Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas in Kiev...




Greetings from Patrick, Deborah, Sasha and Olya Work...from our very comfortable flat in Kiev...complete with jacuzzi tub for our soaking pleasures! We are counting down the 3-to-5 day waiting period for the girls passports. It is a good opportunity to make connections with the girls, in our slow-but-steady type of way. Our first 24 hours with the girls were very, very difficult because of how much we needed to get done in Odessa, sloshing through horribly thick slosh on all of the sidewalks, soaking wet feet for hours and hours and two train rides. (It must have been so confusing for the girls... this is adoption? Where is the USA? We've heard all this talk and seen pictures of Tim, Justin, Jordan and Jesse... when do we get to meet them? Debbie asked Zhenya to explain that we have to do all this to get passports SO THAT we can take planes back to Ohio and finally be HOME!)

We had a nice breakthrough in Kiev when Debbie invited the girls to help make eggs in the kitchen. They loved cracking the eggs, stirring, frying, scooping, setting the table, pouring juice, etc... Sasha wouldn't let Pat into the kitchen until everything was ready. It was so cute! Now we were seeing those smiles back again! Then in the evening we filled up the jacuzzi tub with deliciously warm water and the girls climbed in and took a LONG bath with jets bubbling full force! Now we were adding some laughter to the mix!

Today is Christmas and we are taking our daughters to our favorite Ukrainian restaurant, translated means... Fat House! Yum, yum! Another special memory was sitting together on the couch, Sasha holding a Russian version of the Bible and Pat and Debbie holding English versions. Pat found Luke 1 in the Russian Bible and Sasha read a verse in Russian and we repeated the same verse in English. It was one of the most powerful readings of the Christmas story we ever experienced! The last special memory we'd like to share is the present that Pat gave to his special ladies... we all received sparkling pink bracelets from Papa! He said that we were his special, beautiful girls! (See picture!)
May the Lord bless you and yours this Christmas and
throughout the coming New Year!

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