Thurs. March 13

Detailed version:

Met with Serge today around 8 to go see our son. The Dini’s stayed at the hotel today for a holiday. It seemed very quiet in the van on the way there with fewer people. Another beautiful day in Siberia- sunny- cold- beautiful, with some light snow in the air.

In some regards, this seems a bit like the movie ground hog day. In the movie, Bill Murray is a weatherman that is caught in a never ending cycle of Feb. 2^nd. The same day keeps repeating itself over and over again. The only thing that changes in our ground hog day is we either see our son in the morning or the afternoon.

Today we arrive at Baby home #5 and find our son’s play group in the music room that we normally visit with him in. Just like everyday this week, we are greeted with tears. Mind you, he is still with people that he knows, the very sight of us brings the water flowing. I begin thinking (this is Tim talking) is he growing tired of us, or is he tired of us coming and playing with him for a couple of hours, telling him Pah-Kah (goodbye), and zahf-trah (tomorrow). I know that after traveling an hour both directions, I am tired of the same thing everyday. I very much enjoy seeing Eli, Saloosha, Sergey, Kobak (he has too many names) everyday, just not this way.

Anyway, Debbie picks him up and is able to quiet him very quickly, which is comforting to me since tomorrow he will be ours forever. I wonder as I look at him, will he even like us next week, next year? Then I think, I know that God has sent us here and that Eli was born for us to care for, just like Jesus was by Joseph. Just don’t know what to expect.

I really get off the beaten path.

We play with Eli, but he just isn’t content with looking at a book or playing with one item…he wants everything in the cabinet. But, I guess that’s what children do. Maybe he is getting tired of the same thing everyday. He has been well trained, though. When he is done with one toy, he puts it away before getting another. Great!!

We move to the end of the room where the small slide that leads into the plastic ball pit and the fun shaped cushions are located. He doesn’t seem to like the slide or balls today but, the cushions are fun to crawl through. He seems to like this and does grin and giggle a little as I make a fool of myself with strange sounds and faces. This repeats several times untill he decides that something else is needed.

Just then his play group comes in again, this time to dance and sing. So, we put his shoes back on, leave him with his group and settle back to enjoy the show. The pianist begins playing and a care giver starts clapping, tapping her foot and singing with the children. Little Eli doesn’t like to follow very well. Come to think of it, I don’t think that I followed very well either. My mother always wanted for me to have a child like myself, I think it has come to pass Mom.

I have to wonder- is he already so much our child that he is just acting up because we are in the room with him?

We went with him and his play group back to the playroom. Every other family we had spoken to had been able to feed their child the snack or meal the orphanage provides when they were there on trip 1 or 2. Since we had never seen him fed before, we asked if we could see this to keep as much of his schedule and food the same as possible to ease the transition.

So, we got to the play room just in time for potty time. There is just something so cute about 10-15 little children all sitting on plastic potties, singing, clapping and rocking as they are able to “take care of business.” So adorable.

On to playtime- they all were able to play and interact with each other. We watched our son as he wanted the Lala- apparently his term for the music box. When he had it, he was very content, and cute. When it was taken away- wow. He didn’t force it back- he complained to the head caregiver, pointing to the child that had committed this atrocity of taking away his toy. I have to think how difficult this must be for him- I keep forgetting these are all new caregivers and children- he moved playgroups just 2 weeks ago- new room, new people, new bed. Hopefully, this will have prepared him even better to come with us.

Then the children all cleaned up the toys scattered about and went back into the bathroom for handwashing. This was quite amazing- each child had their hands washed- the caregivers talking to them the whole time- saying what they were doing- a little water, a swipe of soap, lather and rinse- grab a clean washcloth dry the hands, and on to the next one. This was done quite quickly, and when the children finished, the tables had been pulled out and they were ready for lunch. Our son was still miffed about not getting the Lala.

