Sara Smiles ...and Cries: A Fond Farewell

Thursday, October 21 and Friday, October 22 - Thankfully, Thursday was a fairly quiet day because I have SO many photos and comments to share about our exciting and emotional Friday. Here's Thursday in a nutshell - breakfast with Moises, hotel-schooling for hours, a walk to the orphanage, helped Ola talk to her "host mother"/soon-to-be mother on Skype, visited with Sara, returned to hotel to have our first Skype with Steve since his return which lasted well over one hour and then met Moises in the hotel restaurant for dinner. I will also answer the last teaser before moving on to Friday's festivities. When your spouse has traveled over 5,000 miles to return home after you have spent 3 weeks together without interruption in a foreign country, what do you talk about for over one hour on Skype? Bills! That's right - life went on and there are actually companies who think we should still pay them even though we weren't there to use their services - the nerve!! HA!

On Friday morning, we were very excited about the day ahead! Sara had told us about a week after we arrived in Ukraine that her school was planning a big show and celebration on October 22 and that part of the show would be saying goodbye to her and to Julia (the Antenucci's child-to-be). The show would involve a puppet show, comedic monologues and skits, singing, and lots of dancing which would mean Sara would be on the stage a lot - yea! The show involved the entire 9th grade class which, at the Ukrainian orphanages, is the last year of school. (After 9th grade, these 15-year-old children must leave the orphanage and most attend trade school.) Moises, Summer and I arrived early to get upfront seats. The rest of the audience would be staff, teachers and the other children of the orphanage. The first photo I took was of these adorable little girls sitting behind me who seemed intrigued with Summer and me. They stared a lot and one even tried to talk to us until she learned we couldn't speak Russian. (See photo of 3 little girls.) I just couldn't help but wonder about how these cute and oh-so-little girls ended up here and what their futures will or won't be. My heart just went out to them!!

And then the show began (and continued throughout) with lots of Russian that Summer and I couldn't understand but we didn't care either because all we wanted was to see was Sara! After some comedic routines and a puppet show, out came Sara in that beautiful white dress that I first saw her in on Tuesday in her room. She was absolutely glowing and I captured the most beautiful photo of her as she danced a formal ballroom dance. (See my sunlit Sara looking like an angel as she gazes out the window during her first dance.) Just a minute later, I snapped another photo that ended up becoming Sara's favorite. (See photo of Sara still in the white dress in a graceful dance pose with her lovely locks of hair showing.) After this first dance, Sara danced again and again, played guitar as a trio sang and then sang in the finale during which everyone in the show stood on stage and sang an emotional song (alma mater?) about their school/orphanage that had many on stage crying - especially Sara, her friends and her teachers. (See video clip of this emotional finale at the bottom of this blog entry IF I got it to post - by my blog "preview,", it wouldn't post.)

Here are the captions of the remaining photos from the show:

a) Dance in striped shirts - Sara's closest friends (left to right) are Alainia, Olga, Christina and Ola; b) Sara in the same striped-shirt dance as she danced past me with a big smile; c) Sara wearing an elegant black dress while dancing with Nikita (being adopted by a family in Oregon) whom she has danced with for years; d) Sara speaking about her time at the school/orphanage; e) Sara playing guitar opposite one of her teachers as her friends Alainia, Christina and Nastya sing; f) Sara looking beautiful on her toes in another dance; g) Sara still looked beautiful in green as she belly danced; and, h) Sara receiving recognition and balloons from her crying dance teacher.

After the finale song, everyone began to hug and cry and cry and hug. Even Summer was crying because there were so many tears flowing around us that she came over for a hug and cried on my shoulder. It was especially hard for me to watch Sara cry because I knew it represented all the emotions attached with leaving the only family she has known since she entered this place at seven years old. All the friends and the special teachers in her life were on this stage hugging her and knowing that she will soon be leaving. Our weeks here have attached me to these special friends, teachers and mentors who have shaped Sara into who she is. I will deeply miss each and every one of them and I am not looking forward to the day that I must say goodbye to them.

As things wrapped up and crying subsided into sniffles, a huge group photo was taken on stage of all those in and involved in the show. Summer and I were greatly honored when we were asked to join the photo. We felt like part of this special family in Severodonetsk, Ukraine! Following the photo, Moises & Julia and Summer, Sara and I were asked to go to the orphanage director's office. As you will recall, when we first arrived and saw Tatyana the first time, we met with the deputy director. Now the actual director was back and wanted a final meeting with us. Poor Moises was the only man in the room as the director, deputy director, another school official and two teachers (all female) began to speak Russian to each other, to our two girls and occasionally towards us. We had no idea what was being said in our 10-minute meeting but we know the director was smiling so we assumed we should just smile back. We shared our thanks and departed. So ten Sara-dances later and after a meeting in which we have no idea what was said, we left the orphanage filled with love for our girls and feeling like we are now really getting closer to completing these adoptions!

And, because I am typing this at 11:45 pm, I have no brain cells left to come up with a teaser. I am SO sorry to disappoint you - ha! Don't forget to check out the video of the show's finale song below (again, IF it posted, if not, sorry) and witness the emotion I described above with the camera focused on Sara who also shed her share of tears.

Sunny