On the bus to Kiev....

Yesterday (Friday), Sergei took the letter to the Poltava Post Office to get it stamped and hopefully they would let him deliver it. Well, the first lady he went to did not like the idea the he brought the letter already stamped. She finally agreed to take it and stamp it, but said someone from the post office would deliver it before 3pm. Okay - well he went back a few hours later to talk to someone else to see if he could take the letter - that lady wouldn't give him any help at all. So he went back a 3rd time, and this time with some 'gifts' and this lady went and got the letter and wouldn't give it to him, but allowed someone from the post office to go with him to deliver it to the inspector's office. Hurray! Once that got done, he got the inspector to type up the final conclusion letter, get the Mayor/city official to sign it and the only other paper we needed was to go to a notary to get the request for Svetlana's passport done. He still had to go back and pick up the conclusion letter, so he dropped us off and later, while we were visiting with Svetlana we got a call....all the paperwotk is on it's way to Kiev to be registered! This means it should be registered on Monday and we should have our court hearing for the final judgement within 5 days after that! It's hard to believe that we are done with everything until we have the court hearing (then we will have more to do).

We have had good times spending with Svetlana getting to know her better. She is definetly one organized little girl who likes to have everything in order. We have been trying to work with getting her to learn English and she is a little timid, but she is the type who once she gets going, she will do very well. We got her some alphabet puzzle cards and she loved them - so she likes figuring things out as well. Yesterday morning we also were able to go to the final graduation ceremony of the older kids. We are trying to absorb as much of the culture as we can so we can talk to her about her heritage and the difference in our countries as she grows up. We found out how much she loves fruit and today (Saturday) we took her a writing tablet and some stickers so she could start practicing writing the American alphabet, and she will get stickers as she completes things and as she learns more English. She seemed to like that and got busy writing right away.

We also had a chance to talk with the 'Deputy Director' who oversees the teachers in the Pre-K area and she was able to fill us in on a lot of Svetlana's personality and family history. This will be important for her as she grows up. She did tell us how she has a very good memory, which is why she had so many lines in her graduation show, and that she loves to help do things/help the teachers and is responsible enough that when the teachers need to relay a message to another teacher, she is the one they send because she can remember what to tell them.

When we talked her her sisters caregivers the other evening, we asked if we were able to continue to tutor her in the language, should it be Russian or Ukranian, and they said Ukrainian since the schools teach that now. We had been recommended a website - www.ukrainianpower.com that produces children's material in Ukrainian to help with English before we left and I think when we get back it will be some good things to get for her. So, I guess we will switch from learning Russian to Ukrainian....hope we don't get too confused!

It has also been difficult as we get to know some of the other kids at the orphanage. This is the hard part where you wish you could take some of the other ones with you. We have to be careful as to how much attention we give them, one, so that Svetalana can see a clear difference in how we treat her as opposed to other kids, but two - for their sake. Some of these kids want parents so bad, that you don't want to give them the wrong impression. We have worked in so many camps here and with the kids at our church, that it is hard to hold back from showing them affection, but we've already had kids 'testing the water' so to speak, to see if we are there for them. Even if you tell them why you are there, it is easy for them to misunderstand your intentions.

We thank everybody for their encourangement and partnering with us in prayer. We could not have asked for a better trip!