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My journey of a Lifetime
The trip there

Phoenix to Kyiv

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Twas the night before travel, and all through the house no one was sleeping, (well maybe the Mouse). The bags were all packed by the chimney with care in hope that the taxi would be on time there.
The trip starts at 0515 with the trip to the airport. More to come

The flight to Kiev was uneventful. I can say one thing, no one can get hungry on a Lufthansa flight. I met with Christina and Todd in Frankfurt and we flew on to Kiev together. The trip was fine but we had to be repositioned 2 times (and then walk across a plank) to get close to the gate. Even the pilot was laughing over it.
When we walked into the central room where everyone waits, it was almost overwhelming! The other stories I had read had not adequately prepared me for the mayhem and cluster of the people. The Insurance booth was to our right and the passport control booths were to our left and the lines intermingle if there is a crowd (and there was quite a crowd that day.) We just shoved our way through and got into the line for the Insurance and then the Passport line. A hint from me: Have your ticket stub ready with your passport and Insurance paper. I didn't and couldn't hear the request for it because of the noise. The guy at the booth got rather frustrated with me (but let me through when I produced the paper.)Then we went into the other half of the room, the luggage claim and customs area.
We never saw the little guy who rents carts and just dragged our luggage ourselves. The custom forms were easy to fill out (luckly they had the english ones there the day we arrived!). Then we went through the only big door to the customs area. All of the bags were X-rayed before going on to the customs officials. The only question asked of me was "show money," which was difficult as I had it in 2 different money belts, one of which was worn backwards under my shirt. I practically undressed at the counter to produce that belt and the guy didn't even count the cash , just looked and nodded!!
Once we passed customs, we went through the glass doors and began looking for someone with a sign with our name on it. At that point I relaxed and let my facilitator and translator handle everything. I did decide to stay in a hotel the first night (the same one that Christina and Todd were at) rather than go on the the flat my facilitator suggested. We did not stay at the Tourist Hotel but the place was nice, and typically Ukranian.

Adoption Center Day