In Lugans'k

Saturday was good... we rested, got packed, I played a couple hours of Starcraft 2 with Sam -- worked pretty well from such a long distance -- , and we headed out.

We took the train Saturday night and made it to Lugans'k this morning.  I didn't mind the train much but Melissa didn't like it at all.  The Dramamine helped her a lot but it wore off in the last hour -- 15hr train ride -- and she didn't want to take another for fear it would make her too sleepy to get out.  We have to do this 2 more times this trip.  We are at the apartment and she's resting -- well, she's actually talking to two of Snezhana's friends who are in Kyiv on their way for Christmas hosting.

This apartment isn't nearly as nice as the last and we didn't expect it to be.  We actually pulled out the fleece sleeping bags for the first time.  My favorite thing was finding a kitchen window unscrewed off a hinge and hanging open.  At first I thought this was broken and I figured I would try to fix it.  Then I looked at the wall at the other end of the small kitchen and saw a tankless gas water heater mounted on the wall.  I'm pretty sure that window is intentionally ajar to keep us from dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.  For some reason I doubt that would pass building codes in the US.  The "flex pipe" for the toilet was another entertaining item... it looks like a heavy duty dryer vent.

One of the rooms in the apartment is really nice.  Comfy couches, nicely decorated, intriguing light fixture... there are about 18 light bulbs in the room but only one works.  Most of the rooms are that way. The shower doors don't work but they have a curtain you can use instead... it's one of those quarter circle showers.  I'm sure Melissa will take/post pictures later when she is feeling better.  Our facilitator is supposed to be by around 4p.

On Friday we told Snezhana we were coming Monday and she was a bit overwhelmed.  She cried for a bit and then we talked some more.  That is a real shame about this "game" you have to play with adopting where you can't really say anything.  Hopefully we can explain more to her on Monday.  Snezhana and Dennis have been trying to grasp why we aren't hosting them for Christmas... which they found out about 3wks ago and many of their friends left for hosting yesterday.  It is a real answer to prayer that we have been able to make it here and explain (a little) before her friends left.  I was really worried that we wouldn't get to host them or come... and still be unable to explain to them that we can't adopt them if they are not in Ukraine and we aren't in control of the timing.

For the last two days, Snezhana has been borrowing cell phones from friends and texting us to call her many times a day -- texting us in Russian of course :) .  I don't know if I mentioned but in the last week she started calling me daddy and in the last two days she's been telling me she loves me as we hang up on the phone -- in english.  Our local facilitator is coming today and one of the things we are going to do is get Snezhana a pre-paid cell phone of her own.  God willing she'll only need it for 4wks max but with the SDA requiring us to head back to Kyiv this week for an additional app't for the other orphanage, we may not get to spend as much time as we had hoped with Snezhana and Dennis.  We are hoping she has had a chance to process things by Monday (tomorrow) as the additional SDA requirement will mean we have to move quickly.

Verdict is still out on the internet connectivity.  I was able to get connected more easily but my VPN has yet to work and the download rates, though seemingly consistent, are really slow.

We had probably the worst pizza ever when we got here.  We both ate a piece just to get some food and left the rest.  Disappointing given the pizza we had in the underground mall in Kyiv was fantastic.  I need to get out the tips our US agent gave us on places to eat around here.