Day 8

We have slowed down a bit, our days pretty much consist of me waking up at 4am, then trying to wake Dave up, with no luck and then laying back in bed until it is bright enough for me to read my book. I think I will try to find a flashlight today so my reading can start earlier. We then have breakfast and then wait until it is time to visit the boys. We found the the bus depot, which is right around the corner, lucky us, and found that bus 10 will take us within a block or so of the sanatorium. While loading the bus, Dave and I realized they are not made for people who are over 6 feet. It was quite the experience trying to fit our 6'1" and 6'4" frames into the seats. I almost had to grease David down to get him out, and while getting off we both bumped our heads good and hard...ouch, yes we are quite the dorks. After returning from our visit we make dinner and then I try to stay awake until bed time, which I fail at miserably and thus the reason for me waking up at 4 am each day.
Well, I tried to do a little bit of laundry yesterday, big mistake. I poured in a liquid detergent, at least that is what the bottle said, but after the clothes had been washing for a bit and upon further investigation I realized I was washing the clothes with an oven cleaner, nice. The clothes are a little stiff this morning, but they do smell good.
Wendy, we mailed your package yesterday, YAY! You would have thought we were mailing some illegal contraband the way the woman was questioning us. She was sniffing it, rolling it around in her hands and then stamping it. She had to stamp it numerous times and because of the tape, the ink from the stamp wasn't drying, so she would sniff the package some more and then try to find a place where there was no tape to stamp it again. After the third or fourth time of her sniffing and stamping I had to turn my head away. I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her, but it was a hilarious situation and I couldn't stop giggling. Dave and I couldn't look at one another either for fear of laughing out loud. It was so nice to finally really laugh hard, we haven't done a whole lot of it since our arrival, so thanks for having us mail it. We still chuckle each time we think about it.
We had a nice visit with the boys yesterday. David brought the laptop along and when the boys realized we had it, you would have thought they had died and gone to heaven, they were so excited to play video games. A pretty uneventful afternoon, but it was good to just spend the time with them.
A lot of you have asked to describe the sanatorium a bit, so I will try. From what we can tell it is a huge U-shaped building with at least two levels. Long hallways with rooms going off into mazes. It is quite confusing to us, so we just stay close to the boys and Oksana. The boys sleep upstairs in rooms with beds that go from wall to wall. When you go upstairs to the living quarters the smell just hits you, it's a smell of body odor, urine and food, but after a while you do get use to it. The walls are painted with vibrant colors in beautiful murals and it is clean for the most part. The boys prefer it over the orphanage, they say they have more freedom and better food there. The moment we arrive we are overcome with children, they surround us just looking for any kind of affection and touch from us, it is hard to contain the tears sometimes. When we leave we walk past the "dining room" and the children all have there little faces pressed against the windows trying to get our attention one last time, it is hard not to leave with a dry eye. Each day here makes us so much more aware of all the we have at home, we are truly blesssed and have so much.
Again, we so appreciate your comments, your love and prayers. Loves and kisses.


This is a small handful of the group of boys that follow us everywhere. Just the cutest kids ever.





We took the laptop with us today, we have portable internet so the boys were able to play a couple of online games. Bogdan's smile says it all.

Our bus depot which is right around the corner from our home.

Another view of the bus depot.