21 days from today we will be on the airplane, waiting to take off from St. Louis. We will fly from there to Chicago. In Chicago we will change planes and then take off to Frankfurt, Germany. From Germany we will finally arrive in Kiev. It will take us about 17-18 hours (including layovers) to get to Kiev (about 5 am our time, 1pm their time ~ Kiev is about 8 hours ahead of our time).
We are getting closer to having everything together to pack, except the last minute things, of course. Our money belts came in the mail this week. Our 'new money' is at the bank waiting for us (we have to take all new bills that have no marks or tears so we have had the bank gathering that for us). I went to Wal-Mart the other day and bought a few baby toys, 2 pacifiers, wipes, bottles, etc. for the diaper bag. We will buy other necessities after we get over there since we don't know what size diapers to get. We are taking clothes that are 18 month size. If there are too big/little, we will just purchase some the right size when we get over there.
Once we land in Kiev on Sunday, we will spend that day sightseeing or catching up on our jet lag. On Monday, October 17, we will have our appointment at the NAC (National Adoption Center). Hopefully that day we will see the first pictures of our daughter and will travel that night to the city where her orphanage is. We know that we will travel to one of these 3 cities in Ukraine: Donetsk, Luhansk, or Kharkiv. I will try to figure out how to post a map so that you can visualize where these cities are. The closest one is a 5 hour train ride from Kiev and the furthest one is 18 hours from Kiev on an overnight train. Donetsh and Karkiv are bigger cities that have more shopping areas and more access to internet. If we travel to Luhansk, I doubt we'll have many options for internet access. Tuesday, October 18, could be the day that we finally get to meet her :~) It gives me goosebumps thinking about it!
I met with the Pediatrician yesterday. For those of you yet to travel...lice could be an issue and also we have been told that one couple brought their daughter back from Ukraine and after they were in the US, they all had an outbreak of scabies. My pediatrician told me to use Rid-X or NIX for lice treatment to treat all of us and that we could use that on our daughter's body, too, and it would treat Scabies.
She also suggested taking Gerber graduates baby food with us, Pedilyte, and infant Tylenol (10mg/kg). It's really nice to have a Pediatrician that is familiar with international adoptions and some of the medical diagnoses we may hear. She has encouraged us to call her if we have any questions and that we can e-mail her pictures of our daughter if we have any doubts or concerns. What a relief that is!
Since we will be there the end of October/beginning of November we are not sure what the weather will be like, so we feel we probably should pack a few summer clothes, but mostly winter clothes. Of course, the warmer clothes are bulkier and will take up more room in the luggage. We've been told to take darker clothes (they don't show wrinkles or dirt as much).
I could go on and on as this adoption is my favorit subject, but will close for now.
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