We Are In Ukraine!!!

Checking in to Swiss Air at JFK. Our luggage cart with 5 over weight bags and 5 carry-ons!

Annie and Solomiya in the bedroom of our new apartment.

Mike and Solomiya playing in the bedroom. In the left corner, you can see the crib that our friends gave us to use!

A view from our apartment. We are on the 4th floor.

View from the bedroom overlooking the courtyard area in between several apartment buildings.

Walking back from the grocery store (about 7 mins away). In the background, you can see the yellow and green awning over the entrance to the store. And yes, the sidewalk is ice!

View from the entrance to the apartment building. More ice!

The flight over from New York was great! Solomiya slept, ate or played with her toys the whole time. The stewardess gave us a baby bassinet that attached to the wall in front of us. Solomiya preferred to sleep on our laps, but she did enjoy playing with her toys in it. Mike and I were actually able to get some sleep too! The flight seemed to go very quickly. It was about 7 hours to Zurich, Switzerland where we had a 2 hour layover. We then took a 2 hour flight to Budapest, Hungary. In the past, Mike and I have always been SO tired when making this trip- which I guess is understandable because it is like being awake all night- but this time we felt good! We were tired, but still had lots of energy and good moods!
Upon arrival in Budapest, we gathered our luggage (all 5 pieces came intact!) and met our friends Jim and Laurie and a driver from Ukraine. We loaded all of our luggage into Jim's pickup truck. Mike rode with Jim, and Solomiya and I rode with Laurie in the car. It was about a 3 hour drive to the border.
It took us about 10-15 mins to get through the Hungarian side of the border and 20 mins to get through the Ukrainian side of the border. We were told that this was rather quick! At the border, the officials wanted to look through our luggage (we brought a big, plastic container with all of our kitchen supplies), but after trying several minutes to open it, they gave up. Apparently, there was too much packing tape holding it closed and they did not have a knife to cut through it (thanks Dad!).
We arrived at our apartment around 8:30pm. Our dear friend Oksana was there waiting for us with a hot supper! Her husband Sasha arrived shortly after, and they showed us around the apartment explaining what they cleaned, what they had fixed, and how to use certain things (like the heat, hot water heater, and the washing machine - there will be a separate blog on the washing machine). Our fridge was full of food and the rooms were nice and warm! What a blessing! We are so thankful to all of our friends for their hard work!
Since arrival, we have been unpacking, setting up the apartment, getting groceries, and resting! What an action-packed last few weeks! We were packing up our apartment in New York right up until we left for the airport! We had so much help- we could not have done it without all of you! Thank you so much to Annette, Sidney, Ralph, Inger, Mike, Andrew,Charissa, Bryan,Freddie, Chrissy, mom and dad for all of the packing and moving help! Seriously- we could not have gotten it done if it were not for all of your help!
Mike and I have remarked several times that we can feel that everyone is praying for us! This transition/move has been so smooth. We truly feel comfortable and that we are at home! We know that God has brought us here and are excited to see what the upcoming weeks bring!
Send us a note! We have a 'Magic Jack' with an 845 phone number- so we can receive phone calls!

*January newsletters are on the way!

4 More Days...

4 more days of sorting, packing, and cleaning to go. As Mike said this morning (as we were on a Skype call with friends in Ukraine)- "I am ready for all of this packing to be behind us and to be in Ukraine". I concur. I am not sure at what point in the last 6 1/2 years we accumulated so much stuff. We could totally open a library with all of our books. Or an antique shop... (Anyone interested in an optigan?). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optigan
We had 2 day full days of moving things to storage (THANK YOU Annette & Sidney, Ralph & Inger, Mike Ack, and Andrew)!
Now, we are faced with the task of packing 5 suitcases to take with us, packing 4 suitcases that our pastor and a team will bring over in March, and boxing up some left over delicate items to ship. You know, 9 suitcases fill up rather quickly. Too quickly.
Today, my goal is to finish sorting through books and CDs and to start packing the kitchen stuff so I know how much room we will have and what may need to be left behind.
I can't believe that at this time next week we will actually be in Ukraine. I am so looking forward to unpacking, reconnecting with our wonderful friends, and staring this new journey.
What I will miss: having lunch at Sugar & Spice with Chrissy & Sophia, coconut milk ice cream, Sophia reciting "Curly Locks, Curly Locks", Target, having a car, and Changepoint Church.
What I look forward to: Ukrainian bread, getting back into my Russian studies, Skyping with our family, and seeing if there is any therapy that will help out Andriana.

Invitation: Come to our penthouse and say hello and goodbye. We will be here until the 26th. We may possibly put you to work or give you useless junk to take home.

Quick Update

1. Plane tickets have been purchased and we are leaving Thursday, January 26th from JFK.
2. Apartment has been rented in Uzhhorod (pics below).
3. Mike is officially done with work at Praxair.
4. We are packing, sorting, packing, sorting.
5. Hope to send out our January newsletter and info to our monthly supporters ASAP!

