Just the facts, Ma'am

First things first, Heidi was released this morning and she is home doing fine. Friends and family, thanks for the visits, calls, and e-mails. Also, thank you for sending flowers to Heidi and donations to UOO http://www.ukraineorphans.org/ .

And now (cue the Dragnet music, Daaa, da, da, dant!) some facts we discovered from today's phone call to Zina.

Lilya is back home. She called Zina for us this morning and has established a time for us to talk with her every other Saturday morning. We had a list of questions to ask her and some clarification on existing matters. If you have been reading the blog, you know what they are. So here is what we learned:

• The cell phone is indeed hers. She said that an Italian organization that sponsors her orphanage gave it to her as a Christmas gift this year. Every year they asked each child what they would like for Christmas. She explained that she needed it to talk to her parents in America and they got it for her. Talk about God's work! She wants us to get her a new one and she wants to give the "Italian" one to Rimma. She also wants the phone to be simple, being concerned of what it will cost us. How thoughtful! As we were concerned about the paying of the phone anyway, we had plans to do this already. We will take care of this through Lilya's family that lives in Ukraine.


• Zina refers to Heidi and me as her parents in all conversations, including those with friends and teachers there.


• Zina said that Vika, Rimma and she cried all the way home on the plane. She told them, "You only left friends behind. I left my family behind".


• Zina said she studied hard for her exams this week (and get this) "Because she didn't want to let her parents down"! What an incredible young lady!


• Zina said "Hello" to us 1000 times during their conversation.


• Zina said she left clothes in the dresser because she plans to come back for them. (I found these clothes the day after they left and bawled my eyes out.)


• Someone (perhaps Ellie) explained to Zina that the adoption process will take two years, so she said she is prepared for the wait. Lilya said Zina was doing the math on how old and what grade she will be in when it happens.

OK, go blow your nose and wipe away the tears and I'll tell ya about Rimma.

• Rimma again apologized a thousand times for not wanting to leave Ukraine. She is afraid that she has hurt our feelings and that we are mad. Lilya relayed that this of course is not the case.


• We found out why Rimma doesn't want to be adopted. She is afraid of new things like new food, new language, new everything. She said she loves to travel and takes part in all the hosting trips so she can get out of the orphanage. She explained that she wishes she could just go on the trips to get out of there. She wishes that everyone would not ask to adopt her. She said she loved Italy, Virginia, and Colorado, but that she wishes they were in Ukraine. She told Lilya that she wants to travel the world and have nice things, but have a home in Ukraine. I think that is very admirable.

Well, that is all for now. Thanks everybody!