Lost in Simferopol

Yesterday was the first time Joe and I ventured out on our own to the orphanage. We decided to take the bus because it's much cheaper than a taxi. The only problem is, you have to know where to get off in a city where everything looks about the same. We got out to the orphanage just fine, but on the way home, we missed our stop. We knew where we were when we did get off, but to cross the some of the streets you have to go underground and sometimes get a little disoriented when you come back up to the street. Joe decided we should just start walking in the general direction he thought we should be heading. Eventually, I called Shelby but I couldn't tell her where we were because I had no idea and couldn't read the street signs. I ended up giving my phone to some guy on the sidewalk so that Shelby could talk to him and have him tell us which way to go. It turned out that we were only a block away from where we were trying to go.

It went pretty well at the orphanage even though we didn't have anyone to interpret for us. We took Vacya upstairs to his classroom so that we could spend some time alone with him. We brought Memory to play and Vacya already knew how to play it, so we didn't have to try to explain the directions. He's really good at that game. He was telling us where to find some of the matching pictures.

When we were eating dinner at a restaurant near our apartment, we ran into a group of Americans doing a mission trip here. They had actually been at our orphanage that day and will be going out there all week. They are helping with some painting/ fixing up rooms in the morning, then play with the kids and do lessons with them in the afternoon.

Today Shelby came out to the orphanage again so we were able to talk with Vacya a little more. I guess the other kids in his class have been saying mean things to him like he isn't really going to be adopted, he'll never be able to talk to us because he doesn't speak English, and he's going to be thrown in a dumpster when he gets to America. Shelby was able to reassure him that we really are going to adopt him and he will be with us forever when we go to America.

We also asked him if he remembered anything from before he came to the orphanage. He said that he remembers his mom and that his life was good, but he didn't really talk a lot about it. We told him that it's ok if he misses his mom and that is normal and he can talk to us about it if he wants to. He was at a halfway house right after his mom died when he was 6, then went to an orphanage for younger children before he came to the one he's at now. We should be able to find out some more about his background once everything is finalized and we get translated copies of all of the documents.