February 26

We traveled first class on an overnight train trip to Kramatorsk, north of Donetsk. First class means just two passengers per cabin. It doesn't mean you should leave your duct tape at home.















Let me tell you about Masha's family. Masha's older brother Andreii picked us up from the train station. He is a mechanic but doesn't have much work now. Although Masha can drive, for longer, more complicated trips where extra traffic and directions and parking and watching the pretty nice car might be issues, he can be our driver. We have quite a bit of skibbling to do--from our lodging to this or that orphanage to this or that social worker's office to this or that regional official's office to this or that superdoopermarket. Remarkably, Kramatorsk is Masha's home, so we and she are very glad that she can stay each night at her home with her husband and two children (11 and 2). I don't know his name. Let's call him Yuri. Yuri is employed with a mobile phone company as a marketing manager. Masha's mother, Natasha, who also lives in Kramatorsk, is not employed other than to watch Masha's children while she and Yuri are at work. Natasha has a home with Masha's stepdad Stas that also has something like a "summer house" on the same property. Natasha and Stas offered to move into their summer house and we could rent their house. Stas can also be our driver, as he doesn't have work right now.

And it's our job to keep Masha's mom's cats from eating Masha's mom's husband's fish.
















The house is quintessientially Ukrainian in decor. The walls and ceiling and carpets curtains are all flowery. The house must be hundreds of years old and has been remodeled many times. There are holes and pipes and wires strung everywhere. This gives us compassion for what the new children will have to learn--trying to find light switches, figuring out how to use new appliances, etc. I am, however, typing on Stas's computer, using his Internet service. He's very proud of his new color printer/scanner/copier, but I won't be needing that.















We visited two delightful children today. Unfortunately they are several hours away from each other in different orphanages. They are adorable, but we've been warned not to get too attached until all the hoops have been missed once and jumped through on the second or third try.