Waiting

I am sorry it is so many days between the times I can post. Each region is so different. The last one we adopted from we walked everywhere, but here we have a taxi because we are not close to most things. We don't seem to be able to get to this internet place as often and when we do we have someone waiting on us.
We do not have a court date yet. We do not know when we will get one, hopefully we will find out Tuesday. The other family that we are here with still doesn't have their court date and they were here a week longer. They think they will get theirs the first or second week of July. If this is the case we may use Mark's air miles to return home. I miss our kids so much.
We have a routine down now, we go to the orphanage for several hours each day and we have been going back most evenings. Lena always runs at full speed into our arms when we arrive. She is just beautiful and really has a lot of self confidence which is not always the case with children who have been in the orphanages for many years. Lena has been here since she was in 1st grade. She is well loved by many and is a favorite with the teachers. They told us she has been longing for a family forever.
Yesterday Mark asked if we could skip a day, he has gotten so close to some of the kids and he is having a very hard time at night when we return to our hotel we are so depressed. He said he needs a day away from seeing it. I don't think I have ever seen my husband this sad for all these darling children. We have adopted before but this time is the hardest because there are so many young ones and they seem to really want/need our attention. It is summer and they are not in school they just hang in this parking lot. The teachers have them planting flowers around this broken down asphalt court, which just goes to show it is human nature to find beauty in the most unlikely of places. The kids carry these heavy buckets quite a distance with two children to a bucket to water these little plants. It is so moving to see a 9 year old mothering a 5 year old they really seem to take care of each other. They have had so much pain and yet they are so tender with animals, plants and each other. I am sure there are times when they must quarrel with each other but we have not seen it.
These teachers are incredible, they teach music and art without all the materials we would have in the states. I went to watch the girls learning a beautiful Ukrainian dance today. This is the joy they find in this horrible situation they live in. They danced with such abandon it took my breath away. Any one of these girls would make wonderful daughters and have so much potential.Unless you have seen this I guess I could write chapters and it still could not describe it.
I dance with the girls and Mark plays hours of ball with the boys. The kids have told our facilitator that Lena's parents are "cluss" which means cool in Russian so I guess we passed the peer test :) Although there was one girl who looked at Lena's photo album and said something very mean to her Lena closed it and told her to leave. Someone else said she was just jealous of her. I felt sorry for the girl, she was only mean because she wants a family too.
I have taken pictures, but I have to be careful there is a new rule here that you are not to take any pictures of the children. We have gotten other children homes through pictures I have taken at the orphanages we adopted from and it would be wonderful if the same could happen this time. If a mom of Lena's good friend hadn't taken her picture and told her story we would not be here now (thank you S.)
I will post pictures of Lena as soon as I can but right now I have been advised to wait.
Thanks for all your comments and I will relay the messages to Lena.
S. if you send me your phone number to my e-mail I can have Lena give K a call if that is OK.
Also, thanks to those of you who have commented and have walked this road and know how difficult this can be. Last but not least many thanks to our dear friends who have always supported us so much.