Killing Time, and Not Each Other

We are settling in to wait. Now that we have official (if not physically) been awarded Elona’s adoption, we can pick her up every day and take her out of the orphanage. She is still attending school, so on week days we pick her up at 4:00 and return her by 6:30 so she can eat at the orphanage, yum. That is not a lot of time, but on average the trip takes 20 minutes each way, so it is really worth it to bring her back to the apartment instead of sitting in a room at the orphanage. We play cards, do educational computer games and eat snacks. She loves trail mix and Wednesday we introduced her to nachos. We used up the last of the tortilla chips and salsa that Kevin had given us. We melted some cheese over the chips in the microwave and served them with the Pace medium salsa. I explained that this was Mexican food and got the point across by singing the ‘La Coocaratia’ song, which she recognized immediately. Elona was eager to try. Her eyes widened and she waved her hand in front of her mouth, indicated that the salsa was hot. She did this the entire time, but it did not stop her from dipping each chip in the salsa and finished off every last tiny piece.

I thought we should tell you a little more about how we are surviving here in Sevastopol. We would like to encourage anyone that is considering adoption to consider the Ukraine. Even though we have had limited contact with the other children, we have seen enough to know that there are wonderful children here that need homes, we have picture of some we will gladly share when we return. Most important there are people here that you can trust to help you identify children that will fit into your family. These are people like Sveta and Galya. Galya has already told us to ask if anyone would be interested in adopting a 13 year old boy. We have seen him briefly and he is very handsome. She has known him for a long time and says he is a great kid. They cannot understand why he has not been adopted before. They would love to find him a loving home.

As for this whole process, obviously it is the amount of time you most spend her that is the real issue. But living in Sevastopol is very easy. The apartment is very comfortable and being close to the city center makes it very convenient. We are close to the market, restaurants, shopping and the bus. The first photo shows our apartment building at the top of the hill, then the back of the building (all entrances and parking for tenants). The last photo shows the entrance to the stairwell leading to our apartment. They are all like this, very sterile, gloomy and with key code access. Our apartment is on the first floor. The door to our apartment is very new and secure, the key turns deadbolts on all four sides of the door and all the windows have bars.

The key to our sanity has got to be our lap top. This is by far the most important thing that we brought with us and the unlimited internet is worth the 100 greivna ($10) a month that we spend. With this we can talk to family, send and receive emails. We use it to communicate with our facilitators and the US Embassy. Sveta handed us a Ukrainian cell phone almost the minute we got off the plane, but we use it very little.

Our lap top is also invaluable in filling the time we spend waiting to go to the orphanage. It keeps us up on what is going on back in the States. We listen to WVXU ever morning. First the BBC and then Morning Addition. We watch the Evening News everyday (the next day) and we can also read the Enquire. But entertainment is also important. Last week we watched our last Soprano’s episode. We have looked for TV episodes on the web, but have discovered that all network shows are blocked out from the US. Thankfully we have Comedy Central. Now every evening after dinner, we sit down in front of the computer and watch “The Daily Show” and “the Colbert Report”. Good thing or we may have returned from Ukraine not know what “twittering “was.

So that I don’t bore you completely, I will break up ‘What it is Like to Live Here’ into different blogs. Tomorrow…..what we eat. How exciting