Tuesday morning was spent being lazy and exploring Kiev on our own, as we were packing up to leave our apartment there and travel to Zaporozia. We ventured to a coffee shop and ordered clumsily, with our Russian phrase book in tow. We walked down to Independence Square, checked out the underground mall, hiked up to see the Kiev arch (a sign of friendship between Russia and Ukraine), and when Natasha picked us up at 2PM and we had no idea the adventure we were in for.
As she took us on a walking tour of Kiev to kill time between 2PM and 4PM (when we could pick up our official referral for the children), she also served as history teacher, individual tour guide, and adoption counselor. After we picked up the referral (which was fairly uneventful and certainly less stressful than going to the Ministry for Adoptions yesterday!), we continued to walk all over Kiev, where we learned so much about Ukrainian history and culture, and got to see much of downtown firsthand. We continued to walk, and walk, and walk, through a park, into St. Vladimir’s Church, past the Golden Gate and countless sculptures, architecture, food vendors, and people, until we reached the train station. We walked for about 6 hours that day! I have to say that we were incredibly proud of Anna for keeping up with us, not complaining, and managing that kind of activity.
The train station is a huge beautiful building, full of marble and granite, and bustling with people from all walks of life. Irena (Natasha’s partner) met us at the train with our luggage. The Turkish toilets that are available before you get on the train were “free,” and they are basically a hole in the ground in a small stall with a low door (with NO toilet paper!). When you gotta go, you gotta go. We grabbed our luggage and headed up the stairs (carrying our luggage) because the escalators were not working! The train station had no air conditioning inside, and it was stuffy and hot, and crawling with people going every which way. By the time we had made it up the stairs, through the crowd, then back down the stairs to our train, we were already sweaty, hot and tired. We knew we had packed too much!
We entered the train, and were shown to our small cabin with four narrow, padded benches set up as bunks, 2 on each side of the room, with small storage area under the bottom bunks. All 4 of us could not fit in the cabin unless a couple of us were on our beds. The cabin steward brought us fresh sheets and a towel, and after laughing and catching our breath, we were soon making our beds. They provide a bedroll, pillows and blankets in addition to the sheets. We were able to laugh so much on that bumpy, stuffy train ride (thankfully the air conditioning did come on!), and thought about the families that are coming after us and the adventures they will have, going to what feels like the end of the world to get their children as we were doing that very moment.
As we settled down for sleep, I thought about our visit to Dachau a few days earlier, and the stuffy train cabin and lumpy mattress suddenly seemed like a luxury suite. I thought about how important hope is, and without it you might as well be dead. I thought about Tanya and Viktor, and prayed much of the night as sleep only came in short spurts for us that night. Then I thought about Jesus himself, giving up the comfort and splendor of heaven, and coming down to the end of the world for me, for you, to get His children and bring them home. The train ride wasn’t so bad after all.
As she took us on a walking tour of Kiev to kill time between 2PM and 4PM (when we could pick up our official referral for the children), she also served as history teacher, individual tour guide, and adoption counselor. After we picked up the referral (which was fairly uneventful and certainly less stressful than going to the Ministry for Adoptions yesterday!), we continued to walk all over Kiev, where we learned so much about Ukrainian history and culture, and got to see much of downtown firsthand. We continued to walk, and walk, and walk, through a park, into St. Vladimir’s Church, past the Golden Gate and countless sculptures, architecture, food vendors, and people, until we reached the train station. We walked for about 6 hours that day! I have to say that we were incredibly proud of Anna for keeping up with us, not complaining, and managing that kind of activity.
The train station is a huge beautiful building, full of marble and granite, and bustling with people from all walks of life. Irena (Natasha’s partner) met us at the train with our luggage. The Turkish toilets that are available before you get on the train were “free,” and they are basically a hole in the ground in a small stall with a low door (with NO toilet paper!). When you gotta go, you gotta go. We grabbed our luggage and headed up the stairs (carrying our luggage) because the escalators were not working! The train station had no air conditioning inside, and it was stuffy and hot, and crawling with people going every which way. By the time we had made it up the stairs, through the crowd, then back down the stairs to our train, we were already sweaty, hot and tired. We knew we had packed too much!
We entered the train, and were shown to our small cabin with four narrow, padded benches set up as bunks, 2 on each side of the room, with small storage area under the bottom bunks. All 4 of us could not fit in the cabin unless a couple of us were on our beds. The cabin steward brought us fresh sheets and a towel, and after laughing and catching our breath, we were soon making our beds. They provide a bedroll, pillows and blankets in addition to the sheets. We were able to laugh so much on that bumpy, stuffy train ride (thankfully the air conditioning did come on!), and thought about the families that are coming after us and the adventures they will have, going to what feels like the end of the world to get their children as we were doing that very moment.
As we settled down for sleep, I thought about our visit to Dachau a few days earlier, and the stuffy train cabin and lumpy mattress suddenly seemed like a luxury suite. I thought about how important hope is, and without it you might as well be dead. I thought about Tanya and Viktor, and prayed much of the night as sleep only came in short spurts for us that night. Then I thought about Jesus himself, giving up the comfort and splendor of heaven, and coming down to the end of the world for me, for you, to get His children and bring them home. The train ride wasn’t so bad after all.