Cleaning Day

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings the teenagers at the TLC clean. Everyone has a job or two to do and it all looks great afterward. They've been cleaning up after us, so Mark and I decided to get a jump on them and clean our own room and bathroom this morning. It didn't take us long.

Afterward, we walked to the Amstore to buy some colored pencils and paper for the girls so we could draw with them this afternoon. We also bought some snacks and other things we needed. The Amstore is a fun place to just browse. It is a huge store compared to all the other little corner markets. There is a section for appliances and housewares, and a section for clothes, in addition to all the food. But even though it is a huge store you still shop in the Ukrainian way. The vegetables and fruits are all piled high and you bag them yourself, but then you take them to a lady behind a desk and she weighs the bag and puts a label on it. If you don't do that before you check out you're in trouble and you won't be able to buy the produce! There is also a section with rows and rows of all different types of sausages hanging from hooks about 6 feet from the floor in a refrigerated dairy case. The milk is not refrigerated until after you open it, and it comes in a small box. The yogurt comes in a squishy pouch and so does the mayonnaise. You have to know what you're looking for! There are 4 aisles for alcoholic beverages - only 1 aisle for meat!

The Amstore has great parking, too. Much like an American parking lot. There isn't much parking anywhere else in town. People that do have cars usually just park anywhere along the curb of the streets and they sometimes even drive up onto the sidewalk and park there! Many people ride the buses, even though they are old. You can hear the rumble of the buses coming along way down the streets. (Of course, it's hard to tell if that's due to the age of the buses or the number of potholes in the street!)

This afternoon Tanya drove us to the orphanage because she had to do some business on our behalf there, too. We took a huge bag of suckers and a big tub of bubble gum we had brought with us from America. We gave those to Zhanna and Ella's teacher, Oksana. Later we saw kids blowing huge "bolshoi" bubbles which sometimes popped all over their faces. They enjoyed it.

Zhanna and Ella had a busy afternoon. They had singing practice at first to prepare for the end of the year program which will be held on Saturday morning. Then they had to go be fitted for new shoes in a small, little room down a dark corridor of the orphanage. We got to go with them to both of these locations. We finally got to go outside for a while and throw the Frisbees. Another group of children were outside throwing paper airplanes with their teacher, but of course, when they saw the Frisbees, they had to join in, too. We had fun with a huge group sending Frisbees flying "round robin" style. Then it began to rain so we went indoors and up to the teacher room. We let them draw and I drew a picture of each of the girls. They liked that and then they colored the pictures beautifully and artistically, complete with shading, etc. They are truly very artistically and musically gifted girls. I can't wait till we get home and see them and Annie together. They will have so much fun doing all those things they all three love.

Tomorrow we need to go with Tanya to take the girls to have their pictures made for the passports. That will be a fun outing. We don't know where we'll be going, but just to get out will be a nice change.

We've been here at the TLC for one week now, and it is good. We are starting to feel like family now, even though we struggle with the language. But the kids and the housemoms and Tanya take good care of us. For example, tonight, as we were lingering at the dinner table, a couple of the girls came downstairs and cleaned our bathroom. I didn't have the heart to tell them I just cleaned it this morning. They are so great to us!

It looks like we'll be here at the TLC at least 2 more weeks, and then several more days in Kiev. So, possibly 3 weeks from now we'll be coming home. It's hard not to get anxious. We are enjoying ourselves in one regard, but feel displaced and a bit lonely at the same time. People all around us speak a different language than we do. We are foreigners. We've decided that this is a microcosmic look at our lives on Earth. "This world is not my home!" We are not to anticipate or complain, just take it as it comes and try to share Jesus along the way. There is a purpose for each day. If we look ahead too much we become anxious. If we look back too much we become melancholy. We must live in the moment in order to experience the joy God has planned just for this day. So, with God's help, that's what we will do. We will continue to live this adventure and know that it is God's plan for us that it all be carried out in exactly this way. We will joyously spend time each and everyday getting to know Zhanna and Ella better and better until the time comes to bring them home as our daughters. Praise God!

Thank you for your wonderful prayers. The peace of God is upon us. We pray for you, too.

Much love,
Dawn and Mark