Tuesday with Dasha

Wow, it's 9pm local time and we just got home from a full day.  We started the day as we have the previous few.  Vitaly picked us up at 9:30, and we showed up at the orphanage at a bit before 10am.  The kids were all still inside.  We thought they might stay inside today because it rained a lot last night.  Dasha was once again very happy to see us.  But, soon after we showed up, all the kids started to get ready to go outside.  Once we got outside, the care taker told Dasha to go away from the group and play with us.  At least that's what we figured she said, because Dasha took us by the hands and off we went.  The rest of the group must have been told to stay in one large paved area, because no kids went to the muddy playground area (except us and Dasha...).  There was another family there to see another little girl.  They were off on their own also.  We spent some quality time with Dasha.  Today we were going to attempt to avoid the endless cookie begging, and only brought the last one in the package.  This way, she could see that she took the last one. This worked.  But, it was funny that she wanted all the crumbs out of the bottom of the bag.  Sounds like something that I'd do, eating all the sugar out of the bottom of the bag.  Today we did bring some gum though.  She really likes gum, but she can't keep her hands out of it.  If she isn't pulling it out of her mouth to look at it, she's pulling it out to flatten it and suck on it to make it pop.  Just before her group was ready to go in, Dasha kept begging for gum.  It took us a while to figure out what she was saying.  Actually Vitaly told us what she was saying, so WE really didn't figure it out.  Since it was so close to her time to go in, she didn't get more gum.  That made her not very happy.  When her group lined up to go in, she was on the verge of crying.  Not because she was leaving us, but because of her not getting more gum.  It was heartbreaking watching her walk away with her group almost in tears.

We came back to the apartment for lunch and a nap. We had some Chicken Kiev and boiled potatoes we purchased a couple days ago at the grocery store deli.  It was pretty good.  At least at this apartment we have a microwave.  A microwave we might need tomorrow for bath water!  This morning we woke up to no hot water.  I don't mean some luke-warm water, I mean nothing came out of the faucet when it was on the "hot" side!  Tonight there's water that comes out on that side, but it still isn't warm.  Hopefully it will be fixed by morning.  I can hear pipes banging as I type this.  Hopefully it's someone fixing it.  We'll see in the morning!

O.K., back to today.  We returned to see Dasha at about 4pm.  This afternoon, we stayed inside.  All the other kids went outside, so we had some quality indoor time today.  We worked a couple puzzles that we bought at the grocery store a couple days ago, Dasha colored a couple pictures in the Sesame Street coloring book we brought from home, and we just played with each other.  She even got in an amazing amount of lap-sitting, cuddling time.  Really surprised me when she wanted to sit in my lap and cuddle for about 10-15 minutes.  Both Granny's called my cell-phone while we were there today.  Dasha talked to both of them.  But for some reason, when she talked to her Granny Green, she just kept babbling on and on and on and on.  Neither of them knew what the other was saying, but Dasha was babbling and wandering around the room on the phone like a teenage girl.  It really was funny to watch.

At about 6:30, the other kids started coming back in the room.  It was almost dinner time.  We said our goodbyes with Dasha and headed towards the car.  Vitaly was there waiting for us.  We left and went to find somewhere to eat.  We found a traditional Ukrainian restaurant and decided to try it.  Very nice place.  The main restaurant was an 18th century house.  By Ukrainian standards, it must have been a mansion at the time.  There were outside tables and inside tables.  We sat in an outdoor section under a patio roof.  Vitaly translated as much of the menu as he could.  It was kind of funny because he doesn't speak very good english.  We found something that sounded really good.  Beef with potatoes.  Didn't have a clue how it was prepared, but beef and potatoes sounded good.  We both ordered the same thing.  Traditional Ukrainian red borsch first, followed by a fresh vegetable salad, then the beef/potato thing.  The dinner was served in a small covered bowl.  It was like a stew, but without as much liquid.  It was the spiciest thing that we have had here.  Not spicy like HOT, but lots of spice.  It was one of the best things that I have had here.  Dinner was very good.  For the three of us, it was about $35 USD.  Not bad at all for the amount of food we had for a pretty nice place.

Tomorrow will be the same schedule, with the exception of lunch time.  We have to go back to the medical clinic to pick up Dasha's blood test results.  I'm not sure what else is in our schedule.  Thursday, we will find out if the NAC signs our request for a court hearing.  We cannot keep our Friday court schedule if the NAC doesn't sign the form on Thursday.  Wish us luck on that one!  I think they only sign these on Thursdays.