A Big Deal

Most of you should know, almost exactly three years from now, I had the privilege of traveling to Ukraine with my parents to bring my little brothers home. Even though I was only eleven, I was impacted by the three weeks I spent in that beautifully diverse country, and all of it's people- well, God's people that is.  Even though I did enjoy it there, I was ready to come home after just a few days. I suppose I was just focused on getting home with Gabe and Levi and 'finishing' the adoption process. But the funny thing is, as soon as we got home, I wanted to go back! I continually prayed God would bring along an opportunity for me to do so. I had dreams, of becoming a missionary and working within the orphanages there one day. Of course I had made the realistic assumption that it would be years down the road though.


When the opportunity came up for me to travel with Jennifer Quinn on her "gotcha trip", I was ecstatic, to say the least. Once things in Ukraine began to heat up, my parents were unsure about letting me go. As any parent would have the right to be. A couple months went by, and things started to calm down, according to the news anyway. Even though Jennifer and Marty were there on their first trip already, and reported that things were peaceful, there were still tragic stories popping up here and there that didn't help my mom and dad's insecurities. When I mentioned the thought of me going to Ukraine to my friends, they were slightly caught off guard so to speak. They would remind me of what was going on at the moment, and were obviously somewhat concerned. My family did the same. They expressed how worried they were for my safety. Which again, I can't blame them for. But you know what's weird? I wasn't afraid. Not one bit. I just had this overwhelming peace about the whole thing. Even after friends and family would read me articles about the current events taking place in UA, fear still failed to strike me. I knew God had placed this peace in me, and I knew it was for a reason. I mean, here I am, fourteen years old, about to fly 5,795 miles away from my home and family, to spend 2+ weeks in a foreign country with a woman (whom is awesome, I may add!) I had only known for about a year. And those that truly know me, know that I am a naturally shy and timid person. Anxiety is a familiar word to me, I guess you could say. So this was a big deal for me. I don't even like to order by myself at restaurants. So yes, a very big deal indeed. Not to mention, I reeeally don't like flying. My ears always pop and ache from the pressure. But again, this didn't seem to hesitate my decision one bit.

After lots of praying and talking, my parents made the brave decision to let me go. The next few days to follow, were some of the happiest days I have had. That all came to a quick end when I woke up one Friday morning to some not so happy news. My mom had just gotten off the phone with Jennifer, to explain to me the "new plan". She told me that the Quinn's just got news they would need to leave the next day, for court. At least, that's pretty much all I got out of it. That, and the fact that I wasn't going with them. The whole thing was just really confusing to be honest. Plus, I did just wake up...

Besides the fact that it was obviously extremely last minute, I stayed home for safety. My mom had asked several friends, some of which are living in UA at the moment, for advice before they had made the final decision to let me go. She wanted to get opinions from reliable, and experienced people. After speaking with our facilitator, who also happens to be the Quinn's facilitator, my parents agreed it was best for me not to travel at the time. I was pretty bummed. Well, really bummed actually. Of course it was disappointing, because I had my heart set on going and was beyond excited about it. But I made the choice to trust the Lord for the way things had turned out, and continue to praise Him even though I felt like throwing a 2 year old temper tantrum. A couple of weeks had passed, and things slowly began to look like I might actually have a chance at going after all! I still refused to get my hopes up, until everything was for sure this time.

Jennifer called my mom to tell her she needed to book the flights for what would be her third trip, to finally rescue those sweet boys of hers. I knew my mom and dad had not made any official decision at this point, and now she was asking for my passport number to buy my plane ticket. My dad was at work that morning, so my mom called him after talking to Jennifer, to discuss the situation. I have no idea what was said, but it was obviously good on my part, because it concluded to me receiving info about the flights! According to Halyna, (our amazing facilitator) and the Quinn's, everything is cool and calm right now. And you KNOW you can trust their word if anyone, being that they are living in it. I trust God will protect us, as do my parents. I also know that this must be part of His plan, simply because of the miraculous way things have worked together for good! For example, the timing, even though a few weeks ago I didn't want to believe it, is perfect. Because if I was to have gone with Jennifer and Marty when they did, I would have missed my uncle's wedding taking place this weekend. I also would have missed my violin recital, and various events. Even though I was willing to give them up, I'm still grateful I was able to make them.


