Feb 6th, 2008

Another good day at the orphanage, sorry we didn't get to take any photos of the other little ones, we will try again tomorrow! It's amazing how difficult it is to communicate your intentions when you can't speak the native language! We did bring a few packs of diapers for the orphanage and hope to pick some more up at the market tomorrow, it seems to be the biggest need they have.

I can't recall if we mentioned this already, we have our court date set for Feb 11th, we are planning to leave Ukraine on the 13th and spend some time at home with the kids and then Sheila will return around the 22nd to finish up the adoption.

So back to our day with Lera, at first it was kind of the usual story, the groupa was getting ready to go out and play, so Lera did not want to see Momma or Poppa, she wanted to play. We're ok with this, the caregivers seem to really try to push her to hang out with us, but we prefer to let her play, which worked out really good today. We hung with the groupa for about a half an hour, Lera was excited because we brought crackers, which she very diligently passed out one by one to the groupa(of course 5 for her) Then her and Sheila kind of snuck away playing soccer..that left me to the groupa...which tried to mug me of everything I had...we eventually got her away and had a great time, we played with her Kookla(dolly) for quite a while and then broke out the bubbles for some serious fun...we had to stop when we realized we had a huge audience looking out the window at us...I don't think the caregivers were to happy to have their charges jumping up and down at the window.

The coolest part for me was the army that marched through our fun time...I saw the advanced scout round the corner first...he appeared to be a little undsteady on his feet...then the rest of the troops wandered by on the wobbly mission, this apparently was the 2 to 3 year olds out for a walk...a guard brought up the rear...I made the mistake of saying zzdrastvituye(Hello) to her...she quickly lunged for the attack...but luckily her caregiver grabbed her before I could be hugged to death...and then they rounded the corner on this mission, it was quite the sight. I have to say this orphanage does not seem to be short on love and affection for the children, everyone knows everyone and smiles are a common sight.

The rest of the day was spent pushing Lera around on a little pedal car, she didn't quite have the pedalling part down, so we(Sheila) pushed her around the grounds, she loved it and was all smiles. We wrapped up the good times and returned her to the groupa's room and got the glorious hugs and kisses we live for. She is a sweetie and I can't wait to get her home to play with Mike and Caelie!