Dearest Dema,
Another awesome day today! When we woke, it was clear with a beautiful blue sky. We realized that just down the street from us is the sea (we had not seen it before because of the smog!) It is a holiday here because of Easter yesterday. meaning no school, so we were able to take you again from 11 to 2 pm. Not nearly long enough, but I guess better than nothing!
When we got to the orphanage, I was dismayed to see you limping pretty bad. The orphanage doctor had told us when we met with her that you had broken your foot twice, but I somehow lost something in the translation and thought this was in the distant past. However, upon talking this morning, we found out that it was just in February playing soccer. You hit a goal post with your foot and fractured several metatarsal bones. They didn’t heal right and had to be reset - hence the twice broken that we heard. Apparently you were playing this morning and re-injured the foot. I hope it is nothing serious but I will be taking you to a sports medicine doctor to get it looked at - and we have plenty of experience with sports medicine doctors - believe you me!
Looking online this morning, G3 found 1 geocache in Mariupol - it had been placed several years ago and had only been found once. So, we decided to take the GPS and introduce you to geocaching, since it is one of our favorite pastimes. It was a fun multi-stage cache that walked us all around a pretty park in the middle of Mariupol. Sasha had never been geocaching either, so it was a great introduction for both of you!
We started out, then had dead batteries in the GPS - Ack! But there was a convenient store close by that had batteries, so after a short detour, we were back on track. The cache took us by a mosque, a church, and pretty grove of birch trees, until we found the cache beside the path under a pile of rocks. It was a great cache, with a small log book and some Ukrainian stickers. We left 2 American dollar bills figuring that is pretty unusual in a cache here. Sasha and you seemed to have a really good time.
This took about an hour. Then you told Sasha that you wanted an outfit to wear to a soccer game on Wednesday night. I couldn’t figure out if it was to wear during playing a game or to go to a game, but you were pretty sure of what you wanted - so off we went to a store. It turned out that you wanted an athletic suit (Adidas) so we found a nice one that was black and yellow. I am secretly thrilled because in your suitcase that we brought over here, you will find a pair of black Adidas sweat pants that I know now you will like (I was unsure when I got them if you would like them.) And I picked the size right! Woo-hoo!
We only had about a half-hour left at that point so you had asked for McDonalds - yuck! I should never say never because it always gets you - and this instant is no different. Whenever I read other people’s adoption blogs and saw that they went to McDonalds - I always sneered and said never me - I mean we don’t go to them in America, primarily because we can’t eat anything there, but also because they represent the very things that are wrong with our food supply in America - hormones and pink slime in beef, high fat, high salt, high sugar, etc..... So why would I ever go to one here? Well, obviously because we love you! We watched you snarf down a cheeseburger and fries with a smile on your face. However, we instructed Sasha to tell you - savor a last taste because no more.
Dima finding his first geocache
Too soon, it was time to take you back. Parting gets harder each time we drop you off. Before we said good-bye, Sasha talked to you for a while and mentioned documents. I asked him afterwards as we were walking away what it was about and he said that you had asked if everything was okay and was just checking we still wanted you and hadn’t changed our minds. I wish there was a way to make you understand that absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, could change our minds. Even if they stopped the adoption, we would still be part of your life. There is no way that you can get rid of us. You are one of us now and all that that entails, good and bad! Hopefully more good than bad! We will love and cherish you forever. You are adding to the circle around you, with 4 people that really feel blessed to be able to call you ours! I know that this concept is hard for you to understand, but hopefully through time and many demonstrations, you will learn this.
Hugs and Kisses,
Bethany, G3, and G4, and Amanda
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