SO, if you're still reading, props to you. And in case you were wondering, I will be beginning the long trek to beautiful Ukraine, with Jennifer, next Saturday:) I am totally psyched!!! 

21 Days in Ukraine

 Yes, I am finally writing about my trip to UA, almost three years later. It's a long story! But I'm ready to tell it now.


We left for the airport around 7am, on May 27th, 2011. Our aunt Kara came to the house to stay with Jude and Zane for that weekend. We picked up my grandparents on the way, so that they could drive our car back afterward. Plus we could spend some time with them before leaving the country for three weeks. We arrived at Tampa International Airport at 8ish, with plenty of time to spare. So the five of us ate breakfast at Burger King. Eventually, we said our goodbyes and boarded the plane to our first stop, Charolette, North Carolina. It took two hours to get there, and we had another two hour layover in the NC airport. At this point, my ears were all popped from the pressure and I wasn't very happy about it. But I learned to deal with it, because it would stick with me for the next four days. We finally boarded for our nine hour flight to Munich, Germany. Despite the distance, this was actually our favorite flight out of all three. Mainly because there were little TV's on the back of each seat. Once we landed, it was about lunch time there, (Germany is six hours ahead of us) so we ate at the only actual German food place in the airport (the rest of the restaurants were Asian).

I ordered some sort of crepe thing, but didn't finish it. I wasn't crazy about it for some reason.

 My dad was in desperate need of caffeine....

 The tiny coffee cups were quite amusing.

 After our five hour layover in Germany, we were finally on our way to Kiev, Ukraine!

 Thankfully, this was only a two hour flight. I don't remember much at all, I slept the entire time.

 Once we landed, we were greeted by our awesome facilitator, Niko. (the piece of paper in his hand said "House" on it) He drove us to our apartment, then he and my dad went to the market to get a few essentials for the day. (meat, cheese, bread, chips, and water)

 I love, love, loved the view from our apartment! I adored the vintage buildings that covered the city.

 Later that night, we got a special treat of fireworks! There was a Ukrainian holiday that was being celebrated that weekend.

 The next day, we ventured out to go site seeing. We quickly learned, everyone walks, everywhere.

 We went to the mall for dinner, and found McFoxy! No idea. It was sort of like a combination of McDonald's and KFC.

Now this was interesting. We were out in Independence Square, when this random guy walks up to us with two doves. He didn't speak or understand one bit of English. We could not figure out what in the world he was trying to tell us, but we somehow figured out that he wanted my mom to take a picture of me with the doves. He then asked for 50 hyrvnia (which is about four US dollars)....

 We explored the playground near a park in Kiev. 

 This was one of their actual markets . The rest were more like grocery stores.

 On the 30th, we had our DAP appointment, which was called SDA at the time. This was taken before.


The appointment took all of ten minutes, and went great. We had to wait a day for our 'letter of approval' to go get the boys. Once we had it in hand, we celebrated with a late lunch at a pizza place across from the SDA office, before making our way to the train station.

 We waited in this big, beautiful room until our train had arrived.

We finally boarded our 12 hour train ride to Zap. It was much better than expected- we were told there would be no a/c. But there was. The worst part was probably the stops it made every 15 minutes or so. Especially because you couldn't use the bathroom when they weren't moving, sense the so called "toilet" was basically a hole with a small lid to sit on. There was no flushing needed, everything just went straight down the tracks. 

We arrived early the next morning, on the first day of June. A driver picked us up from the train station and drove us to the church we were fortunate enough stay at in Zap. 

We ate breakfast there with the lovely staff, before driving to the orphanage.

 Cake for breakfast man!!!

The day we met Gabe and Levi was unforgettable. How could I? It was the day I first met my baby brothers. A day I'm sure every big sister holds in a high place. 

