Mug Shots

It’s Tuesday night and still no internet in the room and no email access. This is starting to become frustrating. Paying by the minute in the business center is not a workable solution, so we’re still just posting once per day.

Today Lisa had her mug shot taken. I should explain. On Friday, we’ll have to get passports for Kim and Peter. They will take one day… pretty amazing considering the wait in the U.S. for a passport. We had Kim and Peter for another half-day today away from the orphanage. One of the things we needed to do with them was have their photos taken for their passports. It turns out that we had to get Lisa another passport photo as well… it’s necessary for the children’s passport/visas. It used to be that they would just photocopy your passport photo. Now, it’s required to get an original photo… at least our translator explained it that way.

Kim and Peter were VERY eager to get out with us today. No repeats of yesterday’s fears leaving the orphanage and no melt downs… lessons learned? They were wearing their usual orphanage clothes. We had them change into some of their new clothes for the photos, but we had the interpreter explain that they’d need to change back so they’d have these clothes once they come to live with us on Friday. They looked very nice for their photos… and the facial expressions were very Russian. No smiles, dull expressionless faces are the norm here. It was explained to us that there is an old Russian saying that “only a fool smiles for no reason.” Nonetheless, the photos are as good as you can ask for passport photos. In fact, Lisa’s is actually better than her U.S. Passport photo (not that it would be hard to get a better photo of her than the one in her passport).

We intentionally did NOT go back to the Galleria today… didn’t want to set a precedent of nothing but going out to expensive fun places when you’re with Mom and Dad. We had a quieter day. We played a little futbol on the plaza outside the hotel after the photos. We had lunch at KFC.
The kids asked for pizza again, but I couldn’t do it two days in a row. We had a Basket (bucket) of extra crispy wings. Peter did not like them… too spicy (they are more spicy here). Once we peeled the coating off, he loved them. No problems with Kim who ate them and wanted more… and had more… and more. She thought it was a fun game to count how many she had and to make sure Papa could keep up. They were less in awe of food today. It was good to see.

Afterward, we had to back to the hotel for them to change and return to the orphanage. We feared that this would be traumatic… giving up their new clothes and putting on the tired, well-worn outfits they wear all the time. It was actually no problem at all. They are getting comfortable with the idea that their things will be here tomorrow. That’s something new for them. They always pleaded to take things back with them before. We’ve tried to explain that whatever they take back to the orphanage might have to stay at the orphanage. I think they understand.

Speaking of orphanage, we spoke to the director this morning to make sure it would be alright for us and the kids to bring some cakes to share with the children when we bring Kim and Peter home on Friday. She said it would be fine, but maybe we would also like to give them a gift for their groups. We had mentioned that we have some school supplies for the groups, some shoes, and some other gifts. She suggested that we might consider “something they could use”… like a digital camera or a DVD player. This is the same woman that drives a new Volvo, wears LOTS of jewelry, and lots of expensive outfits. (While the shoes the kids are wearing are falling apart and Kim ties her pants together with a string). We’re not entirely sure that such items would get much use from the kids. We most definitely will not be giving a cash gift to the orphanage (nor a camera nor DVD player for that matter). We do have very practical gifts… they fit us very well. The gifts will definitely be useful for the kids… and not of much interest to the caregivers.

Today was day 7 of our wait… 3 to go. Beth and Luke are starting to get really sick of Stavropol and I think we are all ready for a change of scenery. We are now half-way through this Russia trip and looking forward to Moscow where there is more to do and see.