Last Night as Family of Two

We have visited the children every day since we arrived. Many of their friends stop by to say hello and it's always nice to see them. It's very easy to get attached to these kids. We met a couple from Italy who is adopting a little boy. We have enjoyed visiting with them as well. We talked about the distances we traveled to get here. They have a two and half hour plane flight plus the train ride. We have a 13 hour plane flight plus the train ride. They have already been here 4-5 weeks and they look like we did when we were ready to leave on our first trip. It's nice to see other people willing to take the abuse to change a child's life. The little boy they are adopting is 7 years old, but looks much younger. He is a very happy little boy. He is always smiling. He seems to know M, O, and V. We exchanged addresses and phone numbers so we can keep in touch.

Since we are staying with friends here the stay has been so much better than our first trip. We enjoy our evening conversations and dinner and it's so nice to have other people who speak English. June is very good with Russian and has been a big help to us with translating. I was finally able to order the chicken pizza with June's help! All of us walked to the city park today just in time to see some sunshine. We ate dinner at a local bar -- Tim's description: open faced ham sandwich with mayonaise and tomatoes on white bread. It cost a whopping 80 cents. But the best part was they had "potatoes free" which translates to FRENCH FRIES! We each had a plate of french fries then stopped for ice cream and cookies on the walk back to the apartment. It's about a mile walk each way.

Tonight is the last night our children will spend in the orphanage. We will sign papers with the Director tomorrow then we will all stay at the apartment on Monday night and leave on the train to Kiev on Tuesday. We booked a full cabin which sleeps four. J & D booked the cabin next to us. It will be nice to travel back to Kiev with them. We should arrive in Kiev before Noon on Wednesday.

O is counting the days until she comes with us. M is excited too, but like a typical boy doesn't ask every 5 minutes when we are leaving for Kiev. Tim and the boys played soccer today. V has mastered his MP3 Player. He figured out how to use it as a recorder and recorded himself singing Rap music in Russian....very interesting. He has also figured out his cell phone. He understands it better than I do and changed the display and switched it from English to Russian. They are all very bright kids. M has been helping us with our translating. He understands more English than we thought. That will be our biggest hurdle. Communicating is hard and it takes patience to look up words and give information to the kids.

We are very excited about tomorrow and hope there are no delays along the way.

Thanks for your messages!

Sharon and Tim