Learning Russian the fun way

Hi Everyone,

So we don't speak more than 10 words of Russian, and yet when you know you know you know.  We meet with the boys today and got a chance to play with them.  We had a lot of fun and the boys even started to warm up to us.  So the facilitator and the psychologist were there, and they were talking on and off, and after about an hour half I figure out they are asking the boys some more serious questions.  To which it was clear the boys were saying nyet.  Also a lot of babooshka(grandmother) was flying around.  At that point I figured out they were asking if they would like to come with us and they answered no they want to stay with their grandmother.  It is actually more complicated than that, we learned that there is also a grandfather in the picture, and possibly a biological father.  It seems in the Ukraine the mother is allowed to put anyone they want as the father on the birth certificate.  And supposedly according to the grandmother when she found out we were coming somehow she pulled out the real father and even though he is not interested in adopting or really coming around he is somewhat in the picture.  Also I guess the grandmother is an angry lady who enjoys a good scream once in a while, so the orphanage director is a little resistant to cause any sort of conflict with her.  

With all that, the search for our sons continue.  In a lot of ways it is good we did not host Vlad because more likely than not he would have come back and his grandmother would have told him not to leave, also Dima was very much against leaving so we would have had to somehow convince him.  We head back to Kiev tomorrow.  When we arrive some paperwork will get filled with the SDA and we basically repeat this process all over again.  We should have our new appointment with the SDA Monday or Tuesday of next week and with an insane amount of luck as soon as this Thursday.

Also we did have some fun today since we went to probably the coolest playground ever, check out our website for the pics and video (uploaded in a day or two).

We know God has a great plan for our family and we have complete faith in Him.  His path may not always be the easiest but it is the greatest.

Love,

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