Your Order Is In The Cooking

Day 16 – Monday, 28 December

5:50 AM: THUNK THUNK……THUNK THUNK THUNK…………..THUNK THUNK…..THUNK……rattle rattle……THUNK THUNK…..THUNKTHUNK!

The neighbor apparently decided today was the ideal day to break through the concrete wall of his apartment with a sledgehammer to run a new electrical outlet or some other such nonsense. Yes, before 6 in the morning. Yes, it’s still dark out. This is crazy even by Ukrainian standards.

I got back to sleep long enough to have some disturbing but now forgotten dream about operational process related to equipment delivery, and woke up in a cold sweat. Am I really hardwired to dream about work on Sunday night?

After the refreshing joy of a sunny day, the gloomy cloud cover returned this morning and rain is in the forecast for what we hope is our last full day in town. I got up around 7:00, made coffee, and wrote for about two hours, the time punctuated by random noises from the neighboring apartment.

We left for the orphanage about 10:00, and began the morning’s Blokus tournament with a tie between Mark and Lena. During Game Two, a girl summoned Lena to dance rehearsal; Lena replied with a rapid-fire string of angry Russian that could only be interpreted as “how dare you interrupt me when I’m with my FAMILY!” OK, so maybe that’s a little bit of an overstatement, but she clearly chose hanging out with us over rehearsing for tomorrow’s recital. When the game was over, though, she dutifully ran upstairs for the remainder of the short rehearsal and then returned.

Also, because of the break-neck pace of paperwork upon our arrival and because we arrived on a Saturday, we had skipped the usual “background information” meetings that families typically have on the first or second day. Today, we met with the medical and psychological staff at the Center to be sure that we had all the information we needed before returning to the States with Lena.

We were not surprised to discover that she’s very healthy and well-adjusted. The psychologist shared Lena’s strengths with us, and also helped us understand where she will need encouragement and guidance. Most importantly, since she also remembered Masha and had known the two of them together, she was able to share some insights into their interactions. We had made similar observations, and it was really comforting to get that professional confirmation from her.

We also asked for special permission to take Lena out to lunch. With the quarantine, we didn’t expect this to be approved, but we were pleasantly surprised when our translator popped his head into the room and asked where we wanted to take her. He recommended a place called Pasta Project. It was a newer restaurant, and each table was equipped with an interactive touchscreen menu with descriptions and photos of all the dishes on the expansive menu. Each time you added a dish to the order and told it to send the order to the kitchen, the computer confirmed “Your order is in the cooking.”

The other couple joined us as well, and we were having a blast browsing the menus and submitting orders; I was a little scared of what the final bill would be. Even in what is probably one of the more expensive restaurants in town, though, we got out of there for just under $100 for six people…and we were STUFFED!

After lunch, we returned Lena to the Center and headed back to our apartment in the driving rain. We met up with the husband of the matroshka doll artist that we met last time we were in Ukraine, and he drove us to their home, with the translator and the other couple following us. She greeted us like old friends, and we admired some of her private collection of matroshkas (nesting dolls)…there were a couple of beautiful large dolls that we asked about, but she replied “Oh, those are not for sale, they’re mine!” She explained that they were both some of her earlier work, and were very special to her. We can see why! We still bought a lot of stuff, including an 11-pice set telling the story of Cinderella, and then her husband returned us to our apartment through nearly flooded streets; it’s been raining hard for two days straight….again.

Our last big purchases made, we began to pack our massive amounts of stuff into four suitcases. We held out everything we would need for traveling over the next two or three days, and then carefully wrapped vodka, chocolates, and matroshkas in our clothes. We are leaving with more stuff than we brought…and that says a lot, since we brought a lot of stuff for other people!! I am resolved to travel much lighter for Trip 2!

After we were all packed up, we invited our translator and the other family over for a drink and to prepare for court. We shared stories about kids, movies, language, and culture before they walked back to pack up.

A final note, as we were packing, we received confirmation that our last document had come through and was on its way here. We are all cleared for court at noon tomorrow (5:00 AM Eastern time for those of you awake and inclined to think about us at that god-awful time of day!), then back to the apartment for a quick change into travelling clothes, pile ALL the luggage into the car, then off to the orphanage for a dance recital/concert to celebrate the adoptions of both Lena and the other family.