While they waited for lunch to come, one of the caregivers was showing them how the matruska dolls worked. She took them all apart, worked on big and little with the children and got them all involved. She brought out a cat- making the stuffed animal talk like the real thing and had the children practice petting it. Eli did really well- I was glad for our dog, Cobaka’s sake J

The little tyke furniture they were on was very nice- 4 children per table. The bibs were tied around the neck, placed on the table under the bowl. What a great idea! The big bowls were placed in front of each child and a ladle of bean soup given, along with a half slice of Hatian style bread. These little ones eat with a spoon- a real spoon- must be a Texas spoon- they are the size of….. well anyway- they are the size of my serving spoons at home. These little ones just shovel it in. How amazed we were as we sat there and watched.

Second course- put in the same bowl- was a pureed potato and meat combo. The kids really scooped this up, too. The caregivers came around and scraped the last bit from the bowls and into the mouth, cleared the bowl and gave the child a glass- well- about the size of the Tupperware cups- with juice in it. The kids just bottomed up and drank like a pro from these cups- no sippy cup for you!! (spoken in soup nazi accent)

Our little guy was last to finish. And he didn’t pause in his eating at all- 10 minutes, maybe, to feed 2-3 cups of food to 12 toddlers. Amazing.

The children were ushered into the bathroom to clean up and we were ushered out to leave. We didn’t say goodbye today. Only one more night and then our son will never sleep in an orphanage again. Nope, he’ll be cooped up in a hotel room with us for the next 2 weeks. But hey, roughing should be quite an adventure, wouldn’t you say? God’s speed to us as we try to keep his schedule.

Our trip home was pretty uneventful- until that last turn as we were passing the big trucks……..On the other side was a police car and the police officer was motioning to us with his baton. This is not the same feeling as when Bob Baker says to “Come on down, you’re the next contestant on the cop is right.” Well, turns out they were just checking papers, and after 15 minutes or so couldn’t match our van’s paperwork to the notebook of stolen cars they had. So, on with the rest of our journey home.

Serge and I have a bit of a competition going. I brought Ghirardelli dark chocolates from home. Serge says Russian chocolate is better, so we traded a few candy bars. We’ll let you know who has superior chocolate…..

Since we had shown such an interest in making sure we had the right kind of food, Serge also stopped at the grocery store with us to translate the labels so we could get started with our food supply. This was nice. Some of the pictures are easy to read, but some were quite off from what we thought. We also got diapers. I was thinking of the joke about the weight on the diapers being for how much they could hold, but I refrained- wasn’t sure how it would translate. It is a little hard when one has a corny sense of humor to refrain from joke telling here- due to translation issues :0)

We came back to the hotel, and after a lovely lunch of fruit, pb&j and some water, we met up with the Winklers and they took us down to the hydroelectric plant. What a beautiful drive down through incredible country. Greg said it looked like Lake Tahoe. I found it incredibly beautiful. The Dam was interesting- just stopping to look at it from the bridge- but still pretty neat. We went down the road and through several small villages to where another river joins in with the Yenesiy- it was frozen solid- tracks across it. The Yenesiy doesn’t freeze around Krasnoyarsk city due to the hydroelectric plant keeping it stirred up.

Then we drove to the Chapel on a Hill. Oh my, was the wind biting and cold. It was probably about in the 20’s- but the wind chill would have been wayyyyy below zero. We didn’t stay too long.

We drove back to the Winkler’s house and dropped off the children and then the 5 of us went out for dinner at a pizza place called Pepper’s, close to where the Winkler’s live. It was nice- sharing stories, fun, laughter and great food. The evening was all to quickly over and we headed back to the hotel, where, hallelujah!!! The WiFi was working. We tried to Skype our families. Some we couldn’t reach, others we talked to for a few minutes.

And then it was today. At 00:01 Tim looked at me and said congratulations, Mama- today is the day. Wow!! It has come down to this final day. Hard to believe, isn’t it? What did you feel like the day before you gave birth and became a mama?

My feelings are hard to describe right now. I cling to the hope that God has called us to this and He is the author and perfector of all things. We will all be made beautiful in His time, and as we lean on His loving arms for guidance, we will walk the way we should walk and understand the best way to carry this awesome and amazing responsibility for training a child in the way he should go.

Short version.

One last trip to Sosnovoborsk for visit with son. He wasn’t very happy camper today. Wonder if he can sense what is happening? Went out with Winkler’s and got to see some of the countryside- beautiful! Hope internet stays up!