So thankful to God that: furniture and appliances are included, it is on the 4th floor, rent is in our budget, and it is 5 minutes away from our friend's apartment and a 'BOTAK' (a lovely grocery store)! (Mike can correct my spelling if needed!)

The shipping of the boxes...



8 Boxes shipped to Ukraine 12/20/11

 It's official. We are definitely heading to Ukraine. Shipping 8 boxes filled with our possessions definitely makes one realize that the move is actually going to happen. Our parcels were picked up on Tuesday, December 20 at 3pm. Father and son, Ukrainians themselves and co-owners of Meest (shipping company that specializes in sending packages to Ukraine) drove up from Clifton, NJ to collect our loot! The boxes will take a cruise on a luxury boat and arrive at our friend Tanya's apartment in approximately 6 weeks!
Yes, 6 weeks. It was hard to decide what to  ship over since it had to be things that we would not need for 6 weeks. So, it mostly contains Solomiya's bigger clothing and some toys/books, a lot of my therapy equipment, some kitchen supplies, and a stash of blankets and pillows. And if you do not know already how overly, incredibly organized I (Annie) am, this will prove it: I made a detailed inventory list of each box and placed one copy in the box and another copy in our "Moving" file. If my brother is reading this I am sure he is not surprised in the least... (and most likely shaking his head and sighing).




Our niece Sophia teaching Uncle Mike how to count



We are enjoying spending lots of time with our family and friends! I am especially going to miss my sister (pictured on the far left), Chrissy, who has been my closest friend since Day 1. There will be lots of Skyping. Thank God it's free!

Solomiya working on neck extension in prone and getting some weight bearing through her upper extremities. She has mastered supine to sidelying, but still struggles going from supine to prone. She brings both hands to midline and has begun performing isolated movements with digits 2 and 3 on her right hand. (That was for my therapy friends.)

Christmas Photo Shoot



Mikes favorite tea cup.




Solomiya posing as the Chiquita Banana lady.

And... completely unrelated material:

Solomiya's fave winter hat and kung-fu panda shirt.

The calendar came down.

The calendar came down. See blog from October 24th for reference.
The calendar came down because we are so close to actually leaving! I no longer need a visual... it is really, really close. Plus, all the packed boxes around the apartment are a good reminder.
But, I did put up 2 things in its place. These things remind us that we have wonderful friends who are 100% behind what we are doing and believe God is going to use us to do great things in Ukraine!

Thank you so much to Bryan & Laura Wigton who host an awesome home group that we wish we had started going to much earlier than just a couple months ago.   When we arrived last Thursday for the usual home group, we were greeted with a surprise, bon voyage party! Lovely friends, good food, and an encouraging time of prayer. Thank you!

And the visa saga continues...

Yes. At the end of our last post, I was so excited that we had finally received Solomiya's passport and could send off our visa applications. Well, the saga continues. I will the relay the events of the saga in bullet format (only because it's easier for me).

• Visa applications sent to Ukrainian Consulate in NYC.
• 5 days later Mike receives a phone call from the Consulate letting us know that our visas could NOT be approved.
• (I have a suspicion that they were not approved because we asked for 5 years and did NOT ask for an employment visa. They probably thought it was fishy that we would not want to work if we were going to live there for that long).
• Guy at Consulate tells Mike that we should get work visas (because short-term visas are not an option) if we want to stay in Ukraine for 5 years and proceeds to tell Mike how to go about this.
• We contact 'Hope & Life' in Ukraine in explain the situation. Volodya and Oksana begin investigating the possibility of "hiring" foreigners.
• We want a 2nd opinion about our visa situation so Annie contacts Ukrainian Consulate in San Francisco.
• Woman at Consulate says yes, we  can obtain these visas for 5 years. Man at Consulate says no, we cannot obtain these visas for 5 years. We decide to not get a 3rd opinion.
• We do some research on the Internet and get 1st hand advice from American friends currently living over in Eastern Europe. Apparently... Ukraine is issuing 1, 2, & 3 year short-term visas- even though this information is nowhere to be found on any Ukrainian Consulate website. Not a huge surprise...
• We play around with the idea of reapplying but asking for a short-term vs. long-term visa.
• We skype with Volodya and Oksana. They report on all of the investigating they have done and believe that it will be possible for us to get work visas. Only negative thing- the office in Uzhorod where they must complete the process tells them that things will be different in the new year (rules, regulations) and that it would be better to work on this in January.
• We decide to still leave for Ukraine in January (US citizens can legally be in Ukraine with no visa for 90 days out of every 180 days) and work on the visa stuff in country.
• We hear from 'Hope & Life' that it may be possible for us to get 5 year 'Religious' visas vs. work visas (this is good because the work visas are $800 a piece, oi).
• We wait for more news regarding this option...
• The end.

So, this is where we stand visa-wise. Regardless, we are planning on flying to Ukraine in January (a couple weeks later than originally planned) and working on visa-stuff from there. We believe that something good is going to come out of all of this. Like getting permanent resident status! Please do pray for favor in this visa situation.