Sunday, June 19, 2011

Choo Choo

We received Charlotte's passport yesterday (can I please tell you how cute her picture is... wish I could share it all with you), so we left for Kiev today. We decided to save 200.00 (travel expenses for our drive out to the region where we were), and only pay 58.00 for a train ride. Yes, it was 5 hours long... yes, it was a little warm (but not unbearable), yes, we were nervous as can be about Charlotte's first experience on a train (scared we would run out of food to fill up our little one since she eats so much). We thought of the worse case scenarios, and ended up pleasantly surprised. We had a little bit of rainfall during our trip, which ended up resulting in a beautiful fresh smelling breeze throughout the train. Sweet little Charlie even gave us about an hour and 15 minute break, when she took a nap. All she needed was her iPAD and Laurie Berkner music videos... it only took 2 renditions of "We are the Dinosaurs" before her little lids closed.

Another blessing-we were hoping to be in a cabin all by ourselves... didn't want to disturb anyone that had intentions on sleeping... and we ended up with 2 of the sweetest Ukrainians EVER (one younger married guy who spoke perfect English, and an older woman). They asked why we would be on a train traveling through Ukraine (the parts of Ukraine where we were, apparently aren't vacation spots!) When I told the gentleman our adoption story, he lit up... told us that he and his wife want to adopt and are hoping to in 2 years (I told him he should move up that time line!) and was really happy to hear that we chose Ukraine over other countries. He then translated everything to the older woman, and she smiled HUGE and told him to tell us, "What a good thing we were doing... that no one else does things like that, and that we are heroes..." She then looked at me with the sweetest smile and said "Hero" over and over about 4 times. She also helped us take care of Charlie the last 5 minutes on the train (while Mama and Papa had to get all our luggage shuffled together and ready to "hop" off the train).

We made it safely to Kiev, and are tucked into our apartment, and ready for our US Embassy appointment tomorrow. Hoping to get a better timeline as to when we'll be heading home.

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4 comments:

  1. Yay! Next step of the journey! I'm so excited for you! I'm glad you had great coach mates. That must have made it much easier! :-)

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  2. I just cannot help but smile when I read each blog entry of yours! :)

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  3. My goodness, I've been away from the computer for too long. Look at all the adventures the three of you have had! I look forward to reading your blog posts all the time!

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  4. Just thought I'd let you know that your blog is my current favorite :) I love catching up on all that has been happening with your sweet little family. Also, I love your pictures. You are one talented lady, and I can tell you are a fantastic Mother!

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