Getting closer

We have been here in Ukraine for about six weeks now.  Most of the time has been spent waiting interspersed with appointments.  Court is getting closer.  I still can't give out much information about it because of what is happening behind the scenes.  Eventually I'll write more of the details.  Thankfully we are seeing progress and know that our court date is drawing nearer.

Most of the time we have spent in Balta, a town of just under 20,000 people.  We seem to have become well known there.  There is some kind of joke going around about our 6 year old son being a better English speaker than any of the Balta residents.  Our taxi driver thought the joke was hilarious!  We have also started recognizing and being greeted by different people when we go to the market.  As much as we have enjoyed Balta, last week we decided that we really needed a break, so we booked a train compartment to Lviv and have been in Lviv for almost a week.  It is a gorgeous city and has been a nice diversion for us.  Tomorrow night we head back to Balta.

The girls are doing well.  We had a talk with them a few days before we left Balta about what to expect in America with our family.  We discussed some of the rules that our family lives by.  We strongly feel that the girls should have some kind of an understanding what they are getting into.  Lyuba and Snezhana already had a pretty good idea of the rules because they lived with us for five weeks last summer.  But we could see that plans were being made for things that we are not going to allow!  All three of them seem to still plan on being adopted.

Overnight train to Lviv.

Galician restaurant.  I love being inside these medieval buildings!

Sara eating her Galician pie.

Part of the old wall and tower surrounding old Lviv.

One of many beautiful cathedrals in this city.

Our apartment building.

Our apartment the three windows on the floor just under the top floor.

View from our apartment of Market Square.

Home from an outdoor folk museum in Lviv.

Inside of a 1977 home at the folk museum.

There are several of these "golden" people on Market Square each day.

We took a ride on this bicycle contraption one night.  It was really wild!

Another old city wall and tower.  A restaurant is now located in this tower.

I thought it was so cool to see cobblestone being re-layed.

Salo - Ukrainian's favorite!  Pork fat.  I have had some on bread!

Another view from our apartment.  We picked the most entertaining

corner of Market Square.  We are serenaded each night.