Day 37 (Tues March 15th) Dnepro - Signing Ira Out

Tuesday was "the big day."  Masha tried to get something paperwork related done and it turns out we didn't have all the paperwork to complete the paperwork. LOL  We didn't worry about it since I guess it's not critical.

Ira put together a Contact page (Russian version of Facebook.)  She and Kristina did a little photo shoot (and have been doing them over and over since then) for it too.  I'm not too thrilled she's got the page since I can't understand (and therefore monitor) it, but hopefully Google Translate will come to my rescue. :)  I hate to tell her no since right now, that's the best way for her to keep in touch with her friends.

Here is one I really liked.

And another.  Kristina is actually quite a good photographer. :)

We went to a couple of stores to get stuff for a party we wanted to do with the kids at the orphanage.  We got a TON of candy and a bunch of pop and even some balloons.  Jan picked us up at 2 to head over there.  It was SUCH a beautiful day!  Sunshine and warmth!  It was a wonderful ride over there.  I even saw green fields for the first time here!  It was awesome!

Look!  Green!  It does exist here!

I know it's not the prettiest drive, but I wanted some pics to remind me of it.

I quite enjoyed sitting up front for once. :)

The snow is almost gone!

Tired girls

We picked up the director and went to start our paperwork.  I guess a couple of people were a little not too happy we were doing this after business hours.  I didn't know we were or we would have come earlier.  Ah well.  The paperwork (as usual) took much longer than we were thinking it would.  A LOT longer.  I have no idea what all was going on, but it was a lot.  Since the director's office is by where the little kids are, Little One was able to go in and play with them.  (As a side note, she told the director that she wished we could take her home as well. LOL  There are no orphanages for her to oversee in the US, but hey.  It was still sweet of Little One to say that.)  That cutest little girl that I so want to take home (along with her two siblings) ran and jumped in my arms, saying my name.  *sigh*  She really is small enough to fit in my luggage, you know....

Jan was kind enough to offer to take some pictures of the signing of the documents.  I love that the director was all excited about it as well and called him in from playing with the kids to take a picture of her stamping the paper.  As far as I can tell we got some awesome pictures.  I can't wait to see them!  He was going to crop them and such and then we can transfer them onto my hard drive.  I will post them as soon as I get them. He will be here in about 45 minutes so I should have them up soon.

Ira was crying, as I'd expected her to do.  It was different though.  Sad to be leaving, but that's all it seemed to be.  Much to our surprise though, once we finally finished up we were told it was time to go.  The "party" had gone on without us and they felt it was better to just get Ira out of there.  I insisted we get some pictures taken though (which didn't really take much convincing) and I think those really turned out well too.  Ira was actually smiling for them, which was nice to see.  I asked Jan to take some of me and the littles as well so we got those.  The only thing I forgot was pictures of Ira's bed/closet/room and such.  We took Kristina back with us again though and Masha will be taking her back by bus tomorrow.  I will make sure she has a camera and takes a couple of pictures when she does that.

Speaking of pictures, I couldn't leave without getting some pictures of our favorite bathroom.  This was the one that we made sure we got to use because it was the nicest.  When we were doing things around the village we always made sure we went here.  And no, I'm not kidding.

Here is what you see when you walk in the door.  The toilet is around the corner  there to the right.

You walk in that door there and it's a little L shaped room.  At least it had a place to set my backpack down.

Need I say more?

Really, our leaving was pretty much not at all what I'd expected.  I felt rather jipped that I didn't get to actually spend any time with the other kids.  The nice thing about it though, was no tears. :)  Always a silver lining, right?? LOL  We dropped the director back off near her home and I got another hug from her.  I very much hope that wasn't the last time I set foot in that building or see these people that I've come to love.  I got some very kind words from the lady that has raised Ira since she was 3.  I very much need to learn the language.  I want to come back and visit.