Back to Friday, Saturday and Sunday

This picture was taken Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe BoyOne actually agreed to have his picture taken without flashing some gangster sign!! A miracle!! All captions will be underneath.

Sunday afternoon we found a park to play at. We were a lot underdressed. Everyone else was in their Sunday best. And not just because it was Sunday. We passed this same park yesterday and same thing, dressed to the hilt. Weird. When we were there, we saw a woman smacking her daughter, who was probably only one, with a stick. Natasha told me that just recently a law was passed in Ukraine making it illegal to beat your child(ren). Guess this woman didn't get the update.

These are the cobblestone roads of Kyiv. If it looks like a bunch of torn up rocks, you are right. I can't imagine being here in the fall or winter and having to walk on it when it is rainy or snowy. Yikes!!! Imagine all the broken ankles!

This was at the park on Sunday. There was this statue of some animal, not sure what kind, but BoyTwo sat on it and I took his picture. A while later, a couple came to the park and they took turns posing on the statue and photographing each other. Guess you're never too old?...

Hi, my name is Stephanie and I just adopted two boys from Ukraine.
I need to join AA as in Adopters Anonymous.

BoyOne took this picture of me on the train. "Zombie! Zombie!" they say. Unfortunately, I wasn't trying to be a zombie, this is just me after a really looooong day.

BoyTwo wanted to sleep on the top bunk on the train. Yelena was worried about him falling off, which is probably a legitimate concern given how much he moves around during the night.
And, they worked, nobody fell off their bunk!

Yana and the boys. She has been so good to us and to them. I recommend her a million times over if you ever need a translator in the Zaporizhye region. She has facilitated before also. She rocks. I can't say enough good things about her!!

A beautiful rainbow. It was a double actually but you can't really see the other one. It was really brilliant, but again, it doesn't look as bright as it really was.

Losha and Roma. They were asking about Myck and Renee and Dale. I saw Roma the most. He is a good kid. They both are.

This is BoyOne with his teacher on the end, Marina is her name, the director, Larissa, (Marina and Larissa are sisters) and the three girls in his class.

Well, Friday BoyOne remembered he had left a couple of things at the orphanage. Apparently they had been locked in the closet and the caregiver with the key was not there the day that we left. So, after getting permission from Larissa to come back, we did. It was kind of weird/funny/uncomfortable to go back. I was worried about the other kids feeling badly again and about making the teachers mad. We tend to cause quite a stir. Not wanting any kids feeling worse than they already may have, I was willing to risk ticking the caregivers off and we loaded up on food and treats to hand out to everyone.

While we were at the orphanage, BoyOne asked permission for his friend to come back to Zap and hang out with us for the night. I didn't really want to do this because we would be taking only one with us and I don't like to leave anyone out. I also am running out of money and didn't want to have to pay for the driver to go back to Matviivka again!! In the end we ended up taking one boy with us back to the apartment, eating dinner, watching t.v. and buying yet more food to send back for sharing.

It was actually fun to go back to Matviivka. The kids were surprised and excited to see us again. I told them we missed it here so much that we had to return. They thought that was pretty funny. Because it was a Friday evening, supervision was pretty lax and I was able to just hang out and watch the kids and chat with others. It was a good ending.

The boy that came with us was in BoyOne's class. His name is Yena. Not to be confused with Yana. We don't have the letter in our alphabet that his name starts with. It's the German throaty h sound. Anyhow... We had a great night and I hope that we sent him back to Matviivka with a very full stomach.

Saturday I think I talked about quite enough, minus the train ride. I do love the train. There were quite a lot of tears between me and BoyOne. Things were good though.

Sunday we hung out around Kyiv and had a lovely time.

Some things I have not mentioned before are the street people we saw. By far this trip I saw more homeless people than in our previous trips and it hurt my heart. Especially because already it is so cold at night and it will only get colder. From the window of my bedroom and the kitchen of the apartment we stayed in we could easily see the dumpster. Every time I ever looked out the window I saw people eating out of it. I know this is a problem in our country as well and it doesn't matter where it happens or why, it is an unfortunate thing. BoyOne always would give any food we had with us or copics (change) to them as he remembers what it was like to beg for food. He has a good heart. We were at McDonalds once and a homeless woman came in with her children and was trying to beg money off of people. I gave her some change. BoyOne gave her children the remainder of his meal.

Well, I'm having a hard time thinking of what else happened, although I know there was more. I'll have to try to remember for later. Tune in for next time when I will write about the fun day we had yesterday and today, especially. And no, I'm not saying that with sarcasm. Things are going well here. Phew!!!!