Two Fun Days

We've had a good two days here and have gotten some things for Natasha to take home with her for if she starts feeling overwhelmed with English and such. We were able to find a Christian bookstore which Michelle had known of. Thankfully, we ran into Aloyna, who is Lela's interpreter, at the Internot. She came with us and helped us translate to the clerk which books we were looking for. We were hoping to find the Narnia books which are so popular now in America and they did have them. I could have been looking right at them and wouldn't have figured it out! I'm so glad that Aloyna was able to come along with us. I also asked if they had any other classics like Heidi (which was just an example I threw out there) and she said here it is! And so we purchased Heidi as well. Natasha picked out another book that had short stories in it and we found a little framed picture with Jesus standing at a door and knocking with the Revelation verse underneath. So we ended up with four hardback books(we only wanted to get The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe from the Narnia series but the lady there said the books came as a set) and a paperback and a framed picture. I braced myself for the total and was pleasantly surprised to find out that everything came to under 20 US dollars! You could never buy four hardback books for under 20 dollars in the US yet alone even one for that matter. I said if we had time later we'd come back and get some more books for her if they were that inexpensive. She can also loan them out to her Ukrainian friends in Omaha who would be able to read them. I explained to Aloyna that we are big readers in our family and not so much the kids reading books by themselves but that I always read to the children at night. Aloyna explained this to Natasha and she said that Natasha told her that she loves being read to. She just fits our family so perfectly! Each day we find out more and more about her that we are just so thankful and in awe of God for placing her with us. He has known all along how right she was for us and I pray that we will be right for her. We headed out to a Chinese restaurant down the way and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is much the same as in America except for the french fries they served with the meal! They also looked at us funny when we asked if they had fortune cookies. But at least Natasha enjoyed her sweet and sour chicken and we know that this will be something we can all enjoy together when in America.
Today we went to a sewing store where we picked out some cross stitching patterns to work on for the ride home and some that Natasha wanted to do and give as gifts. I picked out some for myself as well, ones which were Ukrainian in style so I could hang them up later in the house for her to remember her homeland. I have never cross stitched before but I am thankful I have a daughter who knows how to do so VERY well (and very fast I might add). It will be fun for us to sew together when we get home. I am just looking forward so much to all the time we will spend together doing things. She says she also likes to cook which all our children enjoy(especially the boys because they like to lick the spoons!) So we will all have things to do together. Natasha has even said that she loves to play Gameboy and has done so everytime she has been to Lela's with us. I know her brothers will be MORE than happy to show her a few moves on the PlayStation when she gets home!
Tomorrow, we will go to the famous indoor Aqua Park. We will first need to go out and find a suit for Papa. Hopefully we will be able to find something here even with it being Winter now. The girls are very excited about this but not as excited as we are because Viktor has told us that Natasha will be able to spend the whole weekend with us and she can even stay Sunday evening! So we will be able to have her on Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day and not have to worry about bringing her back to the Internot at 5. We also are going to have her going away party for her class on Saturday afternoon. This will be a fun occasion for her since she will be picking out all the treats she will have for her party and just having a grand time with her friends. We will get lots of pictures for her as well, to put in her memory book to have when she is in America.
We are all holding up well and are glad that we can say that will be home in less than two weeks. And I know next week (Monday) when Galina returns things will really speed up for us in getting the rest of our documents and passport things done for Natasha. And then before we know it, it will be less than a week before we will be home and it will be like counting down the days before Christmas! Miranda has e-mailed that the boys are excited that we are staying on longer because then they will get to celebrate Christmas twice!(go figure) I told them it would be fun to celebrate our family Christmas on the 7th of January when the Ukrainians do and since it falls on a Saturday it will be just as exciting getting up early to see if there have been presents left under the tree.

Pictures are of Natasha and Ariana and Viktor and Aloyna when we were at the Chinese restaurant. And of us today at the Greek Mall in a cafeteria in the basement. It had tons of wonderful oil paintings all around and this is a picture of one of the paintings which was hanging in the dining area.