Back in Kiev

Hello, all!

I have to share this first. Lamar and I have stayed and become so connected with each of you through our blog, that throughout the day we will say to each other..."Oh, this will be great to put on the blog" or "Don't forget to remind me to share that on the blog..."so and so"("so and so" would be each of you at different times) would get a kick out of this!" We love it! Thanks for staying strong with the comments. I know this may have become a bit humdrum for you, but we still relish each and every comment you take the time to share with us on a daily basis. We fight to get to the internet first to see whom we have heard from. We, too, get excited when we see Joshua has taken all that time and put so much heart into typing his own comments. It thrills us to hear from our faithful followers and we get giddy when we hear from someone new whom we didn't know was following. Yes, we have officially become blog dorks! We can't help it. It's been better than any Ukrainian wine (which isn't really saying too much) or therapy sessions we would need to get through this without you. What I'm trying to say is, "Thank you" from Lamar, Alex and Andrew, and myself. We are blessed to have each and every one of you pulling for us to get home quickly and soundly.

Alright...now to start sharing things I tried to remember throughout the day!

Our train ride to Kiev...where do I begin? Our cab driver and new friend, Nikolai, picked us up 40 minutes late to get to the train station. They don't tend to mind being late because they cut time out by not slowing down to get over the potholes. This wouldn't be an issue at all if the kids were buckled saftely in 5 point safety harnesses. But they were not. Alex, Andrew and I were bouncing around the backseat like a bunch of monkeys. They thought it was great! The bigger the bounce, the better the ride. I was quickly replaying in my mind where I had strategically place barf bags and wipes for the trip. (Thanks for the heads up Bryants!) However, they weren't for the boys...they were for me! Luckily I didn't get sick, I just turned a few shades of green.

Since we were now running late, We ran from the Taxi to the train. Alright...if you had seen us, you would have laughed hysterically that I chose to use the word "ran". Picture this...Lamar is carrying THREE shoulder bags, pulling two large bags and somehow has a stroller balanced on his head (or was it under his chin?). I really didn't take the time to look to see HOW he was carrying all of our stuff. I was holding Alex on my hip, Andrew with one hand, and an awkward overstuffed pillow I think between my knees. It's really a blur at this point. OK.. we really weren't "running" at all. In fact we had one-legged 100 year old women carrying 3 bags push us out of their ways.

Getting to the train proved to be easier than getting up on the train. We had 3 minutes! It was the fastest three minutes EVER. Lamar and I were pushing and pulling and tugging and dropping. It was crazy. Meanwhile, the boys were angels. They just hung on (for dear life) and enjoyed their surroundings. It's so precious to see in their little faces how exciting and new everything is. They must get sick and tired of me snapping pictures of them all the time. I just don't want to ever forget this true sense of "awe" they are both experiencing...no matter how crazy and chaotic it gets sometimes.

