happy Friday

I love 'vaffly' - wafer cookies - like my Uncle Jonathan


Mommy looks like a dork (trying to avoid the cleavage shot), but daddy likes me laughing!


Well, we’ve just returned from our visit with Ivanna and as per our routine we are sitting down to write the blog before we go out. Darren and I have just shared a little snack of some yogurt that although the flavour looked liked raisin by the picture – was actually prunes. Interesting – not bad exactly, but lets just say I’m thinking we may not buy that flavour again! (Darren says we are not old enough yet to need prune yogurt – cereal better.) Today is a much nicer day weather wise – a tiny bit chilly this morning but by the time we left the orphanage, it was lovely outside. The sun is shining and it actually felt too warm with my multiple layers – I’ll have to ditch them for our outing this afternoon. We are thinking of lunch at Mario’s today (to shake things up a bit) and then we’ll maybe get a kuritza (chicken) for supper from the stand across the street from our apartment. We think we’ll do a bit of exploring this afternoon down towards the artisans area and the old town of Podil. As for our visit today – things continue to go so well with Ivanna it’s hard to believe. I got her on video as she came down with the nurse and Darren squatted down and opened his arms and she let go of the nurse’s hand and walked straight into her Daddy’s arms. It was pretty special. The other kids were outside playing today so we had the playroom to ourselves (MUCH quieter) as she’s still not allowed out due to her cough/cold. The chest physio in me is really wishing I had a stethoscope! I try to stealthily sneak in some percussion when she’ll let me (mostly she’s too busy playing and doesn’t want to sit still – so that’s good) as she definitely has some rattles in her chest. She remains active and playful and is eating and drinking well, so we’re trying not to get too concerned. She is a lot more active without the craziness of all the other people around and she definitely kept us moving today! We had fun. Our time with her really is the best part of our days here.
D – Yes, she is the brightest bit of our days. We keep getting more and more knit together. It is very good. She seemed to particularly enjoy being pushed around on the car today. She just grinned and rocked. It seemed like I could not go too fast for her. Good fun.
S again - We just had a GREAT conversation with Lesya (one of our facilitators). She stopped by to pick up some money for our rental of the apartment and to catch us up on some details of the process here. We are feeling elated. She is such a positive, fun and animated woman! Pretty much as soon as she walked in, she was asking for pictures of Ivanna. She also told us that many people are waiting for healthy referrals right now, and said that “the Lord knows what He is doing.” (We agree. After several years in the wilderness, we are entering a different place.) She told us that they are trying very hard for us to have our court date on TUESDAY (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but that because of the holiday on Wednesday (VE Day Celebrations), court may not be until Thursday – but ‘for sure’ at the latest it will be then. The other happy news is that the 10 day waiting period is only 10 regular days (not working days) so at the latest we will be able to take Ivanna out of the orphanage on May 21st. Also, she (Lesya) must have some connections everywhere because she also said that after our court date she would call Lufthansa and see what she could do about our flights (we explained to her about the fact that our flights are booked on points and she just said she would tell them her name, that it was related to adoption and give our name and see what she could do!!! As long as we already have tickets, she figures she may be able to do something. Cool.). They need a few days after we take Ivanna out of the orphanage to complete her passport, other papers and Canadian Visa too – but we’ll see – we may be home sooner than originally thought. We had many questions answered by Lesya and are feeling much more relaxed about the whole process (like the fact that they will come with us to the Embassy to bring her Visa application – and that we will meet with a worker there to answer our questions about the form – we’ve been wondering about a few things on the form and are relieved to find that we’ll have some help with it – how do people who don’t speak/understand English well ever get to our country???). Lesya also told us about a place to go shopping for kids’ stuff that is much more reasonable that the Ykraina mall down the street (rather trendy and spendy there). It’s on our Metro line (for Jonathan – at the Darnitsa station) so we’ll probably go looking for a stroller there sometime in the next few days (we had found one at a shop in Boyarka – but it is no longer on display outside the shop so I think it was sold). Anyway, all in all it is a great day (and it’s only half over although the second half is definitely the half I’m finding harder and long).
Jonathan: Lesya also asked about you. She thought you were staying the whole time. So did we. When are you going to show up again? You should have no trouble finding us. :) (by the way we have our favorite waitress today!)