Getting Closer...

What do ya know…right before it was my turn for a shower, the power went off! This seems to happen a lot here and is usually only out for a few hours (however it was much longer today). I’m just glad I wasn’t IN the shower when it went off…that would have been a disaster. The water is heated by electric so the minute the power went off the water turned ICE cold! Not to mention if I had been IN the shower I wouldn’t have been able to dry my hair! Soooo I tried out the dry shampoo I brought this time. I learned that lesson on our last trip when the power kept going out. It’s not the best, but it worked okay. I’m definitely going to take a shower tonight because they said the power may be out all day again tomorrow. When we got back from our orphanage visit around 5:30 the power had just come back on.

This morning we went to the bank to transfer over the money in Zoya’s bank account to the orphanage. She had just over $1,500 dollars so that should help the orphanage with their renovations quite a bit! After that, we took a drive to the city to buy a carpet for the orphanage. I can’t believe the huge contrast between where we are staying and the city. We saw people and restaurants and it was so lively! It was more like Kiev. Zoya’s region is pretty poor and lags behind the cities of Ukraine in development in many ways. We were hoping to pick out a bright colored carpet for some stimulation for the kids, but the director requested a brown carpet since they are remodeling the groupa and changing the colors from blue to brown…blah! We went to an outdoor market and their carpet selection was made up of various colors of browns and reds, no color anyways! We found one that seems pretty plush and will be nice for the kids. The color is okay, but it is more something you’d see in your Grandma’s living room! This carpet is HUGE and we paid only $225 US dollars. In the States, this carpet would easily be near $1,000! They rolled it up and we threw it on top of our driver’s car and tied it down with….a piece…..of YARN! That’s it…just a string of yarn. Now if you knew how they drive here and how many pot holes are unavoidably hit every minute, then you’d be scared too! Shawn stuck his hand out the window and held the carpet for the 40 minute drive back!! The weird part of the day for me was during the drive back…I got this crazy feeling that I was actually going to miss this country! I don’t know where that came from! But I am certainly just as eager as ever to get home! Maybe some day far into the future….

Here is a picture of the carpet we bought:

Here is the carpet with one teeny string! That is our facilitator Marina on the right. 

Next we went to the orphanage to drop off the carpet and some gifts we brought for the director, assistant to the director, and the head nurse. When we went to Zoya’s groupa to drop off the carpet, she saw us standing outside the door. She was standing holding onto the crib. She heard us too and like lightening went running (still holding onto the crib hand over hand) to the other end of her crib where she could see us better. She held her arms out but we were not allowed to see her then because we still had other things to do at the orphanage. So sad. She threw her head back and sank down to the bottom of the crib and cried. Talk about tearing your heart out….I felt so bad. We went to the doctor’s office in the orphanage and we were given the x-rays of Zoya’s heart from before her surgery along with all the medical notes from her surgery. We will have to get those translated in the United States since they have to be translated by a cardiologist for them to make sense to American cardiologists…there are too many medical terms for a regular translator to translate them. We also got her immunization records, blood work records, medical records and some other documents. They gave us a couple other pictures they had of Zoya. One is from when she was probably just under a year old with very fuzzy hair (hehe) and the other is from last Christmas. Those pictures are probably the only ones that have ever been taken of Zoya….no worries though, we already have over 1,000 pictures of her…we are trying to make up for lost time! She was also baptized when she was a baby and they gave us a little cross and some kind of card that she got when she was baptized.

We came home and rested a bit (still no power) and then at 4:00 we went back to see our sweet girl! Shawn forgot something at the house so I went ahead without him and then he met me there. Zoya was happier than I’ve ever seen her when she saw me! She couldn’t get to me fast enough and was reaching out with a big smile on her face! She would stop smiling, then just look at me and get this big goofy grin on her face. Then she kept throwing her arms around my neck and squeezing so tight and putting her cheek up against mine. Then she would pull away, study my face, and smile all over again. It brought tears to my eyes and it was definitely a defining moment in our mother-daughter relationship. Zoya was so happy and giggly and almost giddy tonight. She definitely missed us…I could tell. She, without a doubt, knows we are her Moma and Daddy and that she belongs with us. What a gift from God! She was dancing a lot. We play her Einstein music toy (which she has already learned how to turn on and change the song!) and she just starts doing the Zoya dance. She sways from side to side and shakes her shoulders and her head…it’s adorable. She LOVES music! She loves when I sing to her (Shawn still has to learn the words to Wheels on the Bus…hehe). When I sing she just looks at my face and my mouth. If I’m holding her and she wants me to sing she will start doing the Zoya dance in my arms. When I start singing she gets a big smile on her face! We are learning to communicate with one another despite the language barrier! She is babbling a lot and tries to imitate sounds…especially when we are singing. Shawn was singing “la la la la la” (since he doesn’t know the words to Wheels on the bus) and she said “ba ba ba ba.” When I was singing I was putting her hand on my neck so she could feel the vibration of the sound and when I did that she babbled more! Her personality is definitely starting to show. She loves coming to Moma for comfort and hugs (dad too sometimes) but LOVES playing with her Daddy and making him laugh! She is much more rough with Shawn and very gentle with me…too cute! She is demonstrating a few orphanage behaviors…every now and then she will hit herself on her head or grind her teeth. Knowing what her life has been like for almost the past 2 years, we’re not surprised or shocked to see some of these behaviors…we actually expected to see more than what we are…so I’d say she is doing pretty darn well….she is definitely a fighter and a survivor!

She has this mischievious look because she kept taking her binky out and trying to throw it. This time we got smart and clipped it to her dress.  She'd throw it and look down like what the heck? where did it go? haha

I love this picture.  There is a bulletin board with children who have found their forever families and have been adopted.  There are pictures of parents with kids.  EVERY TIME we go pas it Zoya ALWAYS waves like she knows what those pictures are about.  She can't wait for her turn to say goodbye!

She was so happy I was singing to her!

Just Hangin' Out

Here she is untying her cool Nike Shoes from Grandma and Grandpa B.

And here she is after she untied her shoe AGAIN! She thought it was a fun game to untie and make me tie it again. I was holding her hand back and saying NO NO NO and laughing..she thought it was funny...what a stinker! I didn't mind...it's good Occupational therapy!

Can you see the mischievious look in her eyes? That is because this picture was taken in the middle of another game! She had her hand in her mouth and I took it out and said No.  She got this look and stuck it back in her mouth and started giggling! I might have encouraged her by laughing...but I promise once we're home we're buckling down (riiiiight...come on she is too cute!)

Here is her laughing after I took her hand out of her mouth for the billionth time!

Getting closer to having our angel home!