Day 15 – Sunday, 27 December Finally, a bright blue sky and sunshine bathed the courtyard behind our apartment! Neighborhood animals surveyed their territories, sniffing the trees, leaping from stairwell to windowsill. We went downstairs a couple minutes early to wait for our driver in the crisp air. I discussed world politics with a pretty healthy-looking stray cat who alternately rubbed against me, attacked my head, and then rubbed again…clearly, I had violated etiquette by failing to present an offering of tuna to the King of the Alley. We had been waiting about 15 minutes when Mark decided to call […]

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Day 14 – Saturday, 26 December Call us boring, but we just didn’t do that much today. The weather was awful; cold and rainy and gloomy. We went to the orphanage at about 10:40 and had a good visit with Lena. We gave her the DVD copy of New Moon and then played games—Uno is a big favorite, and we also played several rounds of Set, with Lena trouncing us each time. After our visit, we returned to our apartment, grabbed a bit of lunch. Our driver returned around 2:30 to take us to the “upscale” mall in town. We […]

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Day 13 – Friday, 25 December In our dreams, Christmas dawns still and clear, sunshine glinting off freshly fallen snow, reindeer tracks on the roofs of every small child. In Ukraine…not so much. We have figured out how Santa manages…he distributes his workload in Europe across the month of December, visiting Ukraine (and probably many other places) over New Year’s; he’s not due here for another week. He did a fly-by for us, though, and dropped off some warmer temperatures. As our translator left the apartment around 9:30, she winked and instructed me to look at the window—she thought she […]

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Day 12 – Thursday, 24 December Today is just another workday in Ukraine, and we are waiting for another key document, without which we are dead in the water. Yesterday, our translator had extracted a promise from the official responsible for this document, “Tomorrow morning.” She left the apartment early and promised to call us as soon as it was ready. I perched myself in the corner of the kitchen with a pot of coffee and caught up on blogging. Mark settled in at the desk and focused on work. We both waited on pins and needles for the phone […]

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Day 11 – Wednesday, 23 December Wake up. Drink Coffee. Feel panicked about lack of blog posts. Write most of Monday’s blog. Answer phone. Take fastest shower ever. Run down to car. While our translator continues to run all over town working on documentation for us, we were allowed a very long visit at the orphanage today. We arrived a bit before 11:00, and Lena came down grinning. As we hugged, her friend Christina stepped into the room and greeted us. Christina was adopted by an American family a few years ago, and has come back to Ukraine for an […]

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