Things are just kind of ground hog day... ish. Same sounds, same images of the same dogs in the street, women in high heels, cats screeching outside our window every night, same food for breakfast, same trip down the same road to the Nicolaev Baby House, same familiar sickish feeling in our stomach from eating different foods everyday.
Same comical sights and whatnot. Like...
"Does this chicken wrap smell like feet?"
"why is there mayo and ketchup smeared all over the fries?"
"is that raw chickens on buckets at that babushkas feet?" Can that be okay???
"is that white sauce mayo, sour cream, or kefir maybe??? whatever it is..its warm..don't eat it!"
"look at that sign..the picture has a goat on a skateboard on it with a strike through it...no goats on skateboards allowed???"
We have learned to chalk all the little quirks up to it being what it is..Ukraine. And we wouldn't change a thing. Except maybe the toilet paper.
We are thankful for one another, for humor and honestly, for the time we have spent here. Yes, its groundhog day..ish but we will likely never return here.
Well, never say never.
We are in a routine but trying to soak as much in as we can. We walk everywhere and try to venture out and see new things. Our perspective on walking places is completely different now. "how far is that pizza place? a little over a mile? oh, thats not far - lets go!" We walk everywhere except for to our visits to the orphanage.
Our routine is mostly the same but our visits with Sveta are not really the same everyday. She always wants to do something different. Somedays its playdough. Somedays its sit and be quiet..ish. Somedays its play hide and seek, slide, seesaw and run like a maniac. She is calling us mama and papa and today we almost cried...because she said "UH OH!" and "AGAIN!" when Eli was tossing her into the air.
But...more importantly she is seeking us out to help her with things, to comfort her. We are learning what makes her tick and she is learning who we are. We know there is a long road ahead for all of us.
We have fallen more in love with her over the tiny bit of time we have known her.
We look at her, with tears in our eyes and say "she is our child"
Somehow, by his grace God in heaven made us her parents.
Giving daddy kisses.
For Sveta. To take her home.
Our home. Her home.
We have four days left of the ten day wait. Four days. On Tuesday, July 5th we hope to say goodbye to the orphanage. It will be bittersweet - she has been there since she was five months old. Many of her cargivers have taken care of her since she was a baby. Everyone knows her name.
But it will be time - time to begin our life as a family.
Almost there.
Hang on Little One...not too much longer.
