Today visit was so sweet! 6-8-2011

I regret that we cannot post names or pictures.  It is the law in Russia until we are officially the parents after court, and I don't want to do anything that will jeopardize our adoption.  So, in the meantime I hope you can handle books without pictures.  :-)

Today was a blessed day. When we were driving up to the orphanage, the children were outside playing in the back play yard. The children watched our “machina” (the Russian name for a vehicle)pull up, and I noticed one little boy very intent on looking at our car, standing out from all of the kids. I recognized that is was the older boy. He was watching for us to come. It was very neat to see him looking for us. Remember, he is only 3 yo.


So, we get out of the car and walk to the back where they are, and as we are approaching, he runs out (they allowed him) to meet us. I knelt down, and he ran over to me to greet me, and gave me a wonderful hug, and then he greeted Diester. It was so sweet~ You know, it is a very difficult thing to make happen without knowing us very well, but not when the Lord is guiding this, and has his hand in all of this. There is no doubt in my mind that it is only because of the Lord that they have warmed up to us so well. He let me pick him up and hold him, and carry him, and talk to him, so I could tell him that I love him. He likes to hear that from us. (The caregivers told us today that they heard Diester tell the boys at the end of our first visit that he loved them (in Russian), that they understand that, and it means something to them.) Then we walked over to greet the youngest guy, and he was very receptive also. He was kind of walking really fast towards Diester, and clung to Diester once he was picked up. So, after a diaper was put on the little guy, we were off to take a walk by ourselves. (Both the boys are potty trained, but only because they offer the potty frequently.) The caregivers thought the diaper would be a good idea so it wouldn’t interrupt the time that we were going to be with the boys.

As we were walking, Elena told us that the caregivers told her that the older boy was excited, but kind of nervous and he was emotional while waiting and hoping that we were coming back today; and he would watch every car that came into their driveway in hopes that it would be us. Man, talk about tearing your heart out! To be awaited for so intently~~

She also relayed to us how the older boy told the caregivers after just the first day how much he liked us. WOW! That was great to hear~

Today was spent playing with balloons and bubbles. Diester was so gracious to help our ‘determined’ littlest guy to stick the bubble wand in the bottle, and Diester enjoyed helping him learn how to hold the wand so that when he would blow into it, the bubbles would go. He was trying so hard to make it work. The little guy is so independent, and wants to do things on his own, but was struggling to get the right angle when he was blowing. He was trying to use his strength because he is as strong as an ox. He was blowing with all of his might to the point of his body shaking while on his tiptoes. Diester guesses he wanted to power the bubbles out with his strength. Finally, he got the right angle and started blowing bubble. It just tickled our littlest guy to no end when he finally got it. He would smile really big, and even giggle. Bubbles can be a mess, but for the most part Diester had great control. The older one was enjoying it also, and was catching some of the bubbles with the wand. Bubbles are a good way to spend time together.

When we decided to put the bubbles away, little guy was not happy, and began having a small outburst, obviously upset. Our wonderful interpreter, Elena, stepped in and started singing a Russian folk song that she knew he liked (we don’t know the words, nor the tune~), but she worked really hard to help redirect his thoughts to other things. It really helped. Then Diester got out the balloons for the boys to enjoy, and did they ever like the balloons. Little guy put the tied end in his mouth and would shake his head. We all thought it was so cute, and he was smiling and laughing too all the while. What a blessing to be interacting with them so much. The balloons kept us busy for a bit, but I will say that they really are curious about cars, like our children are fascinated with planes or buses, they like to see cars, or “machina’s” as they are called in Russia. The older guy had to go touch it, and the little guy likes to make the sound of a motor. They are just as cute as buttons. What made it even more fun was when Diester got them on his lap, and both boys and Diester had a balloon in their mouths, and they were all shaking their heads while he was bouncing them up and down. They were just eating him up, loving every moment of being on ‘papa’s’ lap. I must say, he has quite the knack for entertaining kids, big and small, and today was no exception. A lot of good eye contact~it was wonderful to see them smiling and looking at him as he played with them. I was more of the run-after-the-balloons-that-are-going-into-the-driveway ‘ball boy’ (or should I say ‘ball girl’) – hehe. And I was the camera woman today. I captured some really cute video and pix of the action. It was a blast! (Funny story, as sweet as the older boy is nice to his little brother, when all of the kids were out walking past us, I noticed that the older one took his balloon and tried to hide it behind his back so that the other kids would not see it, or in my mind, try to take it??)

All of a sudden, the caregivers came out to get the boys so that they could go back to their groups. Our time with them was up, and so we had to say our goodbyes. God is so good. The boys were very well behaved in responding to go back, but it was obvious that they wanted to take time to say goodbye, and needed the reassurance that we would be coming back. Diester and I did not like the quick goodbye that happened today as the boys visibly did not like it either. Diester spoke to our interpreter on the way home from the orphanage today asking her to talk to the orphanage social worker to give us a 10 minute notification on when our visit was going to be over. This would allow for a sincere loving goodbye and important bonding. She had noticed the same thing, and agreed with Diester that we should do that.

OH MAN, is it going to kill me to leave them for 4 weeks until we can come back to get them.

After our visit with the boys, we got to meet their caregivers. WHAT A BLESSING! So, Diester had a ton of questions, and asked away, and they answered each question we had about habits, schedules, interests, fears, food and snacks they like, how they sleep at night, potty training, personalities, etc. It really is incredible what they do with these kids in the orphanage to help them. Of course they are missing out on what we think are some of the most important things in life; love from a family, and learning about our Lord and Savior.

I have to say that as Diester and I have looked back on each day, it has been incredible to see how God is working in this adoption. The waiting~~to get the boys the Lord had for us. The ages~almost as close to the ages we asked the Lord for as biological brothers can be. Their health~~to know they have no health issues to speak of. The eye contact~I had been informed to make sure they make eye contact because it is helpful in the bonding, and they are making wonderful eye contact. Responding to his name~yesterday, we were a little concerned about the little one because he was not responding to his name much, but shared that concern with the Lord, and today, the little guy responded almost every time. We cannot be more excited about how this is playing out. It has been so wonderful, I am almost afraid to speak it, but we know without a shadow of a doubt that it is because of the Lord that it is working this way. Praise Him!

Looking forward to seeing them tomorrow, and what the day has in store, and missing our lovely daughters at home. SKYPE is great though.

BTW, it is truly ans interesting culture here. This land is the Siberian area. It is very cold in the winter time, with lots of snow. There is this major town that we are staying in, but many villages along the way that are out in the middle of what seems like nowhere. And many rundown old, old buildings, and wooden structures. Their markets are nothing like our grocery stores here. People have summer home (some of the villages that we passed were all summer homes), that they go out to on the weekends in the summer and grow gardens. They do not like to eat genetically modified foods, or foods with preservatives in them. The orphanage would not even let me give the boys some candies I had brought because she couldn’t tell if they had preservatives in them. YEA! I wouldn’t have bought them if they had preservatives in them, but she doesn’t know me, so she had to protect the boys. Seriously, that was wonderful for me to be turned down. I really appreciated it.

Also, along the way and along the roadside there are peddlers. These peddlers sell usable items that are made of birch tree bark, to store different food items in as was explained to us. The peddlers also hang some kind of plant food from a stick. We are going to stop tomorrow and check it out. I will get a pix of it then. It is a spice that is like a cross between garlic and onion that is taken from these virgin forests along the road. There is also a big leaf thing that is sold to help with bronchitis and other things (an herbal remedy Hannah), that they kind of like smack gently on their bodies in a sauna type atmosphere to help with healing what ails them. It is really interesting here.