Is there a DOCTOR in the house??

February 19- Thursday
A2 woke up and came and cuddled with us in our bed. Then A1 and K did the same thing. Seven in a bed and the little one said “roll over, roll over…”
A2 wasn’t feeling well. She indicated last night that her ear hurt. She got dressed this morning, folded and put her bed away (she is our little organizer) and then laid down on the couch, lethargic and not hungry. Great! In a far country, stuck in a hotel with a sick child. Luckily, we were going to the orphanage to see the director. We called our facilitator so he could call the director and give her a heads up.
We wanted to take flowers and candy to the director and Luba, so, Keith left a little before me, took K, bought those items and rode the bus to the orphanage. I finished getting the rest of the girls ready and myself and then braved a taxi—my first by myself.
I walked out of the hotel and walked up to a taxi. He rolled down the window and I thrust the paper with the address of the orphanage into his face. He said something, A1 tried to translate, I had a blank look on my face, so he wrote down the number: 20 grivna. More than I want to pay (usually it costs around 10 grivna to get anywhere around here) but if I don’t take it I’ll have to call our facilitator and have him call me a taxi. Then I’ll have to start all over. I’m really glad I did take it. He was very helpful. He got out and helped us all in. He helped unbury R when everyone was piled on her and chatted with the girls all the way to the orphanage. I think he asked why we were going to the orphanage, “to visit Oksana.” “Did you live there?” “yes, but we are going to America.” What is your name” “she’s R, she’s N and I’m A1, Baby brother is Elijah.” “Are there more?” “yes, K is with Papa.” I reminded them about Caleb, Jonas, and Miriam. She added those three. Shaking his head, “Wow, that is a lot of kids” (or some other expression of disbelief). Sometimes it is fun to shock people. He then helped everyone out of the taxi at the orphanage, lifting Elijah and R out. I handed him the 20, said “Spaceeba,” and went into the orphanage. By that time all the girls were long gone, running to see their friends.
I didn’t know what to do. Do I wait at the couch by the front door for Keith as we agreed? Do I go to find the girls? I finally decided to wait because the girls would be fine and Keith would wonder where I was if I didn’t wait. I had three ladies (that I didn’t know but had seen before) ask about K. So, I think the other girls told them what was happening.
After they came we went to see Oksana. She was copying pictures off her computer to a disc for us of the girls’ stay at the orphanage. She will copy more if we can come back tomorrow to pick them up. Wow, more than we could hope for.
Call our facilitator, he explains how A2 is sick. The director says everyone else will stay with their group while Papa and A2 go to the orphanage doctor. After a few minutes he comes back. Apparently they are taking her to the hospital because they can’t see in her ears very well. (I think hospitals are like glorified doctor’s offices, like in Japan) Only she and the nurse are going. We have an hour and a half until they come back. It is ok if everyone stays with the group. Wow, Heavenly Father knew how to plan that one. We were wondering how we could get to the reenick and buy a suitcase (and see if they had the rest of our native clothes) without taking all the girls or leaving I and the girls to wait in the snow. So, Keith went off to the reenick. It only took him a half an hour and he came back with perfect suitcase. He is mastering the reenick.
The doctor and A2 came back and we had a list of 5 different medicines to buy for her. The doctor would walk with Keith to the apteka (drug store). I decided to take the opportunity to go with Elijah to Luba’s and get a picture of him with her.
We walked all that way (and only had to chase 10 birds) and he wouldn’t let her hold him so I could take a picture. I begged and pleaded, she gave him candy but he still wouldn’t do it. That was ok with her. She wasn’t really ready for the day (she was cleaning and reorganizing her house), hadn’t combed her hair or put her make-up on. She said if we emailed her she would send us some pictures of her in the orphanage. On the way back, there weren’t very many cooperative birds so we had to walk on all the curbs to the orphanage (even if they didn’t go where I needed them to).
Back at the orphanage Keith got all the dosing information and medicines and it is time to go back to the hotel.
But first, Julia and the Cox’s come to see how we are doing. They still haven’t heard anything in the last week. The judge is going through cases in some order and can’t even tell them when he will get to theirs. I don’t know if I would handle that with as much patience as they do. In fact, I feel bad for being jealous of the Epperlys who got to go home today. We have been “doing” things the same time since we got here. We got here the same day, had our SDA appointment the same day, had our court the same day. The only difference is they went to a place where they still do the old-style red-covered passports and can get them done in one day. Ours take a week. Ahhh, why can’t we go home the same time?!?! But then Cox’s have been here for 2+ months and still don’t have any idea when they are going home.
At home there were many requests to go outside, all by A2. “No, we aren’t falling for that one, you are sick.”
Keith tried to work, took him a while to get the computer on as the fan is going out. Fan error, fan error. If you all don’t hear from us for a while don’t worry. It is just that we lost the computer. It won’t be anything as exciting as we were kidnapped by Rebels, or got caught up in a riot and were thrown in prison or anything like that. It will just be a technical glitch.
Our facilitator called and said that the passports were mailed from Kyiv but didn’t catch the early mail to get here today so they would get here tomorrow by 10:00. And with that we lose our chance of getting home the first of next week. If passports would have come in today we could have exchanged our train tickets and get to Kyiv by tomorrow and possibly get Embassy stuff at least started tomorrow and we could definitely be out of here by Tuesday and the VERY latest. We didn’t tell anyone about that because we didn’t know for sure. So we stick with the original plan: get passports tomorrow, go to Kyiv on a train that gets us there on Sunday night late. Start Embassy stuff Monday morning, first thing. And hopefully be out of here on Thursday at the latest. If it ends up being later than that it will have to be our original Saturday flight as it would cost too much to change our tickets for only a day or two. ($250/ ticket). Before that it is kind of a wash with the cost of living in Kyiv. If any of that make sense.
ANYWAY, the girls are adjusting well. The first couple of days they really kicked against the pricks (and tried my patience) when we made them say sorry for when they hit or are mean to each other or made them ask to do something they have done freely, or made them walk with us rather than too far ahead. Keith jokingly says that if he has 3 girls happy at him at any given time he is doing well. That is more true than I care to admit sometimes. But now that we have established some rules things are running more smoothly with only an hourly hiccup. It is taking both Keith and I to keep up with everyone. Hopefully we will have some routine established before Keith goes back to work and leaves me all alone… all by myself… all alone.
All the girls really had fun saying “Hi Jonas,’ on the phone when he called. But none dared talk longer than that except A2. She listened to Jonas talk for a minute or two. It will be nice to get everyone together.