Day 10-Thursday, part 2

Alright Vika, this one's for you!! Masha sends her love and she misses you and will send a letter! Tania says hello, too. Today was GREAT!!! I love this place. The kids are so awesome. They love to hang out with us and play. There was a traveling Christian group that performed for the kids today and they did a great job. Their message was that there is a God. He is their Heavenly Father. He and Jesus love us so much that Jesus came to earth as a man and died for us. They know and love each of you. Everyone needs to hear that, especially these guys. Then they passed out little children Bibles to each of the kids and even gave us one so that the boys would have scripture in their own language when we got home. What a great bunch of people. Then they had a few activities for the kids. They each made a bracelet, a balloon animal, a little photo, and had their faces painted. After that the boys wanted to play soccer. The boys as in the older boys. There are 11 of them on a team and they are dang good. They have a tournament tomorrow that we get to go to. Totally excited!! So Huz played with them for a bit and I watched, sort of. I actually visited with their coach. She has been working at their orphanage for 43 years. The boys love her, and therefore so do I. She was awesome. She said that none of the other teams have women coaches and all the other coaches are very young. When the coaches have to take the field at the beginning of the tournaments and she walks on they always say, "Oh great, here comes the grandma with the team that will win all the trophies." Isn't that so funny? I'm laughing right now as I can hear her saying it to me. I also have an entourage of littles that follow me around. I love them. This post will have LOTS of pictures. If you feel so inclined, they all need homes:) Love these kids!!! Tomorrow we will head to the notary first thing and then off to the soccer game we go. After soccer I have a hot date with a ton of little kids for hair braiding, coloring, and jump roping. Da Svidaniya!!

p.s. I try to greet everyone we pass. It's like a game for me to see their reaction and see who answers back. I have passed one lady with her stroller three times since we arrived. First time she looked at me like I was high. Second time she apologized and said she didn't know I was talking to her. This third time, tonight, she saw me coming, smiled and waved. Hello progress!! Also the same set of babushkas are always sitting on the bench outside our apartment building every morning when we leave and every night when we come home. I wish I had a hidden camera to see if they even move during the day. I have seen them set out little bowls of water for the birds and use drinking water to water the flowers in the garden just outside our door. Other than that, they are on that bench. They all started answering back when we greet them but tonight as we came up the walk, one red headed babushka smiled big, waved and called out 'Dobre Veachair!' which is good evening! It is starting to feel like home:)

p.s. Kels, yes to your question a couple days ago about the kids in your class at school:)



Parrot inside the notary office. Guess what pet I want now???


Sorry, I won't be able to remember a lot of these kids names. If I do, I'll put it down.

Just happened to look over at him and this is what he was doing. Where does he get this from?!

We let the kids use the camera for a while, a popular activity here. This is one shot that I found when I got it back. So cute.

Soccer stars. Notice how only about half have soccer shoes on and the rest are wearing slip on sandals. Hmmm, wonder if that's how it will be at the game tomorrow. BoyOne is in the black shorts with the red shirt that has the number 10 on it.

They let Huz be one of the captains:) Here they are rock, paper, scissoring to see who chooses first.

This is our translator, Yana, our amazing translator, and one cute little girl, Katya, or Kat.

Here I am with Yana, or little Yana as I call her so as to differentiate between her and our translator. Yana has, get this, 5 older brothers that live at home, 1 younger brother here at the internat with her, a younger sister at this internat and an even younger sister at a different internat. Her parents have not lost their rights yet so therefore she is not available for adoption or any type of hosting. What a crapper. She's a doll.

Today I worked on getting the kids to pose for pictures and pull faces. This was one of very few where I was successful. Kat and me.

These guys hung out with us during the soccer part of the day. Not sure if they are a 'thing' as this was the only time they sat together like this. Who knows....

Watching the game, eating a chupas chupe or lollipop.

One of the girls took this picture. I don't know who she is but she is cute, so I put it on here:)

Showing off some stylin' face paint.

Can't remember their names. Sorry. They are sweet girls.

Soccer coach rock star. Can't remember her name either. She's not really that short, I'm standing on an incline. The boys love her. Back in the day she was a gymnast.

Good grief. It must be after midnight. I can't remember anybody's names. This little guy has a serious sweet tooth. He is ALWAYS trying to get more treats from me.

Great kid. He ping-pongs with us. Can't remember his name either.

Keeeem, this is the road on the way to you know where. Not sure that it is THE road, I think it's one of the more main streets. All the streets are tree lined. I love it.

More of the drive. This one is for sure the highway on the way there.

This is the road to there.

This park has been set up on the corner across from our apartment building. Both corners have little cafes with tables and chairs out where people gather to chat and eat. There is lots of music, too. It's not a great picture because I was trying to be sneaky so that I wouldn't get pegged as the creepy woman with the camera from America.

A different shot of the park.

Day 10-Thursday, part 1

Well, the roller coaster started late last night and is carrying on into today. We could use some extra prayers on our behalf for the SDA to remain open through their mid-June transition. This could affect not only us, but other families waiting as well. Thanks guys.

And now, for your early morning laugh:

The biggest packing advice I received prior to traveling was to PACK LIGHT!! I think I may have packed too lightly however because yesterday our Ukrainian facilitator, Elena, asked if I needed to borrow some of her clothes so that I could change mine. Niiiiiiiiiiice.

