Kharkov Ukraine Day Five

Mary is posting today.

Today we ventured out of the apartment and went shopping for the kids. We bought K and R each new shirts and M a jersey for his favorite Football (soccer) team, the Metalists. I have to say, it is hard shopping for kids clothes when you don't know their size and they are not there with you to have them try them on. We also bought each kiddo a LEGO set.

We arrived at the orphanage for our visit with the kids at around 4pm. We were about 15 minutes early. This is usually when they return from school and then they get changed and have a snack before we meet with them. It was chilly outside so the Director let us wait inside. The kids got back from school a little late, so we waited about 45 minutes for them before we could start our visit. The Director let us use a room with two desks and several chairs, perfect for our plan for the day. We started out with several games of UNO. It has been fun to see the kids get into the game. Laughing when playing a trick card, groaning when the trick card is played on them, and sometimes high fives or knuckles when they win. After UNO, we pulled out the LEGO sets and the kids got right into them. These are the first sets for the girls and they loved them! Such concentration! James was able to help M and K, and I was able to help R. It was nice to have her ask me for reassurance that she was doing it right. I think this was the most I was able to communicate with her without assistance. I know my colors and numbers in Russian and the word for "this one" so I did quite well helping her follow the directions. All through the visit I tried to just talk even though most of it was in English. If these kids decide to be adopted they will be hearing a lot of English so I might as well start now. In the past I have tried to talk through James or I just didn't say anything thinking they wouldn't understand me anyways. I figure it is better to just be myself and say what is on my mind and have James translate if it is important. All too soon our visit was over. The Director came to say the kids needed to do their homework. I think it was a good visit. I'm still not sure about what the kids are thinking, but they seemed to have a good time with us and said thank you at the end.