Happy Halloween! Ukraine Style.

Well, I figured I would bump Lindsey off here for one evening. I’m starting to get jealous of all of her posts and how popular they have been. 🙂 Also, I apologize for not updating yesterday, but after being here in Ukraine for nearly three weeks and being on a very consistent, yet repetitive schedule in the morning with Jackson, there really wasn’t all that much to write about. Last night I was hogging up the computer downloading a rented movie from iTunes. Thank goodness for Apple! They have been our only source of American English television entertainment while we have been over here. Netflix, Hulu and most other sites are blocked. I mostly listen to podcasts during the week when we are visiting Jackson or taking naps. And as for movies, they take about 4 hours to download on our 3G cell phone modem we are using, which is why we weren’t on the computer much last night.

Before I get into today’s visit with our boy, I’ll shortly explain how tiresome this country is becoming for us. We absolutely love our mornings with Jackson, but we get home around noon and our day usually just consists of eating lunch, taking a long afternoon nap, walking a mile or two to the grocery store and carrying back big jugs of water (We can’t drink the tap here or we’ll get sick), and then watching Ukraine’s MTV shows like “16 and Pregnant”, “Disaster Date”, and “Room Raiders”. All with Russian voiceovers of course, so you can barely make out the English in the background. Then at night, we try to Skype our families, Lindsey plays a little bit of “Angry Birds” on my iPod, and then we call it a day.

Fun eh? 🙂 It’s actually not that bad. We are definitely getting a lot of rest before we take Jackson out of the orphanage, but this culture and the area is getting a little boring. The outside smells like smoke, it’s dark by 5 P.M., and there’s not really much to see around here in Kharkiv. There are plenty of buildings around and a McDonalds, but that’s about all you get here in this city. Well that, and the river across from our apartment. They have a nice walkway by the river with benches and a lamp post that people are always strolling along by. But, by evening it turns into what I like to call “Lover’s Lane”. There’s not a night that goes by when we are walking home where you won’t see a couple smooching on a bench, or a girl cuddled up in the arms of their teen heart throb. Heck, walking home tonight, there was a couple standing in the middle of the walkway, smooching away in front of everyone. PDA is obviously a.o.k. here on Lover’s Lane! Oh, and that reminds me – love was also apparently in the air on the other side of the shared wall to our neighbor’s apartment a few nights ago. So much so, let’s just say we had to leave the room in laughter. Oh, goodness!

So, yeah. We’re about ready to go home and get out of this place. Where I can once again speak to Americans, where I can once again, enjoy a meal that is not instant or tastes funny, and where I can once again take a hot shower that lasts for more than 5 minutes! I know this will all be worth it in the end though!

As for our visits with Jackson. That little guy is really testing us, which is cute. We are really focusing now on keeping him sat down and focusing on one activity. Jackson doesn’t always like this so much – he’s thrown a few fits, but overall he’s been very good once corrected and will stay still. Usually by the end of our visit he gets very cuddly with his Mama and Papa. We are so excited that in just eight days we will take him out of that orphanage and start the process of getting him home (and us) safe and sound. Anyway, Jackson wanted to show a little bit of his Halloween flare that we dressed him up in, mullet and all, for you this evening. I hope you enjoy!