Team Redding: Graduation

We took our first taxi since in Ukraine to Yarik's graduation yesterday. We got there about 20 minutes early and as soon as we stepped out of the car, Yarik came running out of the orphanage to meet us. We found some shoes just like Jody's but all black for a graduation gift. We wrapped it and he held on to it the whole time. I think he was so proud to have it and also to have us there. There were only a few people there to watch the graduation. There are a couple of churches who have missionaries that work with the orphans and they were there. It was sad to see these kids being put out on their own. They are so young and not ready for that. Yarik stayed by our sides as much as he could. It was really weird not knowing what was going on. One of the missionaries spoke a little English so she translated as much as she could. She was really sweet. She didn't know Yarik but she did know Tanya and she was so happy that we are adopting her. During the ceremony, every time I looked at Yarik he was just looking at us. He really is a sweet kid. We were talking about it and we guessed that this is the first time anyone has ever come to support him in anything. I doubt if anyone has ever been interested in anything he has done. Alla came at the end of graduation so she could translate for us a little bit. She introduced us to a boy named Pasha who she said was going to be hosted this summer but can't because of the trade school entrance exams. She said they were going to try again for next year. We didn't know they could still be hosted after they graduated. She said they can still be hosted until they are 18. We were really excited to find this out because we were able to tell Yarik that maybe he could come next summer. In order for him to come, the director of his school would have to approve and he would have to stay in school. We are really hoping that we can continue our relationship with him and encourage him to stay in school and start making better choices so that he can come to America for the summer next year. When we started talking about hosting, he told Alla to tell us that he will be free in a few days and could come now. Up until now he has acted like he didn't want to come and when he said this, he seemed so vulnerable. Alla told him that it was too late for the paperwork for this summer. It will have to be next year. We hope to spend some more time with him this week. We shouldn't have a lot of paperwork to do this week so we should be able to spend more time with the kids. Today we are at the mall again. We decided to walk to the other direction and there was an outdoor market there. But, we still ended up here where there is Wifi and we can point at pictures to order food. We thought about moving to an apartment with a washing machine but Jody didn't want to move. I did so he told me that he would wash the clothes if we stayed - so he washed the clothes this morning in the tub. He did a really good job too! Please continue to pray that we will have court next week and continue to pray for sweet Yarik.

These are teachers at the orphanage who conducted the ceremony.

This is Yarik and the director of the orphanage.

Alla and Ellie. Ellie was so proud of Yarik. She said that you could tell he is everyone's favorite because he had the loudest claps. She was right too!

Pasha, Sveta, and Yarik. Sveta sang a couple of songs at the graduation. I will try to post one at the end.

I don't know all the names. Yarik liked for me to take pictures of him with his friends. This little girl is pregnant. I asked Yarik who the father is and he didn't know.