Thursday, February 7, 2008

Interesting Day

We slept late today, again. It's so weird to go from such a hectic pace everyday to a very slow pace where you have a lot of time on your hands. It's actually been a good thing because we've been forced to slow down. We realize that once the adoption is done and we get back home we will be at warp speed again so we will take this time that we have and enjoy it.

Our taxi driver is a great guy. He is from this region and knows alot about the city. He took us to two museums this week. He doesn't speak English and we don't speak Russian, but he and Tim have figured out how to communicate using the computer translator that Jyl let us borrow. We have enjoyed his company. We also met a man on the train last week on our way here. He was born in this region and left here when he was 19 years old and moved to Boston. He had a mixed Russian/Boston accent! I had asked the train steward when we needed to get off the train and she didn't speak English. She must have known he did, because she went to get him to ask me what I wanted. His name is David and he was on his way to visit his Dad in the next town over. He told me his story and asked us about ours. Turns out he is married to a woman from Sugar Land. Her parents still live there and he's visited. The world isn't such a big place after all.

We still don't know about our court date. We hope to know something on Feb. 12. We just have to take it a day at a time and hope for a speedy court date. Then we can come home for 10 days before coming back to get the children. The kids asked us today when they will be coming with us to America. They seem very excited. We have really enjoyed our visits with the kids. We usually play cards, color, draw, do puzzles and that type of thing. The hardest thing is communicating. Our translator had to go to Kiev to get things done so we have been on our own most of this week. We spent our time yesterday working a puzzle and the 5 of us plus Y finished it in 1 hour. We usually bring snacks and drinks. M LOVES Coke. I'm discovering that O might be a candy fiend:-). They also love fruit, especially bananas. V likes fish.

Today we tried to communicate using the electronic translator and had some success. M loves electronics. O showed us her art tablet. She has some beautiful drawings. We had a visit from KMB today. She visited with us most of the day and showed us that she can write out Mama in English. The time goes by fast when we are visiting with the kids. We are usually in a room in the school building. When it's time to go we go out to the courtyard to wait for our taxi. Today there were a lot of children in the courtyard. It looks like they have another bike. Tim took video of M riding the bike around the courtyard. O wanted me to take pictures of her with all of her friends. We finally saw S (Ann and Keith)and took his picture. He is just as shy as he was when he was here, but he had a BIG smile when he saw us.

We miss you all!!

3 comments:

Betty&Jim said...

Wow February 12th!! Sorry for the delay! Sounds like ya'll keep pretty busy with the kids. The recent update over here. Today (Thursday-Feb 7th) Bob and Stephen are on their was to Galveston for a couple of days to hang out, metal detect and run their gas cars. I booked them a room out there. He said it's a beautiful day. They are doing the male bonding before Stephen leaves in 3 days.They wish you were with them Tim! Another update, he has changed his career path to Navy Seal. He passed as a physical test and will go that direction. So his home base will be San Diego for awhile. Other than that, life is the same over here! Love Brenda

adopting2fromUkraine said...

You are very wise to appreciate every minute you have there with O and M. Once you get back home, time goes so much faster.

Dennis said that he saw three bikes. There was only one or two days when we were there that they were able to go outside and ride them.

Anonymous said...

It's getting really close. How exciting!!! I bet the kids are really getting anxious, sounds like it anyway. It sounds very interesting over there. Can't wait to hear more about your adventure when you get back. Can't wait for the kids to be with you either. This is really cool that we can stay in communication but it's not like the real thing. Miss you and can't wait til your all home.

Kathi