Sue: Day 1 of Second Trip

Sue – Sun Morning 1:00 am November 8th, 2009

Day 1 of Second Trip

Well, I can finally say it: I’m all packed!!

Sorry I haven’t blogged this week, but I was totally wiped out with that nasty lung infection thing. I kept thinking “It hasn’t been over 12 days yet, I don’t need to see the Doctor…”, then when I needed to use an inhaler to breath, I called and made an appointment. Unfortunately, they couldn’t see me Friday, so I went in this morning, and started on a 14 day Avelox (sp??). She was going to only give me 10, and I requested the 14 day (which will wipe out even Pneumonia, if that is what hit me – no time for an x-ray!). It hit me in the chest heavy and hard, which makes you tired, and then sort of spread out to the sinuses, but not sinus pain (pain is all in the chest). She also wants me to use an asthma Albuterol inhaler. It’s for asthma. I take weekly shots for asthma, and I think the air in Mariupol (plus the swing from 70’s and sunny to rainy and 40’s) triggered my allergies, which in turn triggered asthma (which I don’t treat for unless I’m sick…), and then was irritated enough to let in a cold bug.

So Monday, Jeff and I were both wiped! He slowly started catching up with work: I did 5 loads of laundry, did NOT have to drive the carpool, and was grateful I could stay home most of the day. Between the lung infection and the jetlag, I simply have no energy.

Tuesday-Thursday was mostly getting the presents for the people: I did a really nice pen (Waterford) for the orphanage director, and Pierre Cardin pens for the Doctor, Social Worker, Secretary, and other caregivers (inexpensive at Costco in bulk…), and boxes of chocolates. I looked at various types of chocolate, and many are from Belgium, or other European country. I bought those Mauna Loa Chocolates with the nuts, from Hawaii. I thought you couldn’t get farther from Ukraine than Hawaii, so maybe it will be different for them. I also got a scarf and a couple picture frames (very fancy!), and a Russian-English and back again dictionary for the drive in Mariupol (she had told me she wanted one!), plus some vitamins and cold medicines they requested.

Friday was another laundry day – 3 loads – and I’m leaving Connor and Jeff with no dirty laundry for the week ahead. Jeff DOES have the carpool Mon/Wed/Fri, and he picks up Wed and Fri afternoons, plus Connor’s drum lesson, and takes my car to the shop on Mon for maintenance and some repairs (minor this time!).

My long-distance property turnover turned into a mess! The old tenant want’ out until 5 days after their official move out date, and then he piled a pile of garbage in front for the garbage men… they won’t take it like that unless you arrange special pickup, and so on and so forth… Luckily my real estate friend Kathy handled everything that went wrong, so the carpets were cleaned, the locksmith changed the locks, and she made it happen. Thank you, Kathy!

Today I packed a large black suitcase, and the medium brown suitcase (they will nest inside each other on the way home after all the presents are given out. I am trying to bring a carry on suitcase I bought special for “carry on”. It is only 17”x 8” x 13”, so I sure hope they let me carry it on! I will bring my “magic bag”. I got this bag that is a zippered “pouch”. When you start unzipping it, the bag pulls out from inside, and then it becomes a very large tote/zippered carry-all. IT”S GREAT!! I’ve used it in London to hold my umbrella and London Fog coat (I know – terribly dated!), used it to walk through markets in Cambodia, California, and Italy, because you keep throwing stuff in there, and it holds a lot! So, the plan is, if they stop my bag form going onto the international flight, I will pull out the adoption papers, plus the forms I’m bringing for others, plus my travel itinerary, plus my medicines, plus our clothes for the first day…

When you pick up your child form the orphanage, you supply the clothes (right down to the underwear, from what I hear), so I needed to pack the first day of clothes – including sneakers – for her, because if they lost my bags, I’d be out of luck…
I brought 3 days of clothes (in checked bags), and one day of clothes (for Anastasia and for me) in carry on. It made for a bulky bag, due to the big winter coat, hats and gloves, etc. But nothing is going to stop me, and we are on a tight schedule!

