Day 24

Hey guys.....Monday and the countdown begins. Hope everyone had a great weekend, enjoyed the fall colors, bagged a big buck, and just relaxed! We did 2 of the 3, can you guess which ones? Of course Jay dreamed of the other one. Sounds like the girls had a fun weekend, I am curious as to the Charles dolls? What do they look like? I think that is great for them to have and can't wait to meet the 3 other Charles'.
We had a fun visit outside with Master Charles today. We played with bubbles, colored a little and ran up and down the sidewalk. We collected leaves; they have the biggest leaves here. I think that is one of the things I will always remember about Donetsk. The children love to pick them up and sweep with them. The leaves have long stems so the kids can gather a huge hand full and sweep until their heart is content. It is very hard to leave Charles, he is crying now when we go. I keep trying to tell him (convincing myself) that it is ok and in 4 days (maybe 7) and he can leave with me. I am almost to the point that I want to tell Svitlana that I just want to take him to Odessa with us. I just don't know what to do.
We are just sitting around the apartment today waiting for Svitlana to call about times and dates and I am resting. I have caught a cold (sinus something) and am hoping to make it a quick one by resting a little and not doing too much outside between visits today.
Jay has talked 2x's to Svitlana while I have been typing and we do not know any more than when I started. Hopefully we will know something by tomorrow.
I am going to try to post now and then update later when we get home from visiting the Master :)
Have a blessed day!
The post didn’t work earlier today so I decided to just continue. We just got back from visiting with Charles. It turned into a rainy, chilly day so we played inside with KGB couple, the really nice lady, and a new lady who had a set of twin girls that she was playing with. It was nice to see so much action in the orphanage. We had a great visit, with Charles running to us and hugging and kissing. The best moment was when he kissed Jay on the head. It occurred to me that he had probably never touched a ‘bald’ head much less any other head so I had him rub Jays head, he backed up a little scared and then I kissed Jay on the head and Charles ran over and said Papa and kissed Jay right smack on the head. It was such a genuine kiss and Charles was so excited. He stayed with us the whole time, only venturing away to grab a new toy from the shelves. We have come so far in 21 days; he is not even the same little boy we met. He is so loving and trusting. Stays around us which doesn’t sound that important but it is, it shows us that he recognizes us as his family. He loves for Jay to throw him up in the air and catch him. He is so funny, he backs up to Jay, counting one…two…, so that he will pick him up and throw him up. We will be standing there talking and he will back right up and try to get him to do it. My heart is so full of love that I can’t bear leaving him there. When we left tonight, there was a lady we had never seen picking him up and he was obviously scared of her. He didn’t argue (which he always does) and just stood there with a scared look. I wanted to just grab him and run…..to the Twinkie and jump in and tell Rashid to go. But we have waited this long…..
I was just informed that it is now time for a little Gin Rummy. We miss you all.
Love us.