Our Court Date is Set!!!!!

Friday, October 15, 2010 and Saturday, October 16 - Guess who's coming to dinner? We are! Details in a moment. We started our Friday with breakfast with Moises sans Jamie. He did share with us that she arrived safely back in America without delivering her baby in the process - yea! Every day since we have arrived, we have had breakfast with either the Antenuccis and Sergei, just Moises or just Sergei. In his blog, Moises describes our daily breakfast as "Breakfast with the Jewells" and commented that this sounds like the name of a movie. I concur except our movie title would be "Breakfast with the Antenuccis" or "Breakfast with Moises and Sergei."

In the afternoon, we met Moises and Sergei in the hotel lobby so Sergei could drive all four of us to the orphanage since he was going to help Moises with some translation. As we entered the lobby, he told us the good news that our court date is now set!! We will be at the local court with Sara on Monday, October 17. Our 10-day waiting period then begins on Tuesday and, sadly for me, Steve will then be free to leave. Boo-hoo!!!! When we arrived at the orphanage, Larisa was in the hall with Sara so we all hugged and talked. Larisa addressed Sergei and then he translated that Larisa wanted to have us three at her house for dinner on Saturday and Sergei as well. We were so honored that she would ask this!! We gladly accepted! Sara and Larisa then talked back and forth and Sergei translated that Sara was asking Larisa if she could come too and that Larisa had said no since she would not be allowed to leave campus at night to come to her home. Sara was her typical determined self and, with her impish smile, she continued to try to convince Larisa to include her. Then even we could understand Larisa's final reply, "Nyet, Tonya" which is "No, Tatyana." We then went to Sara's room to have our visiting time. She asked several questions about her school in America and when she would start. I picked up a calendar and showed her the date she would likely start at Lexington High with the next week ending in the long Thanksgiving weekend followed by three weeks of school and then two weeks off for Christmas. I think all the holidays from school were comforting to her because she seemed pleased. We did our usual talking, laughing, visiting with a friend or two as they came in and out and more snapping of photos. I have taken 305 photos already! (See photos of Sara and me, then Summer and Sara and then two of Summer and Sara goofing around and already acting like sisters.) When it was time to leave, we each did our usual l-o-n-g hugs with Sara and then walked back to the hotel acknowledging and wallowing in a heartwarming purr/hum that she does as she is getting her goodbye hug each day. Just another thing that lets us know that she truly feels loved when in our arms!

On Saturday, we had breakfast with...drum roll...Moises and Sergei, our now constant companions whom we will deeply miss when they are no longer part of our daily lives! Breakfast will never be the same. Then we walked to the orphanage with Moises where we did our usual split to spend time with our respective daughters. Sara's friends again joined us as we looked through photos on my camera (these girls LOVE photographs - taking them and being in them) and just visiting and communicating in English and them mostly understanding enough words to get what we were saying. This time we were joined by Alainia, Sara's roommate, who has frequently been in class during our visiting time. She joined us three, Sara, Christina, Olga and Ola, whom I have grown so close to and will be adopted by her Myrtle Beach host family. (See photo of, left to right, Alainia, Ola & Olga.) These girls are a true joy and I completely understand why Sara doesn't want to part from them because I don't either!

We returned to our room to have a Skype call arranged by my dear friend Cynthia Pate. It was a great call during which Summer also got to talk to one of her best buddies, Mollie. It is amazing that we can talk face to face with family and friends in America when we are 5,000+ miles away! We then met Sergei in the lobby and drove to Larisa's apartment where we met her always-smiling face outside of her building. She guided us up the four flights of stairs to her fourth floor apartment (again my thighs reminded me that they much prefer elevators!). We met her husband, Genna, and her adult daughter and son, Alina and Sasha. All three of them have the same infectious smile as Larisa! We felt SO welcomed and SO at home! The house had the sweet aroma of food and Larisa invited us into her kitchen. (See photo of Larisa at the stove.) Much to my surprise and pleasure, we were having homemade borscht, the trademark "soup" of Ukraine. I had read about and heard about borscht but, in our weeks here, I had yet to taste this infamous soup. It is a cabbage-like soup with a delicious broth and there was what they called homemade "mayonnaise" (looked like hollandaise sauce) to put in the soup. In the kitchen was a huge pot in which Larisa was cooking homemade vareniks (dumplings filled with mashed potatoes) and topped with carmelized onions. Anyone hungry yet??? (See photo of Steve fake-eating an uncooked varenik.)

We then sat, we toasted our gathering (see photo of Summer toasting with her juice), we ate until truly stuffed, we laughed (see photo of Larisa & Genna laughing) and we talked with the help of our translator Sergei. We asked Larisa so many questions about Sara and learned more about her as a young child. She described her as shy but popular with the other girls, a good student with good grades and as someone who treats others with respect. She also described Sara as one of her very favorite students and said that it will be very difficult to see her go but that she also wants Sara to be a part of our family and to fulfill her dream of coming to America where Larisa knows she will have a good life. After dinner, Larisa brought her laptop to the table and showed us older and recent photos of Sara during her time at the orphanage. Then it was time to leave this special home of these special people. Sergei took one last picture of Larisa's family and our family. (See two-family photo.) I will never forget this night - because I am still full of vareniks at 2:00 pm the next day - but, more so, that I was so touched by Larisa's hospitality and her engaging and gracious family.

Teaser: You know all about Sergei...but have you seen "The Sergei?" You will see "it" on the next blog entry so look for the rest of the story...

Sunny