Wednesday, May 11

Our appointment at the SDA did not go as planned today.  First of all, they were not expecting us for some reason.  Then after much searching on their part for Kirill's file we were informed his release date is not until tomorrow and there was nothing that could be done today.  They do not have any available appointments tomorrow and they don't do appointments on Friday so we will not have another appointment until Monday afternoon.  This likely means we will not have a referral for Kirill until Tuesday afternoon and we will not be able to do an official visit with him at the orphanage until next Wednesday.  We hope this is the last delay!  We do wonder what would have happened if we had come when our first appointment was initially scheduled in
April.

We have been spending time walking around Kiev getting to know our way around and doing some sightseeing.  We did ride the Metro (subway) yesterday so we feel pretty comfortable with that for when we need to really start using it to get back and forth from the orphanage and to other places.  We are moving to a different apartment tomorrow and we are hoping it is near where we are now because we know where things are in this area.  My sister, Leah, and her husband, Doug, are arriving on Friday and our new apartment will have more space for the 5 of us.  They will be leaving on Tuesday am with Max and then Paul and I will move again at some point to a smaller apartment.  Leah and Doug were kind enough to offer to fly to Kiev to get Max so he could be back for the end of his 5th grade school year>  Max really did not want to miss the end of the end of the school year as he moves to the middle school next year.  Paul and I thought it was important for Max to experience sometime in Kiev to learn about Kirill's culture so he came along for the first part of the trip (it has been a good experience for him already). 

I've included a few pictures to give you an idea of what we have been seeing.
 on our trip so far.

London Eye - per Max's research this is the largest ferris wheel in the world.  We rode this while we were in London and it took about 30 minutes to go around.  It moves very slowly and offers a great view of London.

Pictures from Kiev:

St. Michael's Cathedral - a beautiful cathedral this is just a short walk from our current apartment.

St. Andrew's Cathedral - it is right next to the SDA office which is also a short walk from our apartment.  It appears to have some renovations underway.

Paul and Max standing in front of the House with Chimeras.  An interesting house that was built more than a century again.  One brochure refers to it as one of the most unique structures in Kiev.