Day 21

I will start off by introducing you to the names of our boys – (older boy) Vitaliy William and (younger boy) Sasha Thomas! I think we are safe enough by now to say that.

It was a much warmer day today. I didn’t think I would need my coat but I am glad I took it. The back play area at the orphanage where the soccer field is always seems colder and windy. After a somewhat lazy morning and a quick trip to get some groceries and water (cause you can’t drink the tap water) we were off to the orphanage. We shared a van with “K”, the “C” family and I along with our interpreters. We found Sasha out in back playing soccer and we, Natalie our interpreter and I, watched him for a while. I took some pictures out there and inside today. There were many kids outside playing today because it was so much warmer. Vitaliy met us outside and we ended up going inside. We played Pictionary (without the actual game) by ourselves up there and headed downstairs to the cantina. Today is April Fool’s Day so the kids had a performance planned. The other pictures were taken during that performance. It was very similar to watching a young men/young women combined activity with a few scouting skits added to the mix. They did one skit that our cub scouts did at our recent Blue and Gold Banquet. There were about seven or so kids lined up with different hats or costumes on each kid representing a person in a story. The narrator read the story and every time their name was said in the story they stepped forward and said their line that represented their character. It was really funny even though we didn’t understand a word. Being around the language long enough you kind of get the rhythm for certain things. I have understood more in conversation recently than I had when we first got here. The day of court, while waiting in the van, the driver had a soap opera style show on a monitor. I didn’t understand the language but I could still predict what they were going to do next. By the end of the night I am ready to shut off the Russian language for a while. We met a very nice man in the store tonight who spoke English and helped us with the cashier. The people have been nothing but nice here the whole time. There is a certain restaurant that we have gone to often enough that the people working there get a kick out of us trying to order. But, they are so good about it and those who do speak a few words of English like to use those opportunities to use them.

Sasha reminded me that we have nine days left of our waiting period. He was acting up during the performance and my friend’s Hubby pointed at him and said, “isn’t that your son?” I said,” not officially, not for another nine days, so don’t look at me.” Sasha also walked me out to the van and was very adamant that I come again tomorrow. Vitaliy took off part way through the performance and I couldn’t find him in time before we left so I didn’t say goodbye but we will be back tomorrow.

We tried to get in before dark because it is Friday night and doesn’t feel as safe outside on Friday and Saturday nights. All is well. Andy is in Kiev and flies out tomorrow. He actually arrives Saturday at 2:10 not Sunday, my bad. Love you all!