Circus story and Marina has long hair!

The weather here for the last couple of days has been gorgeous! More like going to the beach too early in the spring than autumn in UA--cool air blended with a warm breeze undertone. Unfortunately when the landlady came to clean yesterday she concurred we were just too nuts with the windows open so she turned off the heat completely. I might add here that the nights are not as climatically wonderful as the days and we were mighty chilly last night! Anyhow windows are closed again but we will have to make some adjustments to our southern attitude and see if we can grovel in sign language and get the heat back on. But back to more fun stuff...Marina has LONG hair! This is sort of a surprise since it is always in a really high pony tail and is never down. Her hat would not stay on outside the other day and so I had to take her ponytail holder out and re-fix her hair so the hat would accommodate. Most eastern european countries have a practice of cutting orphans hair short or shaving it all together for the summer months. Even the hairs on this child's head has been protected and it appears that it has been for several years! I have noticed that in this particular orphanage there are several children with gorgeous hair cuts or very long beautiful braids and I cannot imagine who takes the time to keep them all so outstanding in their grooming. I am hoping to get to braid Marina's pigtails as we rapidly approach Gotcha Day. Her outfit for leaving the orphanage is all picked out right down to the black leather mary jane shoes:) Can't wait for that photo!! And to see her step through that gate she is so intent on escaping will totally be the highlight of the journey!

We did not go to visit Marina last night and it was the first visit we have not attended. We had inquired of our driver Roman if we could take his family to the circus on Sunday afternoon if he would drive. He had other business at that time but instead got tickets for us and took US to the circus and then came back for us! I did get a couple photos before I got the finger wag about cameras in the circus...but if you EVER for some crazy reason get the chance to go to see a circus in this country, you really should. The show is more compact than three rings and less lights, but the heart of performing is at least as big as the tent can hold and these performers really gave their all! My opinion is that the clown was one of the funniest I have seen in all circus performances in ANY country! It was a 2 hour show and we had a blast. No language skills necessary:) Well...speaking of language skills, I did manage to tell Roman that the one thing I did not care for at the circus was the turkish toilets in the ladies room. With the language barrier and the fact that they do not call the holes in the ground turkish toilets (I am assuming), all he caught from the conversation was that I did not like something at the circus. This concerned him until he realized that surely I said "circus toilets" and not turkish toilets. Then we were all killing ourselves laughing in the car as he realized I had not encountered this lovely opportunity up until now. So if the wikipedia definition for turkish toilets ever includes "also known as circus toilets" you will know why. I am almost certain now that this was funnier in the car when we did not have all the necessary language skills--it is something akin to playing pictionary but more like russianary. It will either make you mental or you will be killing yourself laughing at some point. And as for the full mental picture of the bathroom just for a post with waaay too much information, consider a row of outhouses, no roofs, with little doors on them that won't lock, and you have to step up 6 inches to a ceramic platform with a hole in the center of it on the platform floor. Do not ask if there is toilet paper, just always keep kleenexes in your pocket. I know why the ladies' boots are so tall in this country now. It is so their feet will stay dry at the circus. ? Only a guess, only a guess. Oh by the way, that first photo is Evan in heaven over getting to go buy cotton candy! We sent him halfway across the event center to buy that stick of manna, and he LOVED it! (duh...)

We will anxiously head over to the orphanage this morning to see if Marina is upset with us for missing our visit last night. Evan came out of the circus and said, Hey! It's dark so we missed Marina! I was near thrilled that he was despondent over that, except that I felt twinges of it as well. We genuinely missed seeing our girl last night and look forward to only a few more days...we should pick up court papers declaring her a Bachman tomorrow. Perhaps birth certificate the same day!?? Maybe today we will hear something good! Pray for our housemate Mel and her adoption journey too, we just got word that her vital statistics person is out sick and she can't get a birth certificate for her son until that person is well and back at work. Maybe the weekend was good to their health and we have worried for nothing! We would love to continue on in sync with her as we head back to Kiev sometime this weekend or early next week and go to the embassy. We ask that prayers be lifted for our own journey to continue on in the grace that has covered us since we set foot here. Thank you.