Of course when we get on the train, our seats were taken by some Ukrainian people that chose to spread out instead of staying with the assigned seats. The train is moving and Lamar and I are standing in the aisle with the boys trying to figure out how we are going to get our seats back. It's 3 hours and we can't stand the whole time. We were being ushered to sit and we signaled our seats were taken. They moved the (not-so-happy) people out of our seats so we could sit down. Dirty looks were being thrown our ways left and right. To top it off it was at least 100 degrees in there. We were boiling! (especially poor Andrew who runs on ultra-high). We were settling in our seats and I was stripping layers of the boys so they wouldn't roast. One of the women whom we had dis-placed, told me in Ukrainian anger, to put their coats and hats back on. I signaled with the international "no" by shaking my head. She proceeded to continue chewing me out that I was taking off their coats and I needed to put them on like her granddaughter was wearing. I looked down at her poor granddaughter whose cheeks were flushed and face was sweating. She looked like she would suffer heat stroke with all the layers she had on. Again, I shoke my head "no". She shrugged, gave me a dirty look and said something in Ukrainian that I know was reference to me being a horrible mommy. Now here's where I wish I could say I took the high road and just smiled and looked away...but I didn't. I could blame my reaction on the chaos getting onto the train, the heat, or my nerves just being ready to explode, but I did something I'm afraid to admit. (However, if I don't confess, Lamar would be sure to tattle on me later because he is still shocked I did it). I mimicked her! (Yes, pull out the hot sauce). I copied her shrug, look of disgust and underbreath mumblings. It was bad. Now here I am FACING knee to knee with this woman whom has just insulted me and I in return (and in shame) insulted back. It was going to be the LONGEST three hours ever. I closed my eyes and prayed. Honestly, at first I prayed for patience and that the woman across for me might turn into a pillar of salt...hey! It's happened before! Then God worked on my heart and my prayer changed from that of asking for patience to that of asking for forgiveness. I had behaved like the stereotypical ugly American and no matter what she had done, I really shouldn't have responded the way I did. I realized then and there I had to do something. I pulled out a peace offering. I took out some Animal Crackers and I offered them to her granddaughter. I knew she would refuse them, but I had to try. As I suspected, she immediately said, "Nyet (no)" but her granddaugher REALLY wanted them. Bless her precious (over heated) little heart. She won her babushka (grandma) over and we broke Animal Crackers and became friends. The rest of the ride was beautiful. We tried communicating with each other. We shared our treats, they shared their color pencils. Life was good and peace was restored once again. (However, I must say,it got sooo hot on the train that the grandaughter AND the babushka took off all their coats and hats. I'm not telling you this because I like to say "I told you so", I'm just saying it to complete the facts of my story.)

So, our train ride ended with not a single disturbance...other than a few giggles and laughs...from our boys. They were troopers. We got to our apartment (same building as before but higher up....nicer view!) around midnight and the boys STILL hadn't gone to sleep. Needless to say, they crashed quickly and they crashed hard.

They were still up and ready to go at 6:15 a.m. That's not enough sleep for two boys who are seeing the world from new angles! Lamar thought it would be a hoot to take them to McDonalds for the first time in their lives. There's not that many kid-friendly things to do here in Kiev, so I agreed. C'mon! Every kids has got to experience a Happy Meal at least once in their lives! And they can say their once experience of McDonalds was in Ukraine! Well, they loved it! I think they would have eaten the box the Happy Meals came in if we let them. We do think is was their first hamburgers ever. They didn't know how to hold them or to eat them. Andrew turned his sideways and everything fell out, so he ate after separating out the layers. Too funny. I hope they enjoyed their moments because tonight it's back to borsch (beat and cabbage soup), salad and chicken. Yumm!

We walked around the underground mall in attempts to burn off a mere fraction of our 2 million ingested calories. Unfortunately, Alex decided to have a meltdown because we wouldn't let him touch every car we passed along the street. Oh, can that boy scream. It turns many-a-heads. Of course, we don't acknowledge the melt down or temper it with treats. We ignore it which makes it get louder and bigger and causes even more heads to turn. I swear people thought we must had just beaten our son. They do NOT like children crying here. (Did you experience this
Rebecca and Sam?) Babushkas kept stopping us left and right in attempts to calm down our son with treats, sweet words, etc. Lamar practically ran them all down. I was very proud of him. He was on a mission to get our son home and into bed. The poor little guys was done! That long and loud walk home was such a frustrating and hair-pulling experience. However, the moment he finally calmed down we had him apologize to all three of us. He had to say "sorry" and give each of us kisses, and he did. It melted my heart and erased a lot of anger. Isn't that amazing how that works? Oh the joys!

Well, as much as I would love to sit here and type more, I must take advantage of this down time and do about 100 lunges, 50 sit ups, and 75 squats to burn off each fry I ate. (Oh, will I be sore tomorrow, or what!)

Love you all and have a great week. We will keep you posted...thanks, again for keeping us posted as well.

As the Bryants so eloquently said, now we are fully involved with 'Operation Escape Kiev'!

Much love,

Kris