Days 20,21, & 22 (I think)

We took the overnight train to Donetsk again to move out to the region to be with the 8 yo child we're trying to adopt. The train is getting really old. We arrived Friday morning but she was having a medical examination on Friday so we didn't actually visit her until Saturday morning. On Friday, our facilitator received the approval from the town's inspector and the boarding school for us to adopt her. He took the train back to Kiev Friday to file all the papers with the SDA on Monday morning. Hopefully, things will move quickly and we can get our court date soon.

The town where we're staying in is pretty rustic, especially compared to Kiev. It's about 20 km from the school. We're staying in the only hotel in the area. The hotel is okay, though the water is pretty flaky. We have no water occasionally for a few minutes and then it's back. We have a two room 'suite' with a refrigerator but no microwave. The only internet connection is an internet cafe about a 3 minute walk from the hotel. The biggest problem is food. We've only found 2 restaurants in town, one at the hotel and one about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. The food is okay, especially at the restaurant in town but neither have English menus, which makes things very challenging. We're eating a lot of bread, cheese, and yogurt. The boys have been real troopers. Ryan is having some allergy/asthma problems that we're trying to manage. I think all the dust here is causing him problems.

The visits have gone fairly well but both Mary and I (Larry) are exhausted after each visit. The language barrier is pretty formidable. The staff has been very supportive. On the first day, when we pulled up she was outside playing and she jumped up and down. She grabbed Mary's hand and wouldn't let it go until we got inside. We were in the room of an older student. They kicked him out of his own room for a couple of hours, felt bad about that. She's very inquisitive, looking all around the room, looking in anything she could. We did a puzzle, she drew, we showed her pictures of our house and family. Our digital camera was a big hit. She started to take pictures of everything and everybody. We practically had to pry it our of her hands. Our facilitator called at the end of the visit and talked to her, asking if she understood what was going on, if she liked us, and if she would like us to adopt her. She said yes to everything. He also explained that we would leaving shortly and come back tomorrow. She was fine with us leaving and gave us a hug and waved goodbye.

Today's visit was interesting. She gave us a hug when we arrived. She had a bag of her stuff, pictures & dolls, that she wanted to show to us. We spent most of the visit outside playing on the playground and with some rocket balloons we brought. Everything seemed fine. She and Evan were playing together. When it was time for us to leave, she put her coat and shoes back on and walked outside with us. Our driver was there and she climbed in the car and wouldn't get out. Apparently, she thought she was leaving with us today and her bag of stuff was packed to leave. She became pretty upset when she had to get out of the car and come back inside. Both Mary and I felt horrible. We don't know if we said 'da' to something that led her to believe she was leaving today. Nobody spoke much English but I tried to explain the situation to her teacher who talked to her and explain things. She was a little better after that but still very upset and wouldn't actually say goodbye to us when we left. I'm sure she will be fine tomorrow. Our facilitator is going to call the school tonight to talk to the teacher to make sure everything is okay.