Day 4 - Babies, Mummies and Taxi driver!

So I'm having trouble uploading pics to my blog. They always go to the top and I can't move the text around with my net book. Too weird. Please bear with my pics being out of sorts.


Oh what a day! Did I mention it is crazy COLD!!
Anyway, as you might expect we didn't sleep very well and decided to get up at 5am! So we were more than ready at 8am when Serge came to get us. And let us just say, We love Serge. We got to our SDA appoinment early so we got to spend some time with him. We went into our appointment and as many of you have said it was cake. The best part is that I got to see young pictures of my babies! I almost cried. We also learned some about thier bio parents and thier family. Yuri came from a single mother and it is unknown if he has any siblings, Bohdan came from a married couple and he doesn't have any siblings.



From there we went across the street for coffee. I ordered blintzs and oh my they were heavenly. Sweet thin crepes filled with strawberries and then smeared with a yummy cheese and then covered with shaved almonds! YUM!

We went and did the tourist thing today. We might as well have pinned the money on our jackets and let people take whatever they thought was fair. It would have saved them the irritation of having to talk to us. :O) We went to a 16 acre church compound with museums and catacombs and cathedrals. We bought tickets and couldn't get a straight answer on whether or not they offer guided tours in English. She said yes and it would cost more, like over 10 times more, then she said we needed 15 people and then it seemed like the little drawing on the map was the tour. We have no idea so we headed out and started going into random buildings. Some just asked to see our tickets, some made us pay for different tickets. Who knows what the real deal was. We got to go inside a cathedral where a service was being held and there was singing. It was wonderful and beautiful! We are getting good at miming and found our way to the catacombs. It was small underground tunnels that Josh must have hit his head on at least 5 times. Some people had candles and all except us were on a prayer expedition. We found this out when I was looking at one of the mummies in the glass coffins and a lady came over my shoulder and kissed the glass right above the mummy's head. I found everyone was doing this. Josh and I were the only ones not kissing mummies. I was very interested and at one point leaned over to look at a mummy's exposed hands, it was then I was hip checked by a women leaning over to kiss the mummy behind me. It was all I could do not to fall on the glass cofin. We decided we had better leave, we didn't want to disrupt anything. All I can say is I'm so glad that my Redeemer Lives!!!



From there we went out to catch a taxi. Ok in our defense, our driver, Niko, who is a total sweatheart, told us a ride home on the taxi should be about 40-50 grivnas. I asked the taxi driver how much. He said 80 grivnas. I balked and went back to the sidewalk. Josh brought up a good point that I was refusing over $5, the difference between 40 and 80 grivnas. Ok I would pay $5 to go back to the apartment. Did I mention it was extremely cold today?! So we get in the taxi and take off. We get to apartment and he says 150 grivnas. What? We argue and he shows us small writing that says minimum amount 80 grivnas and each 5kilometers is another 80 grivnas. Instead of fighting it we just paid and swore never to get another taxi. Our friend Meredith told us though that if we would have called a taxi it would have been half as much. Cultural rules.... what are ya gonna do.

We ended the evening at TGI Fridays with Meredith, her friend and another couple adopting an angel with DS. It was a great time of fellowship and information gathering. Our self taken pic as you can tell is at the top of the post.

Tomorrow we pick up our paperwork at 4pm and then catch the night train to the region where are boys are. Which means we probably get to meet them on Friday! [happy dancing!]
I shall leave you with pics.

part of the compound.

The church right outside where our SDA appointment was.

Josh standing in front of the enterance to the church compund.

a protest in front of parliment.

Building where our appointment was.

Everyone talks about going to the vendors, except not many were open so early in the morning. I did go by my self and bought a magnet. I was very proud.

Ps. My new shoes were great and I fit in better until I opened my mouth.

Have a great day! I'm going to bed.