Hello, Привет, (pree-vet) from Kiev, Ukraine! Jason and I made it safely here last night. Before landing the pilot announced it was negative 7 degrees Celsius (21 degrees F) with 100% humidity. There is snow and ice and it was cold and dreary today.  We are staying with a wonderful, Christian woman who has a hospitality apartment for families who come here to adopt.  We slept most of our day away and then walked to exchange money and grocery shop. We walked by the grocery store at least 2 times and went inside other stores before finally finding the grocery store from another entrance. Shopping was a fun experience since we do not read Russian or Ukrainian. We looked at pictures and made some random choices. We have liked everything we bought and cooked so far! We had sausiska (sausage, which tasted more like hot dogs) and verenikee (fruit and cream filled perogies), cheese, chips, apple, and carrots. The cheese flavored chips are especially tasty!

We have WiFi here at the apartment where we are staying so we were able to Facetime with our children. That was truly the highlight of our day!  

Tomorrow we will meet with the Minisrty of Social Policy at 9:00 a.m. Ukraine time which is 9 hours ahead from our time in CO. We are praying we will get our referral to go visit our girl's region tomorrow so we could get an overnight train to her region and see her on Friday! The ministry rarely gives referrals the same day as the appointment so please pray for God's speedy timing. If we do not get a referral tomorrow then we will get it on Friday and leave Sunday night to see her on Monday. Government offices are not open on the weekend so we would not be able to go see our girl until we get the approval in that region.

We appreciate your prayers! Internet will be spotty in the region where the orphanage is but we will do our best to keep posting updates.

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you [Lord], who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." (Psalm 84:5)