Willkommen!

We are in Germany! Our flight was really nice (about as nice as a red-eye in coach can be anyway. :) We were served snacks, dinner, and breakfast and got to watch movies and tv shows on our own tvs. We fly fairly often but mostly domestically so this was a treat for us. Even when we have flown in first class we have not had our own tvs to choose what to watch. The restrooms were downstairs from the main seating level. Can you tell we are easily amused? They were a little larger and cleaner than most. I would highly recommend Lufthansa.

Our flight left about an hour late because some door wouldn't close properly and some weight had to be redistributed. (?) So we sat on the plane an hour longer than we would have otherwise. We still have a nice long layover here and plan to get out and see the city of Munich in a little while. Our flight to Kiev doesn't leave until this evening. We had made reservations at one of the airport lounges for this afternoon but we decided to come early since we felt tired and a little dirty from the flight. So we have had some snacks and Kevin's checked his fantasy baseball scores and the news. We are going to take showers and get into clean clothes and then probably take a bus tour of the city. The airport lounge is nice. Some random observations:

-Everyone who works here speaks very fluent English (we talked to a bunch of people because the lounge was in another terminal). All the signs are in German and English as well.

- The Fanta (orange) Kevin got from the soda fountain is yellow here, not orange. He said it tastes similar.

- They have Manzana (Mexican apple flavored soda, yummy!) but it tastes more like soda water and apple juice. Melissa, you would have been disappointed.

- There is a nice spread of cheese, crackers, and chocolates - so we are in heaven. I even tried a sausage for my brother-in-law, Kevin. :)

- Also when I went to sign into Blogspot to post this the page came up in German. It asked for my nutzername and passwort. :D

We haven't taken any very exciting pictures yet so there are none worth posting. Maybe later.

We will check back in when we have time and internet access.
:) Krista and Kevin

P.S. Happy Father's Day to both of our dads! :)

Last year we spent Father's Day flying to Hawaii. This is our second Father's Day in a row spent traveling and in airports! Where will we go next year? I think Kevin already booked Disney World tentatively. It may have been for this week.

Leaving on a Jetplane...

We really don't know when we'll be back again. :)

We are at the airport and should board in about half an hour or so. We have medium sized suitcases, a backpack each, and my purse. I think we brought everything we need and if not then we can find it there.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending us good thoughts and prayers through telephone, email, the blog, and in person. We appreciate them all.

Next stop is Munich!

:) Krista and Kevin

Last Post From Home

I am finishing up some packing and charging some electronics and then I am off to bed. I can't believe that we are leaving tomorrow. (Well, actually later today!)

Thank you to all our family and friends who stopped by tonight for our open house send off. We really appreciated all your support and your prayers. The food was great too! A house full of friends was just what we needed to keep our minds off of any worries or nerves that might have tried to creep in. You guys are the best! So many wonderful wishes and prayers and sweet and sentimental things. Karen, I wore that bracelet all night and it is so special to me that you though to let me borrow it. I will keep it close by for the whole trip. And thank you Wiebke for all the ideas for when we are in Germany on Sunday. Now we know just where to eat and visit.

I am not sure where our next post will be from. Probably an airport. Not sure which one.

Since our flight doesn't leave until tomorrow afternoon we are spending the day tying up loose ends and my friend Christina and I are going to go for a relaxing pedicure in the morning.

Hopefully we will have pictures or something to post soon!

:) Krista

Shorts?

What is appropriate summer attire for men? I have several nice but comfortable things I can wear but I am wondering about Kevin. For our everyday orphanage visits are cargo shorts okay? Maybe a little nicer shorts? No shorts at all? I think he might melt.

And We're Private

Now that we are private I will share a couple details I haven't shared yet on the blog. We are leaving Saturday afternoon, taking the red eye to Munich, spending the day in Munich, taking an evening flight to Kiev, and we will arrive very late that night. Monday is a buffer day in case we have any flight delays. If all goes well we should be able to spend the day touring Kiev. My facilitator told me Monday was a holiday so that should be fun. I will have to check what holiday it is. Then our appointment at the State Department for Adoptions is on Tuesday! We will hopefully got our referral then and if all goes as it usually does we will get to meet them on Wednesday or Thursday.

Please pray for:

Safe travel and good health. I tend to get sick when I get over tired so I am trying to rest up now because with the flights and time change I am sure our defenses will be down. Who knows what new germs we will come into contact with on the planes and in other countries. Also, our weather forecast is calling for scattered thunderstorms on Saturday.

