The following day (Sunday, September 26th) we went to meet my daughter Shayla's birth mother. Since she does not have a phone, we could not call her and warn her that we were coming. So this was a surprise visit. She had just returned home from work and was not looking her best. But she was still very beautiful to me. We went in and gave everyone presents that we had brought them, sat on the couch and started looking at pictures. She was very upset and crying when she looked at the photo albulm that I brought of Shayla. She kept telling me that she was so pretty. It turns out that there was a lot more to the story about Shayla than I expected. (This I will not get into).. We met Shayla's biological Grandparents, sister & brother, and Uncle. It was a very emotional day for them and also for me. Even though we were total strangers to this family they started cooking dinner and asked us to stay. During dinner, Genya (Shayla's uncle) took out some home made vodka that they made and wanted to make a toast. At this time, there was NO way that Michelle and I could drink anymore vodka. This would be the third day in a row that we were drinking vodka, and remember neither of us usually drink so we were not feeling our best. (smiling....) We sat around and talked for a few hours and then it was time to leave. We arranged to meet again in a few days for lunch and talk some more. All of us together.

The next few days we visited the orphanage. We bought MANY of items for the children that they would need to get them ready for the cold months to come. We bought snow suits, tights, hats, underwear, Diapers, Bibs, Rattles, cloths, dress', toys, and a BUNCH of shoes. We also bought 25 toddler beds, sheets, blankets, and pots and pans. Plus medicine that the doctor said they needed to digest food. Every time that we would go to the orphanage we would bring cookies and breads for the children to eat plus we carried over from America a 300 count bag of Dum Dum lolly pops which they absolutely loved.

Here is some pictures of some children from the orphanage. (I could not fit all these in my story, so they will have a brief description of them)

Me & A sweet 10 mth old girl

Me & A sweet 11 mth old girl

Me & my favorite 3 y.o. boy

Jail Break babies

Babies just hanging out

My Favorite 3 y.o. girl

Just taking a stroll

Me & some of my pals

Not looking so happy

Just Munching

Sweet little babies

Eating good Ol' cookies

Thursday (September 30th) we met Shayla's birth mom again for lunch. We had a wonderful time together and got to talk more about Shayla and how she is doing here in America. Her mother was very nice, and we became really good friends.

The following weekend it was back to visiting and seeing all our friends. On Friday night (October 1st) the translator and her boyfriend decided to take us all out to shoot pool. By this time Michelle's husband had arrived and we wanted to show him the night life in Simferopol'. So after another night of drinking vodka, Michelle and I were not doing so well.

The next day (Saturday October 2nd) Momma decided that she wanted to go to Yalta for the weekend. So a bunch of people got together and left for Yalta. My friend, her boyfriend, my mother and I decided that we would meet them later that day. But after my friend got sick, we did not arrive until the next day. We had shishlee (pork kabob's) in the mountains cooked over a fire that we built. There was a bunch of us there, including one of our friends son's Roman. The mountains and the sea side in Yalta is something that everyone should see while in Ukraine.