a crazy but great day...

Good morning. It is quite cold here today and I (Shona) am regretting sending my leather coat home with Jonathan. Who would have thought that it would be 6 degrees with a chilly, brisk wind on May 1st? We have had a wonderful morning. The train this morning has left us without any humorous stories – it was quite calm today. While there wasn’t room for us to have seats – we had plenty of elbow and breathing room today. That was a good start to the day. When we got to the orphanage, we could hear plenty of noise coming from the inside. It was chaos inside and all of the children in process of adoption weren’t down from their rooms yet! We asked for Ivanna and someone else’s interpreter helped us a bit (to tell the receptionist which group she is in). Many of the children have colds and because of the cool temperatures, no one was going outside. We sat back and watched the other people until Ivanna came down. There were (we think) 5 Italian couples, an American couple and us (we’ve also met a couple of other American couples and a German couple on other days). There were several older siblings running around as well as a few interpreters. The room is filled with hard surfaces and so the noise seemed to just escalate. Many of the children are boys who are VERY hyperactive. I found it overwhelming so it’s not surprising that when Ivanna came down she spent much of her time sitting and watching the other kids (looking curious but a bit stunned!). We are pretty sure she is the youngest of the children being adopted. I did not expect that she (nor I) would be able to tolerate to noise and chaos for long but she surprised us and the chaos eventually subsided as many of the children went back to their groups after about an hour and 15 minutes. We spent most of our time, sitting on the floor, reading books, having various snacks, colouring, and watching other kids. Besides the chaos surrounding us, she seems a bit sicker today – quite a chesty cough, lots of snot and a bit of a fever – so she seemed quite content to sit and play. Near the end of our time we looked out the window a bit and then it seemed she just wanted to snuggle. We got some precious smiles and finally got them on camera! I could have just spend the whole day snuggling her. Alas, it was time to go, so we took her up to her group. Although we haven’t been given a tour yet – I was snoopy and had a quick look in the rooms as we went by. Once in her little area, the first room on the left is a bathroom that is filled with little potty’s in a row. The first room on the right is their bedroom – filled with wee little toddler beds (so apparently she sleeps in a bed!). The last room on the right is their play room where we dropped her off. The kids (could we take them all home?) in her group swarmed to the door as we knocked and opened it. It was nice to see her run in with confidence to the kids and caregivers she knows. We are hoping at some point, to be able to spend some time with her when she is with her group. I’ve also got a ton of questions in my head I want to ask her caregivers – hopefully we’ll get the chance yet. Anyway – because of the cold we haven’t decided how we’ll spend the rest of our day. We had wanted to head in to the city centre to see what was going on today, but it’s kind of chilly for hanging around outside. We may head down to the Ykraina Mall (which is only 3 blocks away) as we could get out and about but still stay a little bit warmer.