Orphanage Preparations

Ok, so the Anya situation had me pretty down. So what's a depressed girl  (who doesn't drink) to do? Go shopping, of course.

After spending the early afternoon at Svetlana's doing prep work for our upcoming meeting about the hosting program, I came home and got Nastia and we headed to the 'mall.' ( Please know I use the word 'mall' very loosely. And please know that everytime I say it and think of where I am actually headed, I laugh, and loudly.)

So, we went to the 'Ya Centre' as it is called. We bought a dozen pairs of boots, a dozen mini soccer balls, a few pairs of jeans, many gloves and hats, over a dozen cars and other items for the boys, Christmas decorations, candy, notebooks, legos for the little ones, and then we hobbled outside to get a taxi. We NEVER take taxis here, to save money. But with this many bags, we could barely make it out the door, nevermind the block we'd have to walk to the bus stop.

Here are some photos of our plunder...

This isn't everything, but I was too tired to take anything else out of the bags. I just took some things out for these photos. By the way, you should have seen the slow, complicated attempt at getting all of this up our eight flights of stairs in one trip. We really deserve a trophy for that.

So, tomorrow Svetlana and I hopefully meet with the higher-ups (and even the highest-up) at the local DOE. Then final last minute shopping and packing for the orphanage. Tuesday we head back to the orphanage at the crack of dawn. I cannot wait to be with the kids again. When I tell you these are wonderful kids, I really mean it. They are so fun to be with, and I will never stop doing all I can to make their lives a little better.  Forever families would be nice, of course, but barring that, just brightening their days is worth all the effort I can muster.

Thanks for making it possible for me to help them so much. I couldn't do it without your help. And that's the truth.