Our first full day in Ukraine

We woke up today with a good 12 hour sleep and we felt like we had overcome the jet lag. So we ventured into the city to see some sights. We have been checking the weather every day and we were worried because it had been showing snow almost daily for the past month. Somehow, the day after we arrive, there is some sunshine and 53 degrees to enjoy. We walked down to Saint Sophiya's Cathedral which was about 1/2 mile down the road. We paid a 20 cent entrance fee to get into the compound, and then we paid another fee to get inside the church and another fee to see the bell tower. We have been to Florence Italy and seen lots of paintings and Fresco's from the 16th and 17th Century, but we were amazed that this church was originally built in 1054AD. The church has been added to and changed over the centuries, but they have removed many of the layers so you can see the original artwork, floor tiles and building structure that is nearly 1000 years old. They had a marble sarcaphogus on display that was for Yaroslav the Wise who was born in 954 AD. It was all very facinating. Julia and I both went up the bell tower which was built later, in 1699. The steps and floor were very uneven and water was condensing on the masonry inside. It was a scary feeling to be 100 feet in the air with something built in 1699 under us, but it was fun to experience it.

After visiting the cathedral compound, we walked down to the main square and did some people watching. Ukrainians dress well, but they tend to go to the extreme sometimes. If they wear a mini skirt, they try to wear a mini skirt that is shorter than anyone else has ever worn before. Or the guys seem to be in competition as to who can wear the longest and pointiest black leather shoes. They may look nice in the store, but once you walk about a half mile, those ends just curl up and it makes them look really short with pointy ears. It is a good thing that black is in style and not green.

We received a call from our translator. She told us she was admitted to the hospital and that she was not going to be able to attend our appointment at the NAC. She was going to send her husband with us. He does facilitate adoptions for French couples, but we had met him and did not feel that he could speak English very well. So this worried us a little. We knew of a few people who had just completed adoptions and decided to get a hold of them in case we needed to hire their translators as backups. Luckily, we were able to get a hold of our friend who arranged for a translator to meet us there tomorrow, so all is well.

Our appointment is in the morning at 9:30, which means we are one of the first families of the day and there is a good chance we could get the referral paperwork quickly so we can be on a train to Kharkov to see Katya soon. So the sightseeing is over and the real adventure starts tomorrow.

Wade and Julia