Kim's photo essay

Day 8 of the wait… just one more day of waiting and then we can take custody of the kids on Friday. Still no Internet for regular use and no email. We’re sure glad that we only bought the 150MB wireless access package and not the 500 MB. We’ve used about 40 MB before it went down… nearly a week ago.

Today was much like the last two. We were able to get the kids around 9:30 in the morning, bring them back to the hotel, and then they had to return to the orphanage at 1:00. Today’s lunch was at our favorite ice cream cafe. Its name is Kafe Karamel, but we just refer to it as Kafe Mahrozhena (mahrozhena is ice cream). We had pizza and some ice cream. We’re learning to communicate better. We all understood when Kim kept asking if it was “fkoosna, da eelee nyet” (delicious, yes or no). Before lunch we walked the kids down to the open-air market and we were able to buy the girls some sweaters. We had told Beth and Luke that they could pick a souvenir from Russia and she wanted a sweater. We overestimated Kim’s size in the clothes we brought so she’ll be a little bit lighter on outfits than we had planned. We bought her sweater to supplement the wardrobe. Neither of the Russian kids was very comfortable at the market and both wanted to leave as soon as possible. We wondered if maybe we unearthed an old ghost in their memories. We did not stay very long.

Kim absolutely LOVES to take photographs. She takes out the camera and starts shooting whenever she can get her hands on it. Most of her pictures are pretty good, but there is also the occasional picture of nothing but blue sky… no clouds, no nothing but sky. We’re glad it’s digital and not film… the developing would be a fortune. She’s probably taken a hundred photos so far (note: Grandpa W will have someone who will keep up with him with the camera on trips and such). Here are a few of Kim’s photos of Stavropol. Her perspective is unique. There are lots more including several self-portraits that we can’t show until we have them… two more days.

This evening we went back to the Galleria for dinner. We tried yet another place in the food court. This one served Russian food. Although my Russian is getting a lot better, I’m still not to the point where I consider myself to be speaking Russian. Fortunately for the poor folks behind the counter, there was a worker at the next counter who spoke English. They fetched him quickly, but we probably didn’t need him. We’re doing pretty well at ordering anymore. I just start with “Ya ploha gavaryoo pa Rooski” (I don’t speak much Russian)… they sigh, nod, and away we go. We can say “Ya hachoo eta” (I want this) and point… they say “skolka” (how many), I say the correct number of servings and say “skolka stoyit” (how much does it cost), they answer, I know my numbers so I actually understand them, I pay… ta da… we eat. Not as hard as we thought it might be. There is also a steady stream of foreigners here adopting, so they are getting used to our broken Russian.

After dinner, we stopped by the video and software store in the Galleria again. We bought Kim and Peter each two more games (for Christmas and Birthdays… don’t tell them! Wait… unless you speak Russian, you can’t tell them!). The real purpose of the games is to help them keep as much of their Russian as possible. It’s not our only strategy for this, but it should help. We also bought three movies. We have become savvy enough to look for movies that are listed as “ALL” regions so they will play on the DVD back home (and on our computer). We also know how to look for whether the soundtrack is in Russian only, or also in English. We found several good choices, all for 150 rubles each ($5.45). We got out of there with 3 movies and 4 computer games for 910 rubles ($33.09). Tonight we had our friends from Louisiana back over to watch one of the movies. It was “The Water Horse” and we enjoyed it a lot… it’s either pretty good or we just liked having something in English to watch… I can’t really tell anymore. We also bought “Kung-Fu Panda” and an animated “Star Wars”. We can watch in English here to kill time, and the kids can watch in Russian at home to remind them of here. A win-win proposition. At that price, we may go buy a few more.

Tomorrow will be more of the same… we get the kids from 9:30 – 1:00. In the afternoon we’ll go to the market to buy cakes and flowers for the orphanage. Flowers are culturally a very big thing here, so they should make a nice addition to our very practical (and not adequately extravagant by Russian expectations for “rich” American adopters) gifts for the orphanage. On Friday, we’ll get the translated court papers releasing the children into our custody. We’ll have a little bit of paperwork to do related to signing them and then getting the passports underway. After that, we’ll go get them and bring them home. Good night… and Happy Birthday Brendia… we’d call but… well… you understand.
Note: All photos in this post were taken by photographer Kimberly Yana Merrick.