M Family: Arcade, Pizza, and Chocolate Icecream

We hope you all are enjoying the Thanksgiving weekend. Go Rebels! We had a very special Thanksgiving Day and feast with the missionaries here in Odessa. They graciously invited us to their party for a traditional meal of Turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casseroles, and many delicious foods and sweets. We stayed most of the afternoon getting to know them, doing crafts, and playing games. There was no confusion on Who our thanks was directed towards, our great God, and it was a positive, rejuvenating time of reflection and Thanksgiving.

Last night, we fortunately got to take Artur and one of his friends bowling. We went with another adoptive family we’ve come to know here, and their little girl also invited a friend. Artur picked an older girl named Dasha, and we all headed with 2 Ukrainians to the “bowling alley.” About 5 minutes after we got in the car, I noticed Artur breathing very heavily, closing his eyes, laying his head on my shoulder, and not saying anything. I didn’t know if he was scared, anxious, shy, or what. I asked him if he was ok, and he just nodded. Soon Dasha and Allah (our Ukrainian chaperone and actually a graduate orphan) looked back and asked Artur if he was ok. He said he was feeling sick!! So we rolled down the window, unbuttoned his coat, and gave him some gum to chew. He was much better. There could be a number of reasons why he got sick, and we thought he probably hadn’t ridden in a car in at least 2 or 3 months.

When we arrived, we realized it was not what we thought (as it usually isn’t). It was a huge arcade and of course all the kids, including Taylor and Molly, were beaming and delighted. There was a 4 lane mini-bowling lane in one section of the arcade. So we did that for about 10 minutes, then followed Artur and Taylor to the racing cars, motorcycles, “contra strike” or pistol shooting, and of course basketball. Dasha can shoot the ball too!

This was soon followed by dinner. Artur and Dasha were both pretty quiet, and never just grabbed a piece of the pizza. We would look at them and ask if they wanted any, they would nod, and then eat every bite. They didn’t pick off a single topping (tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, sausages, meat –ham I think), and Artur even finished off Molly’s crust. I think he ate 6 or 7 pieces and politely and quietly asked for more. We offered him some ice cream instead and he gladly accepted. Like a true Marshall, he ordered his with chocolate syrup! Dasha had strawberry and we were all smiles. Molly started dancing her head around with her spoon in her hand and chocolate all over her face, and Taylor never said a word.

An interesting difference here in Ukraine are the drinks. In America, we have fountain drinks and endless refills. We can drink more than we eat! Here in Ukraine, we don’t drink the tap water because of heavy mineral content we think, and so have to order bottled water or sprite or whatever. But it is not the supersize American bottles; they are quite small. If you are thirsty, you could probably drink 3, but often we are sharing one or two, mainly because of the expense. In our apartment, we buy a huge 5 gallon jug of water for not very much. Last night we all got our own Sprite or Fanta, and all felt pretty special. Artur liked his Sprite mixed with a little of Scott’s Fanta, a true young man he is! And Taylor agreed that his Sprite was better with Fanta too, like his big brother. We really enjoyed this first experience together outside the orphanage. We think Artur did too.

So we are still hoping for court to be this Tuesday. The paperwork is still not finished and they are trying to collect signatures to get it finished. We calculated the timeline to come home to be around December 21, if we could possibly get plane tickets for 5 people right before Christmas. But that timeline is only if everything goes as it is supposed to, and we are not banking on that. haha. It is truly out of our control, and we are having a really great time while we wait. Amazingly, Scott and I are seeing each other everyday, almost all day, and are doing really well! I say that, and tomorrow I will throw a temper tantrum like a toddler ha. We thank you for your prayers, and know that it is the grace of God that we are even here, and more so that we are living peacefully and enjoyably! We miss you all!