Saturday and Sunday

I just looked and I am WAAAAAY behind. So I guess you get several posts at once.
February 21- Saturday
Today has been a rough day. I woke up not feeling well, dragging. I think A2 is still under the weather, she has had one rage after another. R hasn’t been to cooperative either. We tried to get both of them to sleep for a nap and it took R an hour and a half of lying there to finally fall asleep. A never did. It doesn’t help that we are going stir crazy in this hotel room.
Keith worked in the morning and I tried to keep kids busy out of the bedroom. It helped that we finally got a decent cartoon station to work.
In the afternoon the ward was having a get together to go bowling. Since Elijah was asleep and A2 and R needed sleep I stayed in the hotel with them while Keith took A1 and K bowling. They had a lot of fun. Apparently when the girls were up to bowl the bumper pads in the gutters came up, and when others were bowling they went down. Pretty high tech.
R finally had a nap and A calmed down quite a bit, so we joined them for food at the church. They put a movie on for the girls and we chatted for a while. It is refreshing and renewing to be among people who share your faith and care about you. It will be hard to leave these wonderful people!!
Just as we walked into the apartment Elijah started crying and kept crying for about an hour straight. That is so unlike him. We were going to take his temperature but couldn’t find the thermometer. He felt burning hot. Then we noticed him poking his ears. Aha. That is the problem. We put some of A2’s (as yet unidentified) eardrops in one ear—he fought it, then asked to have some in the other ear. We asked Elder Thatcher to come over and help give him a blessing, which he readily did. They also called the mission doctor and arranged for us to call from the train if Elijah wasn’t better and the mission doctor would try to get us an appointment with an English speaking, American- trained doctor in Kyiv. Did I mention what a blessing it is to have missionaries nearby?!? Luckily, after the eardrops and blessing he slept pretty soundly.

February 22- Sunday
We woke up and spent the morning packing everything up. Then we headed for the church. We were a sight. Five children, two adults, everyone has a backpack, then we have 4 suitcases and two sacks (one of stuff to give to the missionaries that we didn’t want to take with us, and one of food and water for us on the train). It was snowing and we had to stop every so often and give our hands a break. K and A1 played musical suitcases and anyone with a free hand held R’s or Elijah’s. Took us a half an hour to do a 10 minute walk.
The missionaries were going to help us get to the train station and our train. They had to do quite a bit of juggling as our train left at 1:13 and church starts at 12:00, but they had it all worked out. The plan was to stay through the sacrament, the first speaker and the Elders’ song (they were singing-- it was very nice, we heard them practicing yesterday) and then the two that weren’t being used were going to help us. Well, the first speaker (who is our good friend who helped us at the reenick) went over time. So, true to missionary form they adjusted quickly and Elder and Sister Thatcher helped us while the Elders’ fended at the church. I can’t believe the pains they went to to help us, and not just today, the whole time we have been in Khmelinsky. Luckily, I got pictures of all of them and some of the ward members whom we are friends with when we were so early for church. They are truly Heaven-sent!!!!!!
The missionaries called 2 taxis and we rushed to the train station. We only had to cross three tracks to get to our train. The Thatchers got us on and helped us find our box and they had to get off because the train was getting ready to leave.
There are two kinds of seats on a train here in Ukraine. One kind is just like in an airplane (only with a lot more room) and the other isn’t a seat, it is actually a bed, or more descriptively little compartments with 4 beds in them, two on top and two on bottom. We rented one full compartment (four beds) and one bed in another compartment (only because we had to buy 5 tickets—R and Elijah didn’t need a ticket).
We got all of our luggage stowed in the nooks and crannies and settled down for a 5 hour ride. We had to leave our door open because it was soooo hot. I had heard that it gets so hot in the trains. We were ok with the door open, we would have died of heat exhaustion with it closed. We ate the string cheese we brought, took pictures (everyone took turns taking pictures out and inside the train), played go fish (“do you have some a purple firty?"), cut up and ate our last apple, played more games, took more pictures (over 500 total), climbed up and down from the top bed, walked down the hall, rationed water, ate M&M’s and enjoyed the scenery outside. Oh and did I mention that there were a LOT of pictures taken???
When we were close to Kyiv we packed everything up that we had gotten out, pulled out all of our suitcases and got our coats on. That is when it became unbearably hot. We had 10 minutes to get everyone and everything off the train (or bye bye to Moscow). Everyone took their backpack and Keith started with the two biggest suitcases. R (being so tired she couldn’t stand herself) started screaming because no one would help her put her hat on. She also wouldn’t let anyone help her. So here I am trying to keep track of kids and walk luggage up to Keith to take off the train. The halls are only a man and a half wide and people are swarming on. Luckily, Heavenly Father looks out for you even on a crowded, sweltering train. The older couple in the compartment next to us who I think weren’t getting off at Kyiv) heard first Elijah and then R screaming and jumped to the rescue. He helped me carry suitcases out to Keith and she calmed R down, carried Elijah and held R’s hand out to us. I kept saying spaceebo (Russian) and dyakuyu (Ukrainian) to them, but somehow it isn’t enough. I was soooo grateful I cried in the car all the way to our flat. But I get a head of myself.
Sasha and someone else were out on the sidewalk and took suitcases and girls’ hands and led us out to their cars (we are now a two car family, har har). All the girls piled in the back of Sasha’s car and Keith got in the front. So I took Elijah and we got in the other car. Like I said above I was (am) sooo grateful to that couple on the train and frustrated I couldn’t even tell them that (and hot and tired) that I cried the 10 minutes to the flat. Poor, exhausted Elijah fell asleep within 2 minutes.
Our new flat is huge!!! It has two huge bedrooms (queen-sized beds with nice mattresses) and a living room in between, a nice sized kitchen and a bathroom with a clothes washer. The girls and Elijah ran around each room and back, turning on lights, turning off lights (they can reach these), trying electronics and opening drawers and cupboards. So if it survived the scrutiny it definitely works. K and A1 declared it “cute.”
The good news is that it is only $100 a night. That actually is a lot but we were led to believe that we were going to have to pay a lot more than that (“with so many kids”). Luckily, we don’t have to stay here for very long. But we will enjoy it while we are here.
Keith took A1 and K around the corner to bring home McDonalds (only our second time here) while I stayed and talked with the kids at home. The girls then each had to try out the bath (we do this every time we move--- all 2 times LOL), and crashed in bed… except A2, who had one of her fits. We might be getting somewhere, though, because this one wasn’t very long and she was somewhat reasonable when it was over. Whew! Are we going to survive this?!?!