Goodbye, Jamie! Hello, Christina!

Wednesday, October 13 AND Thursday, October 14 - Wednesday was a sad day in Severodonetsk and yet a joyous one as well! Jamie Antenucci, the wife of the wonderful adoptive couple with whom we have been sharing this adoption journey, left to return to America today. Both parents are required to stay in Severodonetsk until the court date takes place which authorizes the adoption. Once this court takes place, one of the parents can leave if he/she has signed certain papers in advance with a notary signature (which is what Steve is going to do as well). Then the remaining parent has a 10-day waiting period and, at the end of that period, the adoption is complete. As I mentioned, Jamie is 7 1/2 months pregnant and needed to return to America but also wanted to return to their 4 other children (soon to be 6 children!). Their court date was on Tuesday. Thankfully, Moises has us to keep him company and Summer and I will have him to keep us company after Steve leaves. (See photo of Jamie waving goodbye - boo hoo!!)

After our last breakfast with Jamie on Wednesday morning, we went to the orphanage for our afternoon visit with Sara. She invited us to her room where we reminisced about her stay with us last December and January by looking through her two photo albums she assembled before leaving our home. Her close friends, Ola and Olga, came into the room shortly thereafter and quickly retrieved their own hosting photo albums for us to see. We all talked and laughed because Olga, who could be a comedienne, kept us in stitches because she knows a decent amount of English and just has that knack for wording her English in such a way that you just crack up!! And then...hello, Christina! Sara's best friend entered the room with a huge smile on her face, not uncommon for her, but this time her face had a certain glow that set THIS smile apart from others. She announced that she had just Skyped with her host family (in Mississippi, Summer 2010) and that they told her they are going to start the process to adopt her. She was beaming from this news! And, get this, they are also adopting her 2 brothers and her sister AND they already have 2 biological children! Wow! Are you in awe of this family or what?!?!? This is FANTASTIC news for Sara and for us because now ALL THREE of her closest friends will be coming to America - Christina, Olga (Atlanta) and Ola (Myrtle Beach)!!! YEA!!!!! And Olga had just told us, prior to Christina's arrival, that her Atlanta family is coming to Ukraine on November 17 to start her adoption process so she should be in America by Christmas! God has blessed this special group of friends!! (See photo of - left to right - Christina, Olga, Ola and Sara - aren't they beautiful??) Once we settled down from the excitement, we all played Uno. These girls LOVE Uno! In fact, when we hosted Sara, we played Uno virtually every single day and sometimes twice a day. (See photo of Steve and Sara during Uno game followed by a close-up of my sweet Sara.) And, by the way (teaser alert), Russian is not only their language, it is also a strategy!! Let's just say there was a lot of Russian going on between these girls that was obviously about the cards in their hands as they strategized how to best "get" Steve. Sara loved to do this while in America :-). Language barrier cheating - priceless!

So...what do raw meat, pastries, army boots, deodorant and kitchen sinks have in common? We quickly found out when we three joined Sergei and Moises for a visit to "The Market," the shopping mecca of Severodonetsk. Now, when I say "mecca," don't think massive mall or street upon street of downtown boutique shopping. Think one-stop shopping for anything you might need - and get ready for the photo to prove it!! The guys had already been there and I think they wanted us to experience this spectacle of "sights, sounds and smells" with smells being first because we walked in the door and were surrounded by whole fish and raw meats of all kinds just sitting out on tables (NO refrigeration!). Just suffice it to say that Summer and I about lost our late morning breakfast thanks to the mixed smells of raw meat! And the sights didn't help either! (See photo of woman proudly displaying her cow's head - sorry, but it was too surreal not to share, and you do want to share in our FULL experience of Ukraine, right?) In this mammoth indoor section of The Market, there were rows and rows and rows of just about every kind of meat and every part of meat you could imagine. Thankfully, there were also rows of cheeses, flowers, pastries, etc. as well. (See photo of Steve and Summer.) Then Sergei led us to the outdoor section which I presumed to some tables, flea market style - but no!!! It was row after row after row of about 100+ small booths most with just enough room for the attendant to fit in with a seat. (See photo of one booth that was so cluttered with goods that you can see the customer but can barely see the attendant through the small hole in the stock of goods.) It felt like one of those outdoor mazes you pay to get in to figure out how to get out! If we wouldn't have had Sergei, we would still be there today lost in the labyrinth of booths. What an experience! And I can't decide if we should have felt like movie stars or criminals because we got LOTS and LOTS of looks and stares - or is it that we just have that American stamp on our faces?

That afternoon, we visited Sara at the orphanage. Just before we entered the building, we came upon the unofficial mascots for the school - an unnamed cat and a tiny dog, fondly named Cujo by Moises, who both hang out at the front door. When I was first told of the name Moises had given this dog, I wondered why in the world this pitiful little pup who cowers when Summer approaches him would be nicknamed after the infamous and ferocious Cujo. I got to witness why! One day a big husky man walked out of the school and this pint-sized mutt took off and snapped at the heels of this large man baring his full set of teeth and barking madly like he was...Cujo! It was actually very funny to watch this small dog become ferocious with a huge man 25 times his size! (See the photo of the meek and mild Kujo as Summer pets him and his front-door buddy - "the cat".) We visited with Sara and had some good talks with her, especially considering we didn't have Olga to translate this day. One interesting note from our talk. Steve asked Sara what career she would like to have one day and she said she wants to be a translator. I love that! At the end of our visit, Sara had to go to class (they have a class at 5:00 pm following their 2-hour afternoon break) and she asked if we would like to see it and we said yes. She went down the hall and got a key (we weren't sure why) and we walked to the room. The key opened the door so apparently our little Sara has some type of authority/responsibility at the school. We snapped a photo of her sitting at her usual desk. (See photo of Sara at her desk followed by a photo of her sitting at the teacher's desk at Steve's prompting - which she willingly did.) Shortly thereafter, the kids, most of whom we knew, started coming in so we hugged her and left. Always a little sad for us to leave her there! But there will be more hugs tomorrow :-).

Teaser for the next blog entry is...Guess who's coming to dinner? You'll find out soon and then you will know...the rest of the story...

Sunny