Thursday, May 24, 2007

We hoped that by the end of the day the SDA would have made a decision about our adoption of Amina, however, we are still waiting. We woke up this morning, spent some time hanging around the apartment, and then decided to walk to the internet café. We headed down there so that we could update our blog. We also hoped to be able to pick up 2 more necklaces for the girls. We spent a little time at the internet café uploading pictures and updating our blog and then headed out to buy the necklaces. We knew that we didn’t have too much time before we would be meeting Svetlana and our driver. When we hadn’t heard something by noon, I decided to call Sasha. I’m sure he is as eager to hear from the SDA as we are…just so we’ll stop pestering him. When I talked to him, he said that the SDA had called in the morning and asked for our case number. He thought that was a good sign and that we would hear something by this afternoon. He told me he’d call as soon as he heard something. We headed off to buy some necklaces from a local vendor. Also, I was really hoping to buy a few bowls. Our apartment only has 2 bowls and they are small. Svetlana bought sunflower seeds and so one of the bowls is sitting on the table with the sunflower seeds in it. It makes it really hard for 2 people to eat pasta or cereal. I was able to find some bowls for 2 grivna (40 cents) each. We weren’t able to find the same necklaces that we bought yesterday, but we were able to find similar necklaces. After our purchases, we headed back to the internet café to meet Svetlana and Andre, our driver. He picked us up and took us back to the apartment so we could drop off our laptop before we headed to the orphanage. We quickly unloaded the laptop, grabbed a Frisbee and a soccer ball and headed to the orphanage to pick up Khrystyna. We still are not able to take Amina with us. While we were waiting outside at the orphanage, Amina came outside. We were able to talk to her for a few minutes. I’m so glad that she speaks some English…it’s not much, but it’s nice to be able to say “How are you?” and have her say “I am fine…How are you?” She’s sooo cute! She looked sad as she headed back inside. I’m sure that the wait is killing her as well. When she got to the door to go back inside, we called her back over and gave her a pack of gum. I wish we could do more, but for now that will have to be enough. Maybe tomorrow we will be able to take her with us. After Amina went inside, Khrystyna and Masha came running outside. So far I have managed to not comment on everyone’s clothing, so you’ll have to forgive me for describing what Khrystyna had on. She had on a pair of homemade looking shorts in a bizarre floral pattern that were extremely short and a top that came nowhere near her belly button! It was definitely not one of her best outfits, but she still looked really cute. I just don’t want her dressing like that when she gets back home. While we were getting ready to leave for lunch, Svetlana thought of another café we hadn’t visited yet. Although the food at Papa Karlo and Levotttime has been good, we were ready for something different. The café she took us too was actually air conditioned. It felt so good!!!! Unfortunately, it took forever to get our food and the food wasn’t very tasty. I would go back there again if for no other reason than it is the only air-conditioned place we’ve found and it’s been extremely hot! After eating lunch, we headed to the park by the sea with the inflatable crocodile. We had talked about going to the beach today, however, we decided on the park because it’s a lot more shaded. We spent some time playing Frisbee and kicking the soccer ball around before we let Masha and Khrystyna jump on the crocodile. After the crocodile, the girls wanted to go on 2 more rides, but we told them they had to choose between the roller coaster and the centrifugal force ride. Also, we told them that we wanted to go play on the playground equipment before going on a ride. They played on the playground for a little while longer and then headed over to the centrifugal force ride. Mark and Fred went on the ride with them. They all really enjoyed themselves. After the ride, we headed for the ice cream shop where we got the yummy banana splits yesterday. I got ice cream with bananas, pineapples, and shaved chocolate. Khrystyna got her ice cream with strawberries, bananas, and chocolate. Fred chose a banana split. While we waited for the ice cream to come out, I pulled out my picture/word flashcards and quizzed Masha and Khrystyna. They are both very good at reading the words, but they are not as good at remembering what the name of each picture is. We’ll keep working on it. The more English words they can learn, the easier things will be when they get to the US. When we were finished with our ice cream, we headed back to the orphanage with the girls. We still hadn’t heard back from Sasha. By this time, we knew that we had already missed today’s train to Kiev. After we dropped the girls off and said our goodbyes, we headed back to the apartment. When we got back to the apartment, Sasha called. He said that the SDA had pulled Amina’s file and that they had called him to see if we had been approved by US Immigration for more than 1 child. Sasha told them that we had approval for 3 children. They told him they would look into it and get back with him. Sasha thinks we should know something by tomorrow. Please pray that God will work a miracle and that we will NOT have to go to Kiev for our referral. If they can get us the referral without seeing us again, it will shave a few days off of our trip. Also, since Monday is a holiday, the earliest business day that we could be in Kiev would be Tuesday. This whole adoption process is a ton of logistics, so just pray for all the details to be processed smoothly and quickly! After our phone call with Sasha, we relaxed and watched a DVD on our laptop. Now that the movie is over, we are heading to bed! I know I said this yesterday, but hopefully I will have some good news for you tomorrow!