Good Luck Ben!!!
A casual morning for a change. Cloudy and rainy as usual. Start a load of laundry, one small load seems to take all day. We head down the main intersection and have McDonalds for lunch.
1:30 we head for the orphanage. This is our first day visiting on our own. Taking the bus is a breeze, there is a bus 109 about every 5 minutes. The bus is $2 grivna (22 cents) for each of us, each way. We arrive at our stop and walk to Orphanage #2. 25 minutes from our door to her door.
Elona comes out all smiles and one of the house mamas takes us to the music room so we can meet alone. This is also a new rule, we must be isolated from the other children.
Elona has made us a Valentine Card with heart and flowers. There is a note in Russian inside and an ‘I love you’ in English. She reads the Russian to us and then we both get hugs. Yeah. We exchange some gifts we brought for her, stumbling over the language barrier. But with the Russian/English picture book I brought and Roger using the Russian phase book we borrowed from Pam and Len, we got it figured out.
We do a few more pages in the I Spy book ( I wish I had brought more than one), it gives her great practice with English words and counting. We can tell she will learn quickly, easily recognizing words when we see them again, counting and doing simple math. We switch to UNO. She didn’t seem to know the game right away, but if she didn’t she picked, it up quickly. Her personality really started to show during the game, very playful and expressive. We took some pictures, but the Ministry frowns on publishing photos of the children before the adoption is final, so you will have to wait.
It is time to go and we get more hugs, BIG HUGS. We look up in the phrase book “we will be back tomorrow”. Roger and I head back to the bus……everything is good.
Tomorrow we will try to take pictures of Sevastopol.
Thanks to all you blog followers. We love to read the comments. You would not believe how much it means to us. Roger and I look everyday to see who is signed on.
Roger and Kelley
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying your blog very much. Love the photos. What an amazing beginning to your future new family!
Being of 100% Ukrainian descent, I suppose one of these years I ought to make Ukraine a travel destination ... now that I'm finally over the trauma of being forced to go to Ukrainian school every Saturday morning - for 13 years - when I was growing up in Cleveland. Obviously, THAT experience molded the unfavorable opinion I had of my parents' homeland. It also nurtured the shame I felt about Ukraine's lot as perennial victim in its long, tragic history. But, I can't deny that I am proud of its rich, cultural heritage. Ukrainian, the language that has caused you some momentary delays is THE world's most lyrical language (yes, it is) and I am thrilled to hear that they are making an effort to phase it back into daily use. Listen, if I had to learn it, it's about time the Ukrainian people learned it!
The native language wasn't the only thing that was lost during Russian occupation. Ukraine's beautiful folk art, their music, dance, and love of life too, were annihilated by brutality and have remained largely lost ... some things, sadly, are gone for ever no thanks to their nasty neighbor to the east. The Russians were still barbarians when Kiev was the very seat of early Slavic civilization and yet today Ukraine is treated like the Kremlin's dull-witted nephew. (Is my inbred hatred of Russia showing? Sorry, but the Jewish holocaust was nothing compared to Stalin's genocide - the Ukrainian Holodomor. His forced famine, engineered to break national pride, starved nearly 9 million Ukrainians in 1932-33 - that's 25% of the population wiped out in one year. And guess what? If you look in history books, you won't find it...) If they can rediscover even a sliver of their former national identity, there's still hope for Ukrainians. And one can only pray that one of these days Putin CHOKES on his stuffed cabbage.
I don't have any relatives in Kiev or Sevastopol otherwise I'd have directed you to go and enjoy the hospitality of a Yurchenko or Hajduk (hi-duke). Keep posting all those photos and wonderful details about your trip. Greetings to Elona! Before you know it, she'll be standing on Miami, collecting twizzlers and tootsie rolls in a Kroger bag at Madeira's next 4th of July parade...
Wishing you smooth sailing through all the red tape ... sounds like you're well on your way!
Irene Devine
Roger & Kelly-
ReplyDeleteI'm so moved by your decision to take on this adventure. And I thank you for sharing it with all of us.
And Roger, I've known you and loved you for over 30 years, and you never cease to amaze and impress me.
Hugs all around.
-M
Hi guys.... I am loving your blog! It's so great to know how well things are going! HUGS! YEAH! She is so sweet isn't she? We'd like to call sometime when you're with Elona so Angella can say hi. Time zones will make that challenging but we'll figure it out. Happy Sunday to you!
ReplyDeleteHi guys tis is angella.... tell elona hi from America. I can't waten to see her. Love, Angella
ReplyDelete