Sunday?

Today we got to see another side of teenage sisters! We got to camp to pick up the girls and Yana was a bit surly. We weren’t sure who she was mad at and hoped it wasn’t us. She said she was tired and needed to do laundry, so she didn’t want to go today. We offered to do her laundry for her tonight, but she insisted on not going. On the bus, Vita explained that she had asked Yana if she could borrow a pony tail holder. Yana said, “no, I’m using it for a bracelet.” Vita, responding as a Kellett, “oh, why thank you.” (add sarcasm…) So, to spite herself, Yana stayed at camp. We took the girls to the mall to eat at the food court….good prices and variety. Lena met us there as well after going to the inspector’s office…yes, the inspector met her on Sunday!! We got our money’s worth with that fee!! There were some little pony type rides in the food court and the boys wanted to ride…so we caved since they had a good lunch. When we were done a woman by the name of Luda came over and asked if she could buy the boys some sweets. I said sure and thank you, thinking it was going to be a little candy from the Mr. Bulky type store in the food court. Instead, it was 7 full sized desserts that she took Vita over to the restaurant to buy! We were floored, amused, grateful, and a little confused! Jakob was the most grateful as he had at least two of the desserts! Much better than yesterday on the marshuka (bus) when a drunk man sat in front of Levi, Galya, and Vita and said: English bad, Russia good. Then he got pissed at Levi and yelled: bad boy!! Bad boy!! This made Yana get defensive so she went and sat in front of the man, then beside him…she had quite a scowl on her face!! Another drunk interlude on the bus….there were two drinking buddies standing (swerving!) in the isle next to David. One fella was so drunk he couldn’t even see the hand rail to grab on and kept just reaching until he lucked out. We were both shocked that he didn’t pass out!! Then his partner in crime lost his balance and nearly ended up in my lap. That’s what riding the bus later in the day will get you!! Another bus experience: David was coming home with Noah and Levi from taking the girls back to camp and a long haired guy started chatting with David about the Paul McCartney concert in Kyiv that was simulcast to the big cities in Ukraine the other night. He was trying to tell David the names of the songs and when he couldn’t think of the name, he would sing it for him….and poorly. From my understanding, the entire bus was amused. I digress….

After lunch we went to an amusement park, Ukrainian style! $5 per ride was the average…a little steep if you ask me!! But the girls had fun and so did the boys. The girls rode the throw up rides….and Vita did throw up after the last one. Galya wanted to, but couldn’t. From there, Lena dropped us by the apartment and took our documents to the train station and David took the girls back to camp.

Not sure what tomorrow has in store for us! Depends on the weather and adoption stuff…we have still have to get David registered for his tax # so the girls can retrieve their pensions and go ahead and start the paperwork for birth certificates!

We are cautiously optimistic that our 10 days will be waived….all three of the girls have medical diagnoses (nothing of concern or reality based) and we will argue that we would need to get them home to get settled, learn some of the language, and get evaluated before school starts for the ESL program. This is the new judge who is doing his first adoption Monday….so we can see it going either way. As much as we paid to expedite our court date, I would think it would be a breeze! The embassy said they would honor it…so we are asking for more miracles, as if we haven’t received enough already!!

More tomorrow!!