The Week Creeps On

Warmer today, no winter coat, just turtle neck and fleece jacket. I am so sick of wearing the same 2 pair of jeans and 4 shirts. But if it gets any warmer, I'm sunk. I brought one tee shirt. It was snowing daily when we got here! After the morning at the cafe, I relaxed and headed to the orphanage. Got there at 3:00 with no agenda. The kids were still having lunch. What's with lunch so late? I sat on the bench in the playground and Ludwig found me. He wanted me to come inside where I found Kai helping a guy paint a doorway. Everything has about 100 coats of paint on it around here. He gave me a hug and said he wanted to continue helping (5 minutes, Mom.). I went back outside and watched some boys kick the soccer ball back and forth to each other. It was pretty impressive how they wouldn't even let the ball touch the ground, but bounced it on every part of them except their hands. One kid ended up climbing a huge tree to retrieve a ball that was lodged up in the branches. I wasn't bored.

Kai helped clean up the paint and then wanted to take video of his friend Sasha doing flips off of various apparatus. First he ran up the side of the building and did a back flip. After a few of those, we went out back to where the tire and "landing pit" were. It was set up so that they would run to the tire and use it like a mini-trampoline to bounce on it and do various flips, landing in the soft dirt. Sasha could do tucks, layouts, and twists. He was quite good. Kai had done some of these flips for me before we went bowling last Saturday, but today he was admittedly scared. He managed to do one, but I couldn't figure out why he was scared. We went inside because Kai wanted to do some video of them break-dancing. Sergei provided music from his phone and they did a little bit. I was wanting more, but that's all I got.

We went back outside and Sasha climbed a tree and did a back flip out of it, landing on the dirt. Out in the playground, he climbed a monkeybar thing and did it again, off the top of that. He said, in English, "I crazy". I said you sure are! Kai asked to go to the store and I had a little money so I said okay. He specifically wanted Sergei to come, and Sasha came, too. He mostly got food that I didn't feel like eating, including 2 kinds of fish, and I asked him if this food was for now or for later. He said now. I wasn't so sure because by the time we got back to the classroom it was pretty much 5:00 and time for study hall. I was kicked out so we did kisses and hugs and I went upstairs to see if Jessica would turn up eventually.

I was listening to my iPod and started in on some semki (sunflower seeds) when Jessica emerged from somewhere. I gave her a packet of semki, and we ate and got caught up. I told her about my conversation with Victor this morning. I called him to ask about the boat around the Cossack island. We were hoping it might be running so we could take the boys for one last hurrah field trip. Victor had all kinds of news for me, however. He said he'd been talking with people at the court, the passport office, the Vital Statistics place and God knows who else. He said everything is all in line and all set for us to have what we need as quickly as possible. I wrote out a make-shift calendar so I could have a clue.

Monday the 19th, we go early to the court with Marina and get the all-important court agreement. I think Victor said we need 10 copies of this document. Can you believe it? This is the document that says the kid is officially ours. With that in hand, we can go to the orphanage and take Kai once and for all. Then we go to some other places to get other documents processed, like the birth certificate and passport, because you can't have them until the kid is yours. On Tuesday we will do some more of this because some places are not open on Mondays. Victor said he will arrive on Thursday, the 22nd. He thinks we will have the passport by Saturday the 24th and that we will take the train to Kyiv that night. Once in Kyiv, we will need to go to the American Embassy for something and also to the medical center for another exam for Kai. Victor said that, if all goes as planned, we can fly out on Wednesday, the 28th. That is 2 weeks from today. Victor also called back after a while to tell me that he spoke with Vladimir who said the boat ride around the island does not start up until the end of May. I asked if he'd see if Vladimir could suggest some other outing we could do with the boys.

I sat with Jessica thinking about all this, and wondering what we should do for the time I am still here. Nonna came over and began a long conversation about Kai, the kids in the orphanage, the system in the Ukraine, keeping in touch, how I've enjoyed being here...all kinds of things. Jessica was doing a great job of translating despite being tired (I bet). Ekaterina, the director came by as well and thanked me for the table saw again. It was nearly 6:00 and the bell ending the first study hall rang. Nonna left and apparently told Kai I was still here because he came up and sat at my feet while we talked with Dima and other kids who milled around. We really needed to go but it is difficult extracting yourself from these kids. The girls, Victoria, Anastasia, and Natasha, noticed I had something rust colored on the back of my whit fleece jacket. I determined that it was most likely paint from Kai's first hug today. Oh, well. Wearing white in the Ukraine is really not such a good idea anyway. The girls continued to call after us as we walked outside the gate, "Good-bye! We love you! See you soon!"

Jessica walked me to the bus. It had grown colder. I am still clueless about how to spend these last few days. I wish we had a plan. Kevin let me go on his computer while he took a walk to the store during his "lunch" break. I checked FB and the blog for comments (thank you!) and then poked around for flights home. Kevin's computer is painfully slow due to all the programs and security on it. But the only direct flight I could find from Kyiv to JFK was on May 4th. There was one on the 27th but only business class seats were available for over $1000 a piece. This was a bit discouraging, so I quit and went in the bedroom to watch a movie. Kevin came home and worked for a while. Then we watched a Jordan episode and I went to bed. He stayed up and worked some more.

I plan to go to the Coffee Life (Coffee As Life Style) early tomorrow and spend some time searching out more flights home. If anyone has any connections, let me know, okay? I really want to come home!