Days 13 and 14

I have often heard the phrase, "Another day another dollar", or "Another day another back ache", well here when it comes to the life of an orphan it should be, "Another day another heartbreak". Yesterday we faced the stark reality of orphan life.
We first went to the orphanage for Wendy's Alex and also for Nanette. Alex wanted us to drop off a little package to his friend, Sasha and Nanette asked us to give a message to Nastya. When we arrived we found the children playing football, we inquired about Sasha and Nastya and we were finally able to locate them. (Alex, Sasha was sooo excited to hear you had sent him a gift, he was ALL smiles. He initially had a hard time reading your letter, but an older boy read it aloud to him and he was so happy to hear that you are well.) While he was reading the letter, I wanted to get a picture, but just as I was getting out my camera a barrel of a man ran over to me yelling, ghdskaeuihslui idehakboosh. Translation: "Stop, stop, stop. You do not take pictures of the children, in America you would never let me take pictures of your children, Stop! Don't give this child candy, in America you would never let me give your children candy. No pictures. Stop!!" After Oksana explained who the gift was from and why we were there he agreed to let Sasha keep the gift, but no pictures whatsoever. Well, I just couldn't leave without taking at least a few pictures for Alex, so when he turned his back to me, I quickly took out my camera and snapped a couple of shots. David stood between the man and I...he never had a clue, HA! Sasha gives his regards to you Alex. Also, Nanette we finally found Nastya, oh she is a beautiful, kind young lady. She literally beamed when we handed her your information she also had a message for you, "please tell her and Vovo I miss them, give them my regards," She put the note in her pocket, zipped it closed, patted it twice and walked away with a smile on her face. I also snuck a picture for you as well. Shhhh. don't tell.

After our visit to the orphanage, we needed to go and get an x-ray of David's tooth, just as a precaution. If the pain continued the dentist wanted to have an x-ray as a back up. I took a photo of the certificates that lined the dentist office, but David is still a no go when it comes to getting all his dental work done here, he won't even entertain the idea. The x-ray cost 15 grivna, just shy of $2.00. WOW!

Later we made our way over to the sanatorium and when we arrived we learned what happened after we left yesterday. Apparently one of the nurses was NOT happy with the candy we had given the children. After we left, she took the candy away, and told the children we were there to poison them and then burned their candy to prove it was poisonous. How burning the candy would prove that, we'll never know. Originally we had asked the director if we could pass out candy to the children, she agreed and had no problem with us doing so, but unfortunately she was not working yesterday. The nurse told Oksana, to tell us, to NEVER bring sweets to the children again and asked when we will be going home, she does not want us back. We were also not allowed upstairs to see the kids this time, and they were not allowed to see us either. They would sit at the window and yell things to us below, we didn't want them to get into trouble, so we quickly left, it was hard to walk away. We were still able to see Ruslan and Bogdan, but Ruslan felt terrible about what had happened, he was upset through our whole visit. Hopefully our visits to the sanatorium are winding down.

Well today, Sunday,we awoke to water running down the road in front of our building. Didn't think anything of it until we went to get ready for the day...we have no water. It is now approximately 5:30 and it's not looking good. Seriously? Tomorrow we have is our court day and David and I look like the grapes of wrath and smell just as bad, it will not be a good thing if we do not get water by tomorrow. A few nights back a woman from upstairs knocked on our door to tell us she had a pipe break in her apartment and water will soon be coming into our apartment and before we even had the door closed, sure enough we found water coming through the ceiling in Oksana's room. We are not sure if this is the reason for no water today, but it looks like something seriously broke, there is water everywhere outside. Wish us luck, we so need water for tomorrow.
We were not able to get a hold of the local missionaries to find the branch on the Left Bank and we couldn't afford to pay George the $50.00 dollars to drive us to the other branch so we had a quiet day inside.

As of right now our court date is still scheduled for tomorrow. We still haven't heard if it's still a go or not. Facilitator Oksana left last week and we haven't seen hide nor tail of her since then. We'll for sure keep you posted.

Oh, question: After court when do the boys come and stay with us? Is it right after or a few days later? Translator Oksana isn't sure when, she is usually gone right after court.

Today, has been a slow day and I'm afraid we still have more to come, but tomorrow should be more exciting. PLEASE, continue to keep us in your prayers.

Loves and kisses.





When we weren't able to see the children yesterday, they would knock on the window to get our attention. It was hard not seeing them, perhaps we'll be able to before we leave.

One of the many murals inside the sanatorium.

Front view of the sanatorium. We enter and exit through the door on the far right. The top window, just to the right of the front doors is the sleeping quarters for the boys. This is where the children would sit and wave to us from. The building continues for quite a distance to the left.

The many CERTIFICATES of the dentist, 17 in all. For all we could tell, they could have just as easily been menus to the local restaurant.

Nastya, after we gave her the note.

Sasha. The older boy was helping him read the letter.

Sasha and friends.

Sasha.

The train station. Our ticket home.

Our beautiful Translator, Oksana.