I (Ron ) awoke as usual, around five am. By the time I was dressed and out of the bathroom, Pippa opened one eye to tell me Andry was looking for me. She had checked him many times during the night and morning. She talked to him when he had come in from the balcony and curled into his indoor bed. I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk. He answered, “Yez, but I no have…” and he gestured to my belt. (He had left his belt back at the Kiev apartment and since he has no hips, his pants keep falling down.) I took off my belt, handed it to him and he got up and got dressed.
We walked up and down some of the muddy ski trails. In the winter, Bukovel is no doubt quite beautiful. They’re building new trails and lodges all over the place, hoping to land a future winter Olympics. Andry’s mood was cheerful and he even struggled more to express himself directly to us in English instead of speaking Spanish to Olya, so she would translate for him.
We got back to our ski lodge, gathered Olya and Pippa, Vassily and Yelana and went to breakfast. Everything was PLEASANT. Andry worked on a language workbook with Pippa that she had brought for him from Miami.
We came back to our lodge and sat Andry down to revisit our last night’s conversation. Through Yelana’s translation, we asked him if he had decided, “Did he still want to be a part of our family?” He answered quickly that he wanted to be a part of the family. We said just as quickly that was also exactly what we wanted, for him to be a part of our family.
We immediately lightened the conversation and talked about how Olya had a hard time in the beginning to be a part of the family. We explained how she also had bad moods in the early days, would never say thank you, hello or goodbye, but now she is incredibly thoughtful, cheerful and responsive. We went on to explain how our family works, we have fun together. Sometimes one person gets their way––that we do what that person wants, then other times the other person has the choice. But the important thing was that we did not get mad when it was not our turn. We also watch out for one another so everyone is safe. Olya kept the mood light by tickling and tackling everyone and Andry’s face was always smiling or pleasant and nodding agreement.
The whole group of them went off to go on the chair lift ride except for me (Ron). Heights are not fun for me and while I’ve been a skier all my life and taken five million chair lifts, it is only when I have skis on my feet and must go up to come down. Ski lifts or any kind of height are not a voluntary choice for me.
Andry left with my very expensive Canon around his neck announcing he was going to be the photographer for “all zis day.” I said, “ok, but please change the camera’s language back to English from Spanish when you get back.”
On the lift Olya and I sat in one chair. Andry, Yelana and Vasilly each in their own chairs. Andry took his job as photographer seriously. He called to Olya and me to turn and pose for pics.
Horses were grazing below us and Andry took some great aerial shots.
I showed Andry how to change the background image on my computer. He took down the photo Olya had put up of her and the puppy and replaced it with the image above. I think it's beautiful.
Once at the top of the mountain the five of us explored the beautiful forest. Seeing horse poop in the woods Andry made-up a story about the poop coming from giant frogs that live in the forest. We needed to be careful because the frogs attack and drink your blood. Today is so different than yesterday!!!
Me being the giant, bloodsucking, mountain frog.
Yelana enjoying the sunshine.
While having a cold drink at the mountain top café Andry asked if he could hike down the mountain instead of riding the ski lift. It looked okay to me but before answering him I had Yelana go ask the ski lift operator if it was safe to walk down the mountain and how long it would take. Thirty minutes and it’s safe but a little slippery and muddy; the operator said the walk was not a good idea.
Andry still wanted to do the walk and he wanted me to go too. I was excited that he wanted my company but I’m not the mountain goat he is! I said “yes” immediately knowing that those muddy slippery steps down the mountain were going to be important steps in our relationship.
Andry and I set off. (Olya was too little to make the long hike and happy to ride the lift back with Yelna and Vasilly.) I was under a lot of pressure because Andry was timing our hike. He wanted to make it to the bottom of the mountain faster than the 30 minutes the ski lift operator had predicted.
Without me Andry could have made the hike in 10 minutes because he was able to run and jump down the mountain. I had to carefully go step-by-step placing my feet in the deep footprints the horses had made during their climb so I wouldn’t slip.
Knowing I was really slowing Andry down, I encouraged him to go ahead without me so he could get his low time. He didn’t though. Many times he even reached out to me so I wouldn’t slip. He talked a lot telling me interesting times from life in Ukraine and his holidays in Spain. We still made the decent in less than 20 minutes. He was happy so I was happy.
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