We are home!

Just landed in Detroit! Mom and Dad, Jeff, Kristin and the boys surprised us at the airport with balloons and signs, which was really nice. No sleeping from Kiev to JFK, the flight was pretty rough. Ferdinand picked us up and we are on our way home to sleep after being up now for 22 hours....
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Last Day in Ukraine

Left at 9 am for the girls to have medical exams as required by the U.S. Embassy for the visas. The facility was everything you have ever heard about socialized medicine...  Once again, we were able to go the front of the line....found out the girls have had some immunizations but they need more before school starts and they did have chicken pox when they were small.  No medical information available about parents though. Headed over to the U.S. Embassy for 2 pm to pick up visas and immigration paperwork.  Met a nice family from New York who were adopting a little boy.  Went out for a celebratory pizza dinner and then headed home to pack for tomorrow.  Taxi will pick us up at 8 am.  Our flight leaves about 11:00 am and after a New York layover and traveling over 14 hours, we will be HOME! 

Ukraine Construction

These are some pictures of typical construction projects.  Ukriane is hosting the World Cup in 2012 and there is quite a bit going on. There are certainly no OSHA rules and the typical worker is wearing shorts and flip flops.....

Monday August 30, 2010 - Visas & Passports

10 am appointment today with the U.S. Embassy.  There were so many non-U.S. citizens in line at the embassy tyring to get permission to go to the United States it looked like a queue at Disney World.  But as a U.S. citizen, we went right to the front of the line. Filled out paperwork for the girls to get visas...they are not officially US citizens until they land on American soil, so they will still be traveling as Ukrainians. Then drove 2 hours to Chernigiv to get new Ukrainian passports with their new names on them.  The new passports will be useless once we get into the United States, but it is just another requirement. Tomorrow we go to American medical facility for girls to get brief physicals as required by U.S. embassy for visas.  Then a 2 pm appointment to pick up are visas and WE ARE DONE!!!  Our flight leaves at 11:05 am on Wednesday with a brief layover in New York City and then HOME TO DETROIT! 

Picked Up Girls From Camp!

Busy day. Left at 6:30 am to drive 3 hrs to pick up girls from camp. They were packed and ready to go when we got there! Then to Gorodnya court, orphanage and City Hall to complete paperwork. Already had Anya's baptismal certificate, thank goodness Inna's teacher was at school and we were able to get Inna's. Both were recently baptized in Russian Orthodox church. Drove another 2 hrs on COUNTRY roads to where they were born, Bakhmach, to get birth certificates with their new names. Backhmach is now 3rd City Building we have been in where there are NO lights on in the hallways.  Driving back to Kiev right now, should be home about 9:30 pm.

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Thursday August 26, 2010

Visited Berlin on Saturday. Shopped on Kurfürstendamm, the most famous avenue in Berlin — full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants. Saw the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, destroyed by Allied bombing and preserved as a memorial. Went to the KaDeWe, the largest department store in continental Europe. Ate famous German sausage at Im Biss and visited what used to be East Germany and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Sunday we went to the 700-year old Wolfsburg Castle and St. Andreasberg which is the highest mountain town in the Harz Mountains and has the steepest roads of the region. Rode the summer toboggan run and viewed the electronic surveillance tower built as a NATO listening post on Stöberhai. This signals intelligence facility was used during the Cold War to listen into military radio traffic in East Germany.

Fred’s been taking pictures of construction sites….notice how small the dumpsters and job trailers are!

On Tuesday went with cousin Inga to pick up her new car at Volkswagen Autostadt.  We toured the Volkswagen plant and ate more famous sausage , "Currywurst" made especially by Volkswagen.

The Danndorf neighborhood where we stayed is immaculate and within walking distance there is a bakery, hair salon, biergarten, horse farm, lake, party store and more.  There is even a service truck that drives around and delivers fresh baked goods!

Flew from Germany to Kiev this morning. We moved to a bigger, nicer apartment, not so close to downtown. But the elevator is like a coffin.  Even though we are on the 4th floor, I will not get in the elevator. We have already done all the main tourist attractions and needed a change of scenery. Tomorrow we pick up the girls from Gorodyna, for good!

Friday August 20, 2010

Finally arrived in Germany about midnight.  Have been spending time visiting relatives that Fred has not seen in many years, some he has not seen since he moved to the U.S. in 1974.  Check out the pictures of the windmills and notice how big they are next to the normal-size trees.  Interesting notes about Germany: everything is well-maintained and spotless, recycling is very big and all garbage bins are divided accordingly (glass, paper, plastic, waste), their sales tax is 19% compared to 6% in Michigan, all Germans also pay a tax specifically to help East Germany redevelop, on the autobahn you have to pay to use the restroom and the toilets have a device that automatically cleans the toilet seats, and there are bike paths everywhere.