Back in Kiev

We're now back in Kiev, back in the same apartment we had when we left for the region. The train back from Donetsk was so warm it was hard to sleep and Maria was so excited that she kept everybody awake. I (Larry) actually had a separate compartment. Our facillitator negotiated with the attendant to allow me to be in the same car as Mary and the children. With 5 of us now, we don't fit into the standard 4 person compartment. I initially was in the compartment next to them but I was moved to the attendant's compartment and shared it with them. One came in about midnight and climbed up in the top bed and went to sleep. About 5:30 am, the attendants switched. At different attendant came in and went to sleep and the first one got up to deal with the arrival. I couldn't figure out the timing. Since we arriving at 7:00 AM and Kiev is the last stop, why did the second attendant go to sleep at 5:30?

We submitted our documents to the US embassy yesterday (Thursday). We go back today for the interview and to get the visa. Assuming we get the visa, we leave tomorrow to go home. Even though we're really ready to go home, I feel kind of oddly sad about leaving. We've been here so long I've grown kind of attached to Ukraine. Saturday will be the 50th day in Ukraine, more than we thought it would be.

Maria is doing well. She's a very sweet child and very smart. She's getting along quite well with Ryan and Evan. She seems to be a kindred spirit with Evan. They're both very active and playful. It's a huge adjustment for her, and us. She's had a couple of incidents when she really tried to test us with her behavior by blantantly defying us. We held our ground and she seems to be better. It's hard to balance constantly correcting her behavior. Because almost everything she does right now is a new experience and doesn't know how to act we need to correct her. But she also needs time to learn things on her own without us constantly correcting her. Add in that she doesn't understand a great deal of what we're trying to tell her and it's very stressful for her. It will be some much easier when she speaks English.

Back home tomorrow ....