Counting down the days til court

It's Wednesday afternoon here in Kharkiv and we are back at this nice air-conditioned internet cafe. Both of us have colds thanks to the boys and I learned the word for "blow" yesterday since one of the kids wanted to blow his nose. My cold has moved into my chest and I've got a good cough going in addition to the head cold. Pam so far has only the head cold, but I think she is a day or two behind me in the symptoms. It's miserable.

I explained to Riley yesterday that he would be going to court with the two of us. This morning he asked about going to court and about going to America. He's very eager to go. We showed him a map I printed off of America and pointed out Fort Wayne and Cleveland on them. Cleveland is where my sister lives and where we will be returning. He asked how far between the two cities too. He's a curious little boy.

These kids have toys around the orphanage, but not a whole lot of them. Instead, they end up running, jumping, climbing and using their imaginations. Reilly and his buddies built a fort yesterday with a downed branch, several stumps and part of a cabinet door. It actually turned out pretty good.

We had a small picture book with us and I was working with Riley on his English. It really helped him when I spelled the words in the Cyrillic alphabet. Pam thought I was writing the Russian words down til I asked Riley to read them to her. A few letters/sounds don't translate too well, but he was able to say all the pictures in the book in English by reading them in the Cyrillic letters.

We've discovered that the boys (especially Jake) like Tic Tacs. Jake likes all candy actually. We've started the boys asking for things in English in order to get them and Jake actually caught on as quickly as Riley when he figured out he'd get a Tic Tac for saying it right. It's very cute to hear them say, "I want a tic tak, please." and then the following "thank you."

We had lunch at the gyro place again where the guy speaks a little English. He and I talked more today - it turns out he is from Morocco and is a student here in Kharkiv. His English is nearly as good as my Russian, but he makes a very good sandwich. Those of you who know Pam will be shocked to learn that she's had lamb on two different occassions on this trip. She keeps trying to fool herself by saying it is chicken, but it was definitely lamb.

Court is on Friday and we are really praying to get the 30 days waived and get home. If they waive it, we'll probably be back in Cleveland within a week of that time.