April 5, 2003 - Nap time and McDonalds

At last our 16 hour train ride is over.  I never thought it possible to see so much devastation and poverty in the 6 or so hours of light we had during this trip. The train was older and not as smooth as the first one. Without enough circulation of air, I feel like I just spent the night in a tent. It’s too bad I couldn’t pull down the zipper and smell the fresh mountain air. Instead, the narrow hallway is filled with grumpy travelers all jockeying for position to get off the train. 

Kyiv is a long 20-minutes stop, but it makes no difference, everyone acts like his or her exit is the most important. Valery greets us, and he graciously  helps with our luggage. The air is still crisps at 8:08 am and it feels wonderful. We are creatures of habit, and the sights and sounds of a more modern city comfort us. Remembering that all the things are relevant, it doesn’t take much to make an improvement over Lugansk. My cold is still present, and we are all in need of a good breakfast. I feel a bit worn out from the 16- hour trip but I am so glad to be back at the Tourist Hotel. 

We bump into fellow “Americanskis” in the lobby and greet each other gladly. They are from a church in California, and are here to deliver “shoeboxes” of toys to children in need. There are 20 in their group and they appear to be having a good time. We spent the day mostly in our hotel room. Natalie is content with playing quietly most of the time, but does act like a normal would- up 3 year old as well. She is completely comfortable with us now and even starts to make noises and humming for herself. 

Natalie is much more expressive vocally. Though we don’t usually know what she is saying, we can usually tell what she wants based on what she is doing and the tone of her voice. Every once in a while, she will proclaim something once or twice sincerely trying to get us to understand. The necessities are all pretty easy; going to the bathroom, getting dressed, eating and so on. The rest of everything can be challenging as with any 3 year old. (plus the language barrier) I feel so sorry for her when she is petrified for bath time, but it is a must for us to establish habit.  She also has resisted her first nap with a big ol temper tantrum, but settled in for 2-1/2 hour nap.

The internet consumes 2 hour of time again for 5-6 sent messages and 192 received. Most of the received are just advertisement, junk mail and a group digest we are on for adoption. One of the received messages is from Troy and Janelle, the couple we saw at the NAC when we first started our journey. They have chosen to adopt a 14-month baby boy!

Natalie settles in for the last part of Toy Story 2 on the laptop before going to bed quietly. 

We again, are in awe as to what an angel she can be!

Kris:

 Back in KYIV! Oh it felt so good to be back to this beautiful city. We rested and recuperated from the train ride. We played and had our first visit to McDonald’s. 

Natalie loved the kids play area!

Natalie did not love the food....but giving it a try

We are enamored with each other

We were also able to visit the Internet café and read our emails. Natalie is being such an angel! We gave her another bath. She cried, but didn’t fight as much as the first time. 

We laid down for a nap. Clarke laid down by Natalie and held her while she screamed for about 10 minutes. After her little fit, she ended up falling asleep. We all napped for 2.5 hours. We actually had to wake her up because she wanted to sleep so long! We ate at the smoky restaurant that Georgiy showed us. Then Natalie and I watched Toy Story 2 on the laptop, while Clarke tried to get our group email to go through. 



We all slept great! Natalie never woke up once during the night.