We meet Bogdan and Valeriya today

Shake and bake.....
Here is another long winded post ;). But it's my therapy and way of journaling this event in my life.....
         Today started out with me unable to sleep and getting up at 4am. Had three cups of via Starbucks coffee and worked on yesterday's blog.  Its been a long day.  I am now on upper berths of whats called a business class train car with Jeremiah writing blog.  Business class is basically a car with 4 berths.  Like everything it's a small area but efficient.  It reminds me of  camping as a kid in a volkswagen camper. There is no wifi on this train and  I think it must have been made in the 1950's the conditions are amazing and surreal.   It's laughable the condition of this train.  I often think how American civilization would on the whole,  handle the normal everyday living conditions of the Ukrainian people.      I can tell you what,  lawyers would go crazy in a place like this.  Point in case, the doors on the elevators and the furnicular train should be lovingly called the human guilateen.  I have never seen doors slam so fast and so hard in my life.  In fact,  I was trying to enter our apartment elevator at the last second and the elevator decided no more people allowed. One second longer and my hand would have been waving at me from the floor of the other side.  On the other hand ( no pun intended ) the same door will decide not to close or reopen at all.  Nothing is consistent except the inconsistent in this country.  I digress though, we met Nadiya our facilitator  who will be assisting us in Donesk.  She is a delight and a great travel companion she understands our humor, which is a plus!  We shall see how long she can stand us.  About 430 pm today we received our two referrals for the orphanages we are traveling to.  Grabbed our luggage and heaved them on taxi and through crowded train station.  For those who follow, pack light cause ya going to have to haul it all over the country!  Unless you are a world travelor there is nothing that can prepare you for ukrain it is a landscape of constant change and surprise.  I often feel like I am in a world WWII movie and I am on a mission in a foreign land.  I would say the best prep is to be patient, changeable, curious and willing to risk and make mistakes. Every turn has a surprise and even now the clickity clack of the shake and bake is lulling me to sleep......the night has past and were about an hour from our destination.  I have heard so many stories of this phase in the adoption process of things going wrong that I find myself reserved as well as very anxious.  What will it be like to meet them for the first time and will there be a connection from the beginning or will that happen in time. Will they say yes or will it be no?
          Getting off the train was something else one mass of cars luggage, vans and people people and more people one big mass of us pushing and honking our way out.  
He could only fit 2 bags in back and so one piece got to sit up front and watch the view while the four of us squeezed into the back seat.  Thankfully we are all skinny and this wasn't too uncomfortable.  We found our apartment and again they have a scary elevator but I am getting used to the rediculous small space and take the second one up with the luggage.  The apartment is very nice but a little pricier than we were expecting. We are planning to negotiating or relocate closser to the kids or maybe find something in the country.  Still up in the air, we need to find a map so i can get our bearings. Got taken for 200. American by taxi for all day driving and 120 km but I comfort myself that in America it would have been a lot worse for your own private chauffeur.   The siblings have been split because of age and the fact that bogdan needs to go to school.  The drive is fast and furious but it doesn't bother us in fact I feel quite at peace with this insane driving. We travel through beautiful countrysides and little villages and through towns all showing years lack and disrepair. There are slow signs of merging economic progress but things seem to take a long time.  Funny thing in donesk everyone we buy from is trying to practice there English due to a ver big soccer game this year with lots if international visitors.  One lady said in closing  our transaction: thank you, hello ,goodbye, and your welcome all in one sentence she was very sweet and doing her best to communicate. 
          We met bogdan at his orphanage  and I could not be happier.  He is such a beautiful young man.  He was so scared and never looked at us but in time he relaxed a little.  He started coming alive after seeing pictures and playing with iPhone.  We gave him a football (soccer ball), small car, and starburst candy.   He let Monique put her arm around him and he gave me a real good hand shake which in this country is not something you give easily like Americans do.  By the time we left his breathing was much more normal.  I can tell he is a brave boy even though he was scared.  He loves math and wants to be a fireman.  He also said he likes the grey  Lanos a Ukrainian made car that is everywhere here. my first thought I can afford this car when he starts to drive LOL.  We are coming up to a three day holiday so we are rushing over to see his sister Valeria just in case the holiday delayed us til Tuesday.  It sounds like we are going to be able to see bogdan again on Saturday he is going to be a goalie and he will teach me to play soccer.  We want to buy him some little cars because he likes to collect  them. We are off at 90 mph to see her (no kidding) in tiny little taxi.  
First impressions of orphanage was horror at outside conditions but the second you entered in the place it was  beautiful and full of warmth, color and fun a stark contrast to the orphange bogdan is living in a grey concrete stone cold environment.  Apparently,  as our facilitator said, rich people like to help the cute young kids and not the older ones.  Thus the stark contrast between the two orphanages, makes you think.  We talked for awhile to the directors assistant, nurse and social worker and in short she is healthy with some  minor correctable issues.    She is very shy but such a little princess.  She is all girl and loves to dress up.  We asked her questions, put puzzles together, with and walked outside and played on toys until it began to rain.  She had a beautiful pink dress on and did not want to get it dirty.  She wants juice, cookies,  and a doll.  This took awhile to get out of her but a necessary step for us to show we will do what we say and follow through with our commitments with her.  I am overwhelmed with compassion for these two kids and realize how much God loves and cares for these two.  Enough for him to send us half way around he world to find them and to present ourselves to them as a gift.  All they need to do is say yes and they will become our children.  A familiar sounding story.  A simple yes can change there life and remove them from the awful conditions they will and live in.