40 hours travel time - well worth the trip!! :o)

We left our home in Cary at 11am local time on Saturday, and to make a long story short, we arrived in Simferopol this Monday morning at 9am Ukraine time (2am EST).  Upon getting off the train, we said hello to our driver who speaks no Engilsh, but is very easy to chat with, as he cheerfully tolerates our horrible Russian.  We had no translator today, so the driver called our facilitator (who is still in Kyiv, and will arrive on Wednesday morning just in time for court) to find out if it was time for us to go to the orphanage.  The routine for these next couple of days goes like this.  The facilitator is in Kyiv, and is the only one who speaks both languages, and he is calling all of the shots.  When we aren't sure what to do next, the driver calls him, they speak in Russian on the phone, then the driver hands the phone to Eugene, and he gets the story in English.  All-in-all, it works just fine. 

Sadly, our first phone call of the day was not good.  Eugene learned that Vitalik was not at the orphanage, but was in the "hospital".  He was told that we would not be able to see Vitalik until we picked him up on Wednesday morning before court.  The facilitator thought that he might have had an upper respiratory infection.  We were not as surprised as you might think.  We had learned through the grapevine of other folks who visited the orphanage in the past couple of weeks that both Lera and Vitalik (who were both perfectly healthy) had spent at least one week in the hospital for what seemed to be a routine checkup (don't ask me why a check-up takes a week!)  We were really sad to hear that Vitalik had actually gotten sick and was still there!  We tried to adjust our thinking to this new plan and got ready to visit with Lera.  Our first visit today was very nice - Lera ran to greet us and gave us huge hugs!  She looked at photos and we practiced a little English/Russian using flashcards on Eugene's I-pad.  After about one hour, it was time for us to leave. 

Lera loves to use the camera to take pictures of herself, and to pose for her friends who enjoy playing photographer. 
This was one of my favorites from today's photo shoot. :o)

Somehow in the conversations we had with Lera and the driver on our first visit, the driver ended up calling the facilitator again and asking a few more questions about whether we could see Vitalik.  We did not ask him to call, but we were so glad he did!  This conversation somehow prompted our facilitator to do a little more digging about Vitalik's condition, and somehow, miraculously, Vitalik was back at the orphanage (healthy as a horse) before our next visit at 4pm!  This is just an example of how things turn on a dime and we really never have a clue what is going on! 

We were just delighted to see him of course, and he seemed very happy to see us too - he could not explain why he had been in the hospital for 2 weeks.  Eugene asked him if he had gotten any shots and he said no, but indicated that he had gotten his finger pricked (not once, but twice!)  ...  He did laugh when the driver suggested that he was just taking a nice break from school and having a good rest.  Honestly, it seems to me that nobody ever tells these kids anything - they never know what is coming next, and they just roll with whatever each day brings.  Throughout the next 2 hours, we had an awesome visit with both Vitalik and Lera (the driver and several friends hung out with us.  Vitalik tossed a ball with Eugene (and by "tossed" i mean "threw the HECK out of")... it is really interesting to watch a teenaged boy test his strength against a man.  This is one example of a time that a woman is simply not capable of filling the role.  They had an awesome time throwing this ball back and forth with as much strength as either of them could muster, and it was really fun to watch.  The kids all climbed on various monkey bars and trees for a few good photo ops.  It was FREEZING cold outside, and the kids all want to take off their coats.  They are good Ukrainians and are much tougher in the cold than we wimpy Americans, I think! 



SOOOO thankful he is out of the hospital - how crazy!!



Look Ma, no Head!  Lera took this photo - I'm thinking, "Us-to-rozhno, Vitalik!" (be careful!)



Later, back indoors, we played cards and various computer games, ate cookies and candy, and just had a very fun time.  Midway through our visit, Vitalik asked "Zavtra, what oclock?" (what time will we visit tomorrow?)  Eugene told him that the facilitator was the boss, and Vitalik joked, "I boss."   As we left, without us having a clue what was going on, Vitalik and Lera ran ahead of us and got into the car.  They had conned the driver (who adores all of the kids there) to give them a ride for the approximately 300 yards from the dorm to the cafeteria.  While in the car, they all spoke more Russian and as usual, we were lost.  While we waited, the driver called the facilitator and after they talked, he handed the phone to Eugene.  The message was this, "They want you to come at 11am tomorrow, is this okay?"  Eugene agreed, and I just had to laugh because it seems that in this case, Vitalik was indeed the boss!  ;-) 

During the past 24 hours, there have been multiple long walks in very cold weather.  Our muscles ache and we just keep drinking hot tea.  Our bodies are exhausted, but our hearts are at peace (at least, I think they are).

So our facilitator will meet us only an hour before court on Wednesday.  We spent a few relaxed hours with him in Kyiv before hopping on the train.   He gave us a 2 hour walking tour of Kyiv (it was truly a pleasure, although the weather was a challenge - a sunny but windy 0 degrees Celcius!)  We were glad for history lesson, the exercise, and we were extremely glad for the warm soup and tea that we shared afterward.  After dinner, he spent a few minutes preparing us for our court date.  It seems that there are a few items about which the court could request additional supporting information that we would need additional days to obtain.  It seems that it will not be surprising if we are not able to get a verdict on this "first court date" and we might actually need a second one, which we would hope would be only a day or two later.  Essentially, we have done everything we can do to prepare for this, and all that we can do now is pray and wait.  So we are asking for lots of prayers.  First and foremost, our prayer is that sometime soon, we will be able to bring the kids home.  If it takes more than one court date, we will try to take that in stride... of course, our strong preference will be to get a YES on WEDNESDAY after only one court date - but we will try hard to trust God's timing.