Meeting Y&V

Well, actually today started out talking with Snezhana.  It was a good call... she called me daddy and responded with "i love you".  We talked a little about meeting Y&V and I said "America good for Y&V?" and she agreed stating it back.  I said the same about Dennis and she agreed... you could tell in her voice that she is still torn.

We ate breakfast at the complimentary place at the hotel.  It wasn't bad... the eggs were cooked sunny side up (I prefer over easy but close enough) and I could have lived without the layer of mayo on top of the sausage and cabbage salad... well, I could have lived without the cabbage too.  Then we went out and got water, pre-paid cell minutes for Snezhana, bananas, and some other things.

At 1p we went to the inspector who is probably one of the happiest people we've met in Ukraine.  In good spirits even by US standards.  She called and the director was busy so we grabbed some borscht at a local cafe and then found out she wouldn't be ready until 4p due to an inspection that is going on.  So back to the hotel.

At 4p we picked up the inspector and went to see the director.  By about 4:30p we were in and talking.  We showed the director our photo album, got the medical/school info, and then got to see the kids.  The director asked the kids if they wanted to go to America with us... now realize here you have a 5yr old and 11yr old being asked if they want to leave with people they have never met.  Frankly I would hope they'd say no... as they did.

We showed the kids our photo album of S&D and the family.  Described some of it, showed them where they would sleep depending on who came to America, and a bunch of various things.  Yuroslav did know Snezhana and Denis by their pictures... and he relaxed a bit as we went through the album.  He's still pretty nervous/shy.

In an odd turn of events, they let us spend time with Violetta but not Yuroslav.  Still don't understand that one but Violetta is in a completely different building.  Violetta took a while to get warmed up to us and then she was great.  We made gingerbread Christmas ornaments with her... she proceeded to tell us how to do it (copying Melissa) and correct the ones I made.  I think the break through came when I started putting the sticker buttons on her face instead of the gingerbread man.  After that it was a lot of fun and games... she apparently has never been thrown up in the air and been caught before.  She loved that and told us she wasn't scared and wanted to touch the ceiling.  She did get a little scared when I was running around with her on my shoulders though.  At one point she went to eat and she came back in 3minutes... she must be a fast eater and was having fun.

We split the rest of the time with her putting on the "Violetta show" where she'd announced herself into a pretend microphone and then either do ballet or her own music video... then playing "hide&seek" with daddy and Violetta pretend hiding from mommy.  We had a lot of fun though I don't think it was on the top of mommy's list of things to do.  Regardless she ended up in my lap and feeding me M&Ms by evening's end.

Friday at 11a is their holiday presentation which we were invited to.  Then we see Yuroslav at 3p... we are hoping that a ball, car, and some games will help break the ice with him... even more so a call from Snezhana.  Then we are supposed to get 30minutes with the kids together before we spend the evening with Violetta again... I still don't get why we can't spend all the time with both of them.  We weren't able to get ahold of Snezhana today as we were 2+ hrs later in our schedule than expected but she said she'd be available during the timeframes we are with Y&V on Friday.