The Blustery Day

1. Colleen, Robin, and I celebrating Ana's Gotcha Day at Restaurant Premier

2. Robin and I dancing at Premier.

3. Bag o' Money for the orphanage.

4. Ana with the soccer ball I bought for her group.

5. Ana in new jacket(Bob) and hat.

6. Windblown Robin outside the Big Market.

[Robin]

We got up this morning and walked over to the orphanage. It is a beautiful day here--sunny with a warm breeze. We stopped at the playground when we arrived to say hi to Ana and tell the caregiver that we were going to pick her up later, but we needed to go inside and do some paperwork with the director.

We then were ushered into the deputy director's office and joined by a few other representatives of the orphanage (psychologist and nurse). They congratulated us and then we proceeded to fill out forms and sign documents. It turned out that we needed to have Kostya there to finish the paperwork so we called him. He was in Donetsk getting Ana's passport and wouldn't be in town for another hour. We adjourned for a lunch break.

We went outside to see Ana, and all the kids were playing with the soccer ball that Phil had bought them, including Ana. She kicked the ball back and forth with Phil and some of the other boys. Then one of the kids opened the bag that I had brought and pulled out Ana's new jacket. She was on it immediately! She threw off her old coat (unassisted) and yanked off her hat. She the paraded around to show the caregiver and the other kids her new clothes. She looked like she had swallowed the canary.

[Phil]

And she had never shown much interest in soccer, but with the arrival of the new "Ukraine Premier League" ball, she was all over it. So after all the meetings with Kostya and the orphanage staff, we decided to go with Colleen to the Big Market one last time to get some supplies for tonight's train trip. In a very strange coincidence, we ended up buying pretty much the exact same clothes that Colleen bought for Lily, sight unseen. We also tried to get another Ukraine soccer ball, but the guy had closed his stall. We also ran into our DVD salesguy, who made a point to stop and say hello and good luck to us.

[Robin]

Phil forgot to add that we said goodbye to Kostya. He did a great job for us and he was very nice and said nice things to us at our parting.

We are going to pick up Ana now! Tonight we take the train to Kiev. Vladislav is picking us up to take us to the train and help us to depart. YAHOO!!!