4.000 Miles From Home!

We made it here Sunday afternoon - 12 hours in the air, who knows how many time zones and a plane ride from h. e. double hockey sticks.

Apparently a week 1/2 notice to get half way across the world will book you the nicest seats in the back of the plane on a transatlantic flight.

Can you say HOT. Smashed like sardines? I won't go any further...because...

We are doing GREAT!!! We are truly loving it here in EE. The culture is different but not in a bad way. We got in yesterday afternoon (which was around 5am for us) and hopped (okay so we stumbled off the plane in a jet lag haze...) onto a tram to the terminal. Had a funky issue with customs and thought we were going to get deported (not really) but then got picked up by our driver and took off at a high rate of speed after somehow getting out of  parking lot with no rhyme or reason..just a jumble of cars all mashed up together pushing to get onto the road. It was nuts.

We were prepared though and just took it all in. The quirky little things. Just wait ...if you are not here yet..you will see!

Our driver got us safely to the Hospitality House where Karen greeted us with a welcoming smile. We are so thankful to her for her help and generosity. We are staying in a neat part of town with tons of little shops. The apartment is lovely..really! We have wifi, english speaking cable stations, plenty of utensils to make food, a dvd player and its close to everything.  We met an awesome lady and her girls yesterday, Traci with Project Hopeful and they took us on a trip on the metro. Yep...less than three hours here and we joined the chaos and jumped (literally!) onto the metro and headed to the square for dinner. Had the most awesome pizza..Eli and I both ate for less than ten bucks. Incredible! We got to know Traci and her sweet girls better. They are so charming and they even took us grocery shopping afterward. Oh, at the metro stop we used, we had to take a ginormous (yes thats a word!) escalator.

I hate escalators. No, really.

And this one was taller than my house. Its a good thing I was in a jet lag haze. Once I realized how freaking high that thing was I started getting sick. I would rather walk up and down the huge hill than get on that escalator.

When you hear the women are beautiful....believe it. There are many beautiful women and I have no idea how they walk on the cracked sidewalks or the cobblestone roads in the stiletto heels. Its quite umm...interesting. And they make it look effortless. They have 0% body fat...but when you see how much people walk and the huge hills you understand why. We have seen many intersting choices in clothing including completely see through garmets. Its only disturbing if a babushka is clothed in this...but I digress...the women take great pride in their appearance and they are lovely.

We are loving being in EE and all that entails. It is good to learn about other cultures and we are having fun. Even if we have not a clue what anyone is saying. Ha. We were exhausted today after sightseeing and only managed to head to the store for groceries. I have no idea what kind of meat we ate. It could have been ox for all I know. But we made spagetti out of it and haven't died yet. Eli says there is a uniqe odor here but I havent picked it up yet...anyone else ever notice a smell??? My sinuses are so bad I cant smell anything! We got out with Traci and her girls again and they showed us the SDA.  We head there tomorrow morning! So, when you guys are sleeping we will be meeting to learn more about our Little One.

We have heard she is a little bit of a wild child and we cant wait to see for our own eyes.

I will end with a few pictures...sorry for the delay in posting....we spent today sightseeing and sleeping. More tomorrow...keep following us...WE ARE HERE!!!!

Little One...we are so very close.

Eli at Independence Square area...I didnt even notice the girl in the high heels in the background...look...there to his right!

The view outside our apartment...its beautiful...the street is very busy and pigeons live in the top of the apartment building.

The pizza place we ate at with Traci...yummy! We ordered pizza with some kind of meat...sort of looked like ham...

The elevator. Teeny. Tiny. Okay...so if you know my husband you know he kind of sticks out...I laughed when I saw this elevator...we can fit in there together but not us, the driver and our luggage. The driver started laughing too when I pointed to the elevator, then to Eli.

Our breakfast and snack! Cherry juice (suk), bread, eggs, cheese, butter, chocolate (of course), water and that's a beer in there! (no thats not breakfast..or a snack!)

water...a big thing it seems for our american friends...if you dont get the right one it will have "gas" in it. We get the bonaqua with the light blue cap. No gas! When you buy you can just ask for no gas...

Okay..its late here and we have a busy day tomorrow.

Praising God for placing us here at this exact time...when Traci was here and getting to meet her and her beautiful girls Sveta and Hannah. We are in awe of the Heim family and admire all the work they are doing for Project Hopeful. Their family is beautiful.

Stay tuned....

The best is yet to come! oh...sorry if there funky words...the spell check wont convert to english...so its saying all words are all wrong...!