 The next couple of weeks were pretty terrific. We fell more and more in love with the boys each day, and learned more about their beautiful country through every day of exploration.

 This was our favorite restaurant of all time. Well, definitely mine anyway. It was within walking distance of the church, and they had a menu in English! That's what sold us. The food too, of course. I ordered a calzone every time. There was always a 45 minute wait, but it was well worth it.

  There were several stores right next to our beloved pizza place, including a mall. We went to the market, or grocery store, but I like to call it a market because it sounds cooler. It was quite the sight. Very different from Walmart, that's for sure.

 They had the most interesting potato chip flavors.. (FYI, bacon is the bomb.com!)

 The squid one wasn't too appealing to my taste buds though...

 The church served three meals a day. Most of the time, I just ate bread and butter.

Oh, and they put sour cream on pretty much everything. It's like their ketchup or bbq sauce. Also, dill. That's a big staple for seasoning over there.

This, is a bank. Also a jewelery store. They had legit security guards standing on the inside. Sort of scary..but very elegant!

Court day!

 We had lots of running around to do afterwords. We were to travel to each of the boys' regions they were born in, get birth certificates, visas and best of all, officially ADOPT them!

 All of these pictures shown are of Gabe's region. He was born in more of a "high end" region..especially compared to Levi's. His was in the middle of no where with nothing but trees.

 The next day was gotcha day! We broke the boys out of the orphanage that evening, and went straight to the train station.

 I don't know if it was just me, but this train didn't seem to have air conditioning..



This was our second apartment in Kiev. It was much bigger!

Our room number/address. Which was appropriate considering we were now a family of seven.

We spotted a pizza place (yes, if you couldn't tell, we like pizza...a lot) called Papa John's.

 It was definitely not like our Papa John's. (this was Hawaiian bbq chicken)

 

 McDonald's was a staple for us over the next few days.


We had the privilege of meeting up with some fellow RR adopting families, at T.G.I Friday's.

 (we did not notice the poster photobomb until after the picture was taken...unfortunately.)


Later on that night, we walked to Rachel and Joel Golden's apartment. My mom, Rachel and I became good friends over the few days we spent in Kiev. The four of us (me, Levi, my mom, and Rachel) walked to a nice little cafe near their apartment, while my dad, Gabe, and Joel stayed back at their apartment.

 Rachel took us sight seeing in another area in Kiev, that had several shops. We had to take the subway for the first time. It was very crowded and hot, and smelled terrible, but I'm glad I got to experience it.

 Everyone that travels to UA gets a kick out of the elevators. They're suuuper tiny and make noises as if they could stop at any moment. We took the massive flights of stairs instead.

 The day we went to the embassy, we ran into another RR fam. And got to meet sweet Mia Cox.

 The van was so. hot.

But Levi didn't mind.

 Rachel and Joel had told us about this authentic Ukrainian buffet, and insisted we try it.

 I, being relatively picky, enjoyed most of it. I made an effort to try almost everything. Only a few things were a little too "strange" for me. 

 Our apartment, like I mentioned before, was well..huge. We had two bedrooms, a full bathroom, a living room and kitchen/dining room. The tall ceilings made it feel that much bigger. But most of the apartments there only had one bedroom, so we were grateful to get this one!

 This is a closet. With a ladder. And a balcony. Why don't we have these in the states?!?

 If I can remember correctly, we got up around 4am on June 15th, to make our way to the airport.

 We said our goodbyes and thank yous to Niko..

 Then made our trek HOME!!

The boys both did great the entire trip home. Mostly because we gave them melatonin... a.k.a. lifesaver. 



Aaand the rest was history. It's rather strange, when I was there, all I could focus on was getting home with the boys. But ever since we've been home, I haven't stopped praying for an opportunity to go back. I have longed to visit and hopefully some day, do ministry in that gorgeous country again. I may never understand why I have such a strong desire to do so. Or why I even have a passion for Ukraine. All I know is that it's there for a reason. I pray without seizing for protection and peace to cover every corner of that place, and I trust God will do so in His timing. Sometimes, things must be broken in order to shine.