Fourth Aniversary

We are just getting home from dinner at 10:40 PM, so this might be shorter than usual.

John cooked omelets for breakfast. Some of the vegetables had to be discarded, but they were still excellent with yellow peppers and onions. We also had cappuccinos and pastry at the French bakery. It is our anniversary, after all! We both had the chocolate today.

The judge is allowing us to pick up the decree at the end of the 10th day (tomorrow, Friday) instead of on the eleventh day. We thought we would be able to go to the boys’ home town and do the necessary paperwork on Saturday rather than starting on Monday and trying to do that and the paperwork in Kharkov all in time to take a train to Kyiv that night. We were getting pretty excited about the possibility of leaving for home even two days earlier than expected. Some official government offices are open until noon or 2:00 on Saturdays, and closed on Mondays.

Sasha called while we were at the bakery. The officials in the boys’ home town are refusing to process the paperwork on Saturday and they are closed on Monday. That means nothing at all happens until Tuesday. Every other adoptive couple has faced delays of at least a few days, and this doesn’t even set back our flight home, but the initial wave of disappointment was surprisingly intense. Once the surprise wore off, however, I was able to remember that this was not a surprise to God, and all things happen according to His timing. The most important thing in life is to be in the center of God’s will, and that obviously can occur as easily in Kharkov as Kyiv or Oshkosh, regardless of where I think I should be at any given time.

Both boys were available this morning. Nick had a piece of candy and brought his (whole!) banana with him. So as not to eat, walk and choke, John and Nick waited on a couch in the hallway while I went up for Dennis. Outside Nick chose our spot – where Bill, Susan and Losha often settled, but were not there today. Actually Bill had to go home, so Susan is here on her own now. At one point we took a walk around the perimeter of the complex. Nick likes to carry sticks, so Dennis does too. It was very cute to watch how where ever Nick stopped to rub his stick on the pavement, or make lines in the dirt, Dennis would follow and do the same. We only allow Dennis to walk with very thin, very flexible sticks. He protests when we trade out those for the big sturdy ones he selects for himself. We monitor Nick pretty closely with his sticks. Whenever he refuses to heed reminders to be careful and hits one of us by accident or deliberately, it’s “paKa” to the stick which is broken into small, uninteresting lengths. Sometimes Nick even hands a stick to John without being in trouble to break it up.

We saw the Italian couple again today. Yesterday John offered to take a family photo of all three, they accepted gratefully. We tried to ask when their court date was scheduled. We found they are from Italy: Verona. :)

Nick’s group was right next to us. About twenty minutes to noon he was watching them very closely and we asked if he wanted to go join them. He seemed to think it over and make sure it was really okay, then said his good-byes and went to join the organized activities the caretaker was directing. He was distracted by us, but we encouraged him to participate.

When we took Dennis up to his room Katya came to the door. We tried to ask if we could take a picture of her with Dennis, but we didn’t have the camera handy and she didn’t understand. Wouldn’t you know the woman who had prevented us from taking pictures of Nick’s program came up the stairs then, and when she understood (or perhaps understood) what we were asking, said “no”.

On our way home we stopped at the Botanical Garden Metro stop (we found out that’s what it meant last weekend with Alec and Nadya). We tried to ask a young man standing outside for guidance, but he just stared at us and didn’t say anything. Could be he was American and didn’t understand our poor Russian! Anyway, we headed for a collection of trees and found a wide shaded path that eventually led to an open area where people were sun-bathing and getting wet in a canal from what appears to be a natural spring. People were filling many large bottles of water from several fountains.

Hot dogs for lunch. John slept, I read and knit.

We visited with the boys inside this afternoon – same place as our first two-hour session. It proved to be quite a challenge, since none of the toys are new or interesting, Dennis tries to eat the soap off the wand if we bring out the bubbles, the crayons have been found to raise a satisfactory response if eaten or used on the couch, and the breakables on the walls make it too hazardous to throw the Beanie raccoon up in the air. John also spent twenty minutes trying to clean a twelve-foot line of crayon (courtesy of Nick) off the hallway wall (not completely successful, although at least two orphanage personnel sawing him trying). Fortunately they both did calm down before 6:30 and we were able to clean up and leave on very amicable terms.

We had decided that for our anniversary we would eat at a café we pass every day going to and from the Metro stop. We had just sat down when we saw Susan, so we joined her and had a great evening of food and conversation. They have had many of the same experiences as new parents/entertainers in limbo. We talked about nutrition, exercise, orthotics and other aspects of health (for us and the kids), growing up experiences (we are all PKs: we are preachers’ kids, they are both principals’ kids) and soon it was after 22:00.

Back to the routine tomorrow. We don’t know if we will be able to see the boys this weekend or not, but it looks like we will be able to go to Love and Salvation Church again on Sunday. Sasha will come Monday instead of tomorrow.

Well, now it is 2350 and John is waking up to post. Goodnight!