Day 3 - Preparing to Leave for Lugansk

Jamie and Vilen near Independence Square in Kyiv

Vilen continues our tour of Kyiv - shows us his conservatory (yellow building in background)

Vilen proudly wears a shirt showing his acapella group 

Jamie and Vilen heading to the underground mall

We had a great evening with our friend Vilen.  We walked downtown to Freedom Square and then up to a beautiful park on a hill that overlooked the city and the Nipur (sp) River.  Vilen was so cute when he said goodbye, expressing his thanks in every way that his limited english would allow.  I  had bought him a twin pack of Jiff peanutbutter which he had to tote on his 40 minute walk home to his flat where he sleeps on the couch.  He shares the flat with his mother and grandmother.
This morning we had breakfast in a quaint little cafeteria style restaurant, we had thick pastry type pancakes, potatoe cakes and apple crepes, all very yummy.  We are packing up to leave on the train to Lugansk where Dasha was born and has lived her whole life.  the train leaves this evening at 6pm.  We have heard that the train stops many times, is not very clean, and is very noisy so I will be taking my sleep aid.  Brett has yet to take anything but advil for a headache.  There is another couple coming into our apartment who is also adopting, so we did not have to pay rent for today, so that worked out quite well.  There are currently 5 families here who have been working with Tonya at Options for Adoption.  This is a lot at one time.  Because of the threatened shut down in July there were many families who had rushed to get their paperwork submitted in Ukraine before that happened.  Then when it did not there were quite a few families who were ready to travel.  We are blessed to only have been separated from Dasha for 17 days before we get to see her again.  Assuming we will see her tomorrow, though nothing is guaranteed.  We are taking many pictures on the trip but unfortunately forgot the cord needed to import them to the computer.  Unless we can find the right Sony cord for our camera, pictures will have to wait.  Goodbye for now or as they say in Ukraine, "Dasveedanya"  That spelling is not right...