Lord's Day in the Ukraine

Ukrainian church service






Our friends here Sasha and Snezhana, and Jonah with little Sasha (who is our Elsie's age) Having been without his siblings, Jonah enjoyed playing with her.



Lusa trying on a sundress



Lusa likes to be held




I noticed that he was bringing his hands together in his new stroller...yeah!
(I used to work as an occupational therapist so I thought that was great)




Taras trying out his stroller


Last night we tried out a stroller we bought at the market for Taras. Being therapists, we were anxious to get him in a better position (he is usually sprawled out in a stroller where he slides down and his arms and legs dangle over the wheels and sides) and we need something to bring him home in. We were excited to see that it works pretty well for him...his legs are positioned higher away from the wheels, the harness keeps him positioned, he can sit up more and he even seemed to put his hands together more!

This morning we did not go to visit as we went to a church service with our friend Sasha. We had to walk about 30 minutes to get there—it was a nice walk but it is very hot! Even though we didn’t understand what was being said (was in Russian) it was a blessing to be among Ukrainian christians and worship with them. There was no air condition so I was feeling a bit like I might pass out but we made it through. A couple of the songs we recognized --same tune just in Russian so we sang along! So neat to hear believers sing to God in Russian. It was a small group there this morning and not much different really. We had a Lord's Supper (they use real wine and a big loaf of bread)

After a nap, we went to the orphanage. It was cooler and breezy tonight which was a nice change and we played outside. Interesting thing was that hardly any children were out tonight--when it finally was comfortable outside! Jonah has been having fun playing with an inflatable beach ball (a great purchase from Michaels for $1)

We usually find Lusa sitting in a stroller in her groupa…I think they’ve trained her to just sit there in the stroller when they go outside, and today I found her in it inside. It tells me she can be trained to listen, but makes me sad that she is not given more opportunity to play like the other children when she is certainly able to play and interact with the children. Life will open up so much for her! Tonight she liked hitting a ball when I’d roll it to her. She says "ball" and smiles. I took her on the slide and she seemed scared coming down so I don’t think she’s ever done that before. She liked climbing up the stairs and she seemed curious when I gave her a kiss 

Both the children seem to like to be sung to. A couple times John and I thought Taras was attending to us. We don’t know what he can see or hear so we are just seeking to give him love and stimulation. We hold him, stretch his legs, put him in different positions, put some bright toys around and talk and sing to him. John tried to feed him at the end but turns out they had fed him an hour before so he wasn’t hungry. We'll try tomorrow.