Getting Settled

 Saturday morning we awoke to the loud & constant buzzing of our door bell.  At the door we discover Sergie, our driver, who had arrived to pick us up to go shopping. Unfortunately, the clock we set from home somehow did not keep accurate time.  Our clock said it was 9:38am and apparently it was 11:52am.  Even more unfortunate he did not understand any English and left.  Thankfully the Moore's brought us a small care package.  After that we decided to explore the city on our own. We went down the hill to the main square where they have an underground mall and this mall is huge, by this we mean never ending.  We spent quite a bit of time down there. They were also having dance competitions and concerts up in the square and the police had alot of the exits to the underground mall closed and it actually took us quite awhile to find our way out. It also was a good thing that when we were down there that we didn't have to go to the bathroom or have any trash because bathrooms and trash cans were non-existant. When we finally got out of the mall we were on the wrong side of the street from where we needed to go in order to get to our apartment.  Because of the festivities all the streets were blocked off by police and we couldn't get to the other side.  It probably took us another half hour just to figure out how to get to the other side as we weaved in and out of many streets.  

 On Sunday we spent the morning moving into our new and permanent apartment. The new apartment is much bigger than the first one, not quite as new inside, but still very nice.  The Whitman's are back in Kiev for the last leg of their journey so we met them and spent the afternoon together.  What a blessing to spend time with friends.  We walked around the city for miles while they gave us a wonderful tour and introduced us to some much needed places such as the grocery store.  We stopped in at TGF Fridays and we were going to have something to eat there but found out that it was very expensive.  So instead on the way back we found a local place that was cafeteria style.  For our first real meal in Kiev we appropriately had: Chicken Kiev.   

 Our first goverment meeting is tomorrow (Monday) morning at 9:00am or 1:00am Twin Cities time.  After this meeting we need to wait for the government to issue a referral, which can take a couple of days or more than a week.  Please pray for this meeting to go well and for a quick referral.  We still do not have internet in our new place. Hopefully that will be fixed real soon but in the mean time if we go & sit in the stairwell of the building between the 3rd & 4th floor we can attach on to someone elses Wi-Fi.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and your notes of encouragement, it is very much appreciated.