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?!