September 18, 2002

Whew! It's been a bit hectic getting to this point (packing, finishing up work stuff, packing, making arrangements for things here while we're gone, packing), but now we're on our way!

It was only a few days ago that Lee finally got out the family atlas to get a better sense of where Ukraine is in relation to other known places. He was surprised to learn that Ukraine is closer to Kazhakstan than it is to London. This is Eastern Europe, all right! It's also farther north than we'd thought: Kyyiv is roughly 51 degrees north latitude--roughly the same as London and Frankfurt. Chicago is roughly 42 degrees north latitude. You'd have to go all the way up Minnesota and into Canada to get to the same latitude as Kyyiv. The weather forecast predicts that it will be in the upper 50s and lower 60s in Kyyiv when we arrive.

This morning was quite calm and peaceful, all things considered. We were almost completely packed last night, so there wasn't much to do. A few errands around town, dropping Bentley off with Karrie, Kurt, and Kenny (he was so happy to be there he hardly noticed us leave), giving a key to Mike so that he could take care of the house while we're gone, picking up some lunch at the Whistlestop Cafe, and then waiting for the taxi. (Well, ok, we almost came to blows while trying to install the baby's car seat just before leaving. But we're much better now--honest!)

There was a huge crowd at the airport heading to Frankfurt. After clearing up our seating arrangements (they initially didn't have us seated together), everything went totally smoothly. We reset our watches as the plane took off (gee, it doesn't feel like midnight!) and settled in for the flight.

Both of us were amazed at how smoothly our packing went. We had it done the evening before leaving, and we knew pretty much exactly what we needed. The bags weren't totally stuffed, and we had no problem carrying it all. We still can't think of anything we forgot! Kristin has to take the credit for this, as she was preparing for this for months. (Lee made her take everything out and repack it last weekend so he'd know where it all was, but that was ok, as we eliminated some unnecessary stuff in the process.) We're just thrilled that now that it's come down to the wire, everything is going better than expected.

By the time we reached Frankfurt, we were both starting to feel sleep-deprived. As we reached the gate for our flight to Kyyiv, Kristin started getting a sense for how different this trip was going to be--just by looking around at the many different types of people waiting with us. The flight to Kyyiv was kind of a blur, since we were both dazed from jet lag. Luckily, nothing went wrong, so we didn't have to focus much anyway. Kristin spent much of the flight coloring in her baby book, and Lee spent it writing this for the online baby book!