Travel Day to Moscow

It's Sunday and we are in Moscow and (obviously) have internet again. It's nice to have the 100 Mbps connection that is included with the apartment... and even nicer that it appears to be stable. Posting from our own computer and not copying everything onto a memory stick makes this a lot easier.

We woke this morning at 4:45am, were picked-up from the hotel at 6:15, and we boarded the sahmalYOHT (airplane) for MAHskahvah (Moscow)at 7:40. This is the only flight to Moscow from Stavropol. There is a later flight from Mineral Water (about 2 hours away). Peter was extremely excited at lift-off. In the boarding area while we were waiting, he drew pictures of his flight... except that he seemed to have the impression that we were going to Moscow in a rocket and not a plane. As the plane started moving, he kept gesturing to his sister that we were about to lift-off like a rocketship would. I showed a more gradual take-off with my hands and he said he didn't want that, he wanted a blast-off. Sorry buddy... nothing I can do about that one.

The two hour flight was a little bumpy in our Russian made (around 1980?) aircraft. Neither Kim nor Peter had ever flown before. They both became airsick and we're glad we had grabbed air-sickness bags for everyone. Beth didn't look so good on the flight, but she made it through. Peter did not and Kim REALLY did not. We will be administering Dramamine or its Russian equivalent before our next flights.

We were picked up from Vnukovo airport a little bit after 10:00 and learned that we would not be able to check-in at our apartment until 2:00. The driver had another obligation, so we were dropped off at a cafe in front of our apartment building to wait... for over 3 hours... with 4 kids... 4kids who got up 2 hours too early, had a bumpy and nauseating flight and had not been able to expend any energy anywhere.... any guesses on how that turned out? I think they were glad when we left. We probably won't eat there again... not that we would be welcome at this point anyway... but the food was good. One of our Moscow representatives came there and went through a lot of paperwork with us... forms for the embassy, the children's medical exams, etc. It took me a good hour or more to do all the forms. During this time we also had lunch. Restaurants in Moscow are MUCH more expensive than those in Stavropol... around 70% more expensive in this case. We won't be eating out much here, even though this Uzbek restaurant was pretty good... again, the fresh bread was wonderful.

We finally checked into the apartment at 2:00 and the apartment representative went through everything with us, in English, answered our questions and did a nice job. It was a relief that this was done well. The materials in the apartment (for phone, internet, etc) are all in english and there is a 24 hour number you can call for questions or if there is a problem. We had to call because a lightbulb burned out... and because the door on our washing machine is missing. Yep... we (I mean Lisa) are still hand-washing clothes... now for six! I wring them and hang them on the drying rack... it's pretty big. The apartment includes free phonecalls to the U.S. if we can ever get them to work. No success so far... the apartment management is checking into it. The apartment is nice enough and has plenty of space. It has two bedrooms, one with a queen bed, one with a sofa bed and computer table. The living room has two sofa beds. This place could sleep 8 easily if needed... so we have plenty of sleeping space. The girls have the master bedroom, the boys the living room, and Lisa and I have the computer room (so I can blog when the kids go to bed). The apartment has a small but functional kitchen. No more having to eat out for every meal with kids who are either tired of eating out or don't have the social experiences to know how to behave at a restaurant. You can find apartments in moscow through Peace Travel Services at http://www.go-russia.com/. It took us three tries of booking apartments before we got one that was not rented, so try to get your apartment as soon as your dates are confirmed.

We walked to red square this afternoon and stopped by the supermarket on the way back. After dinner, the kids watched "Ice Age"... in Russian, with English sub-titles. It worked well for everyone. It was a very long and stressful day and it showed on the kids as the day wore on. We put them to bed early. Tomorrow, Kim and Peter have their medical exams. Tuesday we have our interview at the U.S. Embassy. Wednesday is at the Russian Consolate. Thursday we pick-up our paperwork from the Russian Consolate. Friday we could have flown home... but our agency said Saturday, so we are staying an extra day for no good reason. We have lots of comments about the info we have received from our agency, but we'll wait until we get home to organize those for the blog. We fly to Atlanta on Saturday around lunch time and we get home Saturday night around the kids' bedtime. We are going to be SOOOOOOOOOOO tired, but we are very excited (and very ready) to get home.

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.

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.

The last day of waiting

Today was day 9 of the wait…. I don’t know why I bother to keep posting that the internet in the room is still down and that we don’t have email. We’re sure you’ve all guessed that anyway by now… “Mehybee Toomahrrrrow”. Yesterday we even lost the ability to get onto Blogger, so we will be forced to post this from Moscow in a few days. I will back-date it so that we can keep this as a journal and have the dates correct. Because I'll post this after we have the kids, it will be legal to show you their photos.

