Easter in the Ukraine

Joe is back home but busy catching up on things at work, things around the house, and enjoying his Mom's delicious home cooking, so I (Rachel) am resuming blogging duties for now.

From the e-mails they have sent it sounds like Mom and Tonya have had a great week visiting with the children. I think that a visit from Mom and a suitcase full of goodies from home have been very refreshing for Tonya. Her e-mails this week have been more positive and her humor has returned (at least for the moment). They have made friends and shared dinner with an Italian couple who is also there to adopt. They are both professors at a college in Milan. While hanging out at the hotel Mom decided to measure the room and reported that it was about 9 by 9.5. There are 27 inches on one side of the bed and 25 at the bottom and other side.

They have enjoyed playing outside with the boys and got some alone time with Vitali today when he was not allowed to go outside because of a slight fever. It is great to get e-mails from Mom about how all the children on the playground refer to Tonya as Vitali and Dima's Mama and how both boys generously give and receive hugs.

It is Easter in the Ukraine so they prepared Easter baskets for the children and for Oksana's friends that usually accompany her during the visits. I think that between all of them they can piece together enough English to communicate pretty well. Usually when they meet with Oksana, the girls practice saying words in English and then apparently get tickled every time Tonya or Mom try to say the words in Ukranian. Yesterday's visit was a fun break from the normal English lesson. I am going to paste an excerpt from their e-mail below:

Mom writes:
"All five girls were there and Tonya had taken there Easter goodies since we are off to Kiev tomorrow. They seemed pleased with all the chocolate but not very chatty. Then Oksana, Ula and Lila had to leave to shower and we thought the visit might be over but Oksana said stay. When they came back we were going to take a picture which led to them looking at all the pictures on our cameras, and by the way they can name almost everyone in the family from looking at Tonya's album' which led to taking more pictures. We just turned the cameras over to them and they spent a least an hour posing and snapping. A fun time was had by all. We all laughed at each others pictures and the girls were all over the hall taking pictures. When the girls were looking at the pictures in the albumeverytime there was a picture of Elizabeth they always said ohhhh Elizabeth. Babies touch hearts no matter what language or age."

Tonya Writes:
"Mom is ready to start a hosting program in NC. We are going to visit the boys in the morning and take their Easter bags. They each get a "machina", car, chocolate bunny and a couple sticks of gum. We leave for Kiev at 12. I have informed mom that it does not matter what time we arrive we will immediately be going to McDonald's. I think all the girls liked their Easter bags. Lasia ate all her candy immediately. Ula put hers in the window, but kept making frequent trips to her bag. Oksana, Yeva and Lila saved theirs. Mom has been wondering about their spiritual teachings. Ula had gotten out a bible right before we left and was reading it."

Now regarding the current timeline: Mom and Tonya are planning on heading to Kiev tomorrow so that Tonya can show Mom around the Capital for a few days before she returns home. At this point it appears that the Ukranian government will be shut down from April 26-May 4th. I think that Tonya is seriously considering flying home with Mom to catch her breath for a few days and then she and Joe will return together on or around the 5th to hopefully complete this process and come home with their children!

One funny tidbit that I have to include about Mom's plane ride over (which isn't going to surprise anyone that knows her). While on the plane Mom of course befriends the person beside her who turns out to be a Vice President for Merrill Lynch, he speaks six different languages, and his current client is the country of the Ukraine. When they got off the plane he personally escorted Mom through customs and helped her with all her paperwork.

I am not sure if Tonya will blog from Kiev tomorrow or not but one of us will keep you posted.