Baby Steps

It's a good day when the computer instructions are in English. Today, they are all in Russian. Someone more savy than me could probably switch them but I can not. So please forgive us if something doesn't make sense, we are doing our best.

Coy got to listen to Caleb and Katie's voice on the phone the other day. We called home during one of our visits. He plays with the caregivers' phones a lot but I doubt that he had ever talked on one before. When voices came out of it, he was surprised. He didn't know how to hold it or what to do with it. He eventually uttered some words to Caleb and Katie. We show him their pictures during every visit in hopes that he will recognize them when he meets them. We are still trying to enjoy our last days here as the homesickness gets worse and worse. We received new pictures of Caleb and Katie via e-mail today and we both teared up immediately. We are thinking that we will need buckets and mops at the airport. At least one for each of us.

We have had some success in the van lately. Not only did he get in the van, but Victor drove us around the building 2 times without much response. His eyes were as wide as could be the whole time though. We have toys, books, videos, and snacks for the drive. Please pray for us. It appears that we will try to leave Donetsk in the afternoon on Thursday if everything goes OK. This will mean that we will do the majority of the traveling before it is time to go to sleep.

We will go to the US Embassy in Kyiv on Friday if everything continues to go well. They say that they try to get paperwork done on the same day but that they can not guarentee it. We will also need to complete a medical visit on Friday before we go to the embassy. We went ahead and changed our flights to Saturday, May 5, just in case we get all of the paperwork done in time. If not, we will probably have to change them to at least Tuesday since the flight out of town leaves at 11:50 AM.

Our trip to the circus was nice. They had acrobats, magicians, clowns, and some animal acts. They also had a water show. We took some pictures but it was after our last trip to Circuit City. They did this thing where they would strap little kids into a harness that was connected to a pulley at the top of the arena and they would lift these little kids 40-50 feet into the air and bounce them up and down. Stacey and I both just sat there and laughed at how few of people we know would have let their children do something like that. The circus show was very impressive and we had a good time but some of the costumes and dances made us think more about Las Vegas than Moscow. Stacey was too afraid to hold the alligator on the way inside (real alligator available for photos) and she said that she could get her picture taken with a monkey anytime as long as I was around so she passed on that one too. (Stacey wants me to tell everyone that she didn't say that but I think I saw her think it once.)

We did some souvenir shopping around Donetsk on Saturday. This is the shop where they sell stuff for their Football team. They are called "The Miners" and seem to be quite popular. Sveta recommended that we not wear anything with the Donetsk Miners logo on it while we are in Kyiv. She said it could be dangerous for us to do so. Unfortunately, the prices for jerseys (even kid's jerseys) were just as expensive, if not more expensive, as they are in the US.

You can almost make out the cross walk in this photo. Stacey and I have determined that it doesn't necessarily mean that it is a safe place to cross but instead it gives the police a starting point to look for you if you get hit. I don't think the drivers would stop. I am not even convinced that they would slow down. Victor is funny because he will take off walking across the street while the rest of us are still standing on the curb looking and waiting and looking and waiting.

We walked around a park on Friday and saw many more wedding parties. There should not be a population problem in Donetsk any time soon. Wedding parties are all over town on Fridays and Saturdays taking pictures. I would imagine that she was wondering why this strange looking guy was taking her picture. She was the closest one to us is the only response that I have to that.

The Ukraine version of Dancing With the Stars seems to be a big hit. They are blaring the music from the speakers of the internet cafe as we type.

We are not sure how many more times we will be able to post before we get back home. Because of the holidays and our schedules, we are not sure when we will be able to get to somewhere that has internet access again. We will try to let folks know what is going on as soon as we can.