"It's Morning Everyone...Today's the Day, The Sun is Shinning, the Tank is Clean..." (courtesy from Finding Nemo)
August 30, 2012:
It is amazing what sleep will do for your mind and body. Things aren't always as bad as they first appear. We got settled in for the night and got a good nights sleep. This morning was still awkward but we woke up and got ready for the day. Down in front of our hotel were little booths set up like a farmers market, selling anything from laundry soap, clothes, food, just about anything you could imagine. We walked around while Sasha our facilitator was working on our documents to submit to the judge and get some papers signed. In the meantime we found several stores with bread and walked in each one of them, finding bees flying around everywhere. Not wanting to get stung...we left. However, we found a grocery store and got some breakfast there. Still no speaking was required at this point, so we could do this on our own. We could pretty much make out what was on the shelves and at the check-out we could see how much it was. We have noticed they want exact change for some reason.
The people here are such hard workers. We have been observing them as we drive around from place to place throughout the day. They farm from sun up to sun down. No equipment, except for an occasional horse and cart. The entire family is out in the fields. It reminds me of way back in the old days. Right now is harvest time for potatoes. We have noticed that most of the locals yards are gardens. This is how they live and how they feed their families throughout the year. What they are harvesting now will supply them food for up to a year. We have never seen so many bycicles, they are everywhere. People either walk or ride a bike to get around town. No wonder they are so skinny and in shape. Eating on the healthy side has been kind of a challenge. As they have so many breads and rich foods, it's hard to find "healthy" in restaurants and with language berrier hard to explain what you want if not on the menu. We need to drink more water though, we have been drinking a local fav called Fanta.
We waited for Sasha to pick us up and go to the orphanage to meet with the director for her to sign some papers. We get there and they are wrong or not how she wanted them. So back to the inspectors office to have her change them.
In the meantime, we went to go eat lunch in Lutsk...
Like Rachelle said above, things appear alot better when you have a goodnight's sleep. It never hurts for God to listen to what you are struggling with either. Last night I was asking Him what He wanted us to do for the week when we would be here by ourselves without being able to communicate.
Sasha called and asked if I wanted to go get a cup of coffee. We went out in the streets and like Rachelle said there were people selling items out in the street. It was a Market that was what I would describe as a cross between a flea market and some of the shops (booths) at the State Fair. While we were walking in and out of shops, trying to find a coffee shop; he asked me what I thought about us going back with him to Kiev. He explained that he would feel better knowing that if we needed any of his assistance that he would be 20 minutes away instead of a little over 4 hours. Really??? I asked him if he had our room bugged in a laughing manner, he told me that he was busted and we both laughed. I explained to him that Rachelle and I had been trying to figure out what we were going to do during the time he was gone, ordering items to eat, going to the grocery store, taxi, etc. without means of communicating. I told him that I would talk to Rachelle about it when I go back up to the room and that we would discuss what we needed to do. I told Rachelle and she couldn't believe that he brought it up. We both agreed that we would think about it and let him know by the end of the day.
First on the list of Things to Do this moring was to go to the Orphanage for the Director to sign some documents. Apparently there were some things wrong, so the Inspector needed to revise the documents prior to her signing them. She expressed how happy and excited she was that we were wanting to adopt the Super Boy. She then told us (through Sasha's translation) that at one time, 30% of the children in this Orphanage were being adopted, however over the past couple of years this number has decreased, especially for the children with Special Needs. Again, she was super excited and wanted us to stay in touch with her through email once we get him back home, and we told her that we would definitely send her pictures.
We took the Inspector back to her office to revise the documents, then we headed to the Camp for another visit. We stayed and visited for about 30 to 40 minutes, right before his lunch break. He wanted to scoop beans from one bowl to another using a spoon. This was an Awesome technique for him to learn for his motor development. He did quite well regardless of what hand he had the spoon in. Rachelle then introduced him to the games on her iPhone. There was no doubt that he hadn't seen anything like that before. One of the games you tap the screen and he kept hitting it with his fingers. Trying to get him to understand to touch the screen instead of hitting was not going to happen this morning. It was a great visit and we are unsure if he knows why we are coming around. Rachelle did get a kiss from him when she said "Kisses". The neat thing is that all of the people at the Camp when taking him back into his normal routine tell him to say Bye to Mum and Tato.
Now to start where she left off earlier about lunch in Luts'k. We had a really good lunch and it was definitely needed. Our bill was only around $20.00 USD (US Dollars) which would have cost us close to $60.00 back in Oklahoma.
After lunch we went back to the Hotel room so Sasha could finish up some documents and make some phone calls, as well as pick the Inspector up to go get the revised documents signed by the Director at the Orphanage. We reflected on the possiblity of going to Kiev on Saturday until next Wednesday to possibly Friday. Trying to make sure that this possibility was the best for our situation, or was it to take us away from what we are here to do, to get to know our boy. Then we discussed that Sasha brought it up without me even telling him what we were struggling with, we concluded that this was an answer to what we were struggling with the night before. In Kiev, there are many who can speak English and there are coffee shops with free wifi. Rachelle had some reports that she needed to work on so she did that and I read the rest of a book that I started on one of the flights over here.
After about 2 hours or so, Sasha called us when he was about 3 minutes out, so we went downstairs as he was pulling up. We got in the car and the Inspector was in there with him and we picked the Administrator and took them back to their office building. We went across the street to the Notary to sign some documents that he had dropped off earlier that afternoon. All of the paperwork has been going off without a hitch, as far as we know. If there was a small glitch, between Sasha, the Administrator, the Inspector or the Director they have all taken care of it seemlessly.
We went back to the Camp for our afternoon visit. On the way Sasha told us that he needed to know what we wanted to name him. The paperwork that he was planning on finishing up during our visit, he needed to know that in 30 minutes or less. So Rachelle and I started to bounce names off of each other. We went into the Camp and they let us go into a room we hadn't been in before. Our little boy had just woke up from a nap and I felt that he is starting to recognize us. As we were playing with him, Sasha said that he was ready for the name. In Ukraine, the name "Ivan" and "Vanya" are equivalent for "John" over in the United States. Rachelle asked me what I thought about "Vanya (pronounced Vonya) Michael Fuller", and I told her that name is equivalent to my dad's name, since his name is "Michael".
So there it is, his name will be "Vanya Michael Fuller".
Rachelle played with him by picking him up and spinning around and he really liked that. When it was time for us to take him back, I was holding him as we went down the stairs and he hugged me real tight, I know could be a coincidence, but I think he is getting used to us coming by. He was not happy when I had to hand him to the workers there at the Camp as we left.
We went back to the Hotel and had dinner at the restuarant on the first floor. We had another pizza along with some great conversations with Sasha. As we sat down I told him how thankful we were for everything that he has done especially getting things done as fast and seemless as it appears. He thanked us for what we are doing and that the documents have been really smooth for him and all of the people he has dealt with here are being very cooperative trying to get this expedited as fast as possible. Again, we are very Thankful!!!
Ahhhh....Going to bed with a clearer head tonight then last night....Thank You Lord!!!
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