Odessa Orphanage day 1

The picture of Olga and Era (like Vera without the V) is posted on flicker. More tomorrow, we didn't want to overwhelm them.

Crazy but good day. We left at 5am to leave for Odessa. It takes 6 hrs to drive there, it was a nice paved highway and we had a chance to see the countryside ( we have pictures on our other camera, but the battery ran out and we forgot the charger). We got to experience the "European toilets" or holes in the ground on the highway.

We arrived at the regions inspectors office around 11:30 and without adding all the drama, we finished up around 2:30 and got to meet the children at 3.

The orphanage is very nice and the Dir was great. The children were sleeping when we got there, so she had to wake them up and tell them why we were there. It was so cute they were running back and fourth to the bathroom getting dressed and fixing their hair, their friends said "the Americans are here". Before they came to meet us they were whispering with their friends looking at us.

Olga came out first and sat next to me and Era next to her, they were so scared and of course terrified of Stephen only being around women.

Once they got their Barbie's things got better. They are learning English in school but they were so nervous they couldn't talk in English, they said tomorrow they will ask us questions. They wanted to know where we live.

We got the basics out of them, foods they like, they swim in the Ocean, they want to see pictures of Zac (our dog) and they want to show us their swings/playground area tomorrow.

Olga appears to be the outgoing one and Era was very shy, though they were giggly girls and visually very close to each other.

As with Anastasyia, its difficult not to fall for these kids. Since we got there so late the Dir said she will go over their file with us tomorrow. Being its a Ukraine holiday tomorrow (we figured we would hit at least one of them) its nice of the Dir to meet with us tomorrow.

At first they gave me a hug good-bye and wouldn't look at Stephen. Then ran around the back to see us leave and for another hug. This time they looked at Stephen so he stuck out his hand to shake their hand, they shaked his hand and giggled. It was so cute.

More tomorrow!