A couple of days in Kiev

I just erased this long explanation about bed time tonight.  I will just say it was terrible.  It has been terrible every night but tonight I was in tears.  It's so hard.  I feel like I have to think so much about every little situation.  What is the best way to handle this?  I don't know and I'm so exhausted from thinking about it constantly.

Ok, enough about that.  Here's what we've been doing the last few days.  Yesterday, Natasha and Ina picked us up and we went to see some more of Kiev.  It is really a beautiful city.  We first went to a church where they have caves (tombs) that you walk in to.  I just asked Tanya what it was called and she said "Kievskachalablakabra" I think.  We paid to go in to the church and to see the caves.  We had to cover our heads with scarves and wear long skirts to go in.  It was very different from what we are used to.  They believe that walking through the caves cleanses your soul.  Natasha said it is a little scary because people will yell very loud as the devils come out of their souls.  We walked in a packed line down this hallway that was about 3 feet wide.  Everyone carries candles so it was very hot.  Liz and I both started feeling very clasustrophobic.  We told Natasha and Ina we changed our minds and we would wait for their clean souls outside :) haha!   But they were feeling the same so we all left.  I'm starting to have a little panic attack just thinking about it.  After that, we went to the Museum of Water which bored the kids to death.  We learned about how the water system in Kiev works.  Our guide spoke English which was great.  I couldn't blame the kids for being bored because I would have been bored if it was in Russian.  The kids did like the part where we played with bubbles and sand for 10 minutes.  We also learned that there are twice as many rats living underground as there are people in Kiev (and I think she said any large city).  8 million rats.  Gross!  They had some things to play on outside so I let the kids choose one again.  They enjoyed that.  Alex liked riding but he watches Tanya the whole time to make sure she is there. I bet he says "Taaaaanya"  2000 times a day with an inflection that I can't even explain.  It's cute, most of the time :)  Maybe I will change her name afterall.    :)  We went to the Doll Museum but they didn't have any more shows.  There was a little parking lot where we parked but there were no spaces available  so we just parked next to one of them.  Natasha said we shouldn't have to pay because we parked outside the lines.  It was $10 grivna per hour ($1.20 U.S.).   We were there 3 hours.  When we got back Natasha gave him $10 grivna and told him that was enough.  He said that she should give him more money but she told him we shouldn't have to pay anything because we didn't park in the lines.  He said he hadn't had time to paint new lines yet, but accepted our $10 grivna and went on.  Things just work differently here.  Natasha dropped us off at the apartment and we walked around Kiev some more.  There are these huge steps with water flowing down them and we had fun walking around on those.  Alex loved it!  I can't wait for him to go swimming!  We ate dinner at TGI Friday's and we have never been so happy to eat American food.   When you are finished eating, they don't just bring you the ticket.  You have to get up and go ask for it.  Liz was going to ask so she asked me how to say ticket.  Of course I have no idea, so I told her "kishneekla".  She asked Tanya "Is that right?" and Tanya nodded yes so off she went to ask!  Tanya and I were laughing so hard, waiting to see what the waiter would say.  Too bad he saw her coming and said, "ticket?"  So all she had to say was "yes."  I should have never started that because now Tanya is teaching us crazy words for all kinds of things.  We can never tell if she's teasing or really teaching. We got home later than we planned so we bathed Alex and then Tanya bathed.  Then we started the nightmare of getting Alex to go to sleep.  I won't go into that because my blood pressure has just returned to normal after tonight's episode.

We woke up this morning and went to the U.S. Embassy to apply for the kids Visa's.  I filled out a bunch of paperwork in the car before we went but then I had to fill them out again inside.  There was a huge crowd of people outside waiting in line.  We went right to the front and went right in.  We asked Alexi what all of the people where doing there and they said they were applying for Visa's for vacations to the U.S.   What a pain.  We are trying to get Alex, Natasha, and Ina to come visit us in the U.S. and I kept thinking about how awful it will be to wait in that line.  The embassy appointment was pretty easy and the man working there was really nice.  I was surprised he was Ukrainian - not because he was nice but because it wasn't an American working in the U.S. embassy.  I had to pay $804 to get the kids visas.  Then we went to have the medical exams.  We waited in this crowded hallway while Alexi went to several different offices.  Then he brought a nurse out to get the kids.  As soon as she came to get them, Alex started crying and holding on to Tanya.  He must have had some pretty bad experiences with doctors.  I hate that he will have many of them when we get home, but we have to do it.  They had to get a blood test and they listened to their heart beats and checked their eye sight.  They asked a few questions and then I had to pay $220.  Today was an expensive day.  Oh, and we also paid for plane tickets home which ended up being about $3200.  Oh how I underestimated the costs of this!  It is all worth it though!  Alexi dropped us off at Double Coffee and we ate a delicious lunch - thanks Mike and Michelle for showing us that place!  Natasha and Ina picked us up after that and we went to a market where I could buy a Ukrainian shirt and a table runner. After that was the highlight of our day when we went to Roshen Chocolate Factory.  We bought a ton of chocolate and then got home and wished we would have bought more.  We are going back tomorrow to get more :) We ate dinner at Oliva's which serves Italian food and it was so good.  Alex is doing so much better eating.  He used to have food falling out of his mouth when he ate and he had no idea how to hold a fork.  We've been giving him a spoon and teaching him to keep his mouth closed when he eats and it's been much better.  Sooooo much better, actually.  He tries so hard to please everyone.  It's really sweet, he tries to do everything we tell him.  Except at bed time I guess.

Tomorrow we have the 2nd embassy appointment at 2:00 pm and the visa's will be ready at 3:00 pm.  We have some fun things planned for the afternoon with Natasha and Ina.  Have I mentioned how awesome they are?  I read about everyone paying translators to take them around town and I realize how lucky we are that we have 2 new friends to do it instead!  They even bought our dinner tonight.  I keep trying to pay for things like parking and food for them but they will hardly ever let me.  Plus, we have so much fun when we are with them!  Tomorrow we are hoping to visit their Babushka (grandma)!  We would like to meet their parents too but she said they might be shy because they don't understand English.  We are so anxious to be home and we fly out of here on Wednesday morning at 5:45 am.  Please pray for our flight with the kids to go smoothly.  We get home at 7:21 p.m. Wednesday night in San Antonio (it's the same day because we have an extra 8 hours lost during travel).  A couple of people have asked if i wanted people at the airport or not, and of course I always think "the more, the merrier"!

Tanya and the giant toilet at the water museum.

Alex in a giant bubble.

Natasha, Ina, me

Alex riding the train

Tanya was hilarious in the bubble.  She drew a crowd!

Tanya posed for a picture with every statue that we walked by.

This is probably the only swimming he has done in his life.  At dinner tonight he told Natasha he wanted to swim in the bathtub.  I made a huge bubble bath and he would have stayed in there for hours.

My sweet girl!

Tanya and Mama's feet in the waterfall.

This is standing on the waterfall steps.  Our apartment is about 2 blocks from these buildings.  There are always a bunch of people walking everywhere.

Alex and Tanya.  It's funny because Alex usually poses for a picture by putting bunny ears on his own head.

Liz and the kids.  I can't even tell you how great it has been to have her here with me.