One More Visit--We Hope!

Today at 4:00pm (Zaporozhye time) should  mark the last of our official visits to Nadia's orphanage. We are supposed to have court tomorrow morning which will make Nadia officially a part of our family. So our next trip to the orphanage after that will be to pick up our girl and "visit" with her for the rest of her life.

However, in honor of our routine, twice a day, for the last 8 days, I took photos to "show" you all.

Two times a day we get picked up by our taxi driver, Igor, who speaks some English and has been wonderful to deal with.  He had a tendency to be late in picking us up but after Jim gave him a pair of "American" jeans, he has since become quite punctual. :)

We load up into the taxi and wait for the air-conditioner to turn on.  (We pay extra for that--not kidding!)

This city gets going early every morning and there wasn't much difference in the traffic over the weekends either.  Monday was a little bit slower as it can sometimes be a day off for a lot of people.

A typical storefront that we'd pass every day on our way.

A glimpse of a possible neighborhood of houses.

But more typically the housing is apartment buildings like this one.

A beautiful tree-lined street close to the orphanage.

We're here.  There are 2 buildings and Nadia's is the 2nd one.  The one on the right houses many groups of children as well as the director's office.  Igor always drops us off here and we walk around the path, up the small hill to Nadia's building.

Here we are!  Nadia's home for the last 2 1/2years.

We walk up the two flights of steps to her room and then ...

...ring the bell to announce our arrival.

Then we wait in this little locker area for one of the workers to bring out Miss Sweetness!

We wait, keeping our eyes on the door on the left for them to bring her out when finally...Here She Is!

Because of the heat we usually opt for a stroll around the grounds first.  Today was GLORIOUSLY better, in fact, it dropped about 15degrees from yesterday.  I joked on the way to the orphanage that we'd probably have to peel a parka off of Nadia today.  Surprisingly she was just in a t-shirt, underwear, and of course her cute little hat!

Little one decides she wants to walk first so, of course, we let her.  It didn't last long and so she was back in the stroller, enjoying the breeze and the ride.

She really enjoys this metal car on one of the playgrounds so we always stop there to let her drive a bit.

We usually spend the rest of our visits taking turns holding her, reading books, walking her around, singing songs, and sharing lots of hugs.  I wonder what she's thinking in this picture.  I wish she knew that we are coming for our last visit this afternoon and that after that, she'll be a permanent part of our family.                                                       She'll know soon enough!

Prayer Request:  We know as well as anyone else who has adopted from here that things can change on a dime.  Our projected and prayerful timeline is this: Court tomorrow, back to Kiev by Friday morning, take care of U.S. Embassy stuff either Friday or Monday and then fly out Tuesday morning!  There are a few details that HAVE to happen in order for this timeline to work.  First of all, court cannot be changed, the red passport must be available, all paperwork must be finished up in Zaporozhye for us to board the train to Kiev Thurs. night, etc.  We would really appreciate your prayers that either the timeline doesn't change or that our hearts can handle any changes that delay us from getting home to Josi and the rest of our family and friends!  We have really enjoyed our time here and heave learned a lot about the culture and people of Ukraine...but we are ready to come home. 'Nuf said. :)