Wed. Oct. 21st

Hello to all our friends and family!
Like I said, because the internet connection is wishy-washy, I'm putting little Posts to the blog instead of one or two large ones. We hope you liked the photos of Don bass Area - it is a beautiful stadium.

So we know we are days behind in news and we're sorry for that. We've been dying to talk to you too.

Okay, we met at SDA last Thursday and received approval to see one girl - Valentina (Vala). On Friday afternoon they gave us the paperwork and we hopped on the overnight train with Sergiy and his family. Our apartment wasn't ready and we were homeless with 4 large suitcases and two carry on bags (awkward, huh?). We were left at the "pirate restaurant" where we ate and used the WIFI connection. The "orange, scary" apartment was ready in the late afternoon and we stayed there 2 days, then moved to our present apartment - a single studio room in the downtown area. It is very nice, cleaner, more secure and very close to everything.

One thing to mention, for those that don't know - most Ukrainians walk a considerable distance each day. Less than half of the households own a car, and that would only be one for the entire family, including adult children living with the family still. So the streets are packed with all types and ages of people walking to and from work, the market (which they buy daily from), school, etc. So all hours of the day and night, there are people out. Because of this, the population is incredibly fit. All ages except the old Babushka's who deserve to have a little extra around the middles! lol

So we waited in our new apartment Sunday night, for the next day to come. On Monday we are to go get approval to visit Vala at the orphanage and have contact. We did not sleep well, but better than we had since leaving home.

The government buildings are incredible. It's just so hard to explain, but image a post-Soviet building. Almost all buildings are made of poured concrete. The walls are uneven in width, but seem to be around 18" thick. When a new door or window is needed, they have to get through it somehow, haul out all that concrete and rebar, and patch it best they can. We understand that construction that was underway while Mark & Sally were here, looks the same a year later when we showed up Monday morning. The bags of concrete are still sitting in the hallway along with other construction material.

Another thing that is so obvious is how people live in the dark here, literally. We walked through several dark hallways to get to this official office - a governmental building. It's amazing how they are used to it. John and I waited in a dark room/hallway for our turn (about 45 minutes).

But the permission we obtained and we headed to the orphanage. With the inspector in tow, we walked in the orphanage, down a hallway, hook a corner, past several women, turned into an office and................. did I mention most Ukrainians walk very fast? Anyone who's walked with me knows I can walk quite fast, but keeping up with them, even a woman in 3" spiked heels, is a chore! We were following in single file line, trying not to get left behind, when suddenly we were in the Director's office and standing 3 feet away from Vala!!!

I was dumbstruck! I didn't know she would be in on the meeting - I was thinking she would be called in later. I stood there, with John behind me, I think staring just like me. Finally (and thankfully!) Sergiy said, "Well hug her!"

She was all smiles and you could see the tension in her face as she looked up at me. She had no idea what he had just said in English, but you could see the pleading in her eyes saying, "Please accept me as okay". I reached over and gave her a side hug, as my left hand was full of stuff we brought in for the meeting. She was stiff and did not hug back. She looked up at me with the same fixed smile on her face, no teeth showing.

It melted and broke my heart! As we found out later, she found out we were coming on Friday. She could barely contain herself all weekend. When the Director showed up to her office on Monday morning at 7:00am, Vala was waiting at her door. She had not slept, did not eat breakfast and had not left the office until we arrived at that very moment! She did not want to wait one single second longer than she had to to see us. And she knew the first place we would have to go was the Director's office.