Ohhh I got the orange booties today!
Blue booties for daddy
Long hot smelly hallway
where we wait after showing our permission slip
creepy mural isn"t it!?!
We go in that brown door on the left
outside of the orphanage
more outside of orphanage
old painted benches where we wait when our taxi driver gets there early (we can only go in during our specified times)
the gate (our children have never been outside of this gate)
waiting outside our apartment for our taxi
pics looking outside our apartment
babushuka
papa
Belly Bean
So here are some pics of where we are staying and the orphanage. As you can see the buildings here are all really old and worn. We are staying in an apartment on the second floor (much better than lugging stuff up four flights!) We will have to take pictures of the "carpet" in the hallway - which is more like astroturf than carpet! The couple that own the apartment live below us, Serge and Ludmila, and they are so sweet. Ludmila does our laundry for us and they come up and clean for us too. George is starting to really love it here - everything is so different here. The people watching is great! The women here are drop dead gorgeous and dress up in tight tight tight pants and short short short skirts everyday. They wear 3 and 4 inch heels on a regular basis (and if you could only see how awful the roads and sidewalks are here you would understand what a miracle this is!) and wear full makeup! When we toured Kiev with Uncle Nikko's daughter, Helena, she told us that the women dress like this because their is a 4 to 1 ratio of women to men. They also love fashion and clothes because during the Soviet Union time period they did not have access to such clothing, shoes, accessories. The driving here is something like I have never seen before! There appears to be no rules...expect drive fast, swerve for potholes (more like craters), and stop short! I will NEVER complain about my husband's driving EVER again! Life here is so different it really is hard to put into words. We are coming to love the people though and enjoy the glimpse into our children's culture.
it's not quite as breathtakingly green as when we were there :) Oh,yeah..they have seasons! Not like here in Ca. :P You guys sound like your doing great! Isn't learning about the culture fun? I loved it..Aww, & yes the women, in the summer those skirts are hardly noticable, the tops..usually were see thur. My husband had a good lesson there with "look at me, babe..only at me.." LOL & I must admit I felt mighty frumpy in their company. I bet they stay so well in shape just from wearing the heels! I bought a really cute pair there (3") & have worn them once..it was not a pretty sight, lol. There just not meant to wear while towing kids..& my ankels killed, Haa! Gotta give 'em credit,they work them well. :) BTW, have you noticed how many children around there are not?? When we were there we almost never saw families..weird. Your little ones look so wonderful with you & George. One of the blessings I love about children with DS...they are most deffinatly affection driven. I didn't take long for Isaac to realize what he had been missing..now days he's my little hugger, he doesn't care who you are, or where we are. Now days were working on teaching him boundries of when thats ok..who knew! Prayed for you all last night..just know it's gonna be a great day with your Gia. Have a great one & blessings to you all :)
ReplyDeleteCannot wait to hear how it goes with Gia! Randomly woke up this afternoon and blurted out, I bet they've never gotten puppy kisses! Chris was like, what on earth is in that IV and what are you talking about??! I know Jax and Bandit might look scary at first but what an adventure for someone who is tactile and never met a dog before!! So weirdly I woke up thinking about that. I want pics of that meeting btw when you get home. :) So many new experiences are waiting for you Ana, Tatya and Eli - you are gonna love your new lives!! Continuing to pray for bonding and for favor with the courts. We love you!
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