Comfy

Sasha has gotten very comfortable. Yesterday, after visiting with the group, he wanted us to take a walk. We went outside the walls of the orphanage and down a dirt road to a pretty meadow. We sat in the grass and had yogurt for a snack. We'd only brought two yogurts and I chose not to have one. He thought it was delicious. He mixed a little of Mark's in with his and then got out a spoon for me and insisted I taste it. I've been a mother a long time and have had to endure plenty, so I don't gross out as easily as I used to so I took a tiny, tiny taste and was rewarded by his delighted face.

After the snack, we sat in the grass and taught Sasha to play UNO.  He sat in Mark's lap while we played and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  at one point Mark said (in Ukrainian) "I'm very happy", to which our boy immediately replied, "Me too!"  After a while a little rain cloud came up and we heard thunder. It looked otherwise pretty clear to me, but Sasha insisted we go back right then. He got us packed and went off down the road, holding Mark's hand. I lagged behind so I could take this photo:

Sasha turned around and asked Mark to wait up for me and took my hand too. It was sweet. Then of course, being a boy, he abruptly moved on to hitting things with sticks and other such things until we got back to the school. We were barely inside before the rain poured down. Truly he's a country boy who knows his weather!

Today's visit had barely started when two teenage girls and a teenage boy joined us. They stayed with us for the rest of the visit so Mark played with the boys and I had frustrating attempts at conversation with the girls. I think they are nice girls and wish I could talk with them. The more time I spend with various teenagers, the more I understand people who come here just to adopt teens. They are winsome in their own way and need homes as much as the little ones.

Meanwhile, the boys were having a blast roughhousing. Sasha was riding on Mark's shoulders and wearing him out.

The other boy was having fun with them too and was very cute. It was very fun to see this.

After our taxi ride back to the hotel, Mark and I went to our favorite pizza place for lunch and then walked over to a store to buy Sasha an outfit. We'll get him to try it on tomorrow. We stumbled on a bathing suit, which caught Mark's eye because Sasha has had so much fun playing a pirate video game on the iPad.  When we pulled it out of the package and saw that it was a "speedo" style with a pirate skull on one side of the butt Mark thought it was so funny, he wanted to buy it,  but I refused.  I'm sure Sasha would have loved it, but ....no. 

It was hard to find a complete outfit. They must not import or buy clothes as much as we do in the USA because the selection in the stores is much smaller and the clothes cost more. There's no Target, that's for sure.

After our shopping, we stopped by a bakery to get a treat before returning to the hotel where we made instant coffee and sat down for a desert. Ick. Baked goods here often look better than they taste but really, these were hardly edible. If I wanted to move to Ukraine, I'd open something like a  Piece of Cake bakery in Kiev and soon have made a fortune, well except for the "fees" and things that you need to pay to keep things running smoothly...  

We only have two more taxi rides over to see Sasha because Luda is coming on Monday. She'll help us translate and get ready on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday we'll be getting paperwork done. Hopefully, one of those days will be Sasha's last day in the orphanage.. We'll travel with him to Kiev to finish up more paperwork before bringing him home!