We are here!!!

Hello Everyone!
We finally made it here in Ukraine. We had a great flight and we were even 1/2 an hour early. The flight was alittle over 9 hours long and we had great food. I apologize for posting late. There are just so many emotions running high and I didnt even think to use the computer. Right now Im using the computer where we are staying. It is inbetween a hotel and an apartment. It very nice and clean. The ladies here are very friendly. I have already begun to try to speak alittle Russian......well inbetween hand signs and a few small phrases we understood each other! Our facilitator had a "VIP" waiting for us in the airport. (thank God!) It was kind of funny because he only knew afew english words and I knew only know afew Russian phrases, but he was a big help. We would have been totally lost without him. H ebrought us right outside and we met our facilitator. He was very pleasant and we had a nice conversation in the car. Shortly after we settled into our room, we met a wonderful lady and her sister. She is doing a single adoption. They are from Ottawa. We have had many great conversations and we have been basically supporting each other. When we arrived in Kiev, it was raining lightly and all the snow is gone. In the evening we watched a movie and tried to fall asleep. We were both very nervous about the next day at the NAC. Philip was alot more nervous then I was and didnt end up having much sleep. I slept quite well. For some reason I felt this calmness in the middle of all these emotions. Well that was yesterday..........

This morning we had an appointment at 10:30am. We waited in the famous "long hallway". Boy were we nervous. We were finally brought into a room with about 5 other couples. They made us write down and sign a paper saying we were aware of the adoption process having a temporary close due to the old ministry finally moving to the new ministry. This apparently will happen after this Friday. They also told us that if we didnt choose a child to meet today that it would be very difficult to obtain another. PRESSURE!!!! was certainly on! After this we were brought into another room and shown a few albums of children, but they all had medical problems that were not correctable. Mine and Philips hearts were sinking as we thought we would not find our Sara. After being there an hour we finally came across alittle girl! She is going to be 3 on May 27th. We will travel after tommorow to meet her! We are so happy. We will be travelling to Lugankts.(look it up on the map) I know I spelt that wrong! It is 900 km away from Kiev. We will be travelling by car. We cant wait to meet her! I am so glad we got over this hurdle!


Hi kids! Looks like mom and dad found your sister! I hope no problems arise. Please say a prayer that she will definitely coming home with us. We miss you very much. I wish you were here. Be happy because we will be home as soon as we can. Just think about how much fun we will have when we get home with little Sara! Oh I almost forgot! They call her Anastasia! That is one of my favourite names! Tommorrow we will have a phone number with us so we can talk alot on the phone. We send you lots of hugs and kisses and we love you Anthony, Marina and Rafael. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO