The Marble Chronicles: Rough day for Vanya

Greetings again from Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. We are still in Ukraine, and still waiting for paperwork from the NAC. We didn't get it Friday, like we were hoping. Kostya will be in Kiev Monday AM, and try to get it from them. There were two American families at the same orphange as we are, and their paperwork took 5 and 10 days, respectively, from the NAC. So, we are hoping that we are closer 5 than 10! So, please continue to pray that the NAC will finish with our paperwork on Monday so we can head to court on Tuesday....

John and I have discovered that when we are bored, we become very lazy! We went to bed last night at 8:30 and John didn't get up until 8:30 this AM! Then, after a tiring breakfast, we both took a nap for 2 hours! Once we finally got up, we went to visit the kids, and then downtown for some shopping for kids, and the daily stop-in at the internet cafe. Tomorrow is Sunday, so we'll go to church in the AM. There is a large Baptist church between our apartment and the orphanage. John and Kostya went to it last weekend (I was home sick). So, as we have been saying, "that'll kill 2 hours!"

Well, let's see. Seeing the kids...it is going well, but I think we all are getting a little bored. You can only play ball so often without any changes. We are all ready to get home and get into the routine of being a family. Sasha asked us last night if he could just come to our house with us that night. The older ones are asking how many days, and although we said 4-6 days last weekend, we are still having to say 4-6 days. I think they understand somewhat that it isn't completely in our hands, and so seem to be ok with not knowing exactly when. Hopefully Monday we'll get our paperwork, and start getting a better timeline in place!

Our time with the kids has developed into a regular routine. We greet them with hugs and kisses and then give them their snack. Most of the time, they are the snacks that we brought with us from the States. We haven't hardly touched them ourselves, but they've been handy to share with the kids. We usually have a bottle of water for them to share, and then granola or cereal bars, fruit snacks, or crackers. Sometimes we have brought fresh fruit for them. Yesterday afternoon Mariyana requested oranges, so that is what we are bringing them this afternoon.

Anyways, this AM we brought fruit snacks, watermelon and kool-aid for the kids. I was feeling guilty giving my kids kool-aid, but I guess I don't need to worry - they really didn't like it that much, so we can go back to water! Vanya has a scabby sore on his ear, and his nose is all crusty with bloody scabs in it. We aren't really sure what it is, and what the cause is - we figured it was just a little boy picking at stuff until it started bleeding...Anyways, we gave Vanya a fruit snack bag, and Mariyana told us he shouldn't eat it because it made his ear and nose worse. Well, we aren't real positive that is the case (can't think of anything in them that would cause this!), but wanted to at least acknowledge her comments, and be respectful of what the different orphanage caregivers are thinking. So, we had to take the fruit snacks away. Well, that was a major ordeal. Vanya is the guy that inhales all the food we give him. If he finds a crumb on the ground, he picks it up and eats it. When he was eating the watermelon we brought, we weren't watching, and he ate the rind. I think he is really undernourished and hungry a good majority of the time. So, you can see, that taking away food from him, was a major problem. He looked so sad, and just pouted and cried the rest of the time we were there. Hopefully he'll be better this afternoon.

Now that we are talking about nutrition, let me share a little about what we have observed. The smells that come from the kitchen at the orphanage are wonderful, and from the few times that we have had Kostya or Ira with us to translate what the kids have eaten for different meals, sounds like they are getting good quality and variety of food. I think, however, there probably isn't much as far as quantity. There are probably 300 kids at this orphanage, so that is a lot of mouths to feed! So, we expect that when we get home, our kids will enjoy the opportunity to have seconds and even thirds, if they wish. But, for right now, we are bringing them nutritious snacks each time we see them...

The town of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky is quite busy construction-wise. The Prime Minister is coming on Independence Day, which is towards the end of August (the 25th, I think). They are actually installing gas lines, which will be active after his visit. So, the streets get torn up to put in the line, and then re-paved the next day to smooth them out again. In addition, many of the public buildings are being white-washed, repainted, cleaned, etc. The orphanage must be expecting a visit from either the Prime Minister or his wife, as they are busy repainting all the playground equipment.

As those of you readers who are in Idaho know, one thing we always complain about is the condition of the roads in Idaho. Well, no more! Our Ukrainian friends often told us how wonderful our roads were in Idaho, and we would laugh and say, "They're awful!" Now we understand. Taking a drive anywhere is indeed an experience. The taxi drivers should be better called off-road specialists, as they duck, dodge and drive around and through various holes and potholes. To give you an idea of the roads - Belgorod-Dnestrovsky is 71 km from Odessa. We have made that trip several times, in search of a notary. Anyways, the shortest we have ever had that trip take is 90 minutes, and believe me, it wasn't because the driver was dawdling! Granted, the road meanders through two small towns, so it means slowing down (slightly!) for those, but most of the time is because of the road conditions.

