More paperwork, May 31

Thursday, May 31, 2007


We went in search of breakfast and could only find McDonald's again. (which we were thankful for) We were in a different part of Kiev again so everything was a new search and we could not find a grocery store. Only the McDonald's drive-thru was open in the early morning so here we are walking through the drive-thru. Fortunately, some Ukrainians were doing the same thing.



It was a beautiful morning for breakfast outside.
Alexy picked us up and we went to get the official health check-up for Tanya and Lienna. We then went to the US Embassy to get the visas. We were thankful they took our US bills there. We have learned that when you travel to other countries, you should get newer, crisp bills. Any little tear or too much wear is cause for rejection when you try to exchange it. We had been concerned that we may run out of money because some of our bills were rejected.


The visas would be ready on Friday so now we could make plans to fly home. Our round trip tickets were for a return of June 6. We were ready to go home now!! So we started to call to get an earlier flight. No flight on Friday, no seats on Sat or Sun! The earliest tickets were possibly Monday and Tanya and Lienna's cost much more than expected. This was a cause of stress for us. Mentally, emotionally, and financially we hit the wall and had to get home. The fatigue of traveling with four girls for three days and finding no real food was taking it's toll. After much prayer, we did get flights to Cincinnati. The Delta lady in Kyiv said it would be cheaper to get a ticket in Cincinnati for the two one-way tickets from Cincinnati to Sioux Falls. It didn't make sense to us (and we later found out she was WRONG!) At that point we were just thankful to get flights to the United States. At least we would be able to find food and be able to communicate. Later, we found out just how bad she messed up our flights.



Later in the day we went for a walk around our apartment to see if we could find a store for shoes, clothes, and food. Tanya and Lienna were both given shoes that were too small for them and they needed some clothes also. Fortunately we made due on the clothes since Tanya and Morgan were close to the same size and Lienna had one wearable outfit. Just don't be surprised when we are in the same outfit in most pictures. We packed very light for this trip so had few outfits to choose from. (that meant more washing though) In our search for food, we did find one restaurant. It was Ukranian food and had an English menu! This was a treat for Tanya and Lienna since it was a little different than the orphanage food and it was a nice change from crackers and Nutrigrain bars. It was nice for us also. All we found that day were stands with food and miscellaneous items. We were told we shouldn't eat the food at these stands and wouldn't have known what to order anyway. We went back to our hot apartment for the night. We would continue our search tomorrow for shoes.