Finally Arrived

Hello all,

Tonights post probably wont be very long as I am sure neither Jeff or myself could tell you what day it is for sure.....its Saturday night in Simferopol but Saturday morning at home with our wonderful family that we are already missing...

Friday began with Jeff and I sleeping in too long but neither complaining as we knew it would be along time before we showered or slept in something other than a jet sitting straight up. When we finally got it together packed and repacked again to make sure we were not over the weight limit then we stored our bags at the hotel and set out to see the city. We walked to Central Park where we were approached by a gentleman on a bike and asked if he could give us a ride, so we sadi yes and he wrapped us up in a blanket and we told him to take us to Lexington Ave as Jeff had researched that this is where the most important store in NYC was...you guessed it Harley Davidson...ha...as he pedaled his hardest I felt so guilty exspecially everytime he lost momentum and I could just feel him saying " did you two have to eat everything on the room service menu this morning" anyway we did throughly enjoy the tour and we landed safely at the HD store and then we found a cool pizza joint and we had some New York pizza and NO we walked back I did not punish another poor bicyclist....we thought we would leave the hotel about 4 for a 7 flight but we got back early and decided to go ahead and start that way...well it was a good thing we did cause it took us 1.45 hr to get to JFK just arriving right at 5 for check in.

7pm ET...we were lucky to sit beside each other as the plane was full...we were hardly off the ground when the culture of Ukraine smacked us in the face....no cokes just juice and water for the whole 10 hours....wow....talk about a caffiene headache. between no caffiene and sitting up sleeping for 10 hours it was very hard to stay friendly to each other as one of us SNORED and the other legs were too long to be comfortable.

2am ET ....the lights can on in the cabin and the bustle the flight attendants came through the cabin with hot rags....Jeff and I looked at each other as our fingers were burning off and we looked around and watched as everyone else knew what to do...wioe your face...Jeff kept mumbling something like....."I dont know what the heck they are doing this for in the middle of the night" well we soon found out rise and shine its breakfast time ...yes you guessed it orange juice and omellettes...so there we are eating with our eyes closed and our breath stinking....then we tried to go back to sleep but now was time to fill out immigration cards....then it was tea time...then it was time too collect the pens and inspect our immigrations cards...you see where this is going.....

5am et or 12pm Ukraine time.....we landed in Kiev....oh did I mention it was COLD...we walked off the plane and was hearded to the passport control...we stood in line for just about 15 minutes which was very fast then in our delirium we went to the caroselle and waited for our luggage after watching the same bags come around for the 100th time we looked around to realize our bags are not here unless we came in from Cairo...so we finally got our bags and kept our heads down acting as though we were talking to each other in hopes we could slide by the guards and not be patted down...trust me they were lucky they let us go....

6am ET 1pm Ukraine....we met Galya decided we should hop the plane to Simferopol to be there Monday morning to try to talk to the inspector plus we had brought Becky's medicine to her so she needs it as she has been here now for 7 weeks...I will get into that later but it aint good.....our first hurdle...it appears the government quit paying the passport processors and none of the Ukraine is getting Passports....Becky has been waiting for 12 days now....UGH they are saying 2 more months...dont freak out we will talk more about it later too tired tonight....

135 Ukraine time we left Kiev and headed to Simferopol...

300 pm Ukraine time we arrived to fog thicker than you can imagine but our wonderful Oksana was standing waiting for us and it was off to the orphanage to see Tanya....ofcourse we pulled up and just as in July the children run out to see who is visiting and Medine and Valera were the first to run up Medine hugged Jeff and Valera extended his handed as to say "long time no see" then they all wanted my phone to see pics of Nina" they thought she looked beautiful....we immedicately asked where was Tanya and Medine said she is inside.." I think she has changed her mind and dont want to come"...not what you want to hear when you have just traveled for 22 hours straight ...but when she came running out it didnt seem as she had changed her mind she ran straight to Jeff screaming PAPA....

600 pm We gave the kids all their goodies and took lots of pics and talked to Tanya and her sisters privately for awhile until Oksana said lets go home.]

7pm we stopped at the market and Oksana got all the fixing to make us a greek salad..I was so excited. we came home to Oksana's ( she would not dream of letting us stay at a hotel and we ate and talked and now I am falling asleep typing but I knew everyone would want some news....

So the long and short we are here and have LOTS of work ahead of us for the next couple of weeks and from what we hear...we are in for another wild ride in the Ukraine.

Love to all
Donna and Jeff