Relaxing Day

A relaxing day....finally!! Today, Ryan and I were able to spend 3 hours at the orphanage with our sweet girl. We spent a lot of time looking through pictures. Our google translate is only working from English to Russian, not Russian to English which is pretty frustrating. We were able to communicate pretty well despite google translate not working. 

A showed us around the grounds of her orphanage, and we talked about picking a middle name for her. Tomorrow we will go back for another 3 hours or so. Ryan and I found a DVD store this afternoon, and bought Harry Potter and Kung Fu Panda in Russian, so we plan to take that tomorrow, along with checkers:)

 Tattered rug in the entry way to the school at the orphanage

 Outside of the school

 The "TV Room" at the orphanage

 Orphanage grounds

Building being renovated near the school

 Dining Hall

 Walking with my girl

A's sweet friend joined us at the end of our visit. L has a forever family coming for her soon as well....praise the Lord!!

After our visit to the orphanage, Ryan and I explored our neighborhood. We really love this town. If it weren't SOOOO far away from home, we would love to visit here often! We took a lot of random pictures, and had the best dinner at a place called Bordo. We ordered way too much food, and as we have learned in Ukraine, they don't really "do" to go boxes, so we had to leave half of our pizza. After dinner, we went to Ciao for dessert, the place we ate at last night. 

 One of the nicest playgrounds we've seen in Ukraine!

"Coffeeman" truck parked near the nice playground

 My girls would have LOVED these balloon flowers and bees:)

We stumbled upon a Circus! I tried to get Ryan to go in with me, but he refused :(

 Pretty wooden doors

 Park right across the street from our apartment

 Underground flea market

 Above ground flea market

View from dinner

Part of our feast...a cheese plate (yay!!), grilled veggies, and the best pasta we have ever eaten...seriously! By the way, the pasta cost a whopping 32 gryvna ($4 USD!!)

 Chicken Diablo Pizza

Our left overs...notice the seeds on Ryan's plate from the serrano peppers on his pizza. They don't mess around with the Diablo Pizza here!

 Woman playing a violin, carved out of a tree

Two flutes at one time...impressive:)

 Pretty wrought iron fence

Beautiful church down the street from our apartment

 Doors to the church

Huge pot hole...we thought it was neat that you could see the original cobblestone underneath the pavement

 Enjoying my dessert!

Ryan's dessert...chocolate cherry ice cream ($2!!)

We are looking forward to another relaxing day with our girl tomorrow before getting back into the grind on Monday!

Ryan's daily bible verse for today was John 15:16, " You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you". What a great reminder for us as we are here, working hard to adopt the child He chose for us, long before we ever knew or dreamed of her!