I realized I haven't shared with you where we are staying here in B-D. The first night, we stayed at a local hotel. I think there are only 2 in the entire town. The hotel room was very similar to a dorm room, as far as the furnishings and feel to it. Our particular room had three single beds and 2 nightstands. The bathroom had a toilet, sink and then a mount for the faucet for a shower. There was no "shower stall" perse, it was just a place to stand next to the toilet.

After that first night, we arranged to stay at the apartment of the secretary of the social worker. Apartments here are designated by how many rooms they are - when an apartment is built, they don't have closets in them, so there is no distinction between what rooms are considered bedrooms, and which rooms are considered living rooms. So, our apartment would be considered a 2 room apartment. You enter from the front door. To your immediate left are two small rooms. The first is the toilet room. The second room has the sink and bathrub, with handheld shower wand. Straight ahead from the door is where we are sleeping - it would be what we call a bedroom. Our bed is a sleeper couch - my side is quite comfortable, although John's isn't quite so! There is a small hallway. To the left off the hallway is the kitchen. It has a fridge/freezer, sink and two-burner hotplate. There is an oven in the kitchen that the hotplate sits on, but it isn't hooked up because there is no gas service (yet). There is a small table and stools in the kitchen where we sit. We haven't yet ever seen a dishwasher here in Ukraine - they are apparently even beyond a luxury item...Next to the kitchen is the 2nd room - it is set up like a living room. This is where Kostya or Ira have slept. The hostess set up a cot for them, but they have each elected to sleep on the floor instead. Off of the living room there is a small balcony. It isn't really wide enough to do much there except stand. But the windows open and there is a clothes line, which is quite important for drying clothes. Washing machines are luxury items, and our particular apartment doesn't have one. But, washing clothes by hand isn't that big of a deal, and right now is something we figure will "kill 30 minutes!". We have never seen a dryer here - everyone just hangs up their clothes; thus, every apartment we have seen has some sort of balcony for doing so. (Even our hotel room had one)

Our apartment is in a 5 or 6-story building. Each floor has 3 apartments. John feels quite at home because there is always construction going on! People often buy their apartments, although doing so can be quite difficult because mortgages are still almost unheard of (and the few that exist have 15-20% interest!). The apartment building is in an area that probably has 15-20 other apartment buildings of similar size. There is a "common area" between the buildings that at its infancy was quite nice. There are play areas for the kids, including bars, balance beams (metal), soccer field and basketball courts. The area hasn't seen any repair or work on it for many, many years so everything is overgrown, rusted and many things broken. Still, there are always children out playing on it when we walk by.

Our apartment is about 3/4 or 1 mile from the orphanage across an undeveloped field. There is nothing in the field except a lot of shrubbery, the occasional tree, well-worn paths, and sandy roads the width of our sidewalks that the taxi drivers love to drive on very fast. The soil here is completely sandy - that explains the delicious watermelons that can be bought on every corner.

Some of you have asked about coming to the airport in Lewiston when we come home. I think that would be great! It would really help the kids feel like they are coming home to a bigger Moscow-Pullman family that joyously welcomes them. I will keep you all posted about our flight details, if you wish to greet our family at the Lewiston airport.

One more thing I just thought of. For those of you waiting your turn to come to Ukraine to find your forever children, you might be wondering about digital cameras, pictures, etc. I will just share with you what we have done, and it has worked wonderfully. Our online journal is through blogger (blogger.com). It is very easy to use, can be accessed from any computer, and is free! It also allows you to include pictures right within your journal postings, as we have done. It is very simple - it has a feature to allow you to upload your pictures to your server. We brought with us our digital camera (Sony Cybershot) which uses memory stick pro cards. Then we brought with us a SanDisk reader/writer that we bought at Wal-mart for $35 or so. We can plug the SanDisk reader/writer right into the USB ports on the internet cafe computer, put the memory stick in it, and the pictures show up just like an external drive. We don't need any specific software, nor do we have to worry about putting pictures onto the internet cafe computers. For us, it has been so easy! Just a note about memory - we brought a 512 MB, 256 MB and a 32 MB memory sticks with us. Our 512 card is full, and our 256 stick is 1/3 full. We also have burned probably 100 pictures onto a CD, and deleted them from our memory stick. Ok, hope that helps someone! I know we were at a loss as to how to deal with technology while we were here, so maybe someone else is in the same boat right now!

Well, that about covers everything I can think of for now. I will put up a few pictures that we took yesterday when we showed the kids what we bought for them. As soon as they see their new things, they of course have to try them on, and wear them until it is time for us to leave. So, that meant Oleysa spent yesterday afternoon running around in her new pink swimsuit!

One of the things that we have encouraged each time we are with our kids, is to have them interact with one another as siblings. We aren't sure how much of this they actually do in the orphanage. They are all in the same group together, but we think they tend to interact more with each other as someone else in the group. So, we have really enjoyed seeing them act like brothers and sisters - playing together, helping each other out, and of course, the occasional sibling fighting! Here are a few pictures of Oleysa and Sasha playing together, Mariyana, Oleysa and Vanya together, and Mariyana and Sasha looking at their new clothes....