Six on Six

Still no Internet in the room and no email. As they say at the front desk (everyday)… maybe tomorrow?

Today (Monday) was day 6 of our 10-day wait and it was a very special day. This morning, the orphanage director granted us permission to take the kids with us away from the orphanage for the morning. It was something we really thought would be good for Peter. He doesn’t do “new” terribly well in that he is not very adventurous and gets very timid in new situations. He proved us right almost immediately. In fact… it was immediately. The director sent Kim to get him (he’s still in the infirmary but he’s been symptom free for days… I think you have to stay a week if you get sent over there). She got his coat and a hat. I say “A hat” because it apparently wasn’t “HIS” hat. He immediately rejected it and got quite sullen. He kept saying “nee hachoo” (I don’t want it), crossing his arms and looking very contrary. He didn’t want to leave… under the pretext that he didn’t like this hat. The truth is that in Russia it is not acceptable for boys to be afraid. He couldn’t admit that he was scared to leave his familiar surroundings. By making up the issue with the hat, he could try to save face.

On the way back to the hotel with the kids, he sat on Lisa’s lap. She kept commenting that if he were an old man, she would think he was having a heart attack because his heart was beating so quickly. Once we were almost to the hotel, he was fine. Once we got in the door, he was great. We think this might have been his first ever ride in an elevator based on how much he loved it and was in awe of it. We stopped briefly by the room… so he could see it before he actually moves into it as well as to drop of the bag we took to the orphanage in case we could only visit there and not bring them with us. The computer game we bought here that teaches English was a big hit. We can't understand the instructions, but Kim and Peter can.

We spent the morning wandering around the area close to the hotel taking photos at the local landmarks… all the time with them begging to go to the Galleria. Kim had been there before when a friend was being adopted and she was able to tag along to keep her company. After what the kids thought was entirely too much time with the “photographia”, we finally went to the Galleria. Immediately they wanted to ride up and down the escalators. Then we went to the bottom floor to ice skate. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the next available timeslot, so the kids wanted to play the video games in the arcade. Time for meltdown #2. We gave each of the kids a token for one game ($1 each). Peter went first and played a shooting game which was over very quickly (he’s a lousy shot). Then when the other kids had their turns for a game, he wanted to do another game. We said no. He doesn’t really care for “no”, so he became sullen and withdrawn again. He doesn’t really do temper tantrums, he just pouts and tries to walk away a few feet. We then went over to skate and he was still pouting and therefore saying “Nee hachoo” to everything. I gave him the choice to skate with the other kids or to stay with me and Lisa. “Nee Hachoo”. So he didn’t get to skate. His response tells us that he’s not used to choices having consequences. He’ll learn. About 15 minutes into the kids skating, he decided he wanted to skate. Too Late. Life lessons start early and aren’t always fun. This one really wasn’t too bad, but we hoped that it is a start toward normal relations. Lisa took him for walk on the escalators and up and down the glass elevator… he thought that was very cool… even if it wasn’t skating.

After skating, we went to the pizza place. I asked him right before “Pizza, da elee nyet” (Pizza, yes or no). He gave a very quiet “yes” this time. He’s learning already. We ordered TWO pizzas for the six of us and let each kid pick out their own can of drink. You’d have thought we gave them the crown jewels the way they immediately latched onto their cans and weren’t going to give them up. Peter was so excited about it that he half-shook up his can of Koka-Kola. We were very careful about opening it. When the pizza came, we learned that, yes, the kids are used to using silverware (not all orphanage kids are). They were thrilled to have a whole piece of pizza to themselves. When we gave them a second piece their jaws dropped open. There are no seconds at the orphange where they sometimes get a “3 course” dinner (as explained by the director). Three courses means juice, mashed potatoes, AND soup! You should have seen their faces when the second pizza was brought to the table. Complete and absolute disbelief… and VERY big smiles.

Afterward, Kim kept asking “Gasteeneetza” (hotel). We stopped back by the room. We’re pretty sure she was actually trying to ask us if she could stay with us now and not wait. Unfortunately, today they only had a taste of living with a family. It’s not real yet. They had to go back. Neither made a sound the whole way back to the orphanage. You could see on Kim’s normally very happy and very expressive face that she was really hurting. She looked like she wanted to cry… but she’s never cried in front of us. She and her brother sat like statues the whole time. Unmoving, unspeaking, unresponding. When we reached the orphanage, Peter told our interpreter (who rejoined us for the drive… we had the kids without him) that he didn’t want to go back to the orphanage. Lessons and all, this was a good thing to him and he didn’t want it to end. That was good to hear. The interpreter promised that we would come back tomorrow (we’ll probably get them for a half-day again… we hope). Kim quietly walked back in and had to go off to her group. Peter turned around and walked out the door… back to the infirmary. The interpreter “joked” that “look, he knows where he belongs”. Peter was expressionless and just trudged back across the parking lot… holding the coloring book we gave him. It’s REALLY hard to give them back. It seems that we had a taste too.

This afternoon we spent mostly in the room doing homework. Luke is FINISHED with all of his. Beth still has some math to go, but she now understands the equation for a line really well and how to use it. She’s been very worried about getting her science done since we haven’t been able to get online to see her textbook in half-a-week now. We’ll (supposedly) have unlimited internet in the apartment in Moscow next week. We’ll also have Kim and Peter and that will be a new hurdle for doing homework. Tonight, our new friends from Louisiana came over to the room. We traded some books (in English!). We also watched a movie that they brought. Their DVD player is down. The kids didn’t so much enjoy the movie (Love is a Many Splendored Thing…. Old love story), but it was nice to have the company and that’s what it was all about anyway.