Editorial Section - Week in Review

FIRST PORTION OF THE WEEK

It seems that something transformative occurred over this week and we thought we might try to capture this in writing. There are also many funny moments worthy of note.

Firstly, Audrey was never comfortable with the referral of the little girl and was hopeful due to the faith that Andy was holding that this would all turn out perfect. In the end this did turn out perfectly.

The day of decision making started out with a phone call from my beloved mother at 4am (she was thinking it was 4pm). In Kiev the longitute is so much further north than Southern CA it seems it is always light it gets dark after 10pm and is light before 4am. Audrey in particular is attuned to the light and has not been sleeping well given the light, the mental gymnastics and the being sorely homesick. So, the first day that Audrey is sound asleep past the witching hour of 4 am the phone rings. Note that the rooster did not start his song and dance till way after 5 am and we figure he needs a reminder call from CA every morning about his morning duties.

We were both hoping that we had a strong sense or sign of how this part of the story was suppose to go and hence, would not have required the long hours of discusssion. The discussion itself between us was rather amazing when Andy spoke he added clarity to how Audrey saw things and vice versa. The decision on this matter really was a true result of partnership where we were able to build off each others strengths to get to the right answer for us as a family. As time has past and we have discussed this further it is clear as day that we made the right decision on many levels.

During the course of lot's of discussion over this week we have had a lot of levity over how Andy plays the rooster (mouth piece) at times and at times is very happy to pass the rooster role over to Audrey. Over the last several years Audrey has had the opportunity to actually see that she is not the main and only rooster in the coupe.

It seems hard to capture that during the discussion and decision making process regarding the first referral we now have a little less exprectation and are not attached to the end result in a very healthy way. We guess the only way to say this is in truth we do not have control over the entire process and however it turns out it was meant to be. This is a very freeing spot to be in since in our daily lives we try to think at least that we are in control of how everything turns out. It is clear that we can do all that is required of us and at some point the rest is left to faith. As we have said about this journey it take a tremendous amount of faith to go out on a limb like this and a certain amount of crazy to just hang out with however it turns out.

MID WEEK
Being back in Kiev on Tuesday night gave us pause to consider what our options were for the rest of the week. We knew we would wait on word from the SDA if we could get a second appointment this week or have to wait till next week. In the interim we forged out into the rain on Wednesday. There has been persistent rain since we have been here far different than three years ago when it was hot as blazes (and we are prepared for that). On Wednesday out during our errands we ran into two English speaking women from Canada trying to dodge the rain at this upscale coffee house. We sat and chatted for about two hours. These gals are in Kiev with their kids who were performing the next evening at the Kiev Opera house doing traditional Ukrainian dance. As we were talking on of the gals was telling us about her trip to Lviv last year as this is where her heritage is from. We found it humorous that Lviv was on of three options for our weekend divertion and that we would sit with someone who knew none of this and was sharing abou the things to see and do in Lviv.

Flying anywhere seemed prohibitively expensive and g-d forbid we did not have access to our lifeline the cellphone we decided we needed to stay in Ukraine. As you know we took the train to Lviv. Ukraine as a country has a lot of economic issues which play out in things like their energy grid and plumbing (if you can call it that). So, we feel very fortunate to actually have had a washing machine in the apartment but no one in Ukraine (except for maybe the very wealthy) have clothes dryers. Audrey washed our clothes first thing in the morning and it seems the washer takes like three hours and hung everything to dry before our late night train excursion. Surprise it rained all day and the clothes were not drying. Audrey was actually ironing everything from undies to t-shirts in the hopes of drying out to put into our backpacks. On the train ride all our personal undergarments were strewn throughout the cabin still trying to dry out.

The train ride is made for smidges/midges. Andy was making fun of everything from the minute we got onto the train. Andy really was humorous as he went on about the Russian music that we were subjected to in the cabin and how Mr. Proper really did not care what anybody thought at this point anymore. Andy was climbing up on the sleeping bunk shoes intacted trying to do anythig to get rid of the music when in comes the train attendant. It was just a funny moment of many on our uncomfortable ride from Kiev to Lviv last night.

We are at the Lion's Castle this evening and have not seen a lick of Lviv as it has rained/poured the entire day additionally it was virtually impossible to sleep on the train. We actually splurged and paid for the best class cabin on the train and would not do that again. We will be venturing out to the internet cafe (our home away from home) and we did go our for a exquisite (Andy's words) dinner this evening that cost USD $70 (such a deal). We have not gone out to dinner since we have been in Ukraine and this must be some kind of a record for us.

Our hotel in Lviv is quite and peaceful which is a large contrast from where we have been staying in Kiev. The various apartments in Kiev have been in the center of town and very noisey. The other morning the translator called at 10am and we were sound asleep since we probably were up till around 3 am given all the noise.

Well it is a blessing that we took the train to Lviv as it is cooler and delightful here. We look forward to seeing the town tomorrow. Lviv seems to be alot more like western Europe.

Have a loverly weekend,
Love,
Audrey & Andy










It seems hard to capture