We left the apartment around 11am to meet Halyna at the Akademistacho (not spelled right, for sure!) bus stop. From there we took the Metro to Khreshatyk (another one misspelled). We walked through the subway through another line and ended up coming out at Independence Square.
First we went to an Internet Café where Halyna had some documents printed from her flash drive. Next we walked down to the post office where she had several documents copied. Our Notary appointment was at 1:00pm, so we walked to the office only to get there 20 minutes early. Unfortunately she showed up at 1:25, so we had a nice long wait where I used my newly learned Russian words on Halyna. I think out of all the words I said to her, she recognized 2 of them. Need.More.Practice. :) Halyna was pleased that they were able to get our documents done in a speedy amount of time and then we headed back down the hill to get more copies made. We were done in this area and it was time now to go to Children's Services. Before we left though, Tim had some excitement. You'll have to ask him about it. lol This meant another long trek through the Metro station and then a ride to
Zhytomyrska station. We then walked to Children's Services (probably at least a mile?).
When we got back to the Metro, Halyna headed in one direction and we headed back to Akademistacho. Once off the Metro, we got onto the 741 marshrutka (bus) headed for Petrushski. I was tired and kept nodding off, but when awake I would look at the surroundings we were riding through to see if I recognized them from our last ride through, and I did. So when we made the turn to Petrushski, I knew we would be there soon....but that wasn't the case. I was sitting on the driver's side of the bus and kept watching for Father's House and Tim was looking for the Country Club Pizza so that we would know for sure it was our stop (It was dark by this time, so it was hard to see.). We kept driving and driving and I told Tim that we should have seen our stop by then. We thought that maybe we had missed it somehow. Finally the only people left on the bus was us and a girl. The driver started yelling something and we just sat there and he kept yelling, so finally we tried to speak to him, but of course neither of us understood each other. We turned to the girl and asked if she spoke English, she said no. We finally just got off the bus and hurriedly tried to call people. The girl must have told the guy that we were Americans and couldn't understand him because he motioned us to get back on the bus while he continues to speak very loudly in Russian. By this time I had Halyna on the phone, so I gave the phone to the driver. When he finally gave it back to us, she explained that the 741 bus "sometimes" does not go by Father's House, but takes an alternate route!!! Oh my word!!! How were we ever supposed to know this!!! She talked the driver into letting us off at a little store and told us not to go anywhere and that someone would come and get us. Even though there are street lights, it is very dim. I was so thankful that Tim was with me. I cannot even imagine getting let off at some strange place in the dark if I was by myself. Thankfully about 15 minutes later we saw a tall girl with blonde hair and white boots walking toward us (it was Liliya!). We were actually let off right down the street from Father's House, but since it was so dark we didn't even know it. Thankful for cell phones and nice Russian marshrutka drivers. (I should have gotten a selfie of us poor, pathetic, lost Americans.) Those 20 Russian words I learned today didn't do me a lick of good! :)
We enjoyed a visit in Liliya's flat. This was the first time we met her "aunt". This is what they call their foster mothers. She was very sweet, but I don't think she speaks one word of English. However, there was another mother there that did. She spoke quite well and we enjoyed a conversation with her. She told us about little Nikita who is 2 years and 5 months old. Just that day he had met his new Ukrainian parents and will soon be adopted. She has had him for 10 months and said she loves him so much and it will be so hard to let him go, but she knows it is the best thing for his future. We asked Liliya to take us to Lena (a girl that will soon be adopted) so that we could meet her and take pictures for her new mama. She lived in the other building at Father's House. This building was full of activity. Liliya said about 30 children live here. We got to meet Lena and get pictures. She is such a sweetheart.
Our marshrutka ride home was without incident. Yay. We actually shouldn't have, but stopped at McDonalds for a bite to eat. When we got back to the apartment, Dave had made pumpkin pies! He shared and it was yummy! So thankful for how God is moving and answering prayer. Until tomorrow....
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