2 Weeks in Ukraine. Not a Short One.

     This one may be a long entry. Our trip started on Sunday December 23rd to the Ukraine from Oklahoma City.  The two little girls in the house were definitely way more excited than Liz and I for the day and a half of traveling.   The plane rides went uneventful with the girls laughing all the way from Chicago to Germany while watching foreign Cartoons.  The biggest hiccup on our journey on the way there was the Fast Train or the lack of.   After a full day of flying we get straight off the plane to get on a train.  We chose to travel via the fast train as it has working restrooms, it does not smell like a cattle processing facility, and it takes half the time.   Once we show up at the train station we find out that the train is broken and they will be placing us on another train.   The facilitator in Kiev looks at us very seriously and tells us that this is very bad. The word he actually used is it was going to be awful.  The train pulls in and in regular Ukraine fashion people start a stampede to cars as now there are no assigned seats.  It was every person for themselves, and they have no qualms trampling kids in the process.   The first car instantly fills up, so we some how luck into our own personal compartment on the second car.  This was the only thing we luck into on this train.   The car we ended up in has no lights, no heat, no working bathroom, and smells like we are in a porta potty.   It is -20 outside so we break into the suitcases and put all the Ski type clothes we have on immediately.  We finally arrive at our destination to exit the train in near blizzard type snow fall.  We now have 100 kilometers to travel to our apartment from the train station.   Our driver proceeds to drive 100-130km/hr (62-75mph) in these awesome conditions.  The only way to cope with it was to just go to sleep.  We finally arrive at our apartment around 2am Christmas day.  Fairly exhausting trip, but the girls were high as a kite and ready to go get Masha on Christmas.
    The reunion on Christmas Day with Masha went just as I had pictured in my mind. I knew the second she saw my girls the lighthearted fun loving Masha would appear, and it did.  Big happy tears appeared and Keira and Carley were attached to her hip for the rest of the trip.  Every time I see her interactions with the girls it reinforces the feeling we are doing the right thing.  I am positive she is more concerned with the girls feelings and emotions than anyone else in the house, which is just fine with me.
    The court date was covered in the last blog, so we'll just move on to some Ukrainian culture.  December 28th is Masha's best friend Tanya's birthday.  We were invited over for a small celebration and dinner.   The food was definitely a Ukrainian dinner and if you know my meat only diet most the food was not for me.  The most difficult part of making it through the evening was the number of toasts and what they use to toast with.   Every couple says a toast to the birthday girl and after every toast a shot of vodka is drank by everyone at the table.   I was basically done after the we got through the first line of toasts.  Liz was very good at faking her way through it. I just went along with the festivities.  It definitely made the language barrier way less stressful at least.
     New Year Day or S Novym Godom in Ukraine could be a blog post in itself. New Year is their biggest holiday celebration of the year.  When Masha stayed with us for hosting she was very displeased with our lack of doing anything for New Years other than staying up late, eating cookies, and watching TV fireworks.   Now I know why.  Everyone and I mean everyone in Ukraine appears to celebrate the New Year much like Christians celebrate Christmas other than they have fireworks that go off all night long and into the next day.   The town square was like a huge tailgating party with everyone having a spread of food and spirits to keep the night going.  Music and DJs kept the crowd awake with American music being the biggest hit.  It was awesome to hear Bon Jovi sang with a Russian accent by the crowd.   The actual day of New Year we were again invited over to Masha's friend's house to  have another meal. I declined all alcohol this time around.  I assume it was a traditional meal like Turkey is for us for Thanksgiving.  Again, I can not say I enjoyed most the food, but how much effort put into the preparation was impressive.  This particular home was like stepping back into the 50s.  The men set around the table watching TV while the women spent the time in the Kitchen I am pretty sure making fun of the men.  I had to glance at Liz several times as the Dad barked orders to the wife knowing that definitely would not fly in our house.  The family that hosted us for New Years was a Godsend while we were there, and we are very thankful for the hospitality.
     The next day the girls and I had to leave with heavy hearts.  Again it was a brutal 2 days of travel.  The girls and I got on the nice train at 5pm the 2nd to head to Kiev.  We slept in the airport  and got back on a plane at 6am the morning of the 3rd.  We flew from Kiev, Ukraine to Frankfurt, Germany to Washington D.C, and then finally home to Oklahoma City.  The trip home went smooth as possible despite my anxiety until we hit U.S. soil.  We already had a 4 hour layover in DC that turned into 6.5 hours due to flight delays.  Then on the decent into the Oklahoma City Airport the ride gets very bumpy causing Keira to loses it, and she proceeds to vomit all over herself, our carry-ons, and of coarse me.  We finally land around 8:30 that evening, and are home in bed by 9:30.
     Now for the hard part.   Liz and Masha are stuck in Ukraine for 2 more weeks from today due to technicalities with the process.  So far everything has gone as it should, but the Ukraine Government shuts down from Jan. 1-8 so nothing can be done until it opens back up.   I would love to complain about being home by myself without the person I love most in the world, but I have the easy part.  I am in my nice cozy home with my 2 little girls where we have no limitations on what we want to do.  Liz is stuck in a tiny stinky apartment, without good transportation, with terrible food, in a place where communication is difficult at best, and she worries and misses her other two girls terribly.  I know if anyone can make the best out of the situation it is Liz.  She has the amazing ability to turn anything into an adventure.  I am praying daily for my two girls stuck in another country that they will be home soon in the comfort of our home forever.