Tomorrow I get to take the girls out of the orphanage. Yeah!! We are all so excited. When I told the girls that tomorrow they would come with me and leave the orphanage forever they jumped up and down and hugged and kissed me.

It is a holiday weekend and nothing can be done on their passports until next Tuesday. Instead of staying here in this not so lovely town, we are taking a night train tomorrow and are going to the Southern part of Ukraine near the Black Sea. The place is called Odessa. Mary requested a little adventure so we are hoping to accommodate. We had to pay a bribe to the “mini moffia” as they called it to get the tickets, but hey we got them. Mary was shocked by the bribe, but I have gotten used to the system of paying to get things done. We don’t have tickets back from Odessa yet, or a place to stay but they tell us not to worry they will work it out. More bribes to the Moffia I’m sure. I think Mary will surely get her adventure.

I may not have internet access while we are gone, but I will blog when we get back. It may be a few days before we have internet again.

These are the last pictures of my orphans, next time you see them they will at least be clean and hopefully be wearing matching clothes.

This is a picture Lena drew that hangs on the wall of the orphanage in the main building.