We had another half-day with the kids. We started by spending a little quiet time playing in the room. After that, I explained to the children in my broken Russian that we wanted to buy them each a kniga (book) in Russian. Our favorite bookstand is located down the hill close to the open air market. Come to think of it, what does it say about how much time we’ve had on our hands when we have a favorite book stand in Stavropol Russia? Anyway, the kids understood (Ya paneemayoo), so off we went. We expected that they would like a nice book… at least we wanted nice books for them. Instead, they wanted the cheapest books at the stand. They are very cheap little (maybe 3” X 4”) books made from thin pressed cardboard. I pointed out the nicer, hardbound, gold-leafed children’s books. “Nee hachoo… Ya hachoo eta” (I don’t want that one, I want this one). We bought them each two of the cheap little books (10 rubles each… about 36 cents) not understanding why they wanted these … then they showed us why. These were small enough to be hidden in a pocket… if no one else knows you have it, you might be able to keep it. We convinced them to leave the books at the hotel. They don’t know it, but we also bought two nicer books of fairy tales for them the other day… in Russian of course.

While at the book seller, Kim asked about the “tort” (cake) we had discussed for her “groupa” (orphanage group) yesterday. She remembered. We guess that she probably went back and told the group about having a cake for them… nothing like bragging a little when you are about to get what so many of these kids want so badly. After yesterday’s experience at the open air market, we had intended to buy the cakes AFTER the kids went back to the orphanage today and we would bring them to the orphanage for Gotcha Day. I asked Kim if she and Peter wanted to go to the market and choose the cakes. “Da”! Peter also said an enthusiastic “Da”. So, despite our apprehensions, we went back to the open air market. Peter was a little stressed, but not nearly so much as yesterday. When we got to the cake seller, his reservations went out the window. He wanted the Flamingo cake (with the flamingo made of fruit on top)… so did his sister… after he wanted it. We get a very clear impression that normally her wishes would have taken precedent and he would have surrendered it to her without much of a fight. Papa said the Flamingo cake is for Peter’s group. She gave a little argument… but not much. Papa showed her that there was only one flamingo cake and she had to pick something else. She liked the heart shaped layer cake, so we bought it.
We also had Beth and Luke pick out a cake for our family to celebrate with tomorrow once we get back from the orphanage. My Russian must be getting better… I overheard a group of Babushka’s behind commenting to each other that three cakes for the children was bad… it sounded like they were a little disgusted that we were spoiling the kids. I didn’t explain that it was 3 cakes for A LOT more than 4 kids.

The cakes were clearly a HUGE prize. Peter INSISTED on carrying his. Papa wasn’t too thrilled with his level of caution in carrying a fancy cake… he was beating it to death against his leg as it swung in its bag on the ¾ mile walk… so Peter and Papa shared the job of carrying it. Basically, I carried it and he held my hand that was holding the cake. Compromise worked. Mom carried Kim’s (and ours) without incident. We also bought some flowers… some white roses and white mums. Very tasteful.

When it was time to take the kids back, we had a number of things for them to take to share… the cakes, flowers, a bag of marshmallows each, and some token gifts for each of the caregivers in their group. When we got to the van, the driver (no translator today) called the translator on his cell phone to have him explain that the driver could take the children, but not us. He had to go the hospital (to visit someone we think) and would not be able to come back to the hotel. Our plans for the kids celebrating with their friends were in jeopardy. The driver wanted us to just bring the stuff tomorrow. We debated and decided to send most of the stuff with the kids anyway. Good thing too… our translator called later to lay out the schedule for tomorrow. We will have less than an hour from when leave the hotel until the van has to be back here. No time to party there. We will take our regular orphanage gifts and the stuff we need for the kids (clothes, shoes, coats), give the gifts, change the kids (their orphanage clothes stay with the orphanage) and we will leave. Not much fanfare…

After the kids went back, we asked Beth and Luke what they wanted to do for our last afternoon as a family of four. We were to go ice-skating at the Galleria with them. I was able to avoid being on skates the last time… not this time. Luke didn’t wipe out as badly. Beth is the best skater in the family (Thanks Laura!). Mom only wiped out once. I didn’t wipe out at all… even though Luke nearly took me down in the final few seconds. I never knew I could do a pirouette on ice skates and live to tell the story. We went back to the shish-kabob kafe for a nice dinner. If you ever go there, go to the case and pick what you want instead of ordering from the menu. Your choices are better and you can more easily figure out what the “translated” menu is trying to say.

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.

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.

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.