See the glass toy cubicles in the background?  You know the kind where there’s a pair of metal pinchers inside, and you have to manipulate them to grab the toy you want?  Well, Dan’s able to nab one for Liliana–a light blue elephant holding a red velvet heart.  Afterwards, she doesn’t have as much interest in the elephant as she does in mimicking Dan at the controls.  We have to peel her away, hence the picking her up and soaring her through the air (in the picture above)…and it works.

It’s a perfect morning for walking along the narrow path set above the rocky beaches.  The mountains behind us are dark and topped with clouds.  The sun is making a lazy appearance.  Most of the kiosks and restaurants are not yet open, and the crowds have not arrived.  Liliana can explore to her heart’s content.  Metal sewage grates with leftover rain water in them.  Shiny plastic billboards.  Trash cans with big yawning mouths, perfect for curious hands.  Weeds in the concrete cracks (which she has to get every last bit of for Mama).  Plastic wrappers.  Bottle caps.  Pebbles.  Electrical cords.  Babies in strollers.

We find a restaurant set into the rocky hillside and covered with trellised ivy.  The music is loud, which Liliana is content to bob her head to, and we are the only customers.  Liliana’s a little confused at first.  What happened to her “pirate” restaurant?  We drink cappuccinos and order her another sliced banana.  Over the course of our time with her, she’s gotten used to me finding those Nestle coffee vending machines that are ubiquitous on the Yalta Port main thoroughfare, and she’s also learned that she likes the last bit of Mama’s cappuccino.  Who knew a child could like something so bitter?  Well, okay, I always sprinkle a little sugar in, and this ends up at the bottom, I’m sure, and this is what she loves to spoon out, bit by bit.  She mmmms as she does it.  Today, we pass two of those machines without stopping, and she actually points each time, with a hopeful expression, and when we shake our heads, she does one of her many pouting faces.  How does a child learn these things so fast?  I know, I know.  All you parents out there are chuckling and saying, “Just you wait.”

Tomorrow is the big “judgment day” where the judge gives his final judgment on us being Liliana’s parents.  As soon as our court appointment at 9:00 am, we head to the Department of Vital Statistics in another city somewhere where we pick up her birth certificate and file a request for her Ukrainian passport.  Then we return to Yalta, and if we make it back before a certain time, we can pick up Liliana from the orphanage for good.  If we don’t make it in time, we have to wait until Wednesday morning.

To be her parents…to share in her life…well, I don’t know what to say, really.  I’m just so grateful, and I know Dan is, too.

We talk about how much we’ll be changing this little one’s life, but I think sometimes that we have it all backwards.  We’re the lucky ones.