Thursday, June 30, 2011

Bad Blogger From EE

So, I was reprimanded by Renee for not posting in several days and figured I better do an update for everyone who has been following along.

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.


 We laugh over Sveta's daily hairstyles. She is always sporting some kind of multi pony tail, hair bow fiesta. This one hairstyle was particularly festive. And always, she is the cutest little thing in her orphanage couture.


                    Bobbing her head to a hannah montana song Paige had on the ipod. So cute!

When she smiles, laughs, wraps her little arms around our neck we are reminded of why we came here.

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.

6 comments:

alk said...

I am so excited to read your posts. It's wonderful to see how God has ordered everything for you! I'll keep praying for a safe return.

Renee said...

She is straight up rockstar, I tell you... I thought it before I saw her with the ipod then it was confirmed with the hannah montana music head bobbin...And what is up with the feet meat? HELLO? Slim Jim anyone? 4 days, you can do it, Grits... I have faith in you and I know your little ones at home can't wait to put their arms around her... Oh I wish I could be in Alabama to meet you at the airport. Email me the details...you never can tell what I might be able to pull off!

Mommy Grits said...

If we could find anything remotely close to a slim jim we would stock up on them! We had three boxes of protien bars...but left them in Kiev by accident!!! Its safe to stick with risotto and pasta. Even Mcdonalds is a safe alternative. lol.

michelle said...

Is she wearing a COAT?....in JUNE??? Oh my lol. Happy to see the absent minded blogger was able to finally post and let the world know your still alive. Yep, you gotta stay away from the feet meat, the bucket o chicken, and anything else that FDA would not allow in this country. Your safest bet...don't eat lol. Please keep us posted when your arriving home!

Amy said...

She is SO precious! Jon and I loved this post! I'll call you when I have a moment of peace...need to warn you about the drive here. :)

Mommy Grits said...

Michelle - yes a sweater!! But it has been chilly here..really! We only sweated for about a week. Lol on staying away from anything the FDA wouldn't allow. We have seen lots of that!

Amy - I am scared! LOL. Can't wait to hear about the drive. Hmmm...shake and bake express versus driving to Kiev...it sounds like a toss up! we hope to see you guys before we all leave kiev!!