Yesterday (Sunday) Elaina and I went out to Vorzel to see Evangeline for our usual morning visit.
Towards the end of the visit we scored a blanket to sit on and play outside. Evie loved playing with toys and she was crawling all over the place. Then she started to pull up to stand and would let go for a few seconds. It was awesome! Elaina and I decided to try to get her to take a few steps between us. Evie was thrilled with the opportunity and she managed to take a step or two a few times on her own!!
I can't wait till we get her home...I'm sure we're going to see a lot of progress in many areas of her development in no time.
After our visit with Evie we went with other Reese's Rainbow families to the catacombs at the Pechersk Lavra (a huge monestary in the city). It was scorching hot and quite a quest to actually find the catacombs but everyone involved were great sports and we had lots of laughs. After the Lavra we hit an outdoor festival and I had fun helping folks buy some gifts for friends and family back home. The only problem was that the festival was celebrating Ukrainian culture specifically and none of the vendors were too happy when I asked them to speak with me in Russian instead of Ukrainian. But the prices were great and my daughter loved the steady flow of Fanta on a hot day and I loved walking around our old neighborhood (we lived right down the street from the Lavra our last year and a half in Ukraine).
Then last night I met up with my dear friend Riya. The plan was to meet at a McDonalds at a certain Metro stop. The only problem was that I went to the wrong place, so it took us a few phone calls and another Metro ride for me to find her, but once we were together it was a great time.
God willing, this time next week we'll be picking up Evie from the orphanage and starting the process to get her paper work in order to bring her home! WOW!
