Another day in Kharkov.........Day 21

Hello family and loved ones....

We enjoyed our visit with Elizabeth today (as always). She still takes a little bit to warm up to us, but the banana seems to break the ice. (One of the pictures is of her daddy trying to eat her banana and let me tell you....nothing, absolutely nothing will interfere with her eating and she really doesn't care to share her food. It's very cute). We thought we were going to get to visit with her early today, but it turns out we were called by accident (they meant to call 'Tony' - one of the other couples here, but accidently called Tom instead). So....we went at our usual time 5p-7p. It gets dark here by 5. Is it dark there by 5? We are just so happy and relieved to think that in 2 weeks from today we should be home!!!! Today was 'day 9' of visiting at the orphanage...we have 9 more days of visiting.

We are relived, also that harvest is over (at least for the Hagans ~ we hear that the Gottmans STILL aren't done, lol!). Many thanks to Joe and Mark. We are curious too, who won as far as the best beans??? Seems like everyone has enjoyed reading the "Battle of the Beans."

It was warm and sunny here today and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. Speaking of tomorrow....we get to go early to see her so we're anxious to see how she does in the morning when she is well rested and well fed. We're hoping ot get to go outside again with her. The reason we are going early tomorrow is because at 5pm we are going to the circus with Bryan and Tamera. That should be fun!

Becki ~ the little red book in one of the pictures was Katrinas...did you recognize it? If you go to the Elrichs blog site you can see a picture of the 'guard' aka the babushka. She really has warmed up to us and seems happy to see us now. One night, it was funny, when Bryan and Tamera were still playing with CJ, but they had already taken Elizabeth up to her room, Tom and I were sitting outside to cool off (they keep it very, very warm in the playroom) and I was sitting on the concrete and the babushka came out and boy she told me (in Russian) that it will make you sick (she rubbed her stomach) if you sit on concrete and she motioned for me to sit on a stool next time. Then she followed us to the taxi and proceded to chew out the taxi driver. When we asked him what she said (he doesn't speak much English either) and he just said "crazy!" Tamera said she had read somewhere they really believe sitting on concrete will make you ill. Fortunately, I feel fine! But it was funny being scolded in Russian. We know that she just meant well.

Tonight I took the size 4 shoes (that were Danielle's) and they barely fit her....good enough to get us home anyway. Tonight she was dressed in a little blue jean dress with Tweety bird on it and her pink tights with her Cherry shoes. We have found out that she likes pear juice better than apple juice (we were finally able to find some baby juice). Last night when we were at the orphanage, there were 5 couples there visiting children, so it was a packed house with 5 babies, 10 parents, several caregivers, and 2 taxi drivers. Tonight there were only two other couples.

We really enjoy reading everyones posts and it still amazes us the number of people from our area that are following our story. Very, very touching and I wish we had the time to respond to each person individually.

Becky Williams from HLG ~ we tried to e-mail you, but it didn't go through. If you would like to do a story on our adventure that would be great and we would be honored. Feel free to use any of the information in the blog and let us know if you have any other questions. Our e-mail address is v_hagan@hotmail.com (Be sure to save me a copy :)

Tonight when we first got to the internet cafe, it was completely full and people were waiting outside so we went for supper and then came back. Please know that if we don't post every evening, it could be for a variety of reasons and don't worry. We'll get here the next morning for sure :)

Love, Tom, Valerie, and Elizabeth