Last night I only mentioned the thorns, of course there were some beautiful roses I was just too mentally tired to keep writing last night. The first was how proud of Derrick I was yesterday. He tried so hard to open that door help even as other children were telling him no. He made sure that boy ( actually young man he was 17 ) got some candy, offering him something to drink . The children are so funny when we play Uno no matter who was winning "PaPa" was given the "take 4 "cards and" skip"cards etc. but when they come back from lunch it is always "Papa" they brought grapes or an apple to. A camera is the best toy in the world them. After the fight we still had a half hour of "quiet "time (the children must stay inside during quiet time) so Derrick and I demonstrated Indian leg wrestling. ( trying to channel all that testosterone) There where some funny attempts. One of the ring leaders of the fight came in, asking to really wrestle (pin shoulders to the ground) Derrick and he was willing ( I would have been nervous to let a guy I just knew beat up another wrestle me) they both had some good moves before Derrick was pined . It was obvious this young man tried but did not use all this strength. ( a moment of kindness). When it was time to go, leaving took almost an hour of hugs, handshakes , pictures and more pictures. Pretending to put children our bags to take home. I told them I wanted to take them all home with me. The children asked Derrick how much his Laptop cost and we were able to tell them Derrick worked hard to buy his things and that he work really hard to earn the money to come to Ukraine. Derrick does a paper route every day( Which only pays $3.20 a day its a small route) The other half is from working hard to build the house. One of the older boy even gave Papa a hat ( they are being given new clothes for this move)
It was tender to watch Lydia cling to "Papa" During the visit I asked if she was still nervous or just excited. She says excited. Ilia wants details," Where are we stay after all the children leave? How long will court be? Where will we all stay after court etc."
I will remember the Roses.
Leaving the orphanage was so hard for me! In a way it felt like every other time I'd left it, but I knew I wasn't going to come back. I still hope to go see those kids again someday, but who knows. I wanted so badly to take them all home with me. Ukraine was beautiful and I'd love to go back and see more sights, but it's the kids I miss more than anything.
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