More About our Time with the Kids!

Me with Snezhana and "S" on the sofa

So, more about our chat in the director's office ...

She seemed to be pushing Snehzna into going, but at the same time bringing up her fears - strange combination. She suggested that when she turns 18 she will be an adult and can make her own decision to come back to Ukraine. I told her we would be happy to let her write to her grandma and send photos. She didn't talk much, still crying and playing with her scarf - she only spoke when the director asked her a direct question. After a few minutes of this, the director said would stay on the 2nd floor for a few hours until lunch time, and we could come back after lunch, but that we needed to stay with a teacher and also let her know when we left and when we came back.


We were taken to the 2nd floor and into a large hallway with closed classroom doors on one side and large windows with curtains drawn on the other. Several couches lined the side with the windows and several soft benches were along the wall between the classroom doors. The teacher sat on that side and we sat on the sofas or a carpet on the stone floor.

At first Snezhana did not want to sit, but we insisted and S sat on one side of me and Snezhana on the other to help translate. Denis and Brian played with the jacket and hat for a bit. We gave Sneza the boots she had been asking me for for the past several phone calls in America. She said thank you, but didn't seem very excited about them and didn't want to try them on. She also said thank you for the new jacket, but also did not want to even try it on. She also declined the M&M's and Snicker's bar that Brian brought for her.

We bought her a pink pre-paid cell phone last night and offered it to her, but she declined. She said she didn't need one. I told her that we put 500 minutes on it so she could call me any time she wants because we are staying in Lugansk, not Lutugino. I also said she wouldn't need to borrow a phone from her friends to do this, but she still didn't take the phone.


After a few minutes of chit chat on the sofa, she told S that she would really miss Denis if he went with us, and that she might change her mind. That brought me to tears, but I think at this point she was done crying. She also said that she was scared because we had only hosted her once and now we are here to adopt her. She said that she liked America, but it was really different and she was scared. She asked S how long we would stay and he told her that was up to her - they both laughed; I'm not sure why.

After a bit, we got down on the floor and did puzzles with Denis and Brian. Denis was not able to do the polar bear puzzles because the pieces were too small and with him being far-sided he probably has a hard time seeing the slight difference in color and the small edges of the pieces in order to get them in the right spot. The teacher brought him a puzzles with larger shapes and also a classic Disney book with words written in both English and Russian. Snezhana and I looked over the book, but she didn't seem very interested in reciting the English words/phrases.



After the puzzles we played a round of UNO and then it was time for Denis to go to lunch, at 1pm. I don't remember what we did with Snezahana for the next 40 minutes, but then the teacher said it was time for her to go to lunch. She said she was not hungry, but the teacher insisted that she go and we could come back later. A boy was lurking in a doorway earlier and then in a different doorway about now, so I'm guessing he was waiting for her for lunch. She went with the teacher ...

We left and went with S to get two documents at the notary - one was for the inspector to approve our petition to adopt and send it back to the SDA and Kyiv and the other was our request for a 2nd appointment with the SDA. He dropped these off with the ladies at the inspector's office and we went and got some lunch - it was about 2:45 at this point and I was starving!


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