A Day Out And About

It's been a while since we've posted. The internet was down for a while, there's been a lot of paperwork stress (be glad, be very glad I didn't moan about that on here!), a touch of illness, plus, there's just not a lot of new things to report most days; just the usual routine of going back and forth to the orphanage to visit with Maxim. The bus ride is tedious and very, very bumpy to say the least. You never know which kind of driver you'll get---the one who stops for anyone who stands by the street and holds out his arm and so drives rather slowly, or the one who thinks he's running a race! The latter kind surely does make for a carsick tummy as well as bounces us out of our seats, if we're lucky enough to even be seated, that is! One day, I lucked out and was able to sit in the very front seat of the bus, the one directly across from the driver. Buses here are not doored like the school buses at home, meaning the door is located two seats back from the windshield. Anyway, the seat gave me a fantastic view of what we see on our ride to and from the orphanage. I will try to post a couple here and more on Kodak Gallery. The first street picture is where we change buses and go up that hill; the orphanage is not very far up on the right.

A fun thing did happen this past week. We were able to check out Maxim from the orphanage for five hours one day. Alla and our driver accompanied us to an outdoor market where Maxim was allowed to try on and choose which boots he wanted and which jeans. We figure it's probably the only time in his life he's been given a choice about his clothing. He liked a sweater I chose for him, and he also selected warm gloves and a cheap police car. Maxim still says he wants to be a policeman when he grows up. : ) It was a very nice change of pace to have Maxim outside of the orphanage. Alla also showed us an indoor playland kind of place, sort of like Kids Place or Chuck E Cheeze back home. Maxim didn't want to get inside the climbing apparatus, though, so he played a few games where you have to insert a token or scan a card. He had no idea what to do with the ticktets the games gave him, so it is safe to assume, he'd never gotten to play these types of games before. Of course, he loved them. He asked several times if we would take him back there tomorrow, but alas, we could not say when we could do that as we are not allowed to check him out again until we take him out for good, which should still happen by Wednesday of this week (we're hoping for Tuesday afternoon, but that's a longshot). We also stopped in at a large grocery store while we had Maxim since we had a taxi and would have an easier way to haul back large jugs of water and some other items. Maxim chose a pear he really wanted as well as a small bag of colorful marshmallow candy; he also enjoyed pushing the cart for us--that is, until we put four huge jugs of water in there, then he motioned for me to take over. After that, it was to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, which I also got the idea he'd never had before. Alla kept telling me that wouldn't be enough food for him, but I insisted that he get his Happy Meal, and of course added some of my nuggets to his small box while John kept refilling his French fry container. Poor kid, then Alla insisted he eat that all! We had just a short time to spare after that before our 3 p.m. deadline to have Maxim back at the orphanage so we brought him by our apartment and showed him where he would live with us for a couple of weeks after we get him from the orphanage. He was pleased to see his puzzles he'd already done, toys he'd played with, and the big red bag here. I sense it made him feel more comfortable. It was hard to leave him at the orphanage after our big day out, but Maxim was very happy. Oh, while we were out we did manage to get pictures made of Maxim for his visa and medical exam; the ones for the Ukranian passport Alla says we cannot do ahead of time--that the passport office must do them when we take Maxim there to apply for it. Sigh. And time goes on and on and on and on and on. . .

It was a very nice and sunny day here yesterday, or at least John says it was. I was so sick that I barely moved from the bedroom to the bathroom to the couch and back and forth. Self-diagnosing a sinus and ear infection, I started Friday on the last vial of antibiotics my doctor had so graciously prescribed for me to bring along. Today, I feel just a tad better but am still very weak so I am writing a paragraph for the blog, then resting a bit, then writing another paragraph,etc., so if the blog is a bit disjointed, now you know why. With John doing all the peeling and chopping, we managed to make some potato/onion soup which those of you who know me know is my cure for any illness. :) It surely did taste good. I figure if I had to get that sick (yes, I'd had a few under the weather days before while here but none this bad), then it was better to be sick now before we have Maxim here with us and definitely before we are on an airplane. Can you imagine the pain with infected ears and flying!!

Today we are both kind of relaxing and we have the landlord over with a repairman again to make the antiquated washer work once more. I tell you it is just one step above washing them all by hand, but if they can just patch it up for a few more weeks, it will no longer be our problem. Sure hope we don't have to do the wash by hand though; that would take forever to dry. Remember there are no dryers, other than the lines we toss the wet clothes on in the kitchen.

John is tired of being cooped up, though he did run out to a small grocery yesterday, so I have promised him that in a little while I will, at the least, walk to the nearest shopping center with him. I figure the fresh air might do me good anyway. The weather today is very different from yesterday's. It came quite a good snow last night--looks like three or four inches. It's beautiful, for a while anyway.

So I'll close for now. Hopefully, in a very few days we will have Maxim here with us, and you can be sure we will be shouting that fantastic news from the proverbial rooftop!

May God bless each of you,

Charlene