Deuteronomy 1:6-7 -- "When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, 'You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on.

Well, the day finally arrived for us to move on in this journey. We got up early Saturday morning to finish all the last minute things which had to be done. (It is now Wednesday; and I am amazed. At this moment I have not come up with anything I forgot to do, or left at home. I am sure I will come across something.) I had taken our suitcases to the airport on Saturday morning to weigh them, to make sure we were OK on weight. It was a good thing because both had to go back home and quickly lose some weight. Tim’s needed to lose 1.8 pounds and mine needed to lose 1.6 pounds. In the overall scheme of life 3.4 pounds doesn't sound like much, but when struggling to fit in everything one might need for six weeks, well... When I got back home my parents were waiting for me to take us to breakfast, then to the airport. We finished up the last few things, then as we were going to get in the car my mom said she wanted to take a picture of us. Next thing you know, she pulled out a sign she had made that said “GO GET OUR GIRLS”. So, we took a picture of all of us with our stuff; and then off we went to breakfast. Later, when we got to the airport, we went to check in and weigh the suitcases again. This time Tim’s was 50.0 pounds on the nose; and mine was under by 1.3 pounds. We let out a big hoot. After all our goodbyes we were off to go through security. What an experience that was. We had a good flight from Jackson to Charlotte, NC. When we got there we found an outlet to plug in our laptops and got on line for a little while. That was a good thing. Our flight from North Carolina to Munich was okay. We did not get to sit next to each other, which was not good, but I made it. For those of you who have prayed for me for the plane ride I THANK YOU. It worked! Lufthansa is the only way to fly. The service was great, and for the food was awesome. When we got to Munich we went right through customs, found our way to the Subway, and to the hotel.

I now have a new appreciation for what the girls will feel like. When we got off the plane and everything was in German, which of course we can't read or speak, it really highlighted what the girls’ life will be like. We had a good time, though, and never got lost. They have good maps that are easy to read.

After we checked into our hotel we were off again. We took the subway out to Olympic Park and BMW Welt (World). They have some real cute BMW's there that we don't have at home. From there we went all over the park. The Olympics were held there back in summer of 1972; and Munich has put in a bid for the winter of 2018. They were doing a lot of work on the buildings to start getting ready. We hiked up to the top off the high hill overlooking the park and all of Munich. The view was out of this world. One thing that amazed me is how many bikes and walkers there are there. You don't see many heavy people around. After we finished that we got back on the subway and went back to the hotel so we could go and eat. We had authentic German food in a cute little place down the hill from the hotel. Tim was so tired after we ate, but I had a new burst of energy. So we were going to walk across the street to get a couple of pictures of a church. Well, that walk ended up into about a THREE mile hike through the park and streets. When we got back to the hotel we discovered Internet access was NOT included. We had to pay separate for it. €20 (Euros), or THIRTY DOLLARS, a day!! At that, Tim decided to just lay down on the bed. I went in to wash my face; and he was right about being tired. In less than two minutes I heard him snoring. He slept great all night. Me, on the other hand, not so good.

The next morning we got up and took the subway again, but this time we went and got on a “hop on/hop off” bus tour. You ride around as they describe the famous and/or interesting sites throughout the city. Whenever you want, you can hop off to go investigate something more closely. Then you can go back around as many times as you would like and get on and off at different stops. That was a fun day. The last stop dropped us off “somewhat” close to the hotel. So we just walked back to the room that night. We also had some good German food that day, but I can honestly say we did not over eat any. The food is very costly there. In fact, everything seemed costly. We could not figure out how people can afford to live there. The salaries have to be high. By the time we were back to the hotel we figure we walked about ten miles that day. Then, on Tuesday morning I got up went for my three mile walk. Then, back to the hotel to pack, so we could continue on with the adventure. The flight from Munich to Kiev was good. The service at the Munich airport ticket counter was outstanding. We Americans sure could take some lessons from them. Even with literally hundreds of people attempting to get boarding passes and turn in luggage, our total wait in line was less than TEN minutes. Chalk one up for German organization & efficiency!!

Deuteronomy 1:30-33 -- The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.' "But even after all he did, you refused to trust the Lord your God, who goes before you looking for the best places to camp, guiding you with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.

When we got to Ukraine we got off the plane and there was a gentleman waiting for us to take us through customs. We went right on through. While he was doing our paperwork another man took us to go get our bags. We finished at about the same time. All told, less than ten minutes; and we were done! God keeps showing me over and over how He has it all under control. I just need to trust Him. It was nice to come around the corner and see a smiling face we recognized. Oles and Julia were waiting for us. Oles had car trouble getting to Kiev, so he had to fly in from Odessa to meet us. Then, we were off to our flat which will be home for the next few days. We had looked at some places online. Some were nice; and some were not so nice, but where we are is nice. (Thank you, Oles! You did good!) We will get pictures posted soon. We sent the evening with Oles. He showed us around Independence Square and the underground mall. We went for authentic Ukrainian food. It really was good. Then, back to the room and onto the internet. It’s amazing, nowadays, how disconnected you can feel without Internet access. I would not have wanted to go through this ten years ago without Internet availability and mobile phones. Later in the evening we Skyped with my mom & dad, and Christopher. Then we called my best friend Vicky. It is something to think you can call around the world and it cost nothing.

Well, we have a busy day of sightseeing planned for today and whatever else we can find to do.

Lynn