Counting down the days!

Wednesday May 30th

Basically, we are just “counting down the days” now. (Yes, Primo, “You were right!”…there, I said it. Now you can say, “I told you so!” ha ha). We have been enjoying the downtime, but we are getting the itch to go home.

Sunday, the kids begged to go to the beach again. Hey Dad and Uncle Levi…look who likes to fish!!

Monday was a religious holiday here in Ukraine. So, we had the whole day with the kids. But Olya wanted to hang with her friends that day, so we just hung around the school that day. Unfortunately, we had forgotten our camera, because we missed taking some great pictures of a water fight.

The older kids can go down by the seashore, but the younger ones are not allowed to go. So, on a hot day like it was on Monday, they break out 1 liter plastic bottles that they have poked some holes into the cap, and fill with water, and squirt away. At first, we were just sitting around the playground, and we saw a handful of kids, maybe 8 years old, just pouring water over the heads to stay cool. Then Janet got involved by asking one of the kids if she could do it for him, sort of a makeshift shower. The boy loved it. Then another wanted it, and it just sort of snowballed from there turning into a water fight. Janet held her own pretty good, until it was 4 on 1. Then she was getting pretty soaked. So, then I joined in to even it up a bit. Basically, we all got drenched. What fun!!!

Yesterday, we bought some movie tickets for Shrek III as a surprise. But, when we went to pick up the kids, we found out that Olya had ‘forgotten’ that she had finals that day, and she was to take tests that afternoon. (I say ‘forgotten’, because we think she thought she would get out of taking tests, because we were there. But, Galena, the orphanage director, made her take them anyway.). So, we had one extra ticket to burn, so we invited Layna’s redheaded friend, Tanya. (Some of the folks in Carolina/Virginia might remember her from her visit back in Christmas 2005). Tanya is a sweet girl, and we had hoped we could include her at some time…so yesterday was the day. It was short day, as we only got in the movie and some computer games back at the room, but she LOVED it. She was so thankful to just be included.

Today, we have no plans, but we thought we might buy some cheap squirt guns to give to the little kids. Otherwise, we are just waiting for tomorrow when our facilitator returns from her 10 day break, and we start doing the final paperwork push and make plans for COMING HOME!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAWRENCE!!! (May 28th).