Today was a much quieter day. We stayed in all morning together playing Uno, looking at books and magazines together, and covertly giving English lessons. You can really incorporate quite a bit of language (and math if you keep score) into an Uno game and we have also introduced Rebecca to “Living Books.” They are animated story-books on the computer (like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Dr. Seuss’ ABC’s” etc.) that were designed with the principal of helping kids learn to read. Tim has quite a collection that I’m sure he and Rebecca will spend many hours exploring together once we get home. Victor stopped by very briefly to bring us a new pair of boots for Rebecca. The orphanage was kind enough to let her keep the ones she wore while there, but last night they became completely unusable. Victor told us we could not shop near here (less than Kmart quality at Millenia boutique prices) and wanted to bring his wife and son into town today, so they picked up a pair near their house and we reimbursed them the almost $30. They are actually kinda’ cute – purple with sparkly glitter built in.
Since Rebecca had shoes again and we were getting hungry, we decided to do some exploring by ourselves and try a nearby Italian restaurant. We had previously received a paper copy of their menu that I’d been able to read some of (lasagna is still lasagna, you just have to sound out the Cyrillic letters) and Victor helped with some of the other descriptors I couldn’t make out. Knowing we’d know what to order, we felt brave and set out to find Il Patio. Ah, Il Patio, my new favorite restaurant – at least for the next two days. Here’s what I posted on Facebook while there: Italian restaurant, English menu, non-smoking section, 1 block to apartment, great food & free WiFi!!! We can eat for 3 more days!!!And my follow-up comment: AND, the bathroom was clean with a "real" toilet... including paper. I think that says it all about lunch. We sat for a while even after we finished eating… our little iphones were just soo happy we couldn’t leave right away. Since the weather is better today, clear and about 34, and our bellies were full and happy, we decided to continue the adventure and walk a bit. We found a mall (I know, Mom, you’ve been waiting for that line) and wandered for a while. Interesting thing about the mall… it was five stories tall and had escalators, but they only went up. When you wanted to go down you had to take the stairs. There was a good size toy store and we bought two books for Rebecca. One is a chapter book of poems and stories about Christmas (I think) and the other is an activity book with mazes, pictures to color, etc. We are trying to prepare for the three flights we trust we’ll be taking on Wednesday…
That’s about it for today. We bought some more water and juice at the corner grocery and are tucked back in for the night. Victor will be here at 8AM tomorrow to start our last set of official tasks. First is the medical exam and then the US Embassy. Please continue to pray for all the details and people we will encounter. It feels like the homestretch, but each puzzle piece must fit perfectly into place before we can come home. Ah yes, please include our weather in your prayers. Snow is beautiful on Christmas cards and when you can sit inside and have “no place to go,” but we have places to go and things to do. Tomorrow’s forecast is not bad, 1-3”, but Tuesday is saying over 12”. We will probably have to go back to the US Embassy on Tuesday to pick up Rebecca’s visa and our first flight leaves Kiev around 5:30AM on Wednesday.
Thanks for all the Christmas wishes. We are trusting God to take care of the details of the next few days (okay, really of all of life, but especially the next few days) and get us home safely for the New Year.
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