Two Amazing Days!!!

The last two days have been amazing.  Yesterday, Friday, September 30, was National Adoption Day in Ukraine.  The children in the orphanage performed for the orphanage staff and visitors, those visitors mainly being the three American families there to adopt.  Emily sang two songs during the performance.

Before leaving for the orphanage, Laura and I stopped by a candy store to buy candy for all the children to enjoy after the performance.  We bought a bag of loose chocolate candy and 5 boxes of chocolates.  On our way, I asked to stop by a flower store.  I thought it would look good to bring flowers to the director on National Adoption Day.  I also bought a rose for Emily.

Upon arriving at the orphanage on Friday, we met with the director and I handed her the flowers.  A few minutes later, Emily came running down the hall toward us.  She gave us both big hugs.  I gave her the rose we bought her.  Then, Emily went to her room to get dressed for the performance and we were led to a room with a stage and rows of chairs. 

Children began entering the room as the time for the performance arrived.  A group of boys surrounded us and asked us all kinds of questions.  They asked if Emily and Masha were going to America and we said yes.  One boy in particular stood right by Laura talking to Laura for a long time.  Emily noticed this and when she finished performing her first song, she moved him away and took the spot right next to Laura.  I offered Emily my chair but she wasn't interested in sitting down.  She was being protective of her momma.  We are her momma and papa.

Emily asked me if she could give her rose to her favorite teacher.  I told her that would be fine.  I am so proud of her.  She is so giving and shares with everyone.  Emily also handed out the boxed chocolates to her teachers also.

After the performance, we went to one of the activity rooms to spend time with Emily.  Several children came in the room during the time we were there.  The picture above is threesome I mentioned previously.  Emily is in this picture with her two best friends.  The beautiful girl on the right with the cute smile is Masha.  The adorable girl in the middle is Rada.  Emily and Masha really want Rada to be adopted also.

When our visit at the orphanage ended, we went out to dinner then returned to our apartment.  Before going to the orphanage, we moved into an apartment closer to Emily's orphanage.  The first night in the apartment was rough.  First, the toilet didn't work.  I took it apart and fixed that problem.  Second, there wasn't any heat and it was cold when we woke up on Saturday morning.  Finally, I broke a mirror while cleaning the bathroom.  Sounds like no big deal except that mirror had lights attached to it.  When the lights ripped out of the wall , the circuit breaker tripped and we had no power.  I didn't want to turn the power back on with exposed wires.  Someone came over and fixed it.  The fix was simply putting electrical tape over the exposed copper.  We will make sure not to use that light switch.

After taking care of the situation at the apartment, we headed out get a wireless modem.  Our new apartment doesn't have internet and there isn't an internet cafe located anywhere nearby.  We bought the modem and headed for the orphanage.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we were told all the kids were taking a nap.  We were led to the activity room where we waited for a few minutes while our children were getting up.  Emily entered the room and hugged us.  Emily is so affectionate.  We feel her bond for us grow with every visit.  It is almost like we didn't spend nearly two months apart.

Emily and I worked on making a video on the laptop.  We used pictures I took of her and added music to the video.  Emily really enjoyed doing this activity.  Then, I showed Emily this blog.  With Anya's help translating, I explained to Emily what the blog was about.  Emily smiled and was very happy.  She really liked seeing her pictures on a website.  I also told her the title of the blog was "Our Journey of Love."  This put an even bigger smile on her face.  This girl really wants a family to love her and she got that with us.  We really love her.

Some other children came into the room to interact with us.  One was a boy nicknamed Kola.  He is the younger brother of the sibling group I mentioned earlier.  He was so polite and well mannered.  He told Laura that he likes school.

Also, an adorable little girl named Ola also came into the room to play with us.  This little girl is so cute.  I sat on the floor and played card games with her.  After Masha gets adopted, Ola will be the only girl left in her class.  She is so incredibly sweet.  She is really smart too.  She won all the card games we played. 

It is getting harder everyday to leave the orphanage.  I can tell it is getting harder for the kids also.  Emily holds my hand all the way out to the car every night.  She also holds Laura's hand also.  Again, she is so affectionate.  It is so easy to love her.  I can't wait until I take her out of the orphanage for good and we never have to say goodbye again.  Tomorrow, we get to go the the orphanage an hour earlier.  I wish we had more time with them than just a few hours a day.