С Новым годом!-Happy New Year!

Kari:

Today I wake up with Vasya still on my mind. I pray he will find a loving family. So many things can happen. What if his brother goes into foster care, then Vasya will never be able to be adopted and will be in an orphanage the rest of his life. They will split the siblings that way, but they refuse to let us adopt Vasya because of this brother he didn’t even know exists. These are the frustrations of Ukraine adoptions, but I know they are trying to do what is best for the children. I know there are also similar frustrations with the US foster care system. We can only pray for him at this point. This is day 1 of our 10 day wait. This is the time when people can make an appeal against our adoption. The 10 days includes weekends and holidays. That means it will end on January 9^th. Since that is Christmas week here, we might not be able to get the necessary documents signed that day, so Jim will probably get custody of the kids on January 12^th. We are having a late start today, and Vitaly is picking us up at 11:00 to go to SB. Oksana is spending New Year’s Eve with her family, so it is just the four of us today. We eat a big breakfast, learn how to say Happy New Year in Russian and then head out. We are taking some more goodies that the Barretts sent today-coloring books, crayons and lollipops. Jim and I talk about how nice it has been that we can go to SB anytime we want, for as long as we want, and we have no supervision there. We play with the kids, walk around the campus and just hang out with them. We pull into SB, and kids start peeking out the windows. Then a few come running out. One of my favorites, little Andre, runs up and grabs my hand. He is 9 years old and adorable. We go into our usual room. You have probably noticed we are always wearing our coats. This building is very cold. They have a few radiators, but you can put your hands right on them, and they are lukewarm. There is no way they can heat the large room. The kids keep dwindling as relatives come to get them. I am sad for the ones that are left and have no one. They have watched all of the other kids leave with family. We hand out suckers and tell each one Happy New Year. Then we get out the coloring books and crayons using the windowsills as our tables. Jim pulls out his computer, and he shows some of the camp kids the pictures from this summer. When we first arrive, Vasya greets us, but then he goes to the other side of the room. Not like him. Austin goes over and sits down next to him to watch TV. Sasha comes in after awhile, and I see him go over behind the coat rack and hide. Tatum goes over and grabs him, and he laughs. We enjoy just hanging out, coloring and looking at photos. I color next to Andre for awhile. He talks and talks to me in Russian, and I talk to him in English. Sometimes he points at pictures on his page. I say the English word, and he repeats it. Then he tells me the Russian word, and I repeat it. He is smart and picks up English quickly. Raisa and Natasha each color me a picture. Oksana comes in for hugs. Then she tells Jim she is going home with her sister today. Soon her sister shows up, and we hug her one last time. We have really enjoyed getting to know this sweet girl. Soon Vasya is back to his normal, affectionate self, and I am glad to see him smiling and loving again. He is always looking out for our needs and doing thoughtful things for us. Natasha tells me she is going somewhere, and I am not understanding it. Then the boys tell me the same thing, and eventually I figure out that it is time for them to all go take a shower. Sasha doesn’t want to go, but I tell him we will still be here when he gets back. It only takes them a few minutes to shower. They start showing up again with wet heads, and I smell their heads and smile. I peak under Vasya’s hat, and he has dry hair. I tell him he didn’t wash his hair, and he laughs and pulls his hat down. At one point we have Vasya come over and Jim show him his brother’s picture. He smiles at the picture, but then he leans back into me and seems introspective. I wonder what he is thinking. Later, Tatum and I go into the girls’ bedroom at one point and tuck suckers under each of their pillows. Some of the girls are in there and think we are funny. Then we all go from room to room, and they tell us which beds kids sleep in and which ones are empty, and we tuck suckers under the pillows. We go into the older girls’ room that we haven’t been in yet. Natasha’s older sister and another girl we have seen in some of the plays are in there. I give them a sucker and tell them Happy New Year. There is a tiny kitten sitting on one of their dressers. I pet it, and it is obviously sick. We go back to the main room and hang out some more. The older boys have bought some fireworks and are periodically lighting them off. Then Andre comes up with 2 grivna. They tell us that they are walking to the store. It appears that a caretaker gave them each 2 grivna (.25 cents) for the holiday, and they are walking to the store to spend it. We tell them goodbye and that we will be back the day after tomorrow. We have already spent almost two hours with them today. Tatum and I go back to the girls’ room and stick some holiday jewelry under their pillows for them to find later. We look at pictures awhile longer with little Natasha and her sister. Then we take off back to Kherson. We have Vitaly drop us off at a local restaurant we have been to several times, John Howards. They have WIFI for 5 grivna, and their menu is partially in English. It takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r for them to serve the food, so we figure we can all catch up on our emails, post a blog and upload pictures probably before we even get to dessert. Vitaly charges us $30 for driving us around and sitting at the orphanage waiting for us for four hours. We are blessed to be able to stay in this area where everything is very economical. We will probably be here six weeks, so we have to save where we can. We eat and WIFI for over two hours. I was looking forward to the gourmet burger today because everyone else had ordered it before and said it was good. I ordered it, and she came back 10 minutes later and said they have no more burgers. So I ordered the mushroom and chicken soup I had the first time we came here. When it finally comes 45 minutes later, it is a cream of mushroom soup. The last time I ordered this it was a mushroom and veggie salad dish with a little broth in the bottom. We really only eat at three restaurants, and so we often reorder our favorites. The funny thing is they are usually very different than the first time we order it. We have had three different types of French fries so far at John Howards. One time we ordered ice cream with chocolate at Zepplin’s, and the chocolate was like hot fudge. The next time it was chocolate shavings. I was still really hungry after the soup, so I ordered Tiramisu. Once again, they are out. I am striking out here today. I settle for a banana baked in puff pastry, and it is one of the best desserts I have ever had. All of this reminds me of a funny thing that happened the day we took Ashley shopping. Jim had to go get more grivna three times because we were spending so much. The third time he went to the bank, they exchanged $100 and then pushed the rest of his money back. Later, Oksana went back into the bank with him to find out what was going on, and the bank had run out of grivna. The kids and I decide to go buy a few groceries and head back home. Jim stays for a little more computer time. We buy what we think is carbonated lemon juice and white grape juice to celebrate New Year’s tonight. Austin loves the hot chocolate here, which is basically a teacup of melted rich chocolate bars. He sees some powdered mixes of this, and we buy a bunch to try, but I doubt it will taste as good as at the restaurant. Now we are home watching more Alias while I catch up on blogging. We only have two more days left here in Kherson. I am already thinking about how much I will miss all of these kids. We try the sparkling grape and lemon juice, and they are gross. Tatum goes to bed at 11:00, and I soon follow. Austin wants to stay up until midnight, and he tries to tempt me with hot chocolate and Pringles. I lay in bed thinking and praying and eventually hear them counting down to the New Year, so I get up and join them. At midnight the sky literally lights up. We go outside, and there are fireworks all around us. People are standing in the streets and lighting off fireworks. It was very loud and bright for about 20 minutes. If we had known the fireworks display was that large, we would have had Tatum stay up. Jim mentions that last New Year’s Eve we had the Sparks and Prathers over. None of us would have dreamed that this year we would be in Ukraine for Christmas and New Year’s.