What a full day !

It started with a breakfast followed by the typical mouth-cleaning chew toy (ok water bottle) that he was just chillin' with in his new shorts.

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But Inna didn't want him skinning his knees crawling around her apartment so he got to sport his new pant socks too!

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But we could only explore the apartment so long before getting stir crazy so he and I decided to take a short walk to Kiev's awesome botanical gardens. Inna is really blessed with her apartment's location. Here's the main entrance.

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I walked through the gates with Dennis in my "kangaroo" pouch and headed left, where we walked through beautiful rock gardens (with cool views) over to this cool bell tower.



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The bells were being restored and these grounds are actually a working Monastery.

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We went inside and enjoyed the reverent peace.

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This is just one example of hundreds of paintings on the walls and ceilings. I was reminded of the monastery Christine and I had seen in Moscow in 2005.

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Afterwards, we headed out in the opposite direction and saw many nice flower garden arrangements like this one.

The clear object in the far distance is a building you'll see later.

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I saw it later too because I got tired. And since he'd fallen asleep anyway, I decided to see if I could nap on one of the "secret" garden benches protected by hedges.


Yep, was able to lie down (and reach into my tight jeans pocket) and not wake him up!

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After a nap, we walked far to that building which had rooms heated to different temperatures.
A tropical room, a cactus desert room, and a building called the orchideum. He got pollen all over himself from this one.

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But Christine knows why this velvet palm was MY favorite!!!
So big (and not black like mine got after a freeze) !

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I then walked back to the apartment, fed him again, and then let him chill to some music. He liked the headphones!

He's asleep now (as I should be). And we head home first thing in the morning.

Thanks for all your past comments. This shall be my last blog for a long time! But it was fun.

Trip catchup...

Inna out. Dennis sleeping for the night after another couple jars of food! And I'm not tired so here's an update...
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It all started here...
The "go straight city" on the sign below in English would be prounounced "Slovansk" and is the little town where Dennis was born, not too far from the town of the orphanage.


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Before I left, people asked me to try and capture on film his first expression of our reuniting. It was a grin even if you can't see it through the glass, which because of "normal quarantine", they said I couldn't pass through.


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This, a better quality photo, of them putting on his first Reed outfit taken a few minutes later.

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And this bittersweet picture was taken right before "final" goodbyes were exchanged. I sensed her sadness and sincerity that she will miss him but is happy for him.

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I think this one is the first taken of the 2 of us before heading to the airport right outside the orphanage. Thanks again Gerardo and Laura for the chocolates!!! They were delicious (sorry kids and Christine).

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And this is one of us on his first plane ride! He was amazing. Only "loudness" for other passengers was an occasional shrieky laugh!!!

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But enough of yesterday!
Today had a cool victory of a daytime nap:



This allowed for me to enjoy a restful lunch that Inna cooked in her apartment called "macaroni paFlotah" (or something like that) meaning, she said, "Navy macaroni"...but it was delicious salty pork and onions over pasta with sourcream. I'm not doing it justice here, but I really enjoyed it.
And this photo captured the essence of Inna too, "always busy working." But what a great job she does...

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...as this was a celebratory meal because of the below being done and in my hands!
That is Dennis's newer visa page of his new passport and the sealed Immigration packet that can only be opened in the U.S. by customs officials. His U.S. citizenship immediately would take effect and his SSN process gets started too!



A good day. Thanks for all your prayers! It's late Wed night now and we have an early Friday morning flight...

From John

Let's remind you of timeline...Sunday we drove from Tulare to Reedley to go to church.Then I drove from Tulare down to LAX to catch an 8:40pm flight.This flight landed Monday night in Munich, Germany then I took another flight that landed in Kiev near midnite Tuesday morning.

Tuesday mid day I caught a flight from Kiev to Donetsk which landed at 4pm.Driver then drove an hour and a half to Antoshka where, at a late 5:30pm, the director has me sign various paperwork but we need to catch an 8pm flight BACK to Kiev.So the Antoshka good-byes were too short and not sweet enough.I would have loved to spend more time with Camarova's group but they got a quick, "Paka Paka" instead.I would have loved to spend more time with the very gracious and excited Laura and Gerardo but they got a quick, "Thank you for the chocolates, your gift and picture is in the locked director's office" instead.

Emails I was supposed to read were not read (but Director said he has no email and for Inna to share with Lawyer and he'll get it and respond accordingly).So I genuinely am sorry for perhaps not getting as much time and photos as you'd have liked.But Dennis did love to see me. And I got pictures of him sporting his new hat and shoes and new clothes and new dad.In the car, he was great. We both enjoyed the 1970s freedom of roaming around the backseat of a moving car without seatbelts and no one caring. (sorry)

In the kangaroo pouch at the airport, he was great too. Just taking in all the sights and sounds.Inna, Dennis, and I were seats A, B, and C and he enjoyed looking out the window just a little bit.He far preferred opening and closing the tray table on the back of the seat in front of us or dropping his hat on the floor laughing as I grunted to pick it up (ad infinitum).The quick plane ride was great practice for showing me what I'll be up against for the 15hr return flights--I'll need napkins, towels, and bibs galore.

The boy loves to "drink" water from cups that crack as he bites them!!! We had a good wet time!!!It was pouring down rain with flashes of lightning and roaring thunder as we walked out of the plane and onto a bus to take us back to the terminal but he just soaked it all in with never an anxious moment.Finally in the car ride back to Inna's apartment (after 10pm) did he finally do some sleeping on me.This is when I noticed, that like you, he is a teeth grinder.I got him up the 3 floors and Inna took off to do more work, so I needed to get him into dry clothes, dry diapers etc and he is wide awake smiling as all this clothes changing is beautifully happening. Once in dry clothes, I briefly went away from him to hang up his wet outfit when, for the first time, I heard him loudly start to cry.I soon discovered that he now has about a 2 foot radius that he'll cry if I leave.Of course most of me is comprised of the manly, "who cares? let him cry". But I just can't tonight.

It really touched me that me seeming to leave him scared him that much.So he's asleep right next to me (laptop and his foot are on my lap) on the small loveseat by her internet connection as I type this to you.Here's where I've discovered something else very eerie about him.He totally sleeps, very soundly, with BOTH eyes wide open!!!I'm not kidding, I'm looking into his blue eye now and its weird how "dead" he looks among the sounds of his cute snoring.Anyway, I'm quite tired now and want to see if I can sneak over to the couch. But with those eyes still looking at me I don't think I can.We have medicals and embassy stuff to begin tomorrow Wednesday and I'm still planning on flying back out Friday.Love and miss all of you. I promise you I'll blog around this time tomorrow!!!--JR