Second Week (Long) Wrap Up and New Photos

Hi Everybody –

Not much happened yesterday. Since we couldn’t reach our regular driver Román, we ended up hanging around the hotel, reading and surfing and not doing much else. It rained most of the day, so we didn’t venture out. Román has been very steady and dependable, so we’re hoping he’s okay and he comes back next week. My guess is something happened to his cell phone.

As opposed to yesterday, today was pretty eventful. Our translator Marina had a plan even though she still couldn’t reach Román – she’s really good at handling everything long-distance, since she’s back in Kiev. We got in the taxi the front desk called for us, handed the driver our cell phone, Marina explained where he should take us, and we were off. And I do mean off – this particular driver should try out for NASCAR. He got us to the orphanage in about 12 minutes instead of the usual 20. It’s always an adventure when you get into a car here. Ooops, I mean machina.

When we got to the orphanage, John’s pain pills hadn’t fully kicked in yet, so he was really hoping we’d be able to play inside today. But when the kids came down to the entryway, they were pretty darned bundled up, so we went outside. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring as many toys as usual since we were planning on being in the playroom, but we made do. We did have cookies, apple juice, and the little pretend iPods from the Happy Meals. And wipes – those are a huge hit, too. Usually about an hour after we go outside the littlest group of toddlers all come out in a gaggle to play – they come out holding hands in the cutest little hats. We’ll try to get some photos of that, and I’d really like to find some of those hats if we can. Very stylish.

Anyway, today we got to play with all three kids. We hadn’t seen Valentina all week, except from the window, but apparently she’s feeling much better. You could tell just from looking at her she’s almost back to normal, her eyes are full of life. And she looked like a miniature fashion model in her red and pink outfit.



Little Miss Thang, who turns 2 October 1.














Definitely feeling better.







Saturdays are busy at the orphanage, which you can see a little bit from this photo. Today there were two Italian families and probably 5 or 6 Ukrainian families. And most of the papas get to come on Saturday, since they’re off work. We did pretty well outside for the most part - Alex Maksim and Talia Ira didn’t run off as much as usual, so they must be getting used to us. It definitely changes from man-to-man coverage to zone coverage when you go from 2 to 3 kids. Vala’s not terribly mobile yet, which is a blessing. She did have a couple of minor meltdowns but I don’t think that’s at all unusual for a little girl that turns 2 in a couple of weeks. It was the funniest thing – for Vala every adult is Mama. Very frustrating for John, who spent all morning trying to get her to say Papa. Very frustrating for him, very funny for me.

All kids in an orphanage will have some type of developmental delay, at the very least from the institutional living aspect, but Alex Maksim and Talia Ira don’t seem to have very much of a social delay. Compared to the other kids we’ve seen that have been there longer, that is. I know they’ll each have their own set of issues to deal with, willful disobedience and temper being at the top of the list, but they seem to be pretty good at communicating. Now, if we could only understand WHAT THE HECK they’re saying. Poor kids, we’re really frustrating them by not speaking their language. You should hear the sighs. They do tend to go to any adult that speaks Russian over coming over and hanging out with us. But hopefully they’ll be little sponges and pick up English very quickly once we get home. I’m sure VeggieTales, SpongeBob and the Disney channel will help with that. They continue to be fascinated with any toy that makes sound or music. One of the other couples took a new family photo for us:











After the visit we came back to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, and started the hike up the big hill to – wait for it – McDonald’s. Yippee. Although, it is inexpensive and predictable, which can be a good thing in a different country, I’m thinking I may never eat there again once we get home. John of course is very good at ordering there. Most things are the same, but not everything, plus the menu is in Russian (Cyrillic alphabet).

After lunch we wandered over to a farmer’s market area, which was really interesting. There were dozens of little shops, plus rows of vendors with fresh fruit and veggies. Made me wish we had a refrigerator in the hotel room. All the produce I’ve tried here has been really good and flavorful, most of the breads ehhh, not so much. The kids will usually pick fruit over candy, a trend that I’m hoping to continue at home. You should see them when one of the other parents starts handing out grapes, or cookies – one yells at the other and they both make a beeline for the food. I think their first English word was cookie. The second one, juice.

In the market area we bought an umbrella, a tote bag with lots of zippered pockets, and a (probably bootleg) DVD with kids movies on it (in Russian). We’re starting to plan for the train and plane rides. We’ll be stocking up on snacks, downloading cartoons from iTunes, and trying to find Dramamine just in case. Also, we’re trying to decide if we should try to find a single or double stroller, and definitely child safety harnesses. Getting through an airport with all our luggage when the older two will happily go to any adult will be a trick.

Marina told us today that our paperwork will be approved on Monday, and will be submitted to the court by our attorney on Tuesday. We couldn’t quite figure out if Tuesday will be our actual court date, especially since we don’t have to be there. Hopefully we’ll get more details from Marina soon. She did say previously that the court has recently decided that they only wanted to see lawyers – not coordinators, not translators, not adoptive parents – so maybe this WILL be our court date. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we can find out.

Tomorrow will be another long, lazy day. Also probably laundry day. We got a travel laundry line made of braided surgical rubber – it will really stretch. We hook one end on the inside doorknob, the other on the closet door handle – and pray no one from housekeeping tries to come in when we’re not here. It would basically function as a huge slingshot. And it wouldn’t be pretty.

It seems odd to think we’ve been here a little over two weeks. It seems both longer AND shorter than that. The people here in this growing mining town are very nice, and try to be as helpful as they can. But we’re really starting to miss home and things from home (our sleep number bed being #1 on the list). Hopefully we’ll know more soon about when we might be coming home. We’re so thankful for your continued prayers, emails, and comments on the blog. Keep it up – it’s really encouraging!

Thanks!

JoEllen : >