Travel Preps Under Way

We continue to make preparations for our trip. We have our plane tickets now. We also arranged for the rental of a cell phone and cell modem for our computer. Now, no matter where we are in Ukraine, we will have internet access. It will not be necessary to use internet cafes or rely on internet in our lodgings. Of course, if we have access to broadband, we'd use it. The rental covers two months. I hope we do not require that much time. We will also have VIP service at our arrival in Kiev to help us through Ukrainian customs. I bought a new laptop computer on eBay. It should be here in a couple of days. We needed XP on it for that cell modem we'll be using, since we were told it does not support Vista. Our other laptop we'll be taking has Vista on it. So we will have two laptops along to help reduce competition for computer time. I will need to spend some time doing work-related things early on while we're there. I also got a sheetfeed scanner on eBay. Mark will not be getting a four week vacation from school. He will be taking worksheets along to complete, then we will scan them in and email them to his teachers. We had a big conference at Mark's school last Monday with the principal and several teachers. We ironed out the homework situation for Mark while we're gone, and the plan for the Ukies. They say they are up to the challenge with the kids and will do an assessment when we get them here to figure out how to help them be successful in their academics. The bank called this morning, they have our money in. I asked if we could increase to 25K, they said no problem. We will be putting that in our safe deposit box. I also asked if we could take a camera in when we go to get it, they said that's fine. Our friend's, the Tolly's, will be loaning us their money belts. Carpet is being layed today in Valya's room and our living room. Furniture for the living room is coming next Tues. We had a complication with the furniture for Valya's room. It looks like we will have mattresses for her to sleep on when she arrives, but that's about it. Her furniture will take three weeks to arrive so we can't order it now. Oh well, gotta be flexible I guess. I told you about our friend that will provide Rosetta Stone to us for free. Actually the way it will work is she has TWO copies that she can loan us for a year, or however long we will need it. Now we will also have a copy that we can provide to the school, too. That is awesome because it can cost $500 per copy if we were to buy it. We've made arrangements to "bless" various friends with our pets, 2 cats and a dog. About the only travel-related arrangements we need to do yet are lodgings in London. I would wish for a bed-and-breakfast. Don't know yet if that is doable. If anyone reading this has any tips I'd like that.

Found out recently that Sergey was super excited to hear that we are coming. Jumping up and down and all that. Still haven't been able to reach Valya yet. Hope we can do that before we leave, a week from Sat. Blessings to you.