Still no court date!
Trip Start
Unknown
1
12
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Donetsk, Donets'ka, Ukraine
Monday, August 13, 2012
When we arrived at the Orphanage, we found Katya in the pool, swimming. All the children were having a fabulous time and were splashing as much as possible! After she was done, we went outside for a snack and some colouring. She asked me show her how to write, so we printed all our names - she was very proud of her accomplishments. From what we know, this was probably her 1stattempt of printing in any language. On our way home, we did a little exploring and visited this large church. It looks brand new, as they still have scaffolding up and all of the new icons are covered with plastic. Since all we ever see in Ukraine are churches that have been here for MANY years, this was an unusual sight. During our afternoon visit, Katya was able to talk to Babtsi Mary, and asked her if she would make her pyrohy when she comes to Canada! My "Mother Blessing Bracelet has been a huge hit again! The children love to look at all the beads, it's just too bad that my second bracelet broke while we were traveling to Ukraine on the plane – obviously God knew we were adopting one more child.
Thursday, August 9th
The 34° - 38° heat, plus all of the traveling to and from the Orphanage is getting to Marco. He woke up exhausted today. Marco and Stayed home in the morning to rest while Michael got some father / daughter time. By the afternoon, Marco was rested and off we all went. We are able to visit Katya twice a day – from10:00am until noon and 4:00 until 6:00pm. Between walking and taking the bus, it takes us a half an hour to get to the Orphanage. Today it was all little cooler outside, so all the children had twice as much energy and were running everywhere! We sang “You are my Sunshine"to Katya and she danced for us. She has some very special moves that she loves to do. Then this cute little boy came up to us and started shaking his booty and singing “I like you MOVE IT, MOVE IT!” in his cute Russian accent! It was hilarious! We gave Katya a little icon on a stand today and she was so excited, she had to show everyone! She is such a caring child, she wants to share everything with her friends – food, drinks, stickers, it’s so nice to see. She absolutely loves children who are younger than her. When I asked her what kind of doll she wanted, she said a little baby. When we came home, there was this puddle of water leaking from under the sink. As Michael was searching for the source, It urned on the water tap to wash some vegetable, the tap came off in my hand and there was a fountain of water spouting everywhere! As I tried to hold down the geyser, Michael found the water valve and shut it off. It’s a good thing we both have a good sense of humor! Our land lady is going to try to send someone to fix it tomorrow morning, so that means no visit with Katya tomorrow morning.In the meantime, we have no water! “It’s Ukraine!”
Friday, August 10
Every morning, at around 8:30am, this lady within our compound yells “Maaaarrrrcccccooooo”! We’re not sure if she is calling for a cat or dog or what?! It’s SOOO funny!! Marco sure gets a kick out of it too.
At 1030 am we received a call from our facilitator this morning saying the plumber will be here at 3pm to fix the pipes and tap so we can finally have water! Knowing that, there wasn’t much time to get to the orphanage to visit Katya so we hightailed it to the bus stop. We spent some more quality time with our new addition playing games and munching on fruit. OMG...can this little girl eat! Super great to see Marco and Katya having a lot of fun playing hide and seek. She just loves playing with her big brother. After the visit we briefly checked out the market to find shoes and girly outfits for Katya. Oh boy was Tasha having fun with this!
The plumber left the flat and we now have water!!!! Oh ya, uh huh... we can bathe now!
Saturday, August 11
Once again we had a fun filled time with our precious Katya. This time we were able to play with her for nearly 2 hours! Super great quality time! Tasha asked Katya if she would like to help her cook in the kitchen, she said “yes, with Baba and Babtsi”. She then stated that she would like to cook soup, pyrohy, buns and a whole bunch of other things we didn’t understand – “oh and Tato can help out too!” We left back to our flat to have lunch and rest up as our driver Volodya was picking us up at 4pm to show us the sights of the city and show us some historical areas and Churches. Volodya is the greatest, showing us many areas of the city that helped us document the culture and history of Donetsk for Katya. As we did with Marco’s process, we want for Katya to know about the city and country that shies from. We paid our respects at many beautiful churches, took photos at a giant cannon at City Hall, a metal works art display in a popular city park and of course Marco just had to see the tanks and military display at the war memorial. Although Donetsk is a coal mining town it doesn’t feel industrial.This city is beautiful and filled with many wonderful things to do for families. Further, Donetsk was one of the cities to host the Euro Cup soccer(football) series and this giant new soccer stadium commands a place in central Donetsk.
Sunday, August 12
We had a great game of animal charades today, using all 3 languages – Marco and Katya had a blast and could have played all day! We bought Katya a simple book of mazes and she loves doing them. She’s still having problems staying within the lines, but we are not sure if it’s a coordination weakness or a fact that she is having problems seeing since her operation. I’m sure once we get her a better prescription in Canada, it should help. Our afternoon visit was cut short today. We were having a great time and all of a sudden the caregivers were yelling at all the children to get inside the building. Then they started telling us the same thing. They then told us to quickly get home because big storm was going to hit in the next 10 minutes. So we hurried home...it’s10:42pm and we’ve still haven’t seen a drop of rain! I have to say that we fit in to “Ukraine / Europe” quite quickly this time. Since we have arrived, we’ve been asked for directions a few times and about 3 times, Tasha has been asked if she is from Poland!
Monday, August 13
Today we brought a large bag of cookies and a Canadian Frisbee to the Orphanage – the kids went crazy! They gobbled up the cookies and then everyone wanted to play Frisbee. Within a hour, the Frisbee was cracked in 2places; it’s a good thing we brought 2! We’ve really been enjoying shopping at this bazaar that is near our house. And...still no court date!
Comments
Enjoying your pctures!! Hope you hear that the Court date is soon.
Crossing my fingers for you! Love the posts and the pics - thanks for sharing!
XOXO
Awesome pictures! What a great looking family!!
It's great to hear the wonderful news and stories, we are following your blog and anticipating the next entry. Hope everything continues to go well, best wishes from all of us.
we are so thrilled that this precious little girl has found such a loving family. we can hardly wait to meet her. famiiy means everything, but to a child it is the world.