Friday June 15, 2007 It’s a Go! (We get the visas)

As I recall a week later, we all slept the rest of the night. John and Nick with Sasha back to the Embassy for the visas. They left at 8:00, so Dennis and I ate breakfast downstairs as scheduled at 8:30, they ate after returning (successfully). Friends Vitaly and Lera called to say they would like to come after work and meet the boys, so we made plans for supper.

Anya had the day off because her company was having an “end-of-the-busy-season” party on an island for all 500 employees that day, and she graciously spent the day with us. We walked to the park Oksana had shown us before heading to Kharkov – the tulips were gone, but Anya knew about the playground equipment, and Nick was especially thrilled to hear about the sandbox/pile. She got the gist that digging was very important to him (he couldn’t stop talking about it all the way there), so we had her tell him we would be getting a sandbox at home.

Sure enough, the park had a beautiful new playground. Dennis was content to wait and acclimate to the new surroundings from the stroller for awhile. Nick just didn’t know where to start. Anya was able to encourage him and help him try some new things. She and I also had some time to sit and chat while John and Nick played, then John came and said a group of students wanted to use Nick in a film they were making about family life. We figured: why not? So they did some videos playing on the slides and other equipment. They suggested riding on a pony, but he only liked them at a pretty good distance. However, when he saw the motorized little cars, he couldn’t wait to get in. After that we went to the restaurant in the park. We had borscht and potatoes for the boys again. Anya had had strawberries with blinis here before and recommended them, but the waitress came back to say they were out of strawberries.
I opted for the honey and “?”, Anya had apple and cinnamon. Turns out the “?” were poppy seeds. Poppy seeds are far more popular in Ukraine than at home. Very tasty! Oksana called while we were eating – she had already come to the park once, but we missed her somehow. She came back again just to say “good-bye” – she takes the train to L’viv tonight to meet the GAiNUSA team.

We let Nick play in the playground for a little while longer, but he rather quickly told Anya he was ready to leave and go back “home”. On the way out Anya encouraged him to get a little closer to the small pony he had refused to ride earlier. She crouched between him and the pony, helped him touch its flank and see how soft it felt, and how coarse the main was, and the next thing you know the proprietor had him on it’s back! Anya stayed right with him and he was fine! We rushed to take pictures of what was likely his first pony ride.

Anya stayed all day, and Nick was in heaven. Even when he was naughty, Anya was able to talk him out of it. She was able to help us understand some things about him, and also explained some things to him for us – like traveling over the next couple of days and possibly needing disposable training pants on the airplane. They played with the English-Russian cards we found at the bookstore in Kharkov, and she generally kept him occupied while we did some organizing and packing for the next day. Nick asked her if she would be coming on the airplane with us. It was good to know he had understood us when we told him we would be flying on the “sem-a- lyote’ (airplane) to go to “nash dom” (our home).

We met Vitaly and Lera by the Ukrainian cafeteria and all seven of us ate dinner there together. We encouraged Anya to help Nick choose foods and use her best judgment. She doesn’t have children of her own yet, and says she never really helped or helps take care of other children, but she is a natural with Nick, and seems to remember many helpful things about her own childhood. Nick had fish for supper – and really liked it. He also ate a slice of lemon peel – rind and all. He said he was full – but kept having another bite of potatoes, or whatever he found on the table. Before we were finished, he literally fell asleep sitting up. But only temporarily – of course!

Anya said “good-bye” after supper, with a promise to come again the next day. Vitaly and Lera came over to the apartment/hotel until 9:00 when they left to catch their train to Vitaly’s home town. They had gifts for each boy, but suggested waiting to give them so it wouldn’t excite them more before bed. Good and gracious advice. It was great to see them, and if we had flown out this day, they wouldn’t have been able to meet Nick and Dennis.

Dennis was the later one this time. Shortly after Vitaly and Lera left we gave Nick the option of sleeping with me or with John (not, of course whether to sleep) and as expected he chose John, so they went back into the bedroom while I worked on Dennis. He actually calmed down pretty quickly, and was laying in his bed with his eyes just closed when Nick needed something from our room, not only was this interesting to Dennis, but as an added bonus Nick tossed Dennis’ hippo into the bed. Now Dennis hasn’t been all that interested in Hippo, but tonight he was just fascinated. I worked on getting him to sleep again, but after I disappeared from sight to hand water bottles through to John for a thirsty Nick, Dennis was sitting up, crying and would not be consoled in bed. Even holding didn’t get him sleepy again, so while Nick was peacefully sleeping, Dennis stayed up with me to pack, happily playing until - well, may have been 11:00 by then, I didn’t check. When Mama took away his plastic bottle because he decided it was best for making loud noises, he was crying and upset and ready to be held and finally went to sleep. I went back to putting all our belongings back into three suitcases and three backpacks (John has all of the important documents, electronics and his own overnight items in his small suitcase). It was midnight when I went to bed.