The Carpathian mountain region is truly a beautiful area. The people of the town of Svaliava refer to their town as a big village & it really is like taking a step back in time. No credit cards are accepted here. Most of the roads here are rocky dirt roads with the exception of the main road through the middle of town which is a form of cobblestone.
To get around some people drive, but we see a large number of people walking & riding bikes. You will even find horse drawn wagons transporting people & supplies through town.
We are currently staying at the residence of a local family, arranged by the orphanage director. They have a couple extra bedrooms that they periodically rent out to adoptive families & have generously opened up their home to us during our stay here.
Their home is a 30 minute walk from the orphanage which makes it easy for us to walk to all our visits. Except when is rains, then we have to get a ride. The thunderstorms here are quick & fierce (lots of lighting & loud thunder that rumbles through the mountains).
Our Translater “Max”, headed back to Kiev a few days ago to file our official petition to adopt Avery. Assuming that everything gets processed smoothly & we get all the official approvals that we need, we tentatively have a court date set for July 23rd. Max will return on the 22nd to be here in time for our court date.