Why a tight schedule? Because next Wed is Veteran’s day! And the US Embassy is closed, so it throws us off for a day – I cannot get the great points deal on Sat like I got on Fri, so we are trying to head out on Friday regardless. We have Fri morning – the one British Airways flight to London on the way home is at 2:15. I stay overnight in JFK (New York City) – hopefully my brother will come visit and meet Anastasia briefly, but it is along ride.

As you all may have heard, when we were leaving Kiev last Saturday, October 31st, 2009, many people were wearing the surgical masks both at British Airways and on the plane. I asked, and it turns out there was a swine flu outbreak a few days before. Currently, the country is in quarantine; schools are closed for a week, and some neighboring countries are taking action. But when I got so sick, I never had a fever, only chest pain, so the Doctor today didn’t think it was swine flu. Had a flu shot in Sept for regular flu. This week, around 200 people in Ukraine died, hence the scare. A lot of people cannot afford healthcare, so they do not go on antibiotics for Tuberculosis, they just die from it – many have it; many of the kids test positive for it. You need to do a 6 month antibiotic course if you want to get the “non active TB” out of their body, because it can become active into TB. If active you have to take 4 (yes, four!) different antibiotics for 6-9 months. My antibiotic today cost $90. co-pay, for 14 days. So four antibiotics for 6-9 months would not be affordable for the average Ukrainian. We think Anastasia’ mother may have died from it, since she was only about 30 years old. Very sad, when you have so many people dying from a treatable disease.

The news stated that the swine flu outbreak is in full swing, and unfortunately schools are closed, and the SDA put a hold on adoption referrals – they don’t want people coming into the orphanages and contaminating the kids – they live in such close quarters, that a flu would simply spread like wildfire.

So my prayers go out to all the families whose plans were put on hold – I was told by the coordinator that I would be able to get Anastasia, since as of Tuesday, she is mine and no longer a responsibility of the Ukrainian system. We’ll see.

Here’s a tidbit for you – I will be in 5 countries tomorrow, during 4 flights, 4 different airlines and 24 hours of travel. I leave SFO (USA) on United, to Calgary (Canada), then switch to Luftansa for 9+ hours to Frankfort (Germany), then switch to Austrian Air to Vienna (Austria), then switch to Tyrolean Air to Donets’k (Ukraine). (You getting’ this, camera-man??)

I have already succumbed to the fact that I will never again see the items I so lovingly packed tonight. But I packed in anyway, with the hope that I WILL be able to hand out all my gifts! We bought another UNO for the orphanage, and I’m taking an old one to play while there, plus a new puzzle, and Dominos cards (lightweight). I’m also taking a pre-school workbook; I’m going to try and get her used to the English alphabet, and some words… below her academically, but not on the English learners’ scale.

Well, it’s almost 2:00 am, so I better get some sleep. I’m using almost all of Jeff’s United points to fly business (the economy mostly wasn’t available for the days we needed, and lousy times…), so I may be able to sleep on the Calgary-Frankfort piece… I don’t usually do “business” class, but since I am sooo sick, Jeff thought it better I catch some zzzzz’s rather than save points. I’m going to catch some zzzzz’s right now – I’ll blog at internet café when I can – in the meantime, simply PRAY for me – for healing, for safety (me and Anastasia), health, and a smooth journey. Pray to keep the evil forces from interfering with our plans. Pray that the swine flu blows over and that others can continue their journey.

By the way – today, while I am flying to Ukraine to get my daughter, many churches around the world are celebrating “Orphan Sunday” in their worship. Log into
www.orphansunday.org
Today is a worldwide orphan day, to bring to light the plight of the 143,000,000 (yes, 143 MILLION orphans worldwide).

I challenge each of you to find some way, big or small, to get involved. At least go to the website – there is a lot of information there!

Thank you all who have helped us, and prayed for us. It makes a huge difference, and we appreciate each and every one of you – angels in disguise! Blessings to you all!

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)”