WEDNESDAY:
Anya was not allowed back to school again today, apparently she is still on some sick list
from the whole hospital allergy thing? So we are told at 10am she is ready for us and we can come anytime. We have to go to the Notary/attorney first for the last up the pre-court paperwork. Then a quick stop at the regional inspectors office-we wait in the taxi Nadiya said 5 minutes, turns out it was Ukrainian minutes translates to 25 minutes, this is OK because several days ago Nadiya had explained to us about this Ukrainian time, so after 5 minutes had passed we knew were had most likely crossed over into Ukraine time.
We arrive at the orphanage about 11:00 and Anya is not inside, Nadiya needs to talk to the ladies in the office and then Ludmila so Matt and I decide to go out and walk around.
I soon find Anya out on the playground with her friends, I do not think any of these kids ever go to school it is not even noon and they are hanging out playing?Anya says goodbye as she assumes we are leaving, I explain we will stay for a while and she immediately wants the camera. I get introduced to some of her closest friends, this is wonderful. I get to talk some with Leena, this is the 13 year old girl that Ryan Carlson told us about a year ago, we had written to Ludmila about her and prayed about adopting her too. We first saw her on Monday just briefly and we recognized her from the photo Ryan had given us. We now know that Leena has been registered but won't be available for International adoption until next November, we may have to come back to Ukraine after all. Anya very much wants us to take Leena home with her, they are very close.
We also meet a 13 year old Genya she is one of Matt's favorites speak English very well. We assume she must have siblings or family that visits or not registered because we have been told there are no other available girls without siblings between ages 10-16 as of today. Matt is afraid to ask this one's story because she is already capturing his heart, but so is Olea, one of the younger Nastiya's and younger Vika he is worse than me! This is the hard thing about being here, we want to help them all and we can not.
After being on the playground for about 20 minutes, Nastiya (Matthews) walks up to me and smiles that beautiful smile of hers, I almost scream! I can not believe it is her, we hug and I start asking her a million questions in English, she just smiles and hugs me. I then think I have to call Joyce, yes it is about 3am but i still need to call her, this is unbelievable, because just yesterday Anya told me she was gone, we assumed with the biological mother for quite some time. For those of you who don't know, Dan & Joyce hosted Nastiya same time as we hosted Anya, and when they were in Ukraine a few weeks ago and got Nastiya as their referral, the bio mom came back into picture and regained custody of her. Nastiya did not want to be with the mom, and loves Dan & Joyce so much. SO this is a BIG Deal! So I leave three messages on Joyce and Dan's phones and then they call me back a few minutes later, and we get Nastiya on the phone to say hello. It is hard because she really does not understand them, but she is just smiling and so happy the whole time she is in the phone, it is so amazing, both Matt and I shed some tears.
After the phone call we continue to watch and play with the kids, and of course take more photos and video.
Nastiya (Fields) appears at one point and she is very happy too, more big hugs for us. Then the 11 yr old Nastiya with blond hair and red shirt comes up to me and says in English, "hi my name is Nastiya" and her little friend in pink sweater does the same" hi my name is Vika" and they shake my hands. This is when my heart begins to ache for them all, they just want to be noticed and loved just a little. Not long after this the caregivers tell the children they must go inside, and Genya comes back for Matt and tells us that we can all go together. She walks with Matt arm in arm the whole way back to the inside, not sure what she said or did because I was further behind but what ever it was she has got Matt feeling all hearts for this little one. This is the one he is afraid to ask questions about, for it keeps it safe. He would probably come back for her, Leena, Olea and this blond haired Nastiya if he could.
After the other kids have gone inside to do what ever it is they will do Anya continues on this photo journey, taking pictures of all her caregivers and every nick knack and piece of art work on the walls, and then all around the outside of the building, every angle of the playground, and finally the trees, turns out her and several friends had carved names and initials in these trees at some point and she needed to capture this on film too. We have lots of photos of these trees.
Finally Nadiya is done with the meetings and we can leave the orphanage for a while. We need to find a paper/office supply store to buy 2 boxes of printer paper and clear protective sheets for the orphanage office, they had asked us about this a day or two back. We think this is because they intend on having us make these "applications of responsibility for life and health" and will soon be out of paper for us to do so.
The first paper store we try is closed for lunch. So Anya wants to go to the one close in her neighborhood where she used to live with her mother. There are several other places near this store that she wishes to see before we leave Ukraine. So we get the taxi and head to Anya's neighborhood. She photographs everything! We buy DVD's in Russian of some of her favorite movies and a few books at the market place where she used to shop with Grandmother and mother. She gets a cook book to give to her roommate Anya from the apartment, like I said they are learning to cook but have no recipe book, I think this is a very thoughtful practical gift for her to give.
We then have lunch at a nice restaurant, that we find out later is the place she was taken after her graduation from the 9th grade this last year. It has pretty good food. The we are off to the swimming pool and park where she used to go, again photographing everything around her. It is just an amazing thing to watch how she captures these little memories and I wonder about all the times she was at these places.
We end up back at the orphanage and she takes more photos, and after a bit we need to go home to the apartment for the evening. She has been with us for a long time today so we decide she will not go with us tonight as it would only be for an hour or so before we would have to take her back. So we all hug and say the goodbyes and the tomorrow's and we go.
We can pick her up at 10:00 tomorrow for more.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
LOOK WHO WE FOUND TODAY!
