Oh the great circle of life.......
Elizabeth is already testing to see how far she can go. Today we were at our second visit and she decided she was going to literally run all over the orphanage. For those of you have never been (everybody) there is no running in an orphanage. Paul had to keep chasing her and then she thought it was a game. We finally had to say "Nyet" (no) very firmly. She then started to well up those big brown eyes. I hope she learns quickly that will not work on us. Another time I told her no, she laughed. She kept climbing up and down off of my wheelchair (aka the stroller here). I tried to help her so she wouldn't fall and she pushed my hand away. She wants zero help. Then she was playing tea party and decided she would let Mama have some tea (pretend of course) and throw the rest on Papa. When someone told her in Russian to be nice to Papa and give him some tea nicely, she smiled and continued to pretend to throw the tea on Paul. Oy vey! This one is going to be a handful. Also, she is too smart to try and fool. Someone gave her three pieces of candy and she immediately stuck two in her mouth and tried to eat the third one at the same time. Paul took it from her and stuck it (very inconspicuously) under his leg. She got annoyed and started looking around for it. After she realized it was not in his pocket, she knew it was under his leg. She also loves my glasses and called them glasses today instead of the Russian word for glasses. We were surprised that she remembered from the previous time we told her. We also found out that she loves to have decorative ponytail holders in her hair. Today she had four ponytails in her hair. We thought the people at the orphanage fixed it like that, but they said she likes it that way. So today she was trying to pull my hair into ponytails, but we didn't have any holders. We have our work cut out for us :) Our paperwork is done and now we just have to wait for our court date. We may know our date as early as Monday, but probably not. It may be next week or the week after. We'll see. The apartment we are staying in belongs to a lady that works in the orphanage. She is living with her daughter while we stay here. It has one bedroom, a living room, bathroom, and kitchen. Elizabeth used to be in her group at the orphanage when she was younger. The lady adores her and is so excited she is being adopted. Actually, Elizabeth is quite popular at the orphanage and everyone has been so nice and excited for us. The Director immediately said that Elizabeth would come down to the ground floor for our twice a day visits bc of course it is not accessible. Everyone has been great here. Paul and I made homemade soup for dinner tonight. It was delicious! It snowed again today, but not too bad. It has really been a great experience here. Going to the market is quite the experience. They are very small and people just run right over you. Paul and I picked up what we thought was instant oatmeal. We asked our facilitator what it was and he said baby food. Ooops. Luckily he told us before we bought it. It is a very humbling experience to go to a country where you do not speak their language or understand their culture. I am not sure we could ever learn Russian. I feel for those people that come to our country and do not know our language. You can't learn by osmosis. You either have to go to school to learn (lots of money) or find someone to teach you. That would be hard if you didn't really know people. Anyway, this experience sure has helped us both to grow as people. I know our appreciation of the simple things in life has grown. The orphanage has no locks and the door is always open. Paul and I pondered this a while and decided Ukrainians have to much pride and respect to steal from an orphanage. Quite the opposite of America. Ukrainians take so much pride in the food they make, the restaurants they own, their homes, etc. Even the most minute things here are made/done with pride. We could learn a lot here.

Love,
Candace and Paul