learning to travel by bus

Today we went up to the orphanage late morning.  The plan was to go to the outdoor and indoor malls.  Our driver took us to the orphanage to pick up Vika, Kolia and Alona.  Unfortunately, the people at the sanatorium did not let Alona go.  I was so proud of her because she did not even pout for a second.  We told her that we would be back to see her when we got back.  Vika had invited Tonya, Svieta's sister (Svieta was adopted by Shelle and Kevin in 12/10) to come with us.  Even though the people at the sanatorium did not allow us to take Alona with us, they did ask us to take this rather large lady to the bus stop.  So all 6 of us got in the car and we had the driver drop us off at the bus stop.  BTW, I finally met a not so nice person working at the sanatorium.  It turned out to be the female doctor that was in charge today.  She refused to shake my hand and she spoke to me in a not so pleasant tone.  Oh well, such is life.
So off to the outdoor mall we went.  Boy it was crowed.  We went to several places and found some tennis shoes for Kolia.  Turns out his feet are much larger than Vika gave him credit for.  After that we walked over to an indoor mall.  It is a nice big mall with an indoor skating rink.  For lunch, Letty and I got out voted so we ate at McDonalds.  Go figure.  Vika says that the food at the Ukrainian McDonald taste better than the ones in the US.  But then Vika says everything taste better in Ukraine.  We will see what she says after a couple of years in the states.  She’s a doll!!
We finally made it back to the orphanage and went over to see Alona.  We feel like Pied pipers, because we have all these kids follow us around.  It is great.  The kids are so much fun.  They are constantly doing something to keep us entertained.  Alona was in a great mood.  We visited for a couple of hours.  Then it was time to head home.  Now the real test on whether we would be able to get home by ourselves on the bus.   The kids, minus Alona, walked us to the bus stop.  Our bus just happens to be there when we arrived.  While Letty was giving the kids hugs and kisses good bye, the bus started to move.  She quickly jumped in as the door was closing.  She did make a comment to the bus drive.  Hopefully she won't get us in trouble up here.  The savings for taking the bus was significant.  It cost us 50 Hyrvnias (~ $6.00) to get to the orphanage with the driver, it cost us 3 (~38 cents) to get back by bus.  We will be taking the bus from now on if we do not have any official business.
Tomorrow we leave at 8:30 to go to where the sibling’s twin brothers are.  We will find out what we will need to get the separation papers signed.  We should also find out when our second SDA appointment for the official visit with Alona will be.  It may even be tomorrow afternoon at which point we would have to leave to Kiev from the other location.  So we will be packing a small suit case tonight just in case that is the case.

Prayer request: 1) that all go smoothly tomorrow.

But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.  Isaiah 5:16