Day 28

This is one of the many Second Hand stores.  It wasn't one of the best but I took a picture because it had just opened...see the balloons.

Just took this because it is what I see all day as I walk.  You can see how the sidewalk is all broken up. 

I didn't have a lot of pictures today so I thought I would give you some shopping tips.  The bottle with the blue label is Bonaqua.  The dark blue indicates that it is water with gas (carbination).  I really like it and it is especially good with Crystal Light added to it.  It is a nice change from just water as they don't have my favorite soda, Diet Caffine Free Coke, here.  The other bottle we call Mop water because the first three letters of its name are mop.  It is the best tasting drinking (non-carbinated) water around.  It is the closest to what we are used to drinking at home.

This is what the milk looks like.  They come in bottles and cartons some refrigerated and some not.  If you look closely you can see the fat percentage.  They do not seem to have non-fat.  They also have higher percentages of fat like 3% and I think 3.5%.  I don't drink milk but I have heard that it is good.  So if you ever come over here, this is what you want to buy if you want milk.  There are a lot of things that look like milk but they are not.  In fact, I don't know what all of them are but they don't look that good to me.  I know they have a yogurt style thick milk drink that they add to coffee and tea that they use because it is healthy for the digestive system.  Andy used to mix it with granola (which they have a really good granola) and it tasted good.

This was Kerry's favorite find.  Whipped cream in a can.  Goes great on ice cream and crepes!

These are some of the best tasting ice creams.  While Andy was here we had the opportunity to experiment quite a bit.  The vanilla (blue container) is the best vanilla I have ever had and the one on the top is a cherry chip and chocolate chip ice cream - another great one!

Okay, this was harder to figure out.  The largest bag is flour, the next one down is powdered sugar and the package in front is cinnamon.  We would never have found the cinnamon on our own.  Kerry's translator, Yana, found that for her.  The suger (not pictured) comes in thick granuales and is great on cereal.

I thought you would like to see these.  There are many Nestle products.  Obviously this is Honey Nut Cherrios and the other is like Frosted Flakes.  The flakes are really thick though and don't get soggy in milk.  Oh my goodness - I sound like a commercial!

Okay, my personal favorite, the best chocolate you can buy in Ukraine.  And, trust me, we have tried a lot of different kinds.  This is the best.  This is the dark and it comes in milk, white, fruit flavored, hazelnut, you name it  It is surrounded by some of the many, many candies that they sell here.  We buy the candies often and take them to the orphanage to pass out.  I would have more pictured here but we have been eating too many of them.  You will be able to recognize me at the airport - I will be the 300 pound woman with the Ukrainian chocolate bar in my hand! 

The approach to every place I have stayed is a deserted dark pathway/alley between buildings.  It is always the same but I am getting used to it.  Lucy has us approach our apartment from different locations often.  She said it is a Missionary rule to not always use the same pathway so you are not on such a routine in case someone may be watching.  It is a good rule of thumb.

On our walk tonight we passed by this building and it looked so beautiful all lit up.  The city is actually very pretty at night.

Not much to report today.  I woke up at 6 am to skype Andy because it is pretty much the only time to reach him.  6 am my time is 9 pm his.  I went back to bed after that.  When I woke up I went to check the time and – oh my goodness – it was NOON!  You know, everyone needs to do that once in a while.  Today was not a day to visit the orphanage.  Our boys were being taken to a soccer game at the stadium anyway.  So Lucy and I finally headed out wondering the city.  I have spent so much time doing that that I was able to take her to a couple of places I knew about. 

I have learned that there are many, many second hand stores in this area – dangerous!  Don’t worry though, I mainly just look around.  We had lunch or brunch, whatever it was, at a café with Ukrainian food today.  The food is really good here, another dangerous thing.  We walked some more and headed home to watch the rest of a movie we started a couple of days ago. 

While we were out today we went to an internet place to print out some documents that were emailed to me.  When we walked out of the store I looked up and there was Nan, another friend who is adopting.  Well, if it isn’t a small world.  We talked for a while and will try to meet up in the next couple of days.

After our movie we went out for another walk.  It was dark by now and normally I don’t like to go walking on a Friday or Saturday night because there are a lot of people drinking but it seemed fine tonight.  We stopped by the Sister Missionaries apartment on the way back to pick up Lucy’s laundry and headed back. 

It was a quiet and simple day.  We are looking forward to seeing the boys tomorrow.  I can legally pick the boys up and take them to stay with me as of Monday and I am seriously considering it.  We will see how things go on Monday with the paperwork.

Love you all and miss you all!  Thanks as always for your comments and prayers!