Day 8 and 9-Wednesday w/ Pictures

Holy Toledo. And I thought the white roller coaster at Lagoon was crazy! Short story, to a very lllllooooonnngggg story that I will spare you the details of, BoyOne said yes Tuesday morning when we showed up at the orphanage. We were completely shocked and not at all convinced. We had packed up our suitcases and purchased train tickets to leave later that night, along with contacting our travel agent to find tickets home. There was a boat load of drama the ENTIRE day. Exhausted because we weren't able to sleep, we showed up Wednesday expecting the worst still. That will be my advice. Expect the worst possible scenario and then be pleasantly surprised if it is any different! By the end of the day Wednesday we had accomplished a. lot. We have folks, in our hands (or rather the inspector's hands), the signed agreement for both boys to be adopted. Not only will we have two sons, but their grandmother as well (she's not coming with us, just a long distance granny). The end. More drama to come in the the next few days, weeks, months, etc... Be sure to check out the post right before this one as it has pictures from yesterday. Good times!

Thanks for all the love and prayers. I have a testimony of prayer and the power it brings to align our hearts and minds with the will of our Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for being so concerned for us and for our situation and for the boys. We felt your prayers with us today as the day's events unfolded. Just so you know, BoyOne was in no way bribed or coerced or did this with dragging feet either. And that was our prayer all along, that he would be able to know the will of the Father and be strong enough to do whatever was His plan. Wether it was to choose us or Ukraine we knew either option left a torn heart and truly wanted the best for him. He seems very calm since this decision and very happy...For your viewing enjoyment, here are more side ways pictures.

More landscape pictures for my newly returned friends to redeem this little village for them.

Again, for the SAC friends-they will recognize this statue, even if it is sideways:)

The orphanage (internat). Kind of looks like a gov't building. I guess it sort of is.

Peonies in front of internat. They are pink, but you can't tell from this picture.

We spent the afternoon at a park called Oak Grove (even though there were more chestnut and birch trees than oak). It was awesome. Picture every reject Lagoon ride from the 1940's. This is BoyTwo on the inflatable.

Huz and BoyTwo on the bumper cars. Go team!

BoyOne. Check out that smile on his face-along with the few too many dents on the car:)

BoyOne with his friend, Zheniya, whom we were permitted to take with us today.

Yana and me on the "Vatz", translated as the Waltz which is very misleading as it is more like Tilt-a-Whirl on steroids. By the way, I think the birds here are on crack. They SCREEEEECH and fly wildly around the sky all day like vultures only they are small birds...

BoyOne and Zheniya on 'The Vatz'. Good times.

A front shot of 'the Vatz'. Get the 40's vibe?

The boys with their sweet cotton as it is called here.

Before we even had tried any rides, BoyTwo got a bloody nose. They handle things of this nature slightly differently than we do here, but it's all good. BoyTwo was immediately laid down and a cold 'peevo' (beer-the only cold beverage we could find) was placed on his nose. When asked if he was feeling alright, his answer was this face and that everyone was green. (he was looking through the bottle at us)

Me, courtesy of BoyOne.

BoyTwo trying not to act too giddy about signing papers. He was in. heaven. And they just would. not. stop. talking. I leaned over to Yana and told her, 'They need to stop talking.' She answered, 'I cannot translate that, it would be bad.' hahaha. I wasn't thinking she would translate it, but maybe it wouldn't have hurt....

Huz, Babushka Rya, our new granny, and me. Isn't she darling?!

The boys with their babushka. She is an amazing woman who has lived an amazing life.

See? Aren't they darling?!

Days 8 and 9-Tuesday Pictures

Yeah, I know. Sideways again. Sorry. Just tilt your head. So this was so AWESOME!!! We were hanging out in the hallway of the entrance to the internat and these boys come traipsing down the hall towards us holding a TURTLE out in front of them. I LOVE turtles (and apparently all caps). I used to have a turtle named Izzy, he ate live gold fish. Keep in mind that all of this is gushing out of my mouth and being translated. 'What's his name? Where do you keep him? What does he eat?' and on and on and on. After a few seconds I realize that nobody is answering my questions and Huz says to me, 'Hon, I think they caught that in the pond and so they don't know what it eats and I don't think he has a name.' Still stuck on the pet thing, I say, 'What are you going to name him? Where will he stay? Did you really find him in the pond?!' By now the boys are pretty much laughing at me. They tell me that yes, they found it in the pond and I say, 'Let's go!!' But then Huz says we can't go to the pond right now and so we take the turtle outside in the tall grass and I don't know what came of him. the end

Team Ping-Pong. This is just a few of the many ping-pongers here at the internat. They can play for a really really long time. It's fun to watch. I tried to teach them around the world and they have played before but each using their own paddle. I explained the American way is trickier and they were willing to try and I played with them and I WON!!! This will be the only time that ever happens in my entire lifetime.

Ping-pongers:)

More ping-pongers. Pretty sure by the end we'll have more pics of ping-ponging than anything else.

A few of the boys shaking things up by playing some kind of soccer game while they wait for their turn at ping-pong.

A lady whom I have never met sent some hairbows to me through my friend/mentor Wendy to give to the girls at the internat. Here are a few pics of them. They were pretty pumped to get to choose their own and then keep it. They're not used to choosing things. Things are usually just handed to them and I suppose they either make due or trade. Anyhow, thanks hair bow lady for providing these bows for the kids and me with the opportunity to pass them out. You rock!

More hair bows. I know, side ways. I love their fake smiles. They don't really know what to do with a camera in their faces:)

More bows. This girl's name is Kat and she was sooooooooo shy and wouldn't come over to pick one out but I could see her eyeing this one so I picked it up and handed it to her and she had the biggest smile on her face-until I got the camera out.

This one's for you Renee! And Myck. Losha says thank you and hello. Romo was at an excursion so we haven't seen him. This is one cute kid.

Keeem! This one's for you:) He is a darling, sweet boy.