Ukraine Adoption - Day 3 (Kiev)

These pictures are a little bit out of order, but that's how they uploaded and I'm way too tired to rearrange them. On Day 3 we were able to pick up our SDA letter in the afternoon, and this cathedral is on the way there. It's been around since the 11th century (as have many of the cathedrals in Ukraine). We learned that our facilitator, Natasha, is really REALLY smart... she studied a lot in school and gave us tons of history and details that made our walks interesting. She even gave US a history of our English language... stuff we'd never heard of before. Love it.
Cher and Natasha

What you can't tell in the photo is that our taxi ride from the LDS temple was frightening... and completely uncomfortable. I won't bother going into detail about the smell of our driver, but when it began pouring down rain and the passenger side window would not roll up, and Matt got drenched (only to have the taxi driver pull out a dirty rag and proceed to first wipe off the window ledge (which was only going to keep getting rained on so why wipe it) but he then draped that dirty/wet rag onto Matt's arm, as if to shield him from getting wet... again, the rag itself was WET...). Anyway, he was an interesting man who scared me to death with his driving skills. I thought we weren't going to make it, seriously (not to mention the horrible music he played loudly the whole time). Then he asked us about being Mormons (as we were going to the temple) and asked how many wives Matt had. He then said that he saw a TV show about Mormon's and that they grew long beards and pulled buggy's and didn't use zippers - and where was Matt's beard? Natasha explained to him that Mormon's were not the same as the Amish.

The LDS Temple in Kiev is almost finished and is, as usual, absolutley beautiful. The taxi driver asked "who the man is on the top of the pole" and we tried to explain to him that he is an angel, which only made him ask us why he didn't have wings? We continued to answer him but have no idea how much he registered.

We were not only going to visit the Temple but had a package to drop off (and another to pick up) for Elder Alex Larsen, a missionary from our home stake (and one of Matt's all time favorites) who is currently serving in the Ukraine Kiev Mission. His family gave us a package and we came to the temple grounds because that is also where the mission office is. We met some great people (a couple from Washington state, a missionary from England and another from Idaho). Natasha knows a lot about our religion, which isn't surprising seeing as that she helps so many families from Utah adopt these sweet kids. When you spend week after week with them you come to understand and learn a lot about their religion and culture. She asked very intelligent quesitions and shared with us a lot about her religious and spiritual search in her own life. She's an amazing girl with much wisdom.

Here we are outside of the mission office with the temple in the background. Natasha is on the left and you can't miss me because my pregnancy is truly beginning to show - not in the cute way, but more like the stage where it just looks like I've eaten a few too many milkshakes (which I have not, by the way... I am very proud of how well I've eaten thank-you-very-much). I just can't wait until I look more like a pregnant person and not just thick. I need to get over it.

This day we also ate more great Ukrainian food - we are seriously blown away at how great it is. I was expecting difficulty and instead have been spoiled. At dinner time we were introduced to Oleg, the other facilitator who we would be passed-off to, so to speak, as Natasha handles the Kiev side, and bright and early on Day 4 we would be heading to Sumy (a 4+ hour drive where the orphanage is). We had dinner with Natasha and Oleg, became familiar with him and discussed next steps. We had an appointment with the "Inspector" of the Sumy orphanage before lunch the next day, so we had to get on the road early. Oleg is wonderful, and I'm not surprised. They really know how to treat these families that come to adopt - they understand so much about our expectations, or lack thereof, and guide and direct us so thoroughly. We are so grateful that we chose to work with this agency.