Another Fun Filled Day

Breakfast has been eaten. Lunches are packed. And we're off to see the kids with snacks and gifts in hand.

Anna loved the head bands we brought her and insisted on wearing all 6 at the same time. These of course kept slipping off. Luckily, her braids caught them most of the time. She also enjoyed the colorful modeling clay that we had bought earlier in the week. William posted a picture on Facebook of "our home" that she made with it.

Misha was thrilled with the soccer ball that we brought. He and William immediately went outside for an impromptu game. When Anna and I joined the guys outside, the game had moved from the small dirt field to the parking lot and several of the other boys from the orphanage joined in. Anna became BUG HUNTER EXTRODANAIRE. This girl is great at catching crickets and praying mantis. This activity kept her occupied for quite a while. She even got William and all the other boys in on the action. We spent most of our visit outside as it was a beautiful sunny day. The soccer game continued to evolve into different forms and to move to different places around the building. Anna, not too interested in the ball, created her own entertainment: climbing up the sand pile and running down into my arms, running races with Nastia (red hair), smelling flowers - a very creative girl.

After the visit, it was back to the Internet Club to catch up on emails/blogs and then our now customary walk home. Once home, we realized that we were missing our Flip camera and our digital camera. (We only knew this because we needed to recharge the batteries.) Our coordinator called Olga (the driver), but they weren't in her car. Because it was Sunday, there was no one to answer the office phones at the orphanage. Olga and our coordinator took me back to the orphange to check if the cameras were there. Wahoo! There they were - in the Green Room. One bonus to this extra journey was getting to see Misha again. Misha made sure that we knew that tomorrw he would like us to bring a ball pump and more snacks. (Really, what kid doesn't like junk food.)

Back at the apartment, we had rotisseri chicken that we bought from a vendor near the Internet Club and our coordinator fixed Ukrainian Salad: tomato, cucumber, onion, dill, parsley, salt, oil & vinigar. For those who know me - yes, I ate some, even the tomatoes. (I'm starting to kind of like cucumbers.) The salad was very tasty. It is a popular dish here in the Ukraine. The more dishes I can learn, the more things I can serve to the kids and help them enjoy known foods.

We still need to change our airline ticket back to the US since our court date is quickly approaching. Tomorrow, however, is Labor Day in the US. I emailed our travel agent nonetheless and figured he would get back as soon as he could.

As we spend time here, it can be very frustrating not understaning the language (much like I'm sure the children will feel like when they come to the US). I am so thankful that William has some Russian language background. (He minored in it in college.) Even though it's been 18 years since college, he gets the gist of most things and is improving every day. There's nothing like having your 5 year old tell you something obviously very important to her and not have a clue to what she's saying. I guess I need to study and learn more Russian/Ukranian. I can't very well call William at work every time Anna says something to me.