Kevin is home safe & sound...

To those of you that emailed me out of concern because I have not posted, thank you! Here is why:
As a frugal Butschek, we ran into a slight snag on Wednesday. Kevin was scheduled to fly out at 5:35 AM on Thursday. Snow was predicted Wed evening so we decided to leave Zhytomyr a bit early and drive to Boryspil (approx 3 hours away...through Kiev to the opposite side) and stay at a hotel to be sure he did not run into transportation/weather issues and miss his flight. Because we were going through Kiev, our facilitator suggested we stop at the US Embassy to complete our first round of paperwork. This took longer than planned. Therefore, we did not arrive in Boryspil until the evening. (seems like no big deal...right?) We checked in and immediately wanted to eat as we literally had not had anything to eat the entire day. Fortunately, the hotel issues each guest a ticket for a meal. (Based upon US portion sizes, I should say a snack!) We realized after our free snack, we only have about $50 in local currency between the two of us. Not good as the banks were closed already and Kevin needed to have some just in case his flight was delayed in Ukraine as emergency funds. At the time, it didn't seem like it was too much of a penance to stay hungry until morning.

My plan was to walk to the bank Thursday morning,exchange money and then have a late breakfast. Surprise! Mother nature blewin a snow storm that deterred me from leaving the building. The wind was blowing so hard the snow was circling in the air like a tornado. It was -18 degrees celcius which is about 0 degrees Farenheit.  IT WAS COLD!!!! (I have only experienced cold like that one time on a ski trip in Colorado, but I had full ski wear that time.) Needless to say, I chose to go without food again versus braving the elements! Some of you are probably thinking, what an idiot (especially my family in Montana and North Dakota as they deal with weather like this often.) Well, when you look our a hotel window and see NO ONE walking around, the decision to stay in seems normal and smart! (HA HA!)

It snowed all day which made my driver late for my pickup. Then we had a very slow commute back to Zhytomyr. Did you know in Ukraine you could covert one side of a divided highway (2 lanes each way) into a 4-5 lane road? Imagine an inch between your rear view mirrors and bumpers... inhale diesel for 4 hours...tilt your car 45 degrees every now and then. Keep in mind, your side is the side which gets to look at a frozen ditch through the window when tilted! I have been teasing my driver that he is an older James Bond as he resembles Daniel Craig. So, when a four wheel drive vehicle would pass us (again there is only an inch between cars) using the ditch, I would remind James that the road, while slower, was our better path. I did not want to become a member of the polar bear club!!!

That was the Wed/Thursday ordeal. I spent Friday at the orpanage with the kids and did the same today. Nikolas and I did leave for a bit to buy a pair of winter shoes and spend some quality time together. (He did not get to go bowling or ice skating the first time because of his 'hospital' stay.)

Our outspoken son is back! He told me he is going to convince Maggie Mae (our dog) to sleep with him every night. When I questioned his methodology, he said he didn't know how he was going to do it...further questioning led to an admission of stuffing food in his sheets! I quickly said "absolutely not"! The rule of the house is food remains in the kitchen at all times!!!

More tomorrow...

By the way, Kevin is back home and is trying to adjust to the time change.