Day 2 of Mariupol - She Wins!

Mariupol will hardly throw me a bone. It’s like she feels my energy & gives it right back to me. You know that smog I talked about yesterday? It was apparently a legitimate, bonafide rain cloud. And it has settled in overhead & is making a nuisance of itself. Couldn’t play football (soccer) with Henry today because of it. You think it will take me the next nine days to learn to think & talk nice about Mariupol?

So instead we watched Wall-E (or tried to…until the computer stopped playing the second-rate dvd so many times Henry finally waved at the computer & Papa shaking his head – no more movie). Oh well. I guess that’s what $8 in Ukraine will get ya’! Otherwise, it was an enjoyable & stress-free visit with our little guy. We practiced some English & he played a few games on my iPad. He truly seems to getting more comfortable with us. Tomorrow we’re going to play Go Fish in English with bible cards that I got at the dollar store. Now that I think of it, given my recent experience with “bargains”, maybe I should evaluate this card deck ahead of time!

After our visit with Henry, we came back to the apartment with basically 10 hours to kill until bedtime. It has rained for the first half & it does appear that it will continue to do so for the balance of the day. So, I did a little “housework”. You know, washed a few windows (which really contributing to some improved Mariupol energy!) and basically rearranged everything to my liking. Don’t worry…I’ll put it all back before I leave!

And I got the kid's things ready for our "pick up" day from the orphanages! Henry on the 9th & Nastia on the 10th.

That’s about it for today. All I can say is never underestimate the positive power of a clean window – even if what is on the other side is not America!