daily update

Greetings once again from Ukraine. Sometimes I still find it hard to believe that the areas that we are in and have been to around here were once part of the former USSR. Of course, it was very different then from the current Ukraine now. Masha told me that her mother told her stories of how it was different. For one, everyone wore black and gray. Now the stores are filled with the latest trends in clothes (well, maybe a tad bid behind) with lots of colors and styles to choose from. Her mother said that things were cheaper too. I said that that is not surprising if you have to make millions of clothes in only two colores and probably very limited styles. Or, if there is no choice in the grocery story for brands, etc. Before, she said, there would not be Christmas lights all over the strees and stores. Surprisingly enough, many of the signs for the stores are in English now. This seemed odd to us being that not that many people here seem to speak English. We asked Masha, and she said that it is "cool" to have a sign in English here. Imagine, having a sign for your store in our language is "in" here! We have only experienced pro-American sentiment while here. And yes, we hear that there are some of the older ones who may say it was better in the "good ol' days" but it seems they are quite the minority (just my perspective).

Now on to more important matters. Our visits have been going very well with Luba for the most part. In fact they are going better than I could have ever hoped for (I think this is all a result of your prayers, so thank you and keep it up!) being that we brought our one and five year olds on our trip with us. One indication of how well it is going could be seen in what Luba responded recently to a question of Josh's. You see, Josh asks Luba lots of silly questions in Russian. One thing he regularly asks her is if "so and so" is her good friend when a few of the children from her group come by and we happen to figure out one of their names. Luba always responds with a nyet (no) or shake of the head indicating no. So I finally asked Josh to ask Luba who is her good friend? She said her good friend was Chloe! I tell you that I believe that was sincere, because they have "hit it off" so well. Chloe smothers her with hugs and kisses and has adored her from the moment she saw her, and she does the same to Chloe. They love to play together (well, some things can be hard to share of course). It is wonderful, so I hope that they keep it up.

It is an interesting task finding things to occupy us (especially Phoebe) for the hours we are visiting with Luba at the orphanage. I brought a few favorite toys from home and a few new little things to keep us busy, but we will try to go to a toy store soon to replenish our supply. Today I was daring and for the first visit I brought playdough in different colors in little containers and I think it was a big hit. Luba seemed the most interested in this out of everything we have done with her. She liked most making flat pancakes that she could cut into round cookies using the container as a cookie cutter. The second visit I brought the dinosaur hats and watercolor paints. The paints are kind of neat, they have a colored paint pad picture on the top of each page that, when wetted, turns into paint to paint the picture! She liked that but Chloe must have thought the real watercolors were better and didn't do as much. We asked Luba if she would sing for us (we have heard that she is good at singing) and she said not today, but that she would tomorrow, so we will see! Maybe I can even get a video of it.

There are a couple of obstacles inherent to visiting her at this orphanage which also make it a little more difficult to plan a fun time. One is, that out of no fault of theirs, there is not a lot of extra space for adoptive parents to play with their children except the hallway to their group room and in their music hall area. I know, you are thinking that that sounds like plenty enough, and it is, except one of the primary difficulties we have in the wood floored music room is not what you would expect. I guess you could say that we found this one out the "hard way." Our family was happily playing a matching game sitting on the floor (perhaps I should have noticed something a bit strange: all of the other adoptive couples were just sitting in the chairs with their children and there wasn't as much activity as the night before). In dashes this lady with a mask who forcefully grabbed Phoebe off the floor by her arms and put her in Josh's lap all the while raising her voice about something in Russian. We were like, huh???? Then Masha told us that she said the children are not to play on the wood floor because it is cold and this causes sickness. Well, it didn't seem that cold to us, we only noticed how dirty our kids' clothes got when they played in there. Has anyone heard any studies validating this? I have never heard of such a thing before, I think it is an old wives' tale they believe or something. At night, however, everyone plays as usual because, I guess, that lady is not there (a head doctor apparently). So, we have generally preferred the hallway for the morning visits because we aren't limited to sitting with them on our lap the whole time and we also don't get as dirty. Another thing is that we are responsible for all of their entertainment at that time. They have never let us use any of the toys that the kids normally play with there. It is probably good parent training in any case! Of course, I try to bring a snack to occupy our time each visit as well, which mostly has consisted of fresh mandarines and bananas (i.e. what are ok for my girls to eat here...they can be peeled). It is a bit hard when the other children from her group may see what we are eating or doing. Imagine how enticing some playdough must look like, and the bananas and mandarines seem just as tempting.

Also, on my second visit yesterday I brought a 2T and 3T shirt along with me to see what size she is. I guessed she was a 3T so I tried it on first and it was a perfect fit, so 3T it is. I know this doesn't explain what people might expect of a 3 year old orphan. You wouldn't expect that she would wear the same clothes that a non-orphan 3 year old would wear. All I can say is that it seems that she is very well loved and taken care of by the caregivers here. If anything they spoil her with too much candy! I understand it is tempting to do so because of the warm and appreciative response that Luba gives. So after our 2nd visit today we had a useful taxi driver who showed us where a children's clothes store was. I was actually quite impressed with this little store. It was kind of like a Children's Place and the clothes were cute and reasonably priced. I bought a few things for her there (and a little for Chloe & Phoebe too) so we should be fine here in country after she is in our posession (is that the right wording??...anyway, you know what I mean). The only thing that was not in abundant supply there was comfy pants for her. I think they dress her in comfy sweat pants most of the time with tights underneath.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention our interesting little "excursion" during lunch. We asked our taxi driver if he knew where we could find good Ukrainian food. (This strategy worked for us last time so I thought I would ask.) He said he knew this great place but it was a little out of the way. We thought that sounded nice, so we were off. He ended up taking us across the Dnieper river to Khortytsya Island. It is a good sized island in the middle of the river, and it is evidently very important historically for Ukraine. I guess it is supposed to be a very beautiful place to visit in the more weather-friendly months; and, it was even pretty in the winter (see photos) but, unfortunately, the restaurant he brought us to was closed for the winter. So he found another second choice restaurant and it was open, but you could tell they did not get as many customers this time of year. It ended up being quite good, but I won't bore you with the menu this time. I was glad for this little adventure because I had wanted to see the island while we were here (I read about it in my guide book) but I didn't think I was going to be able to see it. Praise God!

Well, bye for now...

Tara (and family)