Family of Six - Day 1

You know the drill…. No internet, no email… and blogger has been unavailable to us for 3 days now. We wonder if the site is being blocked in this region for some reason because we couldn’t view the pages. I tried using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and I could log-in to blogger, but when I tried to upload anything, I just got a blank page and was not able to see anymore blogger pages after that. We will have to wait until Moscow to post the last few days.

Today the waiting ended. It’s something we’ve been working toward for what seems forever. It was actually pretty brief and anti-climatic at the orphanage. We were picked up a little before 9:00 am and taken to the orphanage for the last time. We took clothes for the kids to change into that matched what had laid out for Beth and Luke to wear. We also took a couple bags of gifts for the orphanage and some flowers for the Director. She wasn’t there, so the kids left them on her desk. We were sent with Kim and Peter to their respective group areas to help them change. Lisa went with Kim and I with Peter. It was the first time any of us had seen Peter’s group area. Apparently Russian men must not know anything about how to help a boy change clothes. When Peter and I entered the group area, a group of 3 caregivers took his bag, pulled out his new clothes… piece by piece, inspecting each one. They must have passed muster because they all smiled and nodded. Then they helped strip him and change him. I tried to help, but mostly was bumped out of the way … the ladies know what they are doing and I might mess it up. I did get to help put his belt on him… barely. Lisa did well on guessing his sizes. The length of his pants was perfect. The waist was about 4 sizes too big, but the length was perfect. They’ll fit better after a few good meals. We then returned to the entrance foyer where there were hugs all around. Both of our kids had a small grocery bag that contained all of their possessions and a few gifts from friends. Peter had a new shirt in there… and some OLD slippers. Not really crazy about the smell from the old slippers, but I can’t get rid of them… Lisa says so and she’s the boss on such things. We took a couple of photos and then we left. One interesting note was the number of caregivers who came out to say goodbye, but not a single child. In fact, we saw fewer children today than on any previous visits. Not much fanfare to the goodbye ceremony… in fact, there was no ceremony, just a few personal goodbyes. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. We’re so glad we sent the cakes and worker gifts with the kids last night so that they could celebrate with their friends. There was no time or opportunity for such things this morning.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and met with our regional coordinator at an official building of some sort. We went inside and were issued the kids’ new birth certificates and their certificates of adoption. We had to sign several documents that we still have no idea what they actually say. We’re getting used to that by now. Our regional coordinator took all the paperwork and Lisa’s passport and left to get the kids’ passports made. We got them all back with two shiny red Russian passports around 4:00 this afternoon.

The day was a little trying on all of us. Kim and Peter had different responses to today than we had expected. We thought Peter would struggle and Kim would be very happy. It was the other way around. Peter kept smiling and talked like a magpie all morning… more than he ever had before. Kim took it very hard. She was very quiet and serious at the orphanage and then had an emotional breakdown back at the hotel. It turned out that she had a friend that she was not able to say goodbye to. She kept looking at her journal at a letter from her friend and her friend’s picture and crying. One of the ladies from the front desk of the hotel was kind enough to come translate for us a little so we could understand the problem. After a phone call to the friend to say goodbye, all was better… note quite great yet, but much better. The rest of the day was spent taking some photos and playing a little in the room. The kids are now QUITE SICK AND TIRED of photos. We probably won’t take many tomorrow. We did go skating at the Galleria for a final time.

It is obvious that the first few weeks are going to be difficult as we try to communicate with them and as they learn a lot of the social behaviors that we take for granted in family interactions, respecting parents, and out in public. Lets just say that dinner at a nice restaurant to celebrate was quite an adventure for two kids who have no idea how to conduct themselves at a restaurant. The kids have no concept of waiting… the food is ready at the orphanage before the kids come in. Not so at a restaurant… that had never dawned on us before. Peter stood up and yelled at our astonished waiter… I think he said something along the lines of “Hey, where’s my food?” I understood the waiter telling him that it would be around 15 minutes. Peter rolled his eyes and slunk back into his chair and pouted a little. He also liked to drink his tea from his spoon as if it were soup… with a loud slurp. So much to learn and so many opportunities to take advantage of. Today is the first day of a long and exciting journey.