First appointment: SDA

Today has been a fantastic day!  Victor picked us up and drove us to our SDA appointment, where he worked his magic.  Victor is very well liked and respected in adoption circles, and it pays off.  All potential obstacles for this stage seem to have been avoided, Praise God.  We got to see Illya and Svyatik's official files.  We learned about their family and medical history.

Illya and Svyatik have photos in their file, taken when they were brought to the orphanage.  Illya's photo is so incredibly sad.  Ohhhh, so sad.  It will be hard to forget that photo.

So, tomorrow we will go back to the SDA to pick up the referral, then head to Donetsk on the overnight train.  We'll be very busy in the Donetsk area the rest of the week.  We are very excited to see the boys on Wednesday!  This week will be a whirlwind as we proceed with the next few steps.

I know we've said before that Victor rocks.  On top of everything else, he rocks as a tour guide.  He spent a few hours showing us some of the sights in Kiev.  I really love this city.  Of course it has its problems, but it's so stunningly beautiful I keep forgetting about the flaws.  Victor took us to several cathedrals.  You know, the colorful, gold onion domes?  Amazing!  The highlight was St. Sophia, which knocked my socks off.  It's in amazingly good condition for being a thousand years old. There's an exhibit in St. Sophia that may be the most incredible piece of art I've ever seen.  It's a massive mosaic, made out of 15,000 hand-painted Easter eggs.  These are not solid colored eggs, but each one is an intricate piece of art in itself.  I snuck a photo, and I'll post it, but it doesn't show the detail in each of those wonderful eggs.  Ukraine takes its art seriously, and it shows, not just at St. Sophia, but throughout the city.

I will post some photos shortly.