Today we decided that in order to avoid the "getting tired of the close quarters" event of yesterday, we would get up (which still wasn't until almost 11) and had outside for our day as soon as we could get everyone going.
We headed to our favorite bakery first. The lady there knows us now. The kids were disappointed that there were no doughnuts today but they found other things they liked. We stopped at the nearby park first and played for a while. Then headed in the direction of downtown - thank to Liliya for showing us this! It is a long walk. We stopped for some Cokes and water, found another playground - nicer than any we have been to yet, took in the sights - especially the goats (posted on facebook!). We made our way back to the Ukrainian taco stand since the kids could not stop talking about them. We past quite a few on our way, now that we can recognize the picture, but we know the one we went to yesterday has an English speaking guy. He was happy to see us again today. The boys sat on stools by the window and watched him make our tacos today. He also explained where we needed to take Keegan's Coke cap that has a winning code on it. Keegan is hoping that he wins the soccer ball but we have to go to a market and match the code to see what his prize is. He can't wait!
After our lunch, we continued walking toward the Children's Center. We did learn that walking and eating tacos is not any easy task for any of us - but especially Keegan and Kelton. They were a mess - all over their faces, shirts and shorts. Oh well, they enjoyed it!
We had been walking around town for over 3 hours when we finally got there. I was just glad to sit on a bench for a while. Today it was Jim and Keegan and Kelton's turn to start the visit. MB, Kyle and I waited on a bench outside. They played cards, a little soccer and made things with Benderoos. Half way through the visit, the kids switched places. It was a smooth transition. K and K ran out and Kyle and MB went in. Apparently, it was not ok with the security guard - he came over yelling and Liliya said he was mad because kids were running back and forth and there needed to be some direction to what they were doing - not just running in and out. Honestly, whatever. If that is the only problem that you can find when all they did was switch places then it is really not worth my time to even acknowledge it. Can you tell that I am just getting tired of all of the nonsense rules that really, in the end don't even matter?
We brought a taxi back to our apartment and the boys played soccer for about 2 hours. Mary Beth and I walked to the market to get a few things we were out of. We all showered - again. It is really dusty and dirty here. I think the boys socks are not even coming home with us - they are so disgusting. We can barely get them clean at this point. Everyone looked like they had a dirt tan today!
Mac and Cheese for dinner and then just relaxing - reading, homework, a movie and now time for bed. Tomorrow we had planned on the beach with Liliya and Michale but now Jim and I have to do some paperwork with Kostya so our four kids are going with them without us! I have given the speech at least 4 times tonight about what I expect with their behavior. We will meet up with everyone when we go to see Ana at 3.
We did learn today that we got a Monday 9:30 court date. We are very happy about this since it is even a day sooner than we thought. But our friends got a Friday court date and we came a day ahead of them. They have also already been told that they will get the 10 day waiver. It is just so frustrating here. We have paid these people an extra $2000 to line their pockets and keep things moving and it seems like we still get taken advantage of. We have held it together pretty well over the past week and a half but this incident has really bothered both of us. I think we are ready to be done here with this process. The bribes, the connections between the director, the social worker and the judge is just more than we can handle at this point. We are enjoying our day to day adventures here but being in the middle of this corrupt, political process is more than we want to deal with or even have the energy to deal with anymore!
Hopefully, tomorrow we can get more answers about the waiver, etc. Koystia will be back in town with us tomorrow morning. Please pray that the process goes smoothly and maybe we can feel some sort of peace about all of it. Ana is getting anxious. She keeps asking us when we can all leave for America. We can't wait to get her home!
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