Day 15

Things have slowed way down. There's not much to write about now. We are getting into the routine of living while we wait for documents and court dates. Get up in the morning, see what's made for breakfast, sit down and try to work. Around 1pm, go to the internot (orphanage, not to be confused with internet). Sit there for a while, play cards with Sasha and Nastiya, get tired of sitting in the internot, go to the pizza place, eat some food. Eventually, back to the hotel to see a movie, snack like crazy, then take the girls back to the internot.

Tanya is starting to get bored. Oh yeah, what is entertaining for young kids is not going to be entertaining for a 17 year old, duh. I would like to find some way to make this Ukrainian waiting-to-be-adopted time special for her too. There must be something to do that's fun other than shop. Will have to ask about ice skating, bowling or other things kids do to keep from resorting to alchohol. We badly need to communicate with Tanya. Fortunately, she is eager to learn English. She is picking up words daily. I think Igor must be helping her. Sasha and Nastiya do ok communicating, since they had 10 weeks with us. I hear words from them I didn't know they knew. Good ones I mean. We sort of have our own English-Russian mix language. They know the words I know and use them. Tanya is catching on. I know I've been mispronouncing some of the words but the girls use them my way anyway.

Tanya left us today after the pizza. She didn't want to come and watch "Mary Poppins," go figure.

Sasha and Nastiya both washed their hair at the hotel room. They get a shower maybe weekly. We watched less than an hour of Mary Poppins, then the computer froze. We took the girls back to the internot, then stopped at our local little store to buy eggs, but there were none. Wrong kind of store, I guess.

Eileen bought a hot pot. We got it at a second hand store. The clerk demonstrated the pot. She filled it with water, plugged it in, waited for the water to boil, and the pot shut itself off. Then Eileen had to sign a slip of paper. We think the paper must have said something like, "I watched this product work, so I can't say it was defective when I got it home."

On the way to the internot, we got on the same trolley that Tanya had taken. We practically walked into her arms while boarding. I did not have small change, so it took a long time to get change for my 10 grivna. The trolley ride to the internot is only a mile or so. In fact, the doors to the trolley closed on me before I could get change. I think the change lady had the trolley stop within 20 yards of the intended stop, and I got off. I made quite a spectacle. Tanya and Eileen were waiting for me on the curb and laughing. Later, we caught the trolley with the same change lady. She recognized me, chuckled, and got me my change very quickly!

Now it's just going to be life in a hotel room.

It's been snowing the last 24 hours. The streets and sidewalks were becoming free of ice and snow. Now we have 6 inches of snow, with more falling.