In Simferopol-9/24

Well, we hoped to have posted prior to this, but have had limited internet access. We've had a good experience in Simferopol visiting the orphanage and spending time with the little boy we've come to meet. The orphanage is well run and organized; and the director, doctor and teacher who we have had a decent amount of interaction with seem knowledgable, caring and very involved. Each day in Simferopol has included either one or two visits to the orphanage to play. This has given our family a good time of interaction with this dear boy getting to know him and vice versa.
On Monday, we flew Dr. Yuri here to assess/examine him. This doctor has the ability to quickly develop a good rapport with the children he works with (the gift of candy at the beginning of his assessment doesn't hurt!). Dr. Yuri spent about and hour with him evaluating his development in many different ways and we were able to observe, which was helpful for us to see. While our translator played with our girls, Dr. Yuri spent a good bit of time providing his conclusions to us. His conclusions were filled with wisdom and hope, were candid and extremely helpful. We clearly felt the Lord speaking to us through things Dr. Yuri presented to us. One thing he said to us in his heavy Russian accent was 'you'll have work ahead of you, but I believe your work will be rewarded'. This comment was so very meaningful to us because this is one of the main reasons we felt lead to adopt and specifically a child from an orphanage, that we might with God's help bring hope to someone that otherwise might not have it.
So . . . after time spent together, prayer and discussion we decided late Monday night/early Tuesday that we would adopt Viktor whom we will call Coleman Viktor Eberly. We told the director of the orphanage today of our intentions to adopt him. We are so excited that he will become part of our family! Of course, not before another round of paperwork, but he is worth all of that! And he's already become a part of our family in our hearts. We can't count how many times the girls either asked if we could adopt him or said they wanted to adopt him. The orphanage director too was happy that we were adopting him and said how she thought Madison and Mallory would be a big help to Cole. We know that we too will learn many things through him.
Cole has been described by those in authority at the orphanage as kind and not aggressive on various occasions to us. He is extremely smiley - his smile is beautiful. He is so cute and playful. We've found that when we're using the correct Russian words/phrases with him, he usually responds to our directives which is encouraging. It was a new experience for him to drink water from a water bottle and when we walked him back to his group, we were filled with joy to see him share his water with what seemed like as many friends as he could find to share it with before it ran out. It showed us another glimpse of his heart as we're getting to know him. We'd like to post pictures, but cannot do so until later in the process.
Madison and Mallory have been amazing on this trip! We have had continued confirmation that it was the best decision to bring them with us. They've done a great job at adjusting to a foreign country and are enjoying the trip. We've been able to spend a lot of quality time together as a family and move together into being a family of five. As we wanted, we believe their world perspective is broadening in ways that our words could have never impacted them. I think they'd even say the same thing that we've been busier than we had anticipated on this trip.
We're now in our third apartment since arriving in Kiev and we believe this will be our last 'home' on this side of the trip. This apartment is small, just what we need and looks as if it was recently remodeled. We originally were told that we wouldn't have a washer, but we have one which is such a bonus! Doing laundry here has certainly been an event! We have a photo of Kelly hanging laundry out of our 9th story apartment which we'd like to post along with many others when we get a chance to do so. Our translator today talked with the manager at the internet cafe because we wanted to know if we could download our photos to our laptop and then just transfer what we needed from the laptop to our blog at the cafe. He'll hopefully be able to help us do that. We don't want to download all of our personal photos onto some publically used computer and since we don't have internet in our apartment, we must take care of such business at the cafe.
Here are some things we think are interesting or humorous in this part of the world:
- you must pay for the number of plastic bags you need at the grocery store;
- the lovely elderly lady and her doctor's office like scale strategically placed on the sidewalk for anyone that just might want to know his/her current weight - what an entreprenural;
- lots of great history - one example, it has been so interesting to talk with our translator who lived under the former Soviet Union regime and hear her perspective on the pros and cons;
- many, many wild dogs (not necessarily dangerous) and cats roaming all over;
- lots of high heals;
- lots of dirt;
- people who are helpful when you need it;
- various interesting ways to go to the bathroom;
- hot and cold faucets are switched around from the US-Kelly hung tough as she took her first Ukrainian shower in completely cold water;
- as our translator Alla says, kids must be healthy, clean and full as she strongly urges our girls to take one more bite or spoonful and then another bite . . . ;
- the ease with which you can lose electricity in your apartment;
- locks all over, locks everywhere it seems like (there are two doors at our apt. entrance with locks on both of them.