Wednesday Update

We are back in Bilhorod and staying at the missionary. We were staying in the resort area of Odesa, closer to the girl. The place where they sent us was a little more expensive and called a "resort" room. We had hopes of air conditioning and comfort. No such luck. Resort on this side of the world means you get a shower nozzle attached to your bathroom sink and a couple of twin beds pushed against the wall.

We saw the girl twice since the last blog update. After the first meeting, the girl was asking about us and when we would come back. She was also asking if we would take her to see her brother, who she still remembers. The second time we came, she ran up to us and hugged us and would not let go of Kathleen's arm. She said she was not letting us go. Today, she kept asking Jeff for something repeatedly and we had no idea what she wanted - until finally one of the caregivers told us it was gum.

We are moving towards completing the paperwork for adopting both the boy and the girl. We are trying to get that done by the end of this week, so we can get a court date scheduled on Monday (probably for the end of next week). That is ambitious, but we are trying to get out of here as quickly as possible. It feels like we have been here a long time already.

Our days are now spent like this: Get up in the morning, have a taxi take us to Odessa (approx 2 hours), visit with the girl for two hours, return to Bilhorod (another 2 hour drive), stop at the internet cafe in town, go to the other orphanage to visit the boy, then spend a few hours resting in the evening (doing laundry, eating, etc). It is a busy day, but nice to have a routine.