Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 17



We went to the orphanage today. There were so many kids there today. There were so many teenagers that I had not seen before. We have gone there before and saw barely anyone but today they were coming out of the woodwork. When we got there our younger boy was upstairs. Classes had gotten out not that long ago and his class was cleaning their common room and their bedrooms. They were putting things away and making beds. Most of the older kids, including our older boy, were hanging out here and there. Of course, our younger boy went out to play soccer (football) with Dad but I didn’t want to freeze so I stayed inside with the other families and our older boy. We made friendship bracelets and talked for a while. I asked him if he had his English class today and he said yes. I asked him what he did in English and he said they watched a Russian television show. I asked how is that studying English? He said he thinks his teacher just wanted to do her own thing and keep the kids busy.

We didn’t stay too long at the orphanage today. First off, you start to run out of things to do with the kids. Secondly, one of the husbands had to take the night train back to Kiev and we had to go with them because we are sharing a van. She will be without her husband now until this is all done so as soon as my Hubby leaves, we will be sharing an apartment to make things easier and safer. We still seem on schedule for court on Thursday but that is not set in cement yet and could change. If it doesn’t change, Hubby will head out to Kiev Thursday night, spend Friday night in Kiev and to the airport Saturday. He, along with our friend, is not happy about leaving us here without them. We aren’t happy about it either but time will eventually go by and this will all be behind us. The weekdays are definitely easier than the weekends.

I would love to post more pictures but it takes at least five or so minutes to download to the site so I am just posting this one today. We are in the cafeteria or cantina as they call it and we were sitting at one of the tables. This is a picture of Hubby and I, obviously, our translator, Natalie, and our boys. I should tell you that each class (or age group) has a scheduled time to eat in this room. Certain children, on some sort of schedule, are designated to set the food out and serve their classmates. They have three meals a day and three snacks. Once Natalie and I were offered the drink they have with their snack. It was such a nice gesture. I thought that it was milk and I cannot drink milk so I politely accepted it and just held it for a while. I smelled it and realized that their drink snack is a coffee and milk drink. Healthy, huh?!? I told Natalie that in America we do not allow our children to drink coffee and she was shocked! Why not, she asked. That was interesting to explain but I did my best to explain that coffee has caffeine and other acids and things in it that we do not consider healthy. And, honestly, do we really want children to have more energy than they already have!

Another day down. We are gearing up for court. We are praying that the judge will have a soft heart and we will be blessed with the words we need to answer questions. Thanks as always for thoughts and prayers. Thanks Garth for the update on our family. We ask the kids what they are doing and they didn’t mention any of that so it is nice to know what is really going on. Love to everyone!!!

3 comments:

  1. I'm loving the balloons and the mosaic of the rainbow in that room! Bright and cheery:) Pretty excited to be there all. by. myself. when it's our turn after your comment about being safe. I had to laugh about the english class watching a russian movie. It sounds like my school here. Instead of instruction they watch cartoons. Nice. Loved the pictures from today. Everybody is looking so happy:)

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  2. I have been looking at the city of Kiev on GoogleEarth and looking at landmarks. I searched areas that looked open areas around the city because your picture seemed to not have much in the background. I found it in the West part of the city and was surprised at how open the area was based on the size of the city. There were tons of high-rise apartments all over the place and some regular looking neighbors in spots.
    We went to weigh in at Richins tonight. Zachary says Dusty's car has been done for a while. We were late getting over there because I didn't get it painted Saturday and I had to do it fast and put it in front of a space heater to get it dry fast. Zachary was excited to help at first then got bored in no time. He thought he could sand it in about 3 minutes. I'll try to give you a run down tomorrow on the Pinewood Derby unless Dusty wins then I will let him tell you. It will be fun no matter who wins.
    What town is the orphanage in? How far on the train? Sorry if you already gave these details, I'm catching up with you.

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  3. Sorry I didn't say it was the temple I was searching for and it looks cool from GoogleEarth.

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