Wednesday, 30 May Air conditioning is a blessing from God. Each day here has been hotter than the last, and we are very fortunate to be staying in an apartment that is air conditioned. We got up early this morning so I could catch up on some writing. We headed into town at about 11, did some shopping and exploring around town, and even found a bank where they spoke English to exchange money! We met up with our driver at 1:00 and drove to the orphanage; Fred and Lisa arrived a couple of minutes behind us. While we waited, […]

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Tuesday, 29 May So….we’ve been doing a lot of hanging out with the kids, and many of you are probably thinking “why aren’t they doing anything that’s actually related to adopting Masha and getting back home?” Yeah, we’re thinking that, too. In the Ukrainian system, once we “meet” the child, there are some documents to prepare, and then a court date is requested, and the hearing is usually held about a week later. Because we got to the region on a Friday, and we weren’t able to do anything over the weekend, our documents weren’t ready until Tuesday of last […]

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Monday 28 May After our first trip back to the apartment about a week ago, Sveta had told us that we were encouraged to spend more time outside, and that we needed to wait a little while before scheduling another “at home” day. A few days ago, she told us that it would be OK again. So today, we had planned to spend some Niles Family Time together at our apartment making lunch, working on English, playing some games and generally hanging out. We started the day at Amstor and got a cartload of groceries, as well as the second […]

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Sunday, 27 May Even after a full night’s sleep, we are still waking up tired. A combination of being in the sun, and being hot, and sleeping on beds that we are not accustomed to… Shortly after we woke up, Sveta called to tell us that she had spoken with the Director on last night, and she had suggested that we all take the girls to the beach today. She said that the girls had swimsuits, so we just needed to bring towels and entertainment. Mark took a quick walk around the neighborhood to see if he could pick up […]

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Saturday, 26 May Everything was totally back to normal today…Sveta and a new diver picked us up about noon, and on the way to the orphanage, Sveta shared with us that she had overheard Masha making a not-so-nice comment to a younger boy. We agreed that we needed to talk with her about this and let her know that this is NOT OK. When we arrived at the orphanage, we gave her big hugs and worked out the plan for the day, then we pulled her aside with Sveta and explained that we knew what she had said, and that […]

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