We were blessed with Olga (the gal that helped us make arrangements for this apartment) and her friend Victoria giving us a tour of the city. They are super sweet and Victoria teaches English at the college here in town so she was thrilled to be able to practice her english and we were thrilled with adorable local hostesses to spend the day with, show us around and teach us some more Russian.
They picked us up at 2pm and we didn't return until about 8pm (our apologies to the kids for not making it home at 6 to Skype with them). They showed us the main sites in town and all the places that would be great photos for Dairya's book about her hometown. We took the ladies and their husbands out for dinner to show our appreciation. All 6 of us ate dinner for $35! Seriously! We ate borscht, salad and vareniki (stuffed dumplings). Oh, and I was lucky enough to be able to try out a squat toilet at the restaurant! Let me tell you Jason and I were stuffed dumplings after the meal, we could barely waddle back to the trolley bus.
Victoria is also going to give us her recipes for these dishes so we can make them at home. Aidan had the great idea that on the anniversary of Dariya's gotcha day each year we should make food from her country. Now we will have authentic recipes to use.
We are so excited to meet Dariya tomorrow. Ludamila, our parent liason is coming to our city to take us to the orphanage and get the paperwork started to file for a court date. Please keep praying that our court date happens quickly and there is no hold up of the paperwork. While we love the culture, food and people here we miss being home too.
Here are a few of the things we saw today...
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| Victoria & Sasha |
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| Olga & Victoria with their husbands |
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| Former building of the Slovyanskyi Hotel, now a bank |
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| City Philharmonic |
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| One of the many local churches |
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| Seaside houses on the river that runs through the middle of the country |
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| Children's park |
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| Lock tree-bride and grooms come hang a lock on the tree on their wedding day |
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| Enjoying our cultural meal and experience |
6 comments:
how fun that you got a tour of the city! what a great connection to have! I hope you can get some sleep tonight! Isn't tomorrow the BIG day?!!! Can't wait to see those pictures!!!
Man, we didn't see a lot of those places! But I also have to remember that I was having a really rough time. Jax had stopped breathing and was ambulanced to the hospital. And I was so worried about him that I just wanted to get home! I can't wait for pics of you with her in the cute little office!
What a beautiful city! But you know what, it's not as beautiful as what we are going to see TOMORROW!!! Oh sweet friend, my heart just fills up with tears of happiness when I think about you meeting Dariya tomorrow....I know God is going to be all around you and Jason and Dariya and the smile on His face....Heaven will be cheering, and so will all of us!!!! Love you and I can't wait!
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!
When I'm stuck with a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!
So close you your girl!You are almost there!SOOO excited.
Just catching up here while I think of something clever to say for our day's blog post. LOL But what a beautiful city! Our city isn't quite so picturesque. Very industrial. In fact, I just said to Pat today that I haven't seen a single house here. ALL apts! Maybe there were houses when we came in from the train station, but none around here. Must have been a very strong Soviet presence here. In fact, one apt even has the hammer and sickle in bricks on the top of it. Ok, I'll post about our sites around town. Thanks for the inspiration! LOL Can you tell I'm rambling? :-)
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