Still in Ukraine, and Still Waiting

Is Carbohydrate-Overdose a Suitable Cause of Death???!!
(John’s suggested title for today’s entry)

Yes, we are still here in Ukraine. We tried desperately to fly home for a week, but couldn’t find any tickets. There was only one ticket to be found that was in first/business class for $5000! So, since we couldn’t leave the country, we took it as a pretty good sign that we were supposed to stay here.

We also looked at flying to St. Petersburg to visit for the weekend. It would have been only $45 roundtrip for each of us. But, as it turns out, we need a visa to visit Russia. So, that too was out.

While we were spending time online searching for airline tickets, my mother-in-law was spending her day in Big Sky, Montana desperately trying to find a faster way for our documents to be sent to us. We had arranged to use FedEx, but kept thinking that surely there must be a faster way…we tried to use air cargo with NWA (they don’t accept new shippers after 9/11 terrorist attacks), UPS, send them as government documents….Joanne even was thinking about buying a ticket for Patrick, my brother-in-law, to bring them over himself (no tickets!)!

We ended up using FedEx, and so are now tracking the shipments. They missed the cut-off time in Boise last night, so won’t be sent out until today. The FedEx European office assures us our documents will be delivered the day after they arrive in Europe. And, so now we wait!

And while we wait, our gracious Ukrainians hosts have trouble understanding why we do not enjoy our time of resting and relaxing. They won’t even let us help prepare or clean up from meals, and keep instructing us “You must to relax, to rest, to enjoy”. We have watched more sports in the last few days then we’ve probably seen in a year. It seems sporting events are the one thing that we don’t need to understand the language for on TV. You would know it’s bad if you saw us watching soccer matches like we did yesterday!

That too, brings us to John’s proposed title for today’s entry. If we don’t die of boredom or too much resting and relaxing, then it might well be from Carbohydrate-overdose! We have really enjoyed Ukrainian food, but keep laughing that it would never fit well in today’s low-carb diets at home. Last night for dinner, for example, we had baked potatoes (plain), rolls with butter and cucumber/tomato salad (a staple – we’ve had it every night we’ve been here).

Our plans for this weekend are to go back to Kiev, if we can get tickets. The trains seem to be constantly sold-out, and so we might have to fly (aw shucks!). A hot 10-hour train ride vs. an enjoyable 1-hour flight!! No question!

Thank you so much for your prayers. They have been getting us through. The nights are the worst, as the day of sitting, waiting, resting, relaxing, missing kids, feeling “stuck” compounds on itself. But, we pray the end is in sight, and soon we will be able to visit our children.

We have begun talking about plans for the children again, as it seems like it might really happen. The last few days when we were in such limbo, we haven’t dared to utter the kids’ names, because we didn’t know if it would ever work out to visit them! So, in between soccer matches, games of Scrabble and Yatzhee, and our high-carb meals, we have begun planning bedroom configurations, vehicle needs, schooling ideas, and more!