I brought Malvina to my apartment and had her start doing Rosetta Stone. Then we watched the Mormon Message, "A True Friend," starring Ladda, our darling friend from the ward in Kiev. Your kids will love it if you haven't already watched it. Then we spent the afternoon trying to find new clothes for her. We found some really tight jeans she liked (what a surprise) but couldn't find any Sunday dresses either of us liked. We finally got tired of looking and took an ice cream break. Eli called to say he was having fun at his aunt's.
Sunday, April 8
Since church is a 2 hour bus ride to Simferopol, and it was just going to be a re-broadcast of general conference, I decided to invite Malvina and a few of her friends to my apartment to watch some of the talks from the YW session. Only Nastia and Malvina came, but I was glad because Nastia had asked me lots of church questions the day before. Like why don't we eat seeds? I explained it's just I'm just not talented at cracking the shells with my teeth. I'm sure they were relieved that's not a part of the Word of Wisdom.
I had a Russian, "For the Strength of Youth" booklet here, so they read the Word of Wisdom and Dress Standards sections out loud. A good thing we quit there. Malvina (Allison--having a hard time getting used to calling her that) has to write her letter stating she wants to be adopted tomorrow. I hope she doesn't change her mind now. It's a pretty big deal to give up tea and coffee and Ukrainian clothing. Perhaps I overwhelmed them. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. I can see the reality of many life changes settling in and weighing on her.
We went for a long, quiet walk by the sea. There was so much we needed to discuss, but communication is a real challenge with Google Translate on a phone while you're walking.
We returned to the orphanage where Nastia, Allison and 6 others practiced singing for some kind of a performance they're giving on the 17th in Simferopol.
Then we watched a Russian movie about a dog. It was good for me to sit through both conference and a movie all in Russian. It will remind me what Malvina's going through when she looks bored to tears in a few months. I tried not to snore as I kept nodding off.
Tomorrow I'll spend the day at the notary with Vera correcting the documents we sent to Kiev last Friday. Apparently some things are wrong.
I miss Eli and can hardly wait to visit with him tomorrow night. Alex came back safely tonight but didn't share much about his visit. He was too busy texting his new girlfriend at the orphanage. Oh my.
Nastia, Julia, Nastia and Christina
No comments:
Post a Comment