We've Got Tickets!

We are one step closer to traveling. We bought our tickets today. We are flying Lufthansa. Charlotte straight to Munich and then on to Kiev. We will be spending the day in Germany and have an evening flight on to Kiev. You don't need a visa to leave the airport so we might do some sightseeing. If we are too tired to venture out though we will probably pay the 30 euros and use one of the lounges. A hot shower and a quiet place to rest will probably sound good after the 9 hour red-eye.

I am also happy to say that the airport has a Starbucks in it. I'm not saying I will be having mocha withdraws as soon as I leave the country; I'm just excited about adding another mug to my Starbucks mug collection. I have all U.S. mugs so far. Lots of them, from a few Hawaiian Islands all the way to Puerto Rico. So I will be adding my first international mug to the collection. I'm sure I will be thrilled to be hauling a mug around for the rest of my trip, don't you think? This is the reason we will pack light. I must have a Munich mug! ;) Russian adopters get to visit the new Starbucks there, but Kiev has yet to get a Starbucks so we will unfortunately not be able to find one there.

8 weeks!

We will be leaving in just 8 weeks. It is so exciting. There is no news really. We are trying to do the things that we need to do to get ready to go. Booking the flights is our current project. We are searching for good prices on tickets with flexible return dates (changeable for a small fee) and hoping we will be able to get a couple more tickets for our kids on the same flight. I thought this would be the easy part, but now I am not convinced. So many options. Which is best?

We Got Our...

Golden ticket! Okay, not really our golden ticket, but we got our appointment date and it is just as exciting. We will be traveling to the State Department of Adoptions in Kiev in the second half of June! I start teaching next week and school gets out the week we leave. It is going to be crazy. We can't wait.

We have so much to do. We have to book our airline tickets, order money (you can only take new, crisp bills to exchange), make a packing list, figure out how we will pay our bills while we are away, and all that. Luckily Kevin's parents are going to take care of Keaton and the house while we are there.