Jeff is touching the Black Sea

November 14, 2005

Thank all of you for the great posts and emails we have received in the last few day. It put a lump in my throat reading them. We are anxious to get home, we have been gone 41 days already. Thanks to all of you who have been looking after our house, playing with our dog, paying our bills, and feeding the chickens and cats. We really appreciate it. Yesterday we went to downtown Odessa and saw the sights in lightening speed. It was so cold and damp there, downtown Odessa is right on the Black Sea. We also went to a large kid's store and bought Matthew some shoes, wool socks, and mittens for playing outside. Not one kid in the orphanage wears mittens or gloves outside. Today we took them to him and it was so cute to see him try to pick up one of his toys with his mittens on.

I think that he eats more food than Ben does. Today he ate an entire banana in seconds. Then yogurt and cheerios with juice. He hasn't quite mastered the sippy cup yet. He doesn't suck hard enough to get much out. He drinks out of a regular cup usually but since we only have three sets of clothes (and no washer) I make him use the sippy cup. He is a quick learner. He has learned to give us five and say "more" using sign language. He also said Mama, fish, barked like a dog, meowed like a cat, and knows the square root of 123,456,789. Ok, enough bragging.

The orphanage director is a very nice woman, she told us today that she has been there for 10 years. When she came the orphanage was in terrible shape. No hot water and the building was so drafty they couldn't keep it warm. She had the windows replaced, got a boiler to heat the place and the water, put down new flooring and repaired all the walls. She wants the place to be as homelike and comfortable as possible. She has done a great job. Our translator says this is one of the nicest orphanages he has been too. She also gave us permission to visit Matthew's "groupa." We will get to see the other kids, the place he sleeps, eats, and plays. We also have permission to take pictures.

We are praying that we will go to court this week and the 10 days will be waived. It is very rare for the 10 days to be waived, but Stas told us we may be able to bring Matthew back to our apartment for the 10 days. I would really like that since they make us stay outside for most of the time at the orphanage. It has been pretty cold lately.