WEDNESDAY:
Anya was not allowed back to school again today, apparently she is still on some sick list
from the whole hospital allergy thing? So we are told at 10am she is ready for us and we can come anytime. We have to go to the Notary/attorney first for the last up the pre-court paperwork. Then a quick stop at the regional inspectors office-we wait in the taxi Nadiya said 5 minutes, turns out it was Ukrainian minutes translates to 25 minutes, this is OK because several days ago Nadiya had explained to us about this Ukrainian time, so after 5 minutes had passed we knew were had most likely crossed over into Ukraine time.
We arrive at the orphanage about 11:00 and Anya is not inside, Nadiya needs to talk to the ladies in the office and then Ludmila so Matt and I decide to go out and walk around.
I soon find Anya out on the playground with her friends, I do not think any of these kids ever go to school it is not even noon and they are hanging out playing?Anya says goodbye as she assumes we are leaving, I explain we will stay for a while and she immediately wants the camera. I get introduced to some of her closest friends, this is wonderful. I get to talk some with Leena, this is the 13 year old girl that Ryan Carlson told us about a year ago, we had written to Ludmila about her and prayed about adopting her too. We first saw her on Monday just briefly and we recognized her from the photo Ryan had given us. We now know that Leena has been registered but won't be available for International adoption until next November, we may have to come back to Ukraine after all. Anya very much wants us to take Leena home with her, they are very close.
We also meet a 13 year old Genya she is one of Matt's favorites speak English very well. We assume she must have siblings or family that visits or not registered because we have been told there are no other available girls without siblings between ages 10-16 as of today. Matt is afraid to ask this one's story because she is already capturing his heart, but so is Olea, one of the younger Nastiya's and younger Vika he is worse than me! This is the hard thing about being here, we want to help them all and we can not.
After being on the playground for about 20 minutes, Nastiya (Matthews) walks up to me and smiles that beautiful smile of hers, I almost scream! I can not believe it is her, we hug and I start asking her a million questions in English, she just smiles and hugs me. I then think I have to call Joyce, yes it is about 3am but i still need to call her, this is unbelievable, because just yesterday Anya told me she was gone, we assumed with the biological mother for quite some time. For those of you who don't know, Dan & Joyce hosted Nastiya same time as we hosted Anya, and when they were in Ukraine a few weeks ago and got Nastiya as their referral, the bio mom came back into picture and regained custody of her. Nastiya did not want to be with the mom, and loves Dan & Joyce so much. SO this is a BIG Deal! So I leave three messages on Joyce and Dan's phones and then they call me back a few minutes later, and we get Nastiya on the phone to say hello. It is hard because she really does not understand them, but she is just smiling and so happy the whole time she is in the phone, it is so amazing, both Matt and I shed some tears.
After the phone call we continue to watch and play with the kids, and of course take more photos and video.
Nastiya (Fields) appears at one point and she is very happy too, more big hugs for us. Then the 11 yr old Nastiya with blond hair and red shirt comes up to me and says in English, "hi my name is Nastiya" and her little friend in pink sweater does the same" hi my name is Vika" and they shake my hands. This is when my heart begins to ache for them all, they just want to be noticed and loved just a little. Not long after this the caregivers tell the children they must go inside, and Genya comes back for Matt and tells us that we can all go together. She walks with Matt arm in arm the whole way back to the inside, not sure what she said or did because I was further behind but what ever it was she has got Matt feeling all hearts for this little one. This is the one he is afraid to ask questions about, for it keeps it safe. He would probably come back for her, Leena, Olea and this blond haired Nastiya if he could.
After the other kids have gone inside to do what ever it is they will do Anya continues on this photo journey, taking pictures of all her caregivers and every nick knack and piece of art work on the walls, and then all around the outside of the building, every angle of the playground, and finally the trees, turns out her and several friends had carved names and initials in these trees at some point and she needed to capture this on film too. We have lots of photos of these trees.
Finally Nadiya is done with the meetings and we can leave the orphanage for a while. We need to find a paper/office supply store to buy 2 boxes of printer paper and clear protective sheets for the orphanage office, they had asked us about this a day or two back. We think this is because they intend on having us make these "applications of responsibility for life and health" and will soon be out of paper for us to do so.
The first paper store we try is closed for lunch. So Anya wants to go to the one close in her neighborhood where she used to live with her mother. There are several other places near this store that she wishes to see before we leave Ukraine. So we get the taxi and head to Anya's neighborhood. She photographs everything! We buy DVD's in Russian of some of her favorite movies and a few books at the market place where she used to shop with Grandmother and mother. She gets a cook book to give to her roommate Anya from the apartment, like I said they are learning to cook but have no recipe book, I think this is a very thoughtful practical gift for her to give.
We then have lunch at a nice restaurant, that we find out later is the place she was taken after her graduation from the 9th grade this last year. It has pretty good food. The we are off to the swimming pool and park where she used to go, again photographing everything around her. It is just an amazing thing to watch how she captures these little memories and I wonder about all the times she was at these places.
We end up back at the orphanage and she takes more photos, and after a bit we need to go home to the apartment for the evening. She has been with us for a long time today so we decide she will not go with us tonight as it would only be for an hour or so before we would have to take her back. So we all hug and say the goodbyes and the tomorrow's and we go.
We can pick her up at 10:00 tomorrow for more.
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1 comment:
hi mommy, reading this made me happy and sad i really wish you guys could go back for all of the girls you talked about. mabey at least leena. that is awsome you found nastia, i thought she was taki n away though. i love you guys and cant wait till you get home.
-haley
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