Great Day

It has been such a great day!  We had a quick breakfast in our apartment and then headed out for the day.  We walked and showed Sasha several things in Kiev that he had not yet seen like the Opera House, several of the beautiful Russian Orthodox churches, and the SDA, where by the way, we just happened to pick up his baby picture from his file!!!!!  I am so happy they agreed to give it to us.  His face when I showed it to him was just priceless.  Mary, the SDA worker with whom we had our referral appointment back in September, brought it out to me.  She had an appointment waiting on her, a couple from Minnesota, but they all waited to see what Sasha's reaction was.  It was such a great moment.  He smiled from ear to ear and hugged me so tight.  He even had his first, Sasha-initiated hug with Ali.  So here it is.....

He was happy that he looks like Scott with his hair.  :)  He has still not stopped talking about 'Sasha baby.'  We have loaded this pic of his pic onto his iPod touch and he set it as his background.  Then he wanted to see it on my phone and Ali's phone.  He is so very proud.

That really was the highlight of our day....made me cry to get such a treasure.

There are lots of souvenir stalls around the SDA and it is the first time I have let Sasha pick out a few things.  No soccer jerseys or beanies or Ukrainian flags - which I thought he might want.  The boy has his own mind about things.  A few of the vendors tried to convince him to get several 'boy' things but he would wrinkle his nose and shake his head.  I had told him that he could choose one thing and he was holding firm.  Then he spotted some watches.  He looked and looked and finally chose one.  He is so happy with his new watch!  Then we picked out a few other things for his siblings which he seemed to enjoy.  We ate lunch at an Italian place that was so incredibly good.  Sasha got some vegetable soup that really was the best soup I have ever tasted.  Ali had her stand by of spaghetti and I had some delicious cheese-filled ravioli.  It was such a great meal and of course, we pulled out Sasha's pic and talked and smiled about it some more.  By this time we had walked about an hour away from our apartment so we decided we should start heading back.  About fifteen minutes into our walk, Sasha suddenly says, "Bathroom!"  We kept walking, watching for a public restroom or anything.  Then he started doing what we call the potty dance.  We stopped at the first restaurant we saw at that point.  I figured we could have some coffee or something and he could use their restroom.  Well it ended up being a much swankier place than we have visited since we have been here.  We had to stop and check our coats even.  We did order some coffee and Sasha wanted some ice cream so of course, Ali and I had to get some dessert as well.  I have never had dessert served like this:

The top picture is my cheesecake made to look like a mushroom on the forrest floor.  Everything on the plate was edible.  And it was delicious.  The bottom pic is Ali's chocolate cake filled with apricot filling.  They were such beautiful desserts.  We had put our souvenir bags on the floor between our chairs.  The server promptly brought over a folding stool and proceeded to put our bags on it.  And Sasha was intrigued with the pepper grinder....on the nice white tablecloth.  I know they were ready for us to get out of there!  It was an expensive bathroom break but ended up being a great treat to top off a great day.

Ali doing what Ali does best.  :)

A requisite church pic.

Sasha on the all-too-familiar-to-some-of-you SDA couch.  We were waiting and praying for the pic.

Sasha and me at Oliva's, the Italian restaurant.

Ali and Sasha at Oliva's.

Sorry, I can't help but to put one more up!

Hope your day has been as great as ours!  Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!!!