Day 6 in Dnepro Tuesday May 18

Today was not quite as grim, but not really promising either. We met Irina at the orphanage. She is the director who stayed at our house last fall. She seemed to be on our side and was kind and concerned. She said that she would talk with each of the kids individually today and find out their feelings. We met Oksana on the other side of town (the right bank across the river) and signed papers at the notary. We were told by Irina to try to find activities to do with the kids that were fun to try to make Alina feel more comfortable with us. We looked for things to do over there since it is kind of the business side of town and we live on the residential side. Irina said that we could have permission to take the kids for the weekend in hopes that we can bond more. Dave also noted that this will keep her relatives from visiting again on Sunday which started this problem
We went back to the orphanage after school got out and talked to Irina some more. She said that when she talked to Alina that she was leaning more towards a no than a yes because we were Mormon and because she doesn't have a true concept of family. I don't really know what being Mormon has to do with it. We have certain family standards that we feel are important but everything we do and everything our church teaches only helps to protect us from things that could be harmful. If you look around Ukraine and see what alcohol, drugs and smoking has done to the people here it is hard to imagine that a religion that forbids it could be a bad thing. I almost stepped on a used scringe just outside the orphanage the other day. There were several used needles just lying on the ground on a little trail outside the orphanage. Today I saw one of the cute boys that I posted a picture of the other day outside smoking. There are bad habits for the taking here and clinging to the culture is a mistake in my opinion.

We then went to a program rehearsal that the school is preparing. We saw Alina for the first time all day and she wouldn't make eye contact with us at all. We then invited the kids to go out to dinner with us and the boys went but Alina declined. We went to our pizza place that we went to the first day and had fun with Vitaly and Oleg.. Tyler is feeling a good bond with Vitaly. We bought Oleg some shoes and then we went back to our apt. I showed the boys the SAC blog and told them that the pictures on the slide show were all kids that had been in Ukraine and had been adopted to America and were now happy there. Vitaly saw some boys on the soccor team that he knew (Sasha and the Rogers' boys) and wanted to put that picture on the Ipod to show his friends.
Irina said that she talked to a lot of kids who had been adopted while she was in Utah and none of them had regretted their decision. he said that she gave a photo album to Alina to look at that had kids who had been adopted to America in hopes that it would help her see that it is not so bad.
On our way back to take the boys home to the orphanage we bought a rose for Alina and I had a necklace for her. It was so cute to watch Vitaly running all over the orphanage to find her with a rose with a really long stem. When we did find her she smiled and made eye contact and said a couple of words. It is like starting at square one. We are hopeful but more leary now and anxious to see what tomorrow brings
One good thing is that Irina said that it may be possible to adopt Oleg without Alina. She said that there are exceptions. The bad thing is that Oleg is starting to have doubts because Alina is trying to tell him things to make him not want to go so she doesnt feel guilty for crushing his dream. He was always the first on board before. Thank goodness for Vitaly. He keeps us going amidst the troubles.

Dave is starting to wonder if he wants a daughter who has no respect and is incredibly moody etc. Pick an emotion, any emotion and we have probably experienced in the past 24 hours.

I finally saw Ruslana today and asked her if she got the package (the other director took it last week even though we were hoping to see her open it.) It was the first day there and we didn't want to make a scene and act like we didn't trust her to make sure that Ruslana got it. She said thank you and I hope to be able to sit down with her and Anya and Alina soon. The girls seem happy which only fuels Alina's hope for a Ukrainian adoption. Vitaly said that our Alina is still holding out for a family from Ukraine to adopt her. This would make it so she wouldn't have to learn a new language, or leave her customs or the family she has here. I don't think that the odds are very good that this will happen but We don't want to ruin anyone's dreams.

We got the questions for Christina and will talk to her soon. I will also find out about Alina's packages. I am only beginning the nosing around that I plan to do here. There are some teachers here that don't like us (we can tell because we are not the first day in this world.) Who knows if they don't like us because we are American or Mormon or wear a different outfit everyday, but we are still going to smile and try to help out in the orphanage and take home the children who will have us.
Here is to a brighter day tomorrow.