We've had a good day today. Visited Matthew this morning. The Mickschls visit their adorable little girl at the same time and it is always wonderful to see them. Their daughter Morgan (12 yrs old) is here with them. She is not feeling well, sore throat - swollen lymph nodes, etc. Would you please pray for healing for her? It is a scary thing to have your child be ill in a foreign country where medical care is different than we have at home.
There is a Ukrainian family who also visits the orphanage that we enjoy seeing as well. They adopted their daughter Dasha 2 years ago from the orphanage and now are adopting a little boy. Dasha is a cutie. Today, she had a good time playing with Matthew while her Mom got to cuddle with little Maxim.
Matthew found Maia's sunglasses in my bag today and loved wearing them. They are purple and yellow, not really appropriate for a little boy so we did buy him some "cool" shades but are saving them for after "Gotcha Day" since we would likely not see them again if we left them at the orphanage. Anyway... so Matthew was wearing Maia's shades and at the end of our visit time, we took them and put them away. All of a sudden, the world came to an end. That was the first we have really seen of a tantrum in Matthew. He's had moments of unhappiness, but wow - he was wailing loudly for a long time. We took him back to the groupa and the caregivers told us just to go instead of trying to say good-bye and upset him more. Poor kid... we had already tried some shoes on him and had to take those away (again until "Gotcha Day). He has nothing that is truly "his" so I felt bad, but soon he will know what it's like to have some of his own things. On that note, he and Maia are doing pretty good in sharing with each other. I'm sure there will be lots of battles ahead, but so far there have not been any knock-down, drag out fights - lol!
After visiting Matthew, we went to McD's for lunch. Vitaly had his son Vlad with him today so they came along. Vlad got a happy meal which he was pretty excited about. Then, came back to the apartment so Maia could have a short nap before we walked up to the street market to pick up a few things. We saw one of our "friends" from last trip, he was so happy to see us and I attempted to explain that we had adopted Maia last time and now were back for a son. I think he understood because he was smiling, nodding, and kissed my hand.
We got some fresh Bing cherries 28uah/kg which is cheap compared to prices at home - less than $2/pound. Had them with some chicken/veggie pasta salad and left over sweet corn for dinner. Maia has really been doing pretty well eating over here. She had ham, apple, sweet corn, and tried (LOVED) the cherries! I keep telling her how proud I am of her for trying new things - she's been more "adventurous" than she is at home.
Olga should be here any time. We have a three bedroom apartment and she stays in the 3rd bedroom when in town (same as last trip). We'll talk briefly about what to expect tomorrow and then hit the sack. Yes... we are "geezers" - ready to be in bed and it's only a little after 9pm.
Tomorrow morning, we have court at 9:00am (1:00am, CST). We will meet with the judge and jurors who will make the decision whether or not to approve our adoption. While we don't anticipate any surprises, we still ask for your prayers.
Will update you and yes... finally be able to share some pictures of our little guy tomorrow afternoon or evening!