A good referral at our appointment. The SDA often tries to show families very sick children first for some reason. The whole international adoption process in Ukraine is on a bit of shaky ground since the change of directors a couple months ago. We are praying for the choice of which referral to take to be obvious to us. We are open to some special needs but some others we would be uncomfortable with taking on.

A praise that Kevin's parents arrived safely last night. We had some really nasty weather for a few hours last night and we are glad that it quit just in time for them to land. They will be house sitting for us while we are away. :)

School's Out!

Yesterday was the last day of school and today was my last day of work. I am going to miss my sweet class and the wonderful staff at the school where I was working. Now I am running errands, cleaning, and starting to pack. I have set things we will want to bring with us on the guest bed for weeks now. So we have lots of "things" ready to be packed, but I still need to finish up the laundry and pack our clothes.

We bought our travel insurance, I picked up a few months worth of my prescription (just in case), and my doctor is giving us some other prescriptions we may need if we get a bug there. Our wonderful neighbors threw us a BBQ last Sunday (in the 97 + humidity weather) and that was so fun. We have all young families on our cul-du-sac and our kids are going to have so many friends. The little girl across the street from us who just finished first grade has been teaching herself some Russian greetings so she can talk to our kids when they come home. Her mom said she Googled them herself and learned them. How cute is that?

I ordered a picture book that I made on Shutterfly and it arrived yesterday. I can't say enough wonderful things about them. It was fun (though it took me a long time) to make, they have so many great choices, and it is gorgeous. I sent it late Sunday night (really it was early Monday morning). I paid for overnight shipping so it was guaranteed to arrive Friday. I came home from work yesterday at it was on the porch! It took only about a day to arrive. I couldn't believe it. The book has pictures of us, our families, friends, neighbors, our dog, etc. I included pictures of our home, the rooms for the kids, our city and community, etc. It turned out really nicely. It will be a way to show the officials in Ukraine where our children will be living and it will also be a way to familiarize our kids with their new family, friends, and home. Hopefully they will feel more comfortable having seen these things before.

Anyway, in the next day or two I will likely make the blog private. We will be back as soon as we can though. We just want to be able to use it as a place to communicate with family and friends in a more private way for a while. I just need to find some time to make that happen. :)

Hope you are having a great week!

We Have a Winner!

The winner of the estimation game is.... Julie! There were lots of estimates but Julie was closest. I am happy to say that she was off as well. We actually had $530.86 in there! Since we turned it into an Amazon.com giftcard we didn't even pay a commission. We will probably use the money to order the carseats for the kids and a few other things. One less thing to think about financially. I already bought a back up battery for our camera with it too! So congratulations Julie! I wish I had some sort of prize to give you. :) If you haven't seen Julie's blog you can check her out at www.hinshawhappenings.blogspot.com . She and her family returned about 6 weeks ago from Ukraine with their daughter, Halle Grace. Halle Grace is adorable and could be a poster child for Ukraine adoption. She is a good girl and is adjusting seamlessly to life with her family. God is so good. :)

We are counting down the days until we leave. I finish teaching next week. I only have four days left of teaching and I don't think there is actually any teaching going on between now and then. Tomorrow my first graders have two performance of their play, The Magic Treehouse. It is so fun! Then Friday is Field Day (what could be more fun then spending the morning outside in a heat wave! It is supposed to be in the high 90's and humid!) Monday is a read-in where the kids read and listen to stories. And Tuesday is our end of the year party. I have to get their report cards done and clean up the room and that is about it. The time has flown by! I have so much to do this weekend and we are also spending lots of time with friends to celebrate one of our last weekends before kids. There are sticky notes and lists all over the place of things we need to arrange, buy, pack, take care of, etc. The guest bed has all kinds of things on it that I don't want to forget to pack. The bedrooms for the kids have been painted in colors that match the bedding we like for boys and/or girls. Someone is coming out to measure for crown molding for the bedrooms in a couple days!

We will make the blog private in probably about a week. I have lots of requests for people who want to be added. I can add 100 people. Family and friends will be added first and then all of you blogger friends will be added. There should be room for everyone. Thank you for all your requests. We feel blessed to have so many people who want to follow our journey. Please pray for us as we head into this last preparation phase. Also pray for our SDA appointment to go well and that our children's hearts are being prepared to accept the love of a family. :)