Russian Adoption Diary: Trip 1/Day 3 continued

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Trip 1/Day 3 continued

Sorry there have been gaps in my story. We have had some major paperwork glitches and my days have been filled with adjusting back to "normal" life and fixing these problems.

Okay, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, we had just seen the boys. Well, after meeting with the director, we were taken to a large room with one of the workers and left to play with the kids. We had brought stuffed animals for each of the boys- an elephant and a dog. They were super soft and the boys loved them. We then spent about an hour and a half playing with puzzles, dinosaurs, cars, coloring, paint with water, silly putty, stretchy lizards, and the infamous Viewmaster. When we were doing paint with water, I noticed that one of the boys would switch off which hand he was painting with. He seemed to be good with both hands and didn't have a preference. I don't know if this was just because his developmental stage or whether he is ambidextrous. I can't wait to get him home and see. The stretchy plastic lizards were also a hit. We have the best piece of video of them playing with them. One of the boys was stretching one of them and its tail broke off. At first he was alarmed, but we just laughed and told him it was okay. Shortly afterwards, both of them were pulling until their bodies shook and their faces contorted trying to dismember the lizards. It was hilarious!! We laughed so hard we couldn't stop! The video is awesome. It makes us laugh everytime. Our kids at home love to watch it. The Viewmaster was the biggest hit of all. We only had one, but when we bring them home, we're going to have to have 2 of them and lots of disks. We had National Geographic disks with animals on them. They couldn't get enough of it.

Seeing as how we only had one Viewmaster, we were able to see just how well they got along with each other. They were amazing. Even when one desperately wanted a turn, they were able to work things out. Never once while we were there, did we see them fight, scream, whine, or cry. They were very even tempered and seemed to get along really well. A few times we heard the orphanage worker tell them, "Nyet!" They would stop their action immediately and move on to something else. They were incredible.

After playing inside, we were able to go outside for several hours. It was a mild day. I had long sleeves and a heavy sweater on and was very comfortable. We played with some rocket balloons. They loved these. They are super long balloons that you blow up and then release. They dart high into the sky, performing many loops before landing. Then you do it again. Needless to say, I got a small headache very quickly from blowing them up so many times. No, just kidding. ;-) We also played "Catch a Bubble". This is bubble solution that hardens a few minutes after contact with the air. Therefore, you can catch them, stack them, and they don't break when they hit the ground. They also enjoyed playing with the small balls and beach ball we brought. They are soccer players. Damon kept trying to play catch. However, they would always catch it and put it on the ground to kick it.

Part way through the day, we were invited into the director's office for tea and a snack. The boys attended also. They were so cute on the other side of the table. Their little heads barely cleared the table edge. They ate a lot of candy and finally some bread. At this point, the director kept strongly encouraging the children to call us "Mama" and "Papa". From then on, those were our names. Wow, what a feeling!! Damon and I talked later on and wondered how much they understood about who we were. Do they even understand what a mama and papa are or are those just names they gave us? We don't know, but we can't wait to get them home and teach them what a mama and papa are all about.

After tea, we were told to take them for a walk. We walked around the little dirt roads of the village for about 45 minutes. The orphanage worker tried to tell us what a few of the buildings were, but I don't know how much we understood. Before going on the walk, both boys grabbed a hot wheels car and clutched it in their little hand the whole entire way. They held our hands with their free hand. Along the way, we tried to teach them to skip. They could hop on one of their legs, but just couldn't quite get the other one going. They were so cute trying!! Everyone we met along the way stopped to talk to them or give them candy. They knew them by name. We heard the boys telling them that we were their Mama and Papa. That got some warm smiles. They are so well loved not only at the orphanage, but also around town.

Upon returning to the orphanage, the other children there started coming outside. All of them were older- junior high/high school aged. Every time the boys saw someone new come out, they would run up and show them their new jackets and the Viewmaster that Mama and Papa brought. (The jackets were ones my mom had purchased for the other boys we thought we were getting. I had taken them as a donation to the orphanage, but they ended up being the perfect fit for the boys!) Most of the older kids gave us smiles. Only one older boy shot arrows through us with his eyes. Several were cautious, but warmed up quickly. We had thought we were going to a baby orphanage and had brought tons of bubbles for the kids. We went to get them anyway. They were a hit!!! I couldn't believe how much the older kids enjoyed them. We also opened up our snack baggie and had the boys pass it around to everyone for a treat. They all seemed to appreciate this. All of a sudden there was a large surge of more children out of the orphanage. Food!

The older kids went to play basketball and Damon ventured around to the back side of the orphanage to shoot a few hoops with them. He came back and said we had to bring back balls for them next time. Theirs were completely bald and mostly flat. After this, we were told to come eat. They had made some rice and meat and wanted us to eat. It was about 6:30 p.m. and we hadn't had anything since our meager breakfast at 8 that morning. We readily accepted the offer and had dinner. While we were eating, our coordinator returned. After eating, we went back to the director's office and were asked what we thought of the kids, did we want to proceed with the adoption, did we have any questions, etc. Of course, we were thrilled with the kids.

Saying goodbye was okay that evening, but I was already dreading the next day. We made it back to the hotel at about 9:15 p.m. We paid for some internet service, only to find out that none of our accounts worked there. We also couldn't call the USA from there. So, we got creative. We sent my parents an American Greetings card with the orphanage information. The only problem was that they never opened it because they thought it was spam. :-) Oh well!!

Thanks for bearing with the long account of the day. It was the best by far! By blogging it here, I now have it journaled forever so that one day I can show the boys and tell them about our first day together.

posted by 6blessings @ 6:24 AM

3 Comments:

At 11:42 PM, sandy said…

What a great day! I am so happy to read that it went so well. And now if I can only remember your great ideas for gifts and toys. Looking forward to reading more when you get the time. Sandy
At 6:47 AM, Jennefer said…

What a great post. I am glad you guys could have such fun together. Now the day is recorded forever. It sounds like the boys get along well. I bet your family is so excited to bring them home.

(I got that same spam message from askinstoo too. That is why I had to turn word verification back on.)
At 9:52 PM, Rhonda said…

These are some wonderful memories. How incredible that they didn't fight over the Viewmaster!