Steven Harper Piziks

We have plane tickets to Ukraine for this summer.  By "we," I mean me, Sasha, and my mother.  The reason for the latter is a request by Sasha, who's a little nervous about the whole trip and asked if Grandma Penny might be able to come with us.  I relayed this request to my mother, who said she'd be delighted.  I think her presence will help in a number of ways.  Our arrival in Ostapy is going to be a bit of a shock and surprise for Sasha's family, especially his mother Marija, and having an older woman there might reassure her and keep things calmer.

I'm both apprehensive and interested.  I want things to go well, I'm hoping things will go well.  I also know full well they may not.  I'm not worried about me, of course; I'm worried about Sasha.  But he does need to go.

The plan is to arrive in Kyiv one day and travel to Ostapy the next.  We'll spend however much time there as Sasha needs--a day, two days, five.  Then we'll go back to Kyiv and do the tourist thing for however long we have left and go home.  We're leaving things very open because we don't know how things will work in Ostapy.  We might get everything we need in a day, or we might need five.  We might discover we need to take a train elsewhere in Ukraine to see other family.  Who knows?

We do have a guide/translator lined up as well.  He's worked with a number of American parents with Ukrainian children who have traveled back to Ukraine to reconnect with birth families.  He'll meet us at the airport, do the driving, handle hotels, and translate for us.  I'm sure Sasha's Ukraine will come rushing back to him once he gets there, and he'll be able to translate, too.

A couple-odd months from now, we'll be in Ukraine.  Again . . .