Saturday, June 28 in Kramatorsk

Today is the first day that we are on our own. Nothing to do except visit Dennis. How nice. After some coffee and cereal we headed for the orphanage, but decided to take a different way and explore a bit.

Here are the beautiful wild flowers I was telling you about. I don't think anyone out here owns a lawn mower, but there are wild floweres and planted flowers everywhere.

I think this is part of a school track and field playground.

Someone asked me if there were women joggers in Ukraine. Yes, there are and here is one to prove it!

This has got to be a school. We couldn't think what else it could be. Funny how the fence has a 1 1/2 foot gap at the bottom---- looks like kids could sneak out easily.

I took this picture because I thought it was good to see a man helping out around the house. Here he is beating out a big red rug.

On the way to Dennis' room, I got a sneak peak of what appears to be the orphanage kitchen. Wonderful smells of eggs and compote filled the air.

The nurses gave us a banana to feed Dennis for the third time in a row. Pour guy probably eats nothing but bananas here in the orphanage. We bought him Mango puree, Strawberry puree, rice cereal, and yogurt. They wouldn't let us feed him anything except for the food in the baby jar. They said he can't have it ------ yet the baby food had yogurt in it. Go figure. Having been through this with Anna and Sveta we thought to ourselves, "That's what you think. When he is out of here we are going to give it all to him!"


We decided to explore the orphanage and found this cool room with a big bird cage. Dennis couldn't take his eyes off of the colorful, singing birds.

Dennis is trusting us more and more each day and enjoys going on walks with us. In the beginning he was a little hesitant to go with us but he now knows that we are not strangers. We are his Mamotchka and Papithcka!

John sure knows how to tire out Dennis. Here they are taking a break.

We broke one of the biggest no-no's here at the orphanage by taking off his socks. Shhhh- don't tell nobody. Would they have preferred that we keep his socks on and let him slip and fall as he was holding on to things and walking around? Socks are slippery on wood floors. Plus, I wanted another chance to look at his cute little feet.

Towards the end of both visits, we took Dennis outside for a walk. He is very sensitive to the light and appreciated the hat that we brought for him. After a while, he fell asleep in our arms. To us, it is a sign of trust. I wouldn't want to fall asleep in the arms of someone who I didn't trust. Would you? Also, two days ago, I don't think he would have.

Today we washed a small load of clothes.

Ladies, this is the size of washing machines in Ukraine. And there are no dryers, even in more lavish apartments which ours is considered to be.

And last but not least, here I am hanging out our clothes to dry.

As I close, I wanted to share that I decided to try kefir. I mixed it with the cherry compote and it was very yummy, kind of like a yogurt drink. Thanks for the suggestion.

Again, I am so blessed by all of your comments. At the end of the day, I come over to the computer to read them and suddenly feel as if I am not so far from America. Thank you. We miss you kids and hope you are being good! Oh and Anna, it is not nice to say be quiet to an adult. I hope you told your sister that.