On our way out of Kiev

In two hours we will be heading to the SDA to pick up our referral to take to the orphanage. Then at 7pm tonight (noon your time) we will be on a 12 hour train ride to Donetsk Region. Next will be a 1 hour car ride to Slaviansk Town which is where Iryna is staying at the Nikolayevka village boarding school. Cary wrote a good point on Facebook last night that Shawn and I had never put together. "Isn't it interesting that Hurricane Irene stalled you initially but Iryna (yes a play on words here) is waiting for you on the other side. A sort of foreshadowing?" Little did she know but the Americanized way to say Iryna is Irene! And for all you American's, Iryna is pronounced, "E-ryna". We kept saying "I-ryna" and were corrected last night :) We continue to pray that this is the little girl God has chosen for us and we are less than 24 hours away from meeting her!!
Here are some more pictures we took this morning when Shawn and I ventured out in the city on our own! We even went to the grocery store on our own and almost got arrested!! After purchasing our groceries, when we walked out, their security alarms went off as if we were stealing something so the guard immediately comes over to us and in a serious voice starts talking in Ukrainian. We give him a blank look and just hand over our bag and receipt. He looks over it very carefully and starts checking every item one by one. After a couple minutes of this and sweat coming down both Shawn and I face, he allows us to go. So now we weren't almost arrested but it felt like it. Shawn said "Wouldn't that be something if our phone call home was...Um, Cindy and Tim, we are in jail and need money sent over now!" I don't think my parents would like that too much especially since the boys are already driving them crazy. We had a fun time trying to skype with them last night, my mom even asked if there was a full moon somewhere!! Okay, so now on to more pictures!

Kiev just got their first American Pizza delivery resturant! They love it!

Look what we found down the street....the Domino pizza sign holders!! We got a laugh from this.

They make and sell coffe out of the trunk of a car! Interesting.

I wasn't really taking a picture of the statue, I was trying to get a picture of the school children. Today was their first day of school and the children were all over. We were very impressed by their clothing. The boys have to where vests with coat jackets and the girls all in skirts with their hair all done and huge bows! Even the high school students were dressed to impress with ties and suit coats.