Just Another Day in Ukraine...

What a blessing it was this morning to rest and recover from four days of being on the road here and there...  We both enjoyed some personal quiet time and musical worship.  I personally enjoyed singing along with a Sara Groves' CD - "When the Saints" and "I Saw What I Saw"... good, refreshing stuff...

Yana and Oleg picked us up at 2:30 PM to head to the orphanage.  We were excited to see the kids again, though putting our heads together on what to do once we got there.  Of course, you can plan all you want and still not have a clue of what you're going to do when you're there - ha ha!  Today we arrived to the joyful embrace of Angela who saw us coming from afar.  She was all smiles and ran to ask her teacher to join us.  It took us a few minutes to track down James.  We were first greeted by his afternoon teacher (the kind one).  She said he was upset in his room because once the "pom pom" dance teacher (see yesterday's blog) knew that he was leaving soon, gave his spot away.  They are evidently rehearsing for a concert on the 29th but James will no longer be there.  He was a little confused and was likewise upset over being dismissed from dance.  Thankfully, once we arrived and explained everything he perked up.  He is processing everything.  He is quite a thinker.  

The older two enjoyed ice cream for their afternoon snack.  Oh, how they LOVE ice cream!  

While they ate their snack, I worked with Yana on some more "survival" words for our departure.  For example, how to recognize when they are thirsty or hungry or want more or if they're not feeling well, etc...  As we practiced, Angela wanted to draw...
At 4:00 PM we went to pick up Jana and Victoria.  They were also all smiles and ran all the way upstairs to join Poppa and James.  We'd brought gummy bears (a favorite of theirs) for a treat.  At one point, Victoria took me downstairs for what I thought was a toilet visit.  However, she just wanted to go and share gummy bears with the rest of her class.  Wish I had the camera, but it wouldn't have mattered since our battery died while there.  Nonetheless, when we went back upstairs, Jana and Victoria shared with one another.  I did catch that...
I successfully avoided a meltdown this afternoon of which I am proud... and relieved.  Victoria wanted to go back down and use the "toilet".  I waited inside the door of the sleep room while she went in to the classroom (two adjoining rooms).  One minute later she was back in near tears.  Her teacher would not let her go.  I immediately got down to eye level and said in broken Russian, "Momma will take you to another toilet".  She hesitated a brief moment and then followed me to the other bathroom that is usually locked - but wasn't - yay!  She quickly used it (and really did have to go I might add) and joyfully ran back upstairs to join everyone else.  A small victory on foreign turf.

After running around, giggling, some tickling and a little bit of a cartoon upstairs it was time to go.  Meltdown did eventually come for Victoria.  She is, at least here, a bit of a drama queen.  Part of it is a power struggle.  But, she is learning and getting a little better each time.  So precious.  I look forward to healing for them and freedom from some of their learned, as well as coping behaviors.  Please continue to pray for wisdom, patience, guidance and insight as we lovingly parent them.  They are so precious, and really are good children considering all they have been through.  We are so thankful for these treasures.  I can't say it enough!   

After hugs and kisses goodbye, we headed back to Zapporizhia.  We grabbed a few groceries to see us through the remainder of our time here and now are both blogging.  We found a site here to download the episodes of "Lost" we have missed while being out of country.  Tonight is a "Lost" marathon - woo hoo!  

Meanwhile, we did find out today that we won't find out today which day our passports will arrive.  Bummer.  What we think we understood from Yana (sometimes we have a hard time really understanding the translation) is that we will know Tuesday at 1 PM if the passports at here.  If they aren't there at that time, then they will be there Wednesday at 1 PM.  Please pray for Tuesday... and if the Lord wills otherwise, that He would will Wednesday and not a day later - ha ha!  :)  Thanks for all your prayers!