Ukraina Hotel Ivano-Frankivsk

... That took about 30 minutes. Then we went to drop off all the papers to the passport department in Svalyava. I guess the department prepares all the documents for us to take back on Monday when we actually apply for the passport. <br><br>Finally at 5:30 we went back to Pasha's house, grabbed the snacks and toys for the orphanage along with Talia's outfit and headed to the orphanage. We met with the director and the orphanage lawyer ...

... am tomorrow we go to the court and get the official court decree, get it notarized, and then travel one hour by car to the city where Talia's birth certificate is. We pick up the birth certificate then travel one hour back to the orphanage. We show the orphanage director all of our paperwork and get all of Talias medical records. Then we dress Talia in her new clothes and we say bye to the orphanage for good! Tomorrow night ...

... Big Mama! haha. I gave her a wave and she seemed excited to see us too. We played today with Talia on the veranda for a little bit, but it was sooo cold in there. It is only about 35 degrees here! Today there is also a misty rain so it is yucky out! Anyway, we finished playing on the veranda and took a walk down the hallway. Then we played with a football and put her plastic rings on her fingers. When we said bye today she blew us kisses and ...

... him the old Butkus and drop him to the turf, but luckily he audibled out in the nick of time and she just ran on by to us! That's usually how it happens...anytime we come near, the other kids swarm. Its like we're a caramel apple on an ant hill. <br><br>When we got back to the house, Roslana had borscht made! After a light lunch earlier in the day, I inhaled my first 2 or 3 bowls, and Roslana of course told me to eat more. "Choot Choot" she says when she ...

... s visit with Talia was slightly discouraging again. When we first got there we did see a familiar face in one of the caretakers, but the other two we didn't recognize. The kids were on their training potties when we came to the door. Talia started pointing and shouting, "mama, papa!" The kid sitting next to her also started shouting Mama and she clubbed him good with her arm right in the chest and said something to him like, "No ...

... She seemed to do well last night though with all colors. <br><br>When we got back to the house, we had dinner and called it an early night because Lauren wasn't feeling very well (she's better now, though!) We watched Pineapple Express and went to sleep. <br><br>This morning was quite the episode. When we got to the orphanage for our morning visit, one of the caretakers noticed us and called for us to follow her. For ...

... similar and so of course Roselana told Scott to eat more! I stuck more with the soup since I'm not too fond of cabbage. For dessert Roselana (the daughter) made some kind of nut cake- maybe walnut? It was very good. Pasha always jokes that he spent all day in the kitchen cooking and we always joke back that he is such a good cook! In reality though, he doesn't do any cooking at all! Neither does the son, Zhenia. When we told them that Scott cooks dinner a ...

... However, it does have one thing we had to see: an Easter egg museum. Traditionally, Ukrainians paint incredibly intricate designs on hollowed out Easter eggs, and as Donna has a collection of these, we figured we'd better check out the museum. Admission had doubled to 40 cents since our guide was written (sacre bleu!) but it was a wonderful museum with hundreds of eggs. We wandered around and chose our favorites (ones with reindeer on them...odd as there are no reindeer in Ukraine ...

... feet) ascent in less than two hours. I had a very difficult time getting to the top because my hiking shoe decided that it didn't want me to climb anymore by having the plastic heel snap in my shoe about half way up. I still have a really nasty blister, but the view was well worth it. It was so unseasonably warm last weekend that although we'd brought tents with us we ended up sleeping right under the stars in the forest. We even got so fancy as making cheese fondu in our fire, which ...

... than noon. One point that the drive made did begin to worry me - what was the tour operator talking about different hotels for? I mean, shouldn't we already have reservations? We've already paid our money? Why would we have to pay another 10 hrivna? Huh? No water? What? We got to the mountain town at 3 o'clock, after two forest bathroom stops, and a stop at a bazaar to buy pork for the shishkabob we were promised for the next day. The driver instructed the group to wait by the ...