Good Night Stavropol

We had hoped for a good LONG night’s sleep last night. The kids had other thoughts. With four kids sleeping in the same room of our two-room hotel “suite” (with 3 in a queen bed, one on a roll-away), as soon as one stirs, they all stir… Then they all go into the next room and jump into bed with Mama and Papa. It was actually kind of nice… except it was before 7:00 in the morning on a day when we had absolutely no time-commitments other than the breakfast bar (closes at 10:30 am). So much for sleeping in. On the positive side, we had a pretty good morning that turned into a pretty good day.

Today was Saturday, so there was a little more activity around the hotel and the shopping areas around it. After breakfast (the kids were VERY impressed at all the choices and the fact that they could have seconds if they wanted), we spent much of the morning in the hotel. The girls went over to the shopping area with Lisa to buy a few Stavropol magnets that Lisa will turn into a Christmas Tree Ornament (we get one for every milestone event in our lives… it’s fun to take them out every year and remember). The boys stayed in with me. They played computer games TOGETHER and it was great to see… sometimes it was English language games and sometimes Russian language games… like one of our favorites, "Pajamchick Sam" (we have some other Pajama Sam games at home). It’s actually really pretty neat to see games you know in a new language. We had lunch at the baked potato kafe (still one of our favorites… the staff all know us by now and they no longer cringe when we walk in the door). We really wanted to have Kim and Peter split a baked potato because we knew neither would finish one… but how do you have the new kids share and the old kids each get their own at such an early point in our family’s history? So we had two half-eaten potatoes when we were done. We had some mild hurdles today, but overall not too bad. I’d guess that there were maybe one third as many “nee hachoos” as yesterday and they were not as forceful. None were more than we were expecting nor ready for. We are already getting used to each other.

I’d really like to take a minute and both praise and thank Beth and Luke for their incredible patience with this. They’ve endured seeing two complete strangers horn-in on their special relationships with their parents. That has to be hard, but they’ve been a patient as possible and more than could be reasonably expected of any child. We have two very special kids in these two. I only hope that their new brother and sister can become something like them in this way. Beth and Luke “took a dive” in most of the 57 games of tic-tac-toe while we waited for lunch to be ready. It was cute when Beth didn’t know what to do when she was trying to let Peter win and it was her move. She had only 3 places to put her “X” left on the board and all three would win the game. Today, Peter learned to write his name. The kids all had to write their names on each game that they won. Kim could already do it before we arrived this time… she’s been practicing. Last night, Lisa and I discreetly went through the things they brought from the orphanage with them so see if there were any potential problem items and to learn more about the kids lives. Kim has a little notebook / journal in which she’s been drawing heart pictures and writing “Love Mama y Papa” for months. She also had a lot of our letters. She also had an old photo from 1988 that showed what appeared to be a group of schoolgirls about her age. This afternoon she took it out and pointed to the one that looked just like her and told me this was her old Mama. We gained a little bit of information about their birthmother from the court papers that we will be able to share with Kim and Peter when they are old enough to seek their history.

Tonight we packed up two weeks worth of stuff and got ready to travel tomorrow. All four kids are excited about it. We will leave the hotel around 6:15am and our flight to Moscow is at 8:00 am. The kids are all in bed and quiet now… it takes a little while to get them calmed down, but nothing unreasonable. We’ll have to get them (and us) up and moving tomorrow, so it’s time to say goodnight. It’s more than just Good Night to Stavropol, it’s goodbye. Goodbye to this city that we’ve come to know and no longer feel as awkward in. Goodbye to this hotel where we are going stir crazy. Goodbye to Alex and Vlad and the ladies at the front desk who’ve been very helpful. Goodbye to seeking alternatives to “fresh burger”. Goodbye to old lives apart and old hurts. Hello Moscow, here come the Merricks.