We had Svetlana's little party for her group on Friday. It ended up being only 10 kids in her immediate group and we were able to do it at their normal snack time. Grant brought her flowers and we had lots of fruit, juice and cookies for the kids. The Deputy Director (Supervisor of the teachers) - Tatianna - made a little speech and had Svetlana stand up and all the kids clapped for her to wish her well in America. It was really cute. We also brought her a 'ball/paddle kit'. Not sure how to explain it - the ball has suct
ion cups on it, so when you throw it, the paddle is like a mit, and the ball sticks to it when you catch it. She is very athletic - we're not sure what sport to get her into - gymnastics, soccor, or softball - she can throw really well! And she learns really fast.Today, we were able to take Svetlana to the church picnic. We meet the American missionaries a little ways from our apartment and then took a taxi out to the place along one of the rivers. We got a chance to meet some of
the Americans on the team that just arrived yesterday from Melbourne. We have a feeling that we will be coming back here in the future for more than just visiting Svetlana's sister. We had a typical Ukrainian lunch with sausage/keilbasa on bread with vegetables and fruit. Svetlana wanted to go on the water and really wanted to find the 'mattress' to float on. Someone was using the one from the church and there was a second one but we couldn't find it. Well, while we were talking and watching her, she looked like she was making friends with people - she's not shy for most things. Then, she comes up to us and says that she wants to use the mattress to go in the water. When we said we didn't know where the other one was at, she said - Ihra can take us to it and then I can use it. She wasn't making friends - she was on a 
mission - a mattress mission! She was going around asking everyone where it was until she found someone who knew. She is very determined!
the Americans on the team that just arrived yesterday from Melbourne. We have a feeling that we will be coming back here in the future for more than just visiting Svetlana's sister. We had a typical Ukrainian lunch with sausage/keilbasa on bread with vegetables and fruit. Svetlana wanted to go on the water and really wanted to find the 'mattress' to float on. Someone was using the one from the church and there was a second one but we couldn't find it. Well, while we were talking and watching her, she looked like she was making friends with people - she's not shy for most things. Then, she comes up to us and says that she wants to use the mattress to go in the water. When we said we didn't know where the other one was at, she said - Ihra can take us to it and then I can use it. She wasn't making friends - she was on a 
mission - a mattress mission! She was going around asking everyone where it was until she found someone who knew. She is very determined! 
It was also very cool that we were able to be there for the baptism of 7 people from the church. Anything we can expose Svetlana to we are grateful for. It was like being at home - but we stood there and thought - here we are in the middle of Ukraine, with our new daugh
ter, witnessing a baptism at our sister church....who would have thought we would be doing this? It's pretty awesome the things that God has done to bring us to this point.
ter, witnessing a baptism at our sister church....who would have thought we would be doing this? It's pretty awesome the things that God has done to bring us to this point.
Before we went to the picnic though, we gave Svetlana her computer. She loves it! We showed her how to do the ABC's in both English and Russian - but it looks like she is more interested in learning how to add and subtract. She will be able to use this for a long time!
We haven't been able to find out about meeting with Svetlana's sister before we leave Poltava. Her sister went to summer camp, and the director is not a very friendly man. He usually doesn't let any of the kids leave the camp for any reason (not even if there parents come to get them). So, please pray that we will be able to have this time together before we leave. The Poltava inspector wrote a special letter to request that she leave for a day since her sister is permanently moving to America. They went today, but the director was not there, so they are going back tomorrow morning. This is the hard thing to deal with in Ukraine - when someone has this much control over a person's life and there is nothing you can do about it - except it makes you learn to be real nice to your opposition real fast! We hope that we will be having dinner tomorrow night.
Sergei was able to get the person at the vital records office in Globino to handle our request for Svetlana's birth certificate on her day off (yeah!) so we will be able to go down there Monday to get it and should be able to complete everything else on Tuesday, and then be able to head back to Kiev.
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