Update of our time on Friday and Saturday

Friday

On Friday morning we went with Nadiya to the Mariupol train station to buy our tickets for Tuesday. Then we had several hours before we could visit Anya and Nadiya had paperwork stuff to do so Matt and I decided to go to the Market place again. We had the taxi drop us off before he took Nadiya to the orphanage. This is the taxi ride that Matt lost his blackberry in.

We found the earring we had come to look for, the one that we bought Anya last week and she lost one of them already. I was also hoping to find a pair of Sunglasses because I lost mine the last time we were at this market place, but no luck.

After we realized we lost the phone and Nadiya called the driver and he was not able to find the phone, we needed to walk back to the apartment to call T-mobile and cancel the service so we did not end up with large bill from someone using this to make international calls.

We were then picked up by Anya and the taxi driver around 3pm after she had once again driven to the trade school and university to finalize the withdraw from school and receive her transcripts. We were picked up on the way back this time so that Matt could pay the fees to the taxi driver again, he was thrilled about this process.

Shortly after we arrived at the orphanage the Italian couple we have been hearing about had finally arrived to adopt the little blond girl Nastiya T. I posted a photo of them in our pictures for you all to see. We are so happy for her, it is going to be a good match I think. The couple spoke pretty good English so we were able to talk to them. They are an older couple who has never had any children, and they just adore Nastiya. We spent most of the visit with them and she was so excited. Thank God for one less orphan in this place. There is also another Italian couple here, who are adopting two brothers ages 7 and 2. I posted a photo of the dad with the little one, he is so cute. We have video of all of the kids playing outside on this day together.

After the Fields time with Nastiya was up for the afternoon, we took Anya with us back to the apartment where Tami was making us wonderful cheeseburgers and french fries, it was so great to taste some food that was familiar. We all ate way too much!

Saturday

I have been given the seat of power to "blog"about yesterday, although, I have to admit, I have lots of other things that I would like to put out there, but I'm having "bloggers-block" from all that has occurred for the last 5 days.

18 months ago I observed from a staircase, Anya putting her hands on Aimee's face stating, with no hesitation, "I want a family". She was completely invading Aimee's personal space by stating this while almost touching noses. It was at that moment I went from "host-dad" to the eventual, "Papa"! Just like that the future and direction of our family was changed. It was, without a doubt, the LAST thing I ever expected to be relating to my wife who was even more surprised than I was. I vaguely recall slightly shaking as the words, "We need to adopt her", rolled out of my mouth. It was a either a prodding of the Holy Spirit, or a moment of complete emotional betrayal. I'm convinced that being the only male in the house (and I mentioned this on Dr. David's blog via a "comment") that I "co-PMS" with all the females in the house. There are times I can literally feel the testosterone abandoning me. Either way-we're out of here in 2 days with a 15 year old Ukrainian girl that I adore. More on stuff like this at a later date.

Saturday we picked up Anya the Field's, their Nastiya and Nadya at the orphanage at 10AM. We were taken by taxi to "City Park". As this was the only day that we had opportunity to take them off the grounds, we were met with clouds, drizzle and rain-all day. We explored a mini version of a Ukraine village and witnessed another wedding. This, of course wouldn't be complete without several older people/workers sweeping...you guessed it-the dirt-and in the rain and wind, no-less!

We went to the bowling alley/billiard hall. This is the only place I remember being in that looked "westernized", very nice! Our family parade apparently invaded a serious pool tournament. At least 30 men(all in black shirts or vests) playing pool, drinking and smoking. They played with all white, numbered balls. We got what I would call annoying/irritating/disapproving stares.

After what seemed like an eternity, we all had our shoes on(except me, I'm in stabilizing boot from an ankle injury) and the bowling started. Everyone is pretty bad, although Anya ended up winning thanks to Brian Fields "accidentally" throwing consecutive gutter balls in frame 10, preserving Anya's 7 pin advantage. Most of the pool players were, by the end, standing around watching us.

We were the only people bowling and there were a dozen empty "Brunswick" bowling tables-none being used. You wouldn't think there would be a problem using one table for coats, bags and umbrellas. You would be wrong! We were told to get our stuff off the completely empty table. Shut up, already! Had this occurred in the states, I would have been "language empowered" to carry that discussion further.

We went to eat and then went to a little book store. It had a huge selection of English study books. Paid about $35.00 for about $150.00 worth of books. We then went to the apartment.

I have lots to say still remaining. Out of time as we are going to visit the grave of Anya's grandma. After she died, Anya would eventually end up in the orphanage.

More later.

Matt