Wednesday, 23 May 2007 We are starting to fall into a bit of a routine, so I want to take the opportunity to provide a Cliff’s Notes version of our trip so far….. We have been in Ukraine for a week and a half, and we are traveling with our friends Fred and Lisa, who are adopting a child from the same orphanage where Masha lives. We left Fort Wayne on Sunday afternoon, and arrived in Kiev mid-day on Monday. We met with the Ukrainian State Department of Adoption (SDA) on Wednesday to obtain official permission travel to Masha’s city […]

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Thursday, 24 May 2007 We woke around 8:00 to another beautiful Ukrainian day…not a cloud in the sky. But as we walked to the Internet café in the center of town, we discovered that today was going to be hot…like Africa Hot. We stopped to exchange money, and then stuck our noses in an interesting looking shope that sold toys, electronics and watches. We found a watch to replace the one Masha broke the other day, and one for Mark and one for me as well! No longer must we dig out the phone to see what time it is!! […]

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Friday, 25 May It was bound to happen at some point…we experienced our first real challenge related to culture and tradition today. In the end it will all be OK, but the day was not one of our better ones. The day started out pretty typical; we hung out at the apartment until about 11:30 when Sasha picked us up and drove us to the Internet Café. I updated the blog and started adding photos while Mark checked out the downtown shops. At 1:00 Sasha picked us back up and we drove to the orphanage where we met Sveta, Lisa, […]

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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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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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