The last two days have been beautiful!!! The weather has been gorgeous so we have taken Lizzy outside for every visit. She loves it! Today, before Paul even got out the doors with her, she was calling "Mama!". She then hugged me and gave me about four kisses. She was very loving this morning. We found that she has her own little pee pot that she squats over to use the bathroom. It is number 11. It is then emptied into the big pot. All the kids have their own. She also has her own towel to dry her hands. We have been bringing her grape juice boxes and she drinks it all at once. She loves them. Today we started singing the ABCs to her. She likes the song and tried to sing along. She will learn it soon. Whenever we are outside with her, and her group is taking a walk outside, she struts over to them. I mean literally struts. She wants to make sure they see her with her Papa and Mama. The kids call us Lizzy Papa and Mama. Too cute. Yesterday, they all gave her kisses as they were walking away. She is Miss Popularity there :) Paul and I think that yesterday was the first time she had ever walked up and down stairs. She had no idea what to do. Paul showed her and today she did a great job walking up and down the stairs. We guess she has been guarded her whole life because she has no fear of anything. She'll run full speed ahead and trip over something and land on her nose. She has also almost fallen off the play equipment a couple of times. I think that this has been the first time for her to play on the equipment. This morning, she seemed to have a better sense of being more cautious. We have so much to teach her. They also make them eat really fast at the orphanage so she takes too big of bites and wants to keep taking bites with her mouth full. We have taught her to swallow what she has first. She now will show us when her mouth is empty to get another bite of banana. She actually called it a banana today! She also told me "Love you" when she went back today. So sweet!! One of her favorite activities is to clean things. I love it! She likes to "sweep" the playground equipment and wipe off dirty chairs with Kleenex. :) Yesterday, we had lunch with our new friends. We had a great time. We were a little embarrassed when they asked what second language was taught in the US. We said none, really. We told them you could choose a language in high school, but none was required. In Israel, they learn English, Hebrew, and Arabic. They also love how cheap everything is in America. Last time they were in New York, they stocked up on Speed Stic and New Balance because those things are so expensive in Israel. Today we met the other couple that are here from Israel. They were also very nice and of course spoke English. It has been a great experience to not only learn about Ukraine, but also Israel. They bought us fresh poppy seed cake from the market yesterday, because they said we had to try it. They had bought a few days before and loved it. It was delicious!!!! Everything is so fresh here and preservative free. Everything tastes so good! We are getting ready to go to our second visit. Bye for now.

Love,
Candace and Paul