Sunday -- a good day of rest and rejuvenation

May 6 - in the outdoor shopping mall (just before Darren was told to stop taking pictures - guess by whom!)

May 5th visit with Ivanna (amazingly happy considering she can't breathe well!)

We've got the stroller - we just need our girl...

Who do you think picked which shoes?

Saturday May 5 - on the train (and it wasn't really busy - Shona had a seat!)

Happy Birthday Dad! (Neil) We hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy the shawarma Jonathan is going to make. We wish we could be there to celebrate you with the family.

It is Sunday, at 2:54 here and we have just returned from church and shopping. After a GREAT sleep for me last night (I had to make up for being awake between 1 and 5 AM the night before), we woke up early-ish (either the light or my internal alarm clock seems to always wake me up around 7), and did some yoga. Then we got ready to go and headed to church. We went back to the Kiev International Bible Church. It was good to go worship and give thanks for everything that has gone on here. The more I talk to other adopting couples, the more I am so grateful for our daughter and how our process of adopting her is going/has gone. We are feeling very blessed. The music was good and we sang a song that was new to us, but quite moving and beautiful called “Still”. We’ll have to see if we can find it somewhere (or maybe Jonathan can find it???). The last line of the chorus is ‘I will be still and know that you are God’.
Anyway, after church we went to get lunch – you guessed it –shawarma (same guy as last week Jonathan). They were good (not as good as our regular guy, but still pretty yummy) – this guy puts in French fries in addition to the meat, cabbage and flatbread – very filling. Darren did well with my leftovers that I couldn’t finish though! It turns out the shopping centre Lesya told us about is at the same Metro station as the church – that was convenient! We wandered over to the other side of metro station (where the shopping center is) and wow! It’s incredible. Not only is there a 4 storey department store but outside there is stall after stall after stall of absolutely everything one could need or want for children of ANY age (Jenn Janzen – I can just see you going nuts! :) It was a bit overwhelming for us (never having shopped in a centre like that for OUR child yet.) Some stalls had strollers, others had clothes for baby girls or boys, others had shoes, others had toys….and on and on! We started by focusing on the stroller sellers (as that was our main focus of the day) – even that was overwhelming (there was probably at least 10 different places to look – not counting the department store) and who knew that there were that many different kinds of strollers out there? Lesya was certainly right about the range in costs. There were strollers ranging from cheap umbrella’s to high-end Quinny running strollers (they also had matching doll strollers – crazy!). We settled for something in the middle that should serve us well on the walks while we are here, on the journey home and when we get there (something a little smaller for when we don’t want to use our big jogger/bike trailer). Darren (as per his custom when making bigger purchases), is now second-guessing our purchase (D – I could have used a bit more time to compare… you know, it’s a bit of a sickness), but I am thrilled with it. We also bought our dear girl a couple of pair of shoes. I was quite happy to just get one pair (trying to be reasonable and all), but her Daddy fell in love with the second pair and couldn’t resist (rather unusual for him!!). I’m sure you can tell which ones he picked out (they should be great for Fall). We also spent a bit of time it the department store and picked up a couple of toys for her (for when we have her here with us) – a shape sorter that is also an elephant bucket (she likes to fill a bucket in the playroom with stuff) and some stacking cups. Nothing major and we intend to stop buying stuff now (other than some minor things like sock/tights and maybe a hat). We have heard there might be an outfit or two, and maybe a toy or two for Ivanna when we get home – so I think we’ll stop for now! We had a little sweet snack of fresh éclairs (YUMMY!!!), then headed home. It was a little crazy taking the stroller home on the Metro, but we managed fine (really all in all – we made it to and from church on the Metro – getting off at the right places and not getting lost – we’re feeling pretty good about that) and only got a couple of funny looks as we walked home with an empty stroller (mostly from younger children who were looking for the kid who was supposed to be in there). Darren is now lying down for a nap. We are going to see ‘The Nutcracker’ ballet tonight – that will be quite a treat (for only $10 each!!!!). We plan to stop for coffee/dessert at Mario’s or somewhere where the wi-fi connection works on our way home to post this – if we remember the computer this time!
Paka for now.


P.S. We are sitting in Chokoladnitsa waiting for our cocoa and dessert after the ballet which was absolutely incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jonathan! Our seats were excellent and the acoustics on the ground floor amazing . It may be the last time I get Darren to a ballet (although he did enjoy it too) but for me, it was truly MAGICAL!!! It has been a good day with a fantastic end.