Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Larissa asked us not to come to the orphanage before 1pm. We used the morning to update our blog and catch up on email. We are still trying to adjust to the deprivation of the internet. We ate lunch and off to the orphanage.

We took a football to show the kids how to pass it and play football. They did not need us. They knew how to pass the ball. That football was in the air for 2.5 hours with no rest. They just loved it.

Cindy played Frisbee with other children. They like this also. Tom put up a new basketball net for the playground. He played basketball so much that a young boy came to Cindy and said, “Tom likes basketball” in English. Kids were everywhere. They were thrilled to have the attention of the Americans and just liked being active outdoors in the sunshine.

Matkveevka has some wonderful children. One boy, Ruslang, who is 14, stayed with us most of the day. He was able to be on the playground when his youngest sister came out to play. He introduced Cindy to his sister. Cindy could just tell how much he loved his sister. They are part of a 6 person sibling group at the orphanage. Because he is older, he does not get to spend much time with his younger sister. He played with her and ran around the playground.

We left the orphanage before 6pm and came back to the hotel. We ate at the pizza place next to the hotel. Luba, our lawyer in the region, was very tired. She is working so hard to help the three families in Zap get through this process.

Luba did tell us that the SDA stated this week that it is only accepting paperwork from the Region on Wed and Fridays. Hitting a moving target is easier than working with the SDA. Our paperwork arrived in Kyiv on Monday but was not accepted today, Tuesday. So tomorrow it should be accepted. This means that our court date is Monday, April 16 at the earliest. We were a bit disappointed but at least we are in the process. The SDA has suspended the processing of new dossiers again. Let’s just hope they get us through the system.