Above: Pictures of Sasha’s and Nastia’s classmates (She’s in the picture with his friends because we were at his school). Playing with bubbles and a flashlight.
Thursday December 8
Today was a banner day for the newly expanded Gold family. Michael and I went first to Nastia’s orphanage this morning. We were waiting for her in the director’s office and when they brought her in, she immediately ran over and gave us a big hug. The director Tatiana, herself warm and loving with a thoroughly infectious smile, laughed and said it appeared that Nastia had known us a long time and it was as if we were already her parents.
We then took Nastia, along with the school’s lawyer, to Radomishle to visit Sasha.
The kids hadn’t seen each other in a couple of months so it was a very sweet reunion. We walked in and all the other kids had to get Sasha, who was once again fastening his overalls (he often seems to be the last kid to put himself together). He was so happy to see his sister and the two began chatting away. Nastia started off by showing Sasha a little flashlight I’d given her to play with the car (to pass the time, she was very patient as the adults continued to scale the mountain of bureaucracy) and sweet sister that she is, she gave it to him to play with. For the remaining couple of hours we were there, Nastia helped little Sasha when he needed it and gave him her toys when he asked for them. They played so beautifully together, it was such a treat to see how much they enjoy being together.
Michael and I brought lollipops and cherry marshmallow treats and tangerines and oranges, which they loved. But the biggest hit, thank you Pippa, were the bubbles. The two of them had the best time. Nastia was making all kinds of big bubbles and our little Sashka just couldn’t get the hang of it, huffing and puffing to no avail. But Nastia never tired of helping him. I love how she calls him, in that drawn-out, dramatic Ukrainian way, Saaaa-sha, almost singing the first syllable and losing the second.
Sasha for his part, as he struggled to keep up with his sister, never gave up. And he doesn’t want you to do it for him. He likes to figure everything out himself. We drew some pictures and Nastia drew a pretty picture of a happy house with sun and flowers. She was shy about showing it to us but was pleased when I told her I wanted to keep it.
When we told Sasha we had to leave, he said he wanted to come with us. It was so hard to leave him there, his little hand brushing his cheek, a nervous habit he has that makes you want to stick him in your pocket and keep him safe. But he understood we’d be back tomorrow and I think that helped a little. Apparently before we showed up, the other kids, a little jealous, had told him we weren’t coming today and he was almost in tears. What a little love.
We left our boy and took Nastia back to her school. We took her in and she went to eat lunch. Then they invited us upstairs to see a play her class is working on. Her class consists of 11 boys and girls ages 8-9. Nastia was still eating and the other kids acted and sang for us. What a friendly, supportive bunch of kids. They’re truly a family and it’s so heartening to see how these kids are loved by their caretakers and in turn pass that love on to each other.
Nastia appeared about fifteen minutes later in tears. She was crying because she thought we’d left already, although she immediately wiped her tears away and brought out that beautiful smile. We were then invited to visit her classroom. This was a real treat. They showed us Nastia’s workbooks in penmanship and math and she seems to be a very good student, which was echoed by her teacher who said she was very intelligent and just needs some support in her studies.
It was time for crafts and all the children produced a project they’re working on. Our Nastia took out a scarf she’s knitting. The wild thing is, we brought along hats and scarves for the children that my mother (Lauren’s mother Beverly) knitted for them – and they’re the same color scheme as Nastia’s scarf! To top it off, she only learned to knit the week before and she already had about six to eight inches of impressive work, complete with two red stripes dressing up her slate blue scarf (just like yours, Ma!) And it’s very special for me because the very first time I saw Nastia’s picture, I thought she resembled by Nanny (my mother and sister agree) who was an exceptional knitter herself.
As we set off home tonight through Veshevitche, a village that appears to go back a century in time – most people live in picturesque clapboard cottages straight out of Anatefka, don’t have running water but fetch it from wells, and herds of cows often share the road with you, as do horse drawn carts – I tried to imagine what our world will look like to these children. I feel like we have so much to give them, but I know that they are the real gift and as much as we will be teaching them, there’s so much more we’ll be learning from them. It seems the only thing we don’t have to teach each other is love.
A footnote from Michael. This morning we asked at our hotel about doing laundry because we’re gettin’ a wee bit stanky on the things we use most often. They told us there’s a service at the Hotel Zhitomer around the block. So we drove over there before heading out of town to ask, and the lady at the desk says, yes, it’s outside and to the right and they’re open from 9 to 6. So tonight we got back from the orphanages at 4:30 (that’s already night here), took all our laundry in a bag and a day pack, including some stuff that wasn’t quite ripe but getting there, and headed over. We found the laundry behind the hotel in their parking lot, but they said no, they don’t do this kind of laundry. Only bed clothes. I guess the hotel personnel in both hotels thought we wanted to wash our sheets…
Svieta says she’ll ask the maid tomorrow if she can take our laundry in for a gratuity. (So we had to take our laundry to dinner with us tonight! Doesn’t everyone?)
Tonight we got on the internet at the Ukr-Telecom office. Great connection. Both of us were on for two hours each for a total cost of $2.00!