Days 9 and 10

Andreas likened our days thus far to the movie, Groundhog Day and he is absolutely correct. We pretty much do the same thing day in and day out with slight variations here and there, but pretty much the same thing. Even the time with the boys is a rerun of the day before. Yesterday we did mix it up a bit, yay, we explored downtown Dnipro and had a great time. In fact, we met an Iranian gentleman that spent the day with us showing us the city. When we went went to see the boys today the first thing they asked why we "no show" yesterday. I thought they understood we were not going to see them that day, but once again things were lost in translation. They then told us they had stood by the window waiting for us all afternoon and yes, just so you all know, we did feel TERRIBLE when we heard this, Ruslan then said, "please don't no come again." We will for sure try.
They are anxious to leave the sanatorium and continually ask when we will ALL be going home. Ruslan hopes he will be home for his birthday on December 27, I told him for sure we would be, we better. We told them today that David would be leaving next week and afterwards they seemed to cling to him just a little bit more for the rest of the day. I think if they had their choice they would rather me go home instead, they have both really bonded with him. I think it's because he is big softy, he will do anything for them...they truly have him wrapped around their little fingers.
Some of you have asked why the boys are in the sanatorium. Well, a few weeks back they received their TB shots, and as I have mentioned in earlier posts they have more freedom and better food at the sanatorium, so they scratched the shot area to make it look infected so they would be sent there, clever. The sanatorium is like a HUGE doctors office, but I haven't seen one really sick child yet and I want to keep it that way, because what I see already is sad enough.
We go to court on the 18th, Monday. We still haven't received our Interpol clearance yet, but we did receive our clearance from social services and they sent there recommendation for adoption to the SDA (State Department of Adoptions). We are getting closer and closer, so if all goes well we will be in court Monday and David will return home Thursday, the 21st. Oh please, oh please, oh please. After court our 10 day waiting period will begin, this is to see if any family member(s) will come forward and deny our petition to adopt. Translator Oksana doesn't quite know what happens after the 10 days, and we are a bit unclear also. Facilitator Oksana is in Kyiv, so we are not able to ask her at the moment, we'll just have to wait and see what happens next. It's all one big roller coaster ride, some days we are high and other days we are low and then there are days we want to get off and go home.
I know we have said this already and we will continue to do so. We so appreciate your comments, love and prayers. It's nice to know we have such a huge cheering section cheering us on. Loves and kisses.

This is a friend of the boys, it was his 14th birthday today. The boys picked out Coca Cola and a Snickers candy bar for his present. He is such a quiet, kind young man, too adorable.

This is usually how we walk anywhere, the boys holding David's hands and me trying to catch up.

Best buddies, now brothers.

Our "groupies".

The view we see each morning when we walk out our apartment building.

Another view. Who knows when the garbage will be picked up, we've been here over a week now and nothing as of yet.