Let it snow

Today it snowed. I mean it snowed a lot. Well maybe I am over exaggerating the snowing a whole lot thing. It maybe only snowed a half-inch and the walk ways were mostly clear. So really it didn't snow that much at all. But hey, it snowed. Shouldn't it be spring time already? This southern girl loves her warm weather and all of this cold stuff makes me wish I was in Florida or something. Oh that would be nice, and, back to reality. Walking in the snow today made me be even more thankful for the cars we have back home. That we can hop in and drive wherever we want in a short amount of time. We really enjoy our walk to the orphanage and it is a lot of fun to feel like a local. But, when it is freezing outside and the wind goes right through you, it would be nice to hop in a car and turn the heat to full blast.

Walking to the orphanage

We always wipe our super muddy feet off in that pile of snow outside of the house where we are staying. 

We love the food here in Ukraine. It is all different and very fried. Yum! I wish I knew how to cook Ukrainian style but since I don't, I have to get creative with the dishes I do know how to make. The grocery stores here are a lot of fun to go in a try to find ingredients that would work for different dishes. I love pasta and I have learned that Ukrainians do as well because they sell a lot of ravioli (which looks like tortellini back home), spaghetti and fettuccine noodles. So that means I am one step closer to knowing how to cook Ukrainian style right? So far I have cooked Ravioli and fried chicken. Ok I know that is only two dishes and we have been here almost two weeks but let me tell you why I have only cooked two meals. We have learned that the people here eat a small breakfast, a huge lunch and a very small dinner. So, trying to be somewhat Ukrainian, we try to eat a big lunch and small dinner everyday. Ok maybe it just happens to end up like that everyday but hey it seems like we meant to do it that way. When we first came to this city, our awesome interpreter brought us to a restaurant that was down the street a little ways from the orphanage. We loved the food, it was really cheap, and no one was ever in there. So we try to support them by eating there for lunch pretty much everyday. The workers are super sweet and they always blast us out with the English music channel whenever we come to eat. Isn't that cute? So we eat a ton of food for lunch and when it is time for dinner we are so full from lunch that we end up eating some type of sandwich. So that is my explanation of why I have only cooked two meals. :) I was so proud of them I had to take pictures to show you.

Yay for lots of carbs!

Speaking of fun things at the grocery store, I bought this can of what I thought was strawberry jelly only to find out it was:

canned strawberries. We did not have an updated can opener, just an old fashioned one that we had no idea how to use (as you can tell in the picture :) ). So my amazing husband worked really hard and got the can open only to find that it wasn't jelly at all. Oh well. 

We had a lot of fun with our little guy today. We played outside, had snack and then played inside. That is the normal morning routine so far. It was really cold today so we did not stay outside for long, which means we had to play inside longer. Playing inside for longer means we have to keep him quiet for a long period because everyone is working. Yeah...try to keep a four year old quiet for over an hour. That is no fun, for us or for him. :) So we have to get creative with a snack and juice, legos, coloring and whatever else quiet thing we can think of. When we visit him in the afternoon, everyone in the offices our visiting room connects to have left for the day. So that means we get out play dough (Yes even play dough can get loud. I bet you didn't know that it could), the ball, cars and we play around and get crazy (but not too crazy because we get looks).

This morning, we traced hands and feet. He loved that! Mom needed his shoe size and gave us the idea to trace his feet and then measure the tracing with a dollar bill. We do not have a measuring tape so we had to get creative (thanks mom!). First Ken traced his own hand to show him how to do it. Then Ken traced OLG's hand and he was hooked. He loved the feeling of the crayon touching his little fingers. It was super cute. We then traced his feet and he loved that as well. He loved tracing his own hands and feet. It was too cute! We spent about an hour tracing feet and hands. I think he is now ready for Sunday School.

He also drew papa (no hair)

and momma (that is pretty much how my hair looks here in Ukraine). Too cute!

This afternoon we couldn't go outside because of the snow so we played inside the whole time. After he eats a snack, we always pull stuff out of the backpack to play with. He loves the backpack because different things come out of it everyday. Well today he went over to the backpack and found a little flashlight that my brother had given Ken for Christmas. He was in love!! The flashlight is maybe only an inch or two long so it is not that big but he didn't care. It made light and that is all that mattered! I am not sure if he has ever seen or played with a flashlight before today. He would twist it on and off laughing his cute little laugh. He would go into the next room that had the lights off and spin around shining it on the walls and on the ceiling. We tried to show him that you can make shadows with a flashlight but he didn't really care about that. :) He loved to make the light smaller by putting it closer to the floor or wall until you couldn't see it anymore. He then discovered that tiny little batteries are inside the flashlight. So he would unscrew the flashlight take the batteries out, put them back in there, and screw the thing back together. Well there were four tiny batteries and they all had to be facing the same way so the light didn't come on most of the time when he put it back together. Papa was always able to fix it for him when that happened. He is one determined and independent little fella for sure. So we had fun with the flashlight for a majority of the afternoon. Thank you Uncle Matthew for such a useful gift!

In adoption news, our conclusion was turned into the court today. Yay! We were also told that our court appearance is at 11:00am next Thursday. We knew the date but not the time. I know you were dying to know the time!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!! You all are so sweet to us and we are thankful for you!!