Another Fun Day at the Orphanage

Hey...it's me again. I've received some complaints regarding my lack of posting, so here we are! No more complaints. You do realize this will be much harder once we have Emma!

Today we had a fun visit at the orphanage. All the kids were outside so we got a chance to play with them all. It was so great to spend time with all of them. They really love it when we come out. They laugh at us when we speak english or when we try to repeat something they are teaching us. Any food we take is a huge hit. Our American friends are quite adventurous when they go to the market...they're always trying new things. If they don't like it, they just take it to the orphanage. Anything goes there! We're getting quite attached to a few of the kids there. If we could, we would certainly bring them home with us. It's going to be very sad when we leave. I keep wondering what's going to happen to them. The unfortunate thing is that most of them are older and no one wants to adopt them.

When we were in court, the orphanage director told the judge that he would have to fire three staff members because of recent adoptions. We are very blessed to have an orphanage director that would rather see children get adopted than keep employees. We have heard many stories of orphanages making adoptions very difficult because they don't want people to lose their jobs. The director straight up told the judge that there is no hope for the children who do not get adopted. He said they are well cared for while they are there, but once they leave at the age of 16, they are "labelled" as orphans and it is very difficult for them to find jobs. Many just start the cycle over again of having babies too young and putting them in orphanages. It's so sad. That's what breaks my heart when we see these kids that will not be adopted. Their future isn't looking so bright.

Our visit with Emma was good today. We actually tried to take a break from her to play with the other kids. Whenever we're with her, she expects our undivided attention....I think she's worried we might forget about her or something. Hopefully when she feels a little more secure about her position in our family she won't be so needy. The bonus is when I (Tara) play with the other kids, Emma actually likes to come and hug her mama. I think she gets a little jealous. So it's one of the rare times when mama gets some lovin! :)

Many of you in the family will remember when I took pictures of all of you to make a photo album for our new kid. We have taken it to the orphanage with us everyday. Unfortunately she has very little interest in the strange people we are showing her. When we take out the album, she skips past all the family pictures and goes straight to the pictures of our house and her room and tells us a little story in Ukrainian about papa, mama and Emma. We're quite sure she understands that will be her home. I guess she'll have to get to know you all when she meets you.

I've posted some pictures below of some signs we've seen here. I think they paid too much to whoever did the translating for them!....