Cheers, Beers and Tears

Well we started this week out with a birthday celebration. Our little one turned 8 on Monday so we tried our best to have a birthday. After 5 children, the Hughes have done a couple of birthdays but this one was a little different. We intentionally made it small to make sure we don't overwhelm her. We've already noticed that when things get too heavy, she gets goofy so we're trying to move slow. We were able to use a big room, which was kind of the staff and we found some old photo albums with a certain someone in them. Not sure if that was just coincidental or kindness, but we enjoyed them none the less. One of the standard features of visits now is a very active rock-a-bye baby with Beth. She insists on several bouts each time.

That night we decided to explore one of my forebear's haunts. Some of you may know that John James Hughes headed a steel company in Donetsk in the mid 1800's. Hughes brought his Welsh iron knowledge and established the iron works empire which is the foundation of the wealth in this region.     The best thing is though, he had a cool name and even better is the restaurant they named after him. There is nothing better than English food cooked by Ukrainians! Add to that beer that they pipe to your table and it's Heaven. It really was a great experience with great food, service and facility that all four of us enjoyed. I even got a souvenir glass!  It's definitely going to be a repeat experience.

That brings us to today. When we first met our girl, she understood that we were from Canada and not "Amerika".  For some reason today she thought she was going to the US which is where all her friends were adopted to. When we reminded her we are from Canada she fell to pieces and started to cry. This is far too big a thing for her to understand. Between Beth comforting her and our facilitator explaining some thing's to her over the phone, we worked it out for now. The good thing is that she was able to receive comfort by Beth, which we all know, will need to happen countless times as we travel this sod. The sad thing was realizing that she has been disappointed many times in her life I'm sure, and this instance was another one and we were a part of it. It was all smiles when we left so we look forward to seeing her tomorrow.