Second Day of the Second Month, 2011

Thankful for a low key day!

Rance woke us up singing his ABC's just before 8, which just made us laugh. While they ate some yogurt for breakfast we began to pack things up. Around 10 we were packed and everyone was ready so we walked a block to another one of our favorite cafe's for brunch. Then it was back to the hotel to load all of our stuff into the trunk of a small foreign car! It took Oleg and Matt a few tries to figure out how it would all fit, as there was no room to spare!

Then we were off to Kiev! We were not expecting to be able to return to Kiev until we had picked up Rance's passport. Thanks to Olegs lawyer friend in Kirovograd, who is picking it up when it is ready and sending it to us on the bus, we got to return earlier!

It took us about 5 hours to drive to Kiev thanks to poor road conditions and getting stuck behind slow driver. We arrived in Kiev around 5pm, just in time for evening traffic!!

We finally got to our apartment and got unloaded. Cavin had barely napped and Rance hadn't napped at all and they were both getting sleepy so we were thankful to get out!

After visiting with Yuri (facilitator in Kiev) for a little while he headed out and we put a few things away and then headed out for dinner.

**Firsts for Rance:
-McDonalds!! We ordered him a cheeseburger happy meal.
-First time eating a sandwich. We had to show him out to eat it! Lol.

He only ate about half of the cheeseburger and a few french fries. So far he has devoured everything we have given him, so we're not sure if he didn't like it or if he wasn't hungry. We had stopped around 2 for a snack.

Then we walked to the grocery store to get milk, yogurt, fresh fruit, lunch meat, cheese and bread.

**Firsts for Rance:
-Using toilet paper.

We had begun to get a little worried as Rance hadn't had to use the bathroom since leaving the orphanage. We had just went to the dairy department of the grocery store when he said he needed to use the toilet. We were thankful the grocery store has a public restroom and that we were right next to it when he needed to use it! Matt said Rance wasn't so sure about the toilet paper, but hopefully he'll get used to it. At the orphanage each child had a special towel to use as they could not afford toilet paper.

Once we got back to the apartment we let the boys play for a while before starting in on bath time and getting them to bed.

**Firsts for Rance:
-Sleeping in a room by himself! Maybe!

Our apartment here (same one we stayed in the first month in Ukraine) has a loft with a bed in it, where Rance currently is trying to go to sleep. We'll see how it goes.

We are thankful to be back in Kiev, in an apartment that is almost 3 times the size of our hotel room in Alexandria. Much more room for two very active little boys!

**First for All of Us:
-First time in over a month we are alone, without our facilitator.

It is so nice to have some family time, its nice that Rance doesn't have a facilitator to rely on, and that we can be more independent and do more on our own!

One week from today and we will be on U.S. soil! Finally!!!!