Touchdown Kiev

Helloooooo.........
First of all we are sorry we are just now posting. Yesterday we were pretty worn out and could not find an internet cafe near by. We are so happy to update you guys now!
I will start from the beginning...When we arrived to catch our plane (for the second time) on Wednesday we were told it, too had been cancelled because the flight crew couldn't get there from the north. We then were told we would be put on a Delta flight to Atlanta, then Frankfurt and catch our original plane to Ukraine. We went to the Delta counter to check-in and they said the flight to Frankfurt was full! Eventually we got it all worked out and the final flight plan ended up with us in Atlanta for 7 hours, then Frankfurt and flying Ukrainian International Airlines to Kiev. We were worried a little, but it ended up going smoothly. (By the way, there were no luggage charges for the Ukrainian airlines, as we thought there might be...yesss!!)

So, we arrived in Kiev yesterday at 2:45pm. We were very happy to see Olga our facilitator, then her boyfriend Alex and Chris! our cousin!! They were sights for sore eyes. We spent the rest of the day walking a little, trying to get a phone card (but really didn't know what kind to get) and eatting at a little pizza place. The pizza was great by the way! We had plenty of jet lag to deal with so we didn't last beyond 8:00pm.

Now on to the interesting news. We had our appointment at the SDA this morning at 11:00. The people were very nice and we felt comfortable there. We were told a little about Lance Ivan's family...mother was born in the 80's, the dad was unknown, he has a brother who was adopted by Ukrainian nationals in 2002. As they say, the mother had an immoral lifestyle because she does not work...whatever that means. We were excited to learn that we could take Lance's picture from his file because we had one of our own to exchange for it!!!!! Good tip for prospective adopting parents. Maybe I can take a picture of it and post tomorrow. I tried to ask a lot of questions about getting the five days waived and other things but they said I have to talk to different officials. We will get our referral today! Unfortunately, Olga already bought our train tickets for 9:00pm tomorrow, so we will have to wait one more day to see Lance anyway. John Michael will get to meet him at approximately 10:00 on Saturday! It has already been approved. I found out the SDA (head of adoptions) will be closed the 30, 1, 2, and 9th, but open between those days. I also found out they might waive the 5 day wait if Olga calls and asks, but not for sure (see itinerary for explaination.) So, overall, everything is going very well in the process.
Now we are going to get something to eat...have not eatten anything yet (it is 1:00pm) and go to the outdoor market. We pick up our referral at 5:00 tonight.
Love you guys!!
Karen and John Michael