To Ukraine 4 Love: Day 6 of waiting period, Wednesday

Today is Vladik's class party. Because his class is younger we were not allowed to take them bowling, Yes, Vladik was very disappointed, but he did get to come with Luba's class to bowl on Monday. Instead of bowling we had a cake party for him. Tuesday night we shopped and prepared for Vladik's class party. We headed over to the orphanage this morning about 10:50 a.m. expecting to have the party at 11:00. We are not very good at the communication thing over here, but we thought we had arranged it to be at 11:00, but when we arrived, no Vladik, no class. "Outside," Luba said. We walked outside to look around, but his class was nowhere, so what do you do? You wait, and wait, and wait. We thought maybe the class would walk in the door any moment. Luba's room is on the same floor as Vladik's, so we held up in her room waiting. Lera heard we were here and came over to see us. Kristina even popped in on us. Luba's friends Maxim and Maxim, entertained us and we played cards together. Mom translated a couple of phrases on the laptop into Russian to ask Luba's caregiver about calling Vladik's caregiver to find out when they would be back, but she said she didn't know her number.

So around 1:00 pm we worked out a plan. Luba's friend had a cell phone. We exchanged numbers. Mom would call to check every now and then to see if Vladik's class was back (incoming calls are free, this way it wouldn't use up his precious minutes.) I would like to say at this point that it's unusual for a child this age to have a phone that has minutes on it, but sometimes they have someone in town, that checks on them and does what they can for them. Cell phones are really cheap here and you don't buy plans, you just buy minutes as you need them, like our pay as you go plans, and can receive incoming calls even when you don't have minutes on your phone.

We headed back to the hotel to grab a bite to eat. Called once, but he was not back yet. You have to understand also, that it was not like calling someone who speaks your language and asking "Is Vladik back?" You would get an earful of Russian that you didn't understand and be no better off, so part of the planning was Mom walking Luba through the discussion of what she would ask and how Luba should answer, either with a "da" which is yes or "neyet" which is, you guessed it, no. About 2:30 p.m. Mom felt the phone vibrate. We had not gotten a text message since we had been here, so she didn't know what to think. She could not read it because it was in Russian, but realized Luba had texted, which was not part of the plan, to get our attention for Mom to call. Isn't Luba smart? It turned out that Vladik's class was back. So we headed back over.

Yes, Vladik's class was back, but his class still takes naps. I don't think Vladik does though, at least not since we have been here. Our visiting time coincides with the nap time. All the children were in their pajamas in bed to rest. We spoke with the teacher to find out when would be a good time. She said 4 p.m. so we headed to Lera's room for an hour of play with her friends.

At 3:50 we headed back to Vladik's floor for his party. We had a great time. See the pictures below for the rest of the story. No words needed. Also note that we are not complaining about waiting until 4 p.m. for Vladik's party. We have nothing to do all day anyway. I just wanted to share with you how an 11 o'clock party became a 4 o'clock party. Thank's for hanging in there with me.