Monuments, Memories and More

Friday October 5, 2012

Until today, we had not left the apartment for 2 days, except for one meal.    It was a much needed and relaxing time of catching up on school work, pictures, laundry, etc.    Quite frankly, I don't want to do any awesome sightseeing without my little V. through the week., since he is still in school.  But yesterday,Thursday, the fun began again when our Zesty little V. came back ~4pm! :)  Never a dull moment with him!  So here is our recap:

Oh, boy, am I ever tired.  So were the kids, especially my boys for some reason.  They were so tired they essentially put themselves to bed tonight!  Today we walked ~7 miles with 4 adults and 5 kids, (Lynch and Williams families) up hills, down hills, rough cobblestone (turning my ankle twice), rode more metros, crammed into more busses, examined teeny tiny creations at the miniatures museum, visited the Ukrainian holocaust museum and traversed caves under Lavra with tiny candles in hand, and gazed upon many, many mummified dignitaries of the Eastern Orthodox faith in the underground caverns at Lavra.   Not only am I exhausted physically, but seeing the Ukrainian holocaust memorial was emotionally exhausting.  I cried many, many tears as we learned of the ~ 7-9 million Ukrainians who were starved to death intentionally by the Soviets in the 1930s in order to get them to submit to their authority.  Oh, my goodness.  The memorial museum was so powerful, very well done and the music just pushed me over the edge.  I was a mess.  My sweet little V., who has a big heart, saw me with tears streaming down and came over to me and said in his precious accent, “It’s OK, Mom” and hugged me…long, meaningful hugs.   I don’t deserve such an amazing son, to add to my bio kids who I also find very amazing.   But I thank God for each of them...I am blessed.  It was a long, hard, yet wonderful day.    

V. was our interpreter for much of the day.  His English gets better every day.  He was frequently our “go to guy” to ask shop owners questions about bathrooms, vendors, etc.  If he doesn’t know how to explain something I ask him, he tells me “I translate when we get home.” (using the translator app. we have )  But overall, we are doing VERY well using charades to communicate what we are trying to say.  It’s quite fun, actually, and has improved my bio kids ability to paraphrase and act out what they are trying to tell him.  Overall, they all four love to laugh and that is definitely universal.   V. and his friend, E., are quite capable of making us laugh and laugh without even saying a word.  They both have hilarious facial expressions and a great sense of humor.  We are all so blessed.  

You may remember when I said, people think, “Oh wow, you are doing something so great for this child, but I suspect he may be doing something great for us.”  It’s so true.  V. has done amazing things for us.  I told Weej it is much like a Team Building adventure here.  Never before have we all been together as a family for this long.  It has been amazing, I must say.   Being so nice to their new brother has made my bio kids much nicer to one another, too.  J 

 We did an excellent job of saving money today, too.  We attempted to eat at a cafeteria at Lavra, but they were on a lunch break….indefinitely apparently, because we sat at tables in a courtyard there to dish out snacks to the kids and the place never reopened.  Ha!!   So we had backpack snacks for lunch and homemade Spaghetti for dinner.  Who knew that P. was a Chef!!!  More on that later!

Today on the home stretch back from our adventures, we met another adoptive family, the B. family, who just arrived in Kiev a few days ago.  They are from TN and adopting a brother & sister pair from the same orphanage.   The Mom lived in Ukraine for a year or more as a missionary at one point, so she knows Ukrainian.  THAT must be handy!!:)   They were standing in the street waiting for the driver to bring their kids to them when we ran into them, so we decided to wait with them so our boys could see their friends arrive.   Boy, were their kids surprised when they got out and saw V. and E. standing with their new parents!   We had a wonderful little gathering there on the sidewalk - three American families and our new Ukrainian children.  Those kids adore one another and we will definitely keep them in touch back in the US.    They were each SO proud of their new families, too.  V. made sure to introduce his friend to me, “This is my Mama”. 

After meeting the B. family we resumed our journey on foot one more mile back to the apartment.  The Dads had gone ahead to the grocery to get dinner supplies.  (wow, we are so spoiled)  When we Moms and kids got back, the Dads had dinner underway; P. was chopping fresh garlic cloves and Weej was preparing pasta and garlic bread.  Wow!   I added in a crazy salad I concocted one night when we thought we had purchased lettuce but it was actually cabbage which I shall name Kiev Slaw.  I threw together the cabbage, some cucumber, some mayo and some Italian dressing and it was YUMMY!  And ALL of my kids liked it- that's amazing!  So I recreated the Kiev Slaw to go with our Pasta dinner and voila, a homecooked meal for 9!  P. was so proud of our meal for 9, “all this….only $12!":)    And it was delicious!  We had great food, great company and lots of joy and laughter.  God is so good. 

Since January, I have been heartsick that our adoption process was taking so long.  If you live nearby, you have heard it from me, probably ad nauseum.   I knew in my head that God has perfect timing, but now I see it with my own eyes.  The weather is picture perfect.  Mid sixties is amazing.  Light jackets, AND the LEAVES ARE CHANGING NOW!!!!!  We, in FL, don’t have Fall.  So being here in the Fall is like Icing on the cake.  I am hot natured and have been sweltering inside many of the buildings here so I can’t imagine being here in the land of no A/C during the summer.  As much as I envied the friends we watched adopting this summer, I’m very happy to be here in the Fall.J

Tomorrow...the CIRCUS!!!!:)