October 4

Well, the title for today's post isn't very creative. What can I say? I couldn't think of anything to title today's post.

Today started early. We took a taxi to Donetsk to get the final paperwork needed to adopt Emily. While in Donetsk, we found a WiFi hotspot. Laura took adavantage of this opportunity to upload to her facebook page the video Emily made for Rachel and Megan. We also went to an Art store and bought an art project for Emily to work on when we visit her. After picking up our documents, we returned to our apartment.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the orphanage. We went to the activity room and waited for Emily to meet us. Emily came into the room and gave both of us big hugs. It really does seem like she hugs us tighter with every day that passes. We gave Emily the art project and she went right to work on it. The project was one where you scratch off the dark paper on top to expose the metallic paper under it. The picture she was scratching off was a picture of two whales jumping out of the water.

After working on the art project, Emily decided to play Diner Dash. She is getting really good at that game. She is really smart and quickly discovers the mistakes she makes, corrects them, and improves the next time.

After Diner Dash, we watched Scooby Doo. Olga sat right next to Emily while watching the movie. A few of the boys also watched the movie too.

It was cold in the orphanage today. Actually, it has been cold in the orphanage most of the days we have visited. Emily was wearing a dress with tights. Her toes were so cold. I used my hands to warm her feet. I noticed the some of the boys entering the room wearing sandals with no socks. Their feet had to be cold. I was wearing tennis shoes with socks and my toes were getting cold so I am sure their feet had to be cold. Also, some of the clothes they were wearing didn't look very warm either.

We saw several of the boys today at the orphanage. Kolya entered the activity room. He looked at Laura and I and gave us both a big smile. Later, we saw his brother, Vova, outside. He called me out by name and said hi. Laura went up to him and hugged him. Several of the boys with Vova remembered my name and called me by it as they gave me high fives. Again, all these children are great and deserve the love of a family.

At about 6:10 pm, the kids had to get ready to take showers so we had to leave. Emily held both of our hands as she walked us out to our taxi. Again, she gave us both big hugs. And we said goodbye. We are so ready to take her home. It is so hard to say goodbye to our daughter every night and leave her in a cold orphanage while we sleep in a warm apartment.