Happenings in "Big Novo"

Jason is doing good, just of course trying to get adjusted to the time change, which hopefully will be before it is time to come back :) When I was talking to him a little while ago, he was at the cafe downstairs in the hotel and had ordered soup and let's just say I cannot relay his explanation of what he said it looked like the meat was :) He just started dying laughing when he looked at it. He was eating dinner at 10:15 p.m. Ukraine time. I just didnt have the heart to tell him what I have eaten today! He said that he and Sergey have been running non stop from one place to the other and sometimes sprinting to the doors of the building before they close. The great news is that he has been able to visit the kids yesterday and today. I will share about that in a minute, but first want to share with you about Anna's name. Well, she has always been called Inna (Pronounced ee-na) and we decided to talk to her again about her name and make sure of what she wanted us to call her and she made the decision to stay with Inna, so if that's what she wants, that's what we want too :) Of course, there is not even a second thought for us....INNA it is! We'll let ya know if any of the rest of us have name changes too (Haha!)
Now on to Jason's visits with the kids:
Yesterday, he was able to make quick visits to both orphanages in between running to and fro for paperwork. He peeked his head into Inna's school room at her orphanage and she grabbed her new teacher and pointed to Jason and excitedly said, "Faza" (Father) and she ran to him and gave him a big hug. He said that she was so excited to see him. Then he said she went back into the classroom and brought him a little notebook that she wrote "Mother" on the outside and on the inside had her ABC's written in Ukrainian and then English (Impressive) and then it had written, "Your's Inna". She was sad when Jason left, but he told her that tomorrow she gets to go on a car ride to get passport pictures and that he would be back.

Then, he went to Vitali's orphanage and he said Vitali smiled when he saw him and kept pointing to the playground. I guess he remembers us as those fun people that take him to the playground and give him snacks.

Today, Jason and Sergey took Inna and Vitali on a car ride to the main city in Zhytomyr to get their passport pics. This is a huge deal for Vitali considering that he has never been in a car since birth from what we understand, just when he was transferred from the hospital to the orphanage. Wow...can you imagine what that must feel like to be out for the first time! Ok, so to the Farrington's and Hoods, I packed the Dramamine for him and remembering the phone conversation with you, Jerry while one of your's was losing lunch on the way back to Donetsk...we were prepared! He willingly got in the car and Jason said he just took in every site and got really excited when a bus would pull up next to them or when he was see a bird. Jason asked him (through his caregiver who also came along on the ride...Yea!) if he wanted to go on an airplane and he did. Of course, she told Jason that the car is as good as going on an airplane to him since he has never been in one. There was no car sickness today...Woohoo! Inna was very excited about her road trip too. Jason and Inna called me on the phone to let me talk to her and we did the best we could with the language barrier. I said what I knew in Ukrainian and she said what she did in English. It was good to get to talk to her. She wanted to talk to Grant too, but he was at school. Jason and I were talking on the phone afterwards and I could just hear her laughing and laughing...I asked Jason what was funny and he said she is just that excited. They even got to stop and get something to eat, but all I heard that was eaten was buckwheat..yum! He said that Vitali was pretty hyper during this time, but we both said that we think if we were out in public for the first time at 4 yrs old, we would be making an even bigger scene!!!! Jason through Sergey explained the plan over the next week or 2 to Inna and told her that once she left the orphanage with them, before they went home to America, they would have to spend a few days in Kiev (applying for Visa's, etc..) and then could GO HOME!! She told them that she didnt want to go to Kiev, just was ready to go home to America. Jason's next step is that he and Sergey are going to be going to the Zhytomyr Region tomorrow to get authentication of some paperwork and to wait on the Passports to get ready. We have heard that the passport wait can take up to 7 days, but we are praying for less.

We will try to update the blog daily while Jason is there if time allows.
Until next time....
Mel