Its been a while...

Sorry, its been a while since we last posted.   Andrew likes to hog the computer in the evening and by the time he is done checking all his mails and reading his google reader, I am in bed for the night.

Wednesday, Luda checked with the courts and they said all the documents are in order, but we must wait for the judge to return on Monday to look it over in detail and then schedule our court appointment, hopefully for Tuesday.  We also have to see whether it is necessary to travel to the kids birthplace before court, or if it is something we can do during the 10 day wait.  We bummed around and Luda went to the town center to do more shopping.  Around 1:30 we headed to see M and then around 4 we drove to see the boys.  M had just taken her shower, so she had a wet head and had to stay inside.  M's caretaker asked Luda if we would buy their groupa a hair dryer.  Of course we agreed.  Wednesday it was a bit rainy, so we stayed inside and did puzzles and playdoh.  A**** is the hardest to handle when he does not get his way.  He likes to throw a little fit and walk away.  Timeout seems to be working, however, he always wants to get his way.  C***** just goes with the flow and does not object too much.  Likes to do what his big brother does and always compares what he gets to his brother.  Luda is finished with her paperwork responsibilities, so she is heading home this afternoon and will return to us on Sunday afternoon.  She lives in Kiev, but her family is about 2.5 hours from here, so she will visit with them until Sunday.

Thursday we decided to walk into town and eat at Pizza Celantano, stop at the grocery store for more water and Orange Fanta.  We also needed to find the hair dryer for M's groupa.  After a fantastic lunch of Chicken Soup, Cheese Pizza with Mushrooms and of course Orange Fanta (all for 49.5 grivna and less than McDonalds --- $6), we decided to buy M one of the gorgeous bouquets they sell in the underground street crossings--so to cross the street near the big traffic circle, we have to go down some steps and cross over underground.  I saw some gerbera daisies, so we inquired how much they were.  Of course we don't understand, so they have to show us how much on the calculator.  25 grivna for a beautiful bouquet ($3).  I thought this would make M feel special.  We headed to her school first and were told by the director that they were practicing for a concert, to be held later that day.  We sat through practice and then watched the concert.  It was really cute and we have some neat video of it to share with everyone and keep for memories.  Luckily enough I gave her the flowers after their performance and she was tickled pink.  We also gave her the hair dryer and her newly washed clothes (it took 3 days to dry outside) as well as her groupa treat of cookies.  She was in 7th heaven.  After that we headed off to see the boys.  It was a bit muddy out from the rain the night before and they got a little muddy.  They are really conscious about trying not to get dirty and brush their pants off all the time.  We played outdoors on the equipment and slides and ate their bananas.  They had a groupa treat of biscuit cookies.

Today, we woke up and walked into town to get Legos or something similar to do with the boys.  We ended up getting a Lego motorcycle to put together.  About 1:30 we headed to see M.  She is always happy to see us.  We gave her a banana and Vitamins and then walked outside.  We showed her video of her concert, played on the jungle gyms, looked at some flashcards and hung out.  It was a beautiful day.  Her groupa came to the playground so we gave her the treat to share with them.  It was a big hit!  Of course she started giving the treats to her favorite first, and I made sure everyone got one, with a little prompting to M.  Around 4 we drove about 15 minutes to see the boys and gave them a pear.  They really enjoyed the pear.  They seem to like bananas and pears the best.  We also had some animal crackers which they kept sneaking when they thought we weren't looking.  They almost polished off the whole bag.  I pushed A on the swing for quite a bit and then we settle down to put the Lego motorcycle together.   Andrew definitely had to help out.  It was quite complicated for 6-12 years old.  We didn't get to finish it at 6 and we had to leave, so A had a small fit.  I kept trying to explain we will finish tomorrow, but he wanted it today.  He quickly forgot during our walk into the orphanage and we got hugs and Andrew even got a kiss.

We got home and made some dinner of ramen noodles and cup o soup and a tomato, cucumber, pepper and onion salad.  It was tasty.  Its Friday night, so the kids are partying upstairs with some techno music and jumping around.  Hopefully they don't do it all night.  I am pretty tired because I am sick AGAIN.  Its a small cold, I probably picked it up from one of the kids.

Check out the pics and video from the last couple of days on the picasa web link!

Miss you all!