have access to the internet. Let me get you caught up. We left RDU at 1:50pm on Friday. It was smooth sailing to JFK until the pilot made an announcement that because of air traffic we would need to circle for about 25 minutes. This delay caused us to miss our international flight!! We had questioned the minimal layover time at the time of booking, but were assured that there would be enough time. We went to the Delta reticketing counter and all I kept hearing was "there are no more flights"...."the next flight isn't until 4/22". Overwhelmed with emotion, the tears began to fall from my eyes. After 16 months there is NO WAY we can miss our appointment! After quite some time on the phone the clerk gave us an alternate travel option. She was booking us on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany with a connecting flight to Kiev. We'll take it!! We wondered where our luggage might be, but when we arrived in Kiev it was already there waiting for us. It apparently made the connection that we missed. We were met by Yulia, our project manager, and she took us to our apartment (which is quite nice). Yuri, the office manager for SRC, was waiting for us at the apartment. We took care of some business and the went to the grocery store and out for a pizza.

Yesterday (Sunday) we slept in late (2pm!) and then went walking. We had a nice dinner "at home" and watched two movies before I decided to go to bed. I slept for a couple of hours and then was wide awake! Primo had yet to sleep. So he layed down and slept for a little while and I read a magazine. Then we were both up! It was 4am and we were watching our third movie of the night. Finally I fell asleep and when it was time to get up I didn't want to! It's gonna take awhile to get my body clock straight!

This morning we had our appointment with the psychologist at the SDA. It was quick and very relaxed. Yulia said our appointment was the fastest one of all! I was impressed by how very nice everyone was. We will be issued two referrals which grant permission for us to go to Berdyansk to see Dasha and to Molachansk to meet Rodion. The referrals will be obtained tomorrow and we will take the train to Berdyansk. We were also given good news about Natasha. Most of you know that she is not currently available for adoption and we were hoping that paperwork had been submitted. We were told that she would be available for adoption on January 15, 2008!!!!! This is great news!!! We are very happy about this!

That's all for now! More to come.......