Day 12 in Ukraine; Day 8 at the orphanage

Maks and David working on the bike
Our attemt to "Americanize" them with game boy and potato chips is not intentional!
David taught Maks the trick with the Pringles

The title has a certain dramatic effect, does it not? 12 days in the Ukraine?! Maybe it doesn't sound quite as long to you as it does to us. Right now, it is 10pm here and we have awoken (don't know why) after falling asleep watching the 6-hour mini-series, Pride & Predjudice (thank you Tonya). We watch the dvd on the computer which is propped up on 6 books between us on the bed. The 10" TV has a dvd player. We were quite excited about that until we realized the subtitles are turned on and the remote control to turn them off is long gone. Now, we are waiting for the kids at home to skype us. Don't have any earth-shattering news to bring you today, so thought we'd just offer you a current "day in the life". This is a bold request, but if you are reading, please leave us a comment. We crave to hear or see anything from home. We shamelessly check the blog, emails, facebook like 5 or 10 times a day at least.

8:30-David goes for a run. He was quite proud to make it TWO times around the square today. He figures at least 3 miles! He's already starting his training for next year's Flying Pig, and at this pace will be almost ready come next May. :)

9:00-I'm up checking every piece of computer communication we have, although it is 2am at home. David gets home and hops in the shower. Our little flat is a bedroom (think small), walk into the little sitting room (think real small) and shower is attached to that. So, I'm on Facebook reading around, and I hear silence in the shower after only 2 or so minutes. Then I hear a little screech, and it seems the water has stopped. David, cold and soaped up, is standing in the shower with no water. While we're chatting about it (me, casually and David, not so casually) the water comes back on but it freezing cold. So it happens again and again until he does manage to get all the soap and dirt off his body.

9:30-I'm not so lucky. We think we're not going to the orphanage today until 2, when the kids get home from school. So, I'm taking my time, working on my Bible study when there is a knock at the door. It is Anna telling me she's been to the Inspector's office for papers, and she has come back to get us. We need to go sign a paper. I quickly put on my dirty pair of jeans from yesterday (I only brought 2. Decided less clothes and more food in the suitcase served me well).

10:00-I hastily make my way outside, but we are now waiting on David. It seems he has lost the keys to our flat. He only went from our flat to the steps of the porch, but they are gone. We look and look and eventually he decides it best to open Tatiana's key door (THE Tatiana from Tatiana's Romantica where we are residing) and try all the keys until he can find the one which locks our door. Keep in mind it really makes no difference whether we lock or door or not. Every day Tatiana comes in our room and takes out the trash, does her laundry (as the washing machine is in "our" flat normally known as Tatiana and her husband's bedroom. Hilarious!!! It's always quite exciting to see what will be or not be in our room. She is very sweet. I wish I could talk to her. She is a grandmother and her sweet little granddaughter comes each day before school and "Papa" walks her to school. Poor Papa is sleeping in the office right now!

10:30-At the Inspector's office. David and I sit in the middle of a room with 5 desks surrounding us. There are 7 people standing around us talking at once. We are sitting in the middle of the room, where they asked us to sit, and looking around at them smiling. They don't smile very often. All the words for us to sign a small piece of paper saying the Inspector filled out paperwork for the case and it was taken to the Mayor. Something to do with paperwork, the Mayor, and picking it up.

11:00-We go to get a paper at the orphanage except their are two vans full of German people who have come to drop off LOTS of chocolate bunnies and things from Easter to the orphanage. Anna goes in and comes right back out. She doesn't like the German language, and cannot stand to be around them. So, we wait in the car. Hilarious again!! We did learn some history though about Germans and Ukrainians that was quite interesting. It seems about a dozen people from Germany drove here to drop off these things. We wondered why they didn't offer these gifts in Germany. Kostya, our driver, said that they don't have all the orphanages like the Ukraine and the government takes care of their orphans different than the Ukraine. So we wait a LONG time, not quite sure how long in the car. We've done lots of this in the past 12 days so we are prepared with books on hand.

12:30ish-The Germans have left so we are now free to enter the building without the disruption their language might cause. We go in to talk to the orphanage director with Anna. We ask some questions about other children that were hosted this summer and ask her some more questions about our kids. She is very gracious to answer all our questions. We also ask Anna to express how much we appreciate her because she was so good to us to send us notes from the kids and pictures and we know this doesn't happen normally. We tell her that we are grateful that she has cared for them and that we are going to do everything we can to show them love and believe they will be a beautiful part of our family. At this point, David has to hand tissues to Anna and me and one for him. It was a touching moment. Anna gets quite emotional tells us, "you break my heart." She says she has heard from many of the families that she has worked with and that the kids do wonderful. "All they need is a family, they need love," she says.

1:30-We spend the next 3 or so hours with the kids. It is nice today because we are able to go outside with them and spend time with just them. We brought a can of Pringles (extra cheese kind that we bought in the grocery store here). The kids loved that treat! It didn't take us long to eat the whole can especially since David and I hadn't eaten since our peanut butter tortilla in the morning. Our kids, on both continents, got to talk on the phone together. That was sweet. David and Maks worked to fix his bike. Did I tell you that he and one other boy have a bike in the orphanage? There are some definite favorites going on in there, and our three get to enjoy being three of the favorites. They do get some special treatment. We blew some balloons and played around with those. Natasha decided to go mess with three teenage girls who decided to come hang out in one of the covered areas of the orphanage. That girl is a spit-fire! Of course, we don't know what was said, but it seems Maks heard enough to walk over there and tell the girls a thing or two??!!

Okay, I know there are more hours in the day but if you are as bored reading this as I am recalling it, I'll spare us all the agony. Enjoy the pictures and THANK YOU for sharing in this experience with us.

Please pray the documents get here from Kiev that are needed for court on Thursday. They are supposed to sign off and put them on a bus or train or something tomorrow to get here tomorrow evening. My plane ticket is purchased and my bags are almost packed. Love, Jenny and David