Boyarka Thus Far

Backtracking to Monday, we packed our bags and moved from Karen’s apartment. Sasha our NASCAR driver and Olga our translator picked us up at 9:00. It took us 75 minutes to get across town to the District office to drop off documents…another step in the process to obtain a court date. From the District office it only took about 20 minutes to get to Boyarka. Yep, the town we are staying in is called Boyarka. Sasha and Olga dropped us off at our new home. Karen arranged for us to stay in a private apartment above a Christian school. The school’s English teacher, Becky, is from Mississippi and she has a huge heart for orphans. Becky explained to us that the school’s founder is a local Ukrainian home builder. He created the Christian school as a tithe. Each year he donates 10% of his business earnings to the construction and operation of the school. Folks, it’s a really nice place, God is taking care of our needs!

After the kids got out of school, Becky drove us to the orphanage. She was excited to meet the director, Galina, so that she has more opportunities to serve and help those in need. Becky could tell right away, too, that this orphanage was not the norm. It is clean, well-kept, and filled with a caring spirit. As we were headed out with Nadia and Kolya, Galina told us not to hurry back. She added, “See you this evening!” Wow! More freedom with the children! So we made a quick plan to pick up Julia, take the children grocery shopping and head back to the apartment.

We asked the kids their opinion of whether they liked the plan, and none of them had a strong opinion. I asked if they would like me to cook them dinner, and if they liked eggs, but again, they didn’t have an opinion. The only thing they were firm on was “we don’t want to go back to the orphanage!” Becky asked Kolya specifically if he wanted to eat dinner at our home, and his answer was, “Whatever Nadia decides is fine for me.” He tends to defer to her on most things.

While the girls and I started grocery shopping, Felix experienced one of Kolya’s “firsts.” Felix and Kolya walked to a bank down the street to change dollars to grivna, and Becky translated for Kolya that that was the first time he had ever been in a bank!

Nadia was very helpful grocery shopping. I gave her my English grocery list, and she looked for each item. She could read the words milk, bread, fruit and sausage on her own! Nadia also helped me select the right brand of each item when I could not read the label myself. She is quite the little mother hen for the children, and she really enjoyed taking care of me, too, at the grocery store. One of our early challenges will be to wrestle the role of Mother from her as she has had to be their leader and Mom for their whole life.

Next stop…home! When we arrived back at the school, the building was empty. The children insisted on lugging the groceries upstairs for us. I cooked our first family dinner and Felix worked with the kids on a short English lesson. Julia kept drifting back into the kitchen, though, to sneak cheese and sausage and to try to help me. Nadia wanted to help, too, but I kept shooing them out of the kitchen. I told them, “Mama cooks!” over and over again. These children have had to fend for themselves for so long, so it is important that they learn to allow someone to take care of them.

We've been blessed to find these wonderful children!