Introduction to "Home"

I felt very tired when the alarm went off at 7:00, but not when I got up at 7:30. John actually slept until 8:42.

We were at the orphanage by 10:00 with fresh bottles of water for the boys from the Billa. We picked up Dennis first (I needed to use the bathroom, which is on the first floor near his room). When Katya came to the door she was trying to ask us a question but we didn’t understand. Then she went to the director and asked – we think the question was whether it was okay to take Dennis outside today, it being so much cooler than last week and he with a cold. The director answered in the affirmative, and Katya got Dennis and handed us a pullover sweatshirt, indicating we might need to use it. Dennis has this new habit of leaning backwards while the caretaker holds his arm, and then is quite delighted when we catch him and swing him up in the air. We went for Nick next. John went in the room for him. He was very happy to see us.

We hung out on a couch in a long hallway first. We showed them the new children’s board books, each featuring a different vehicle of transportation: car, train and airplane. Dennis seemed to think their greatest value was nutritional. We also showed them (Nick especially) the photographs of home and family. He was only interested for a short period of time, but returned to them again and again throughout our two visits. He seems to understand that “our” in reference to car, home, cat and dog includes Nick and Dennis. We also named everyone a couple of times today: Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Becky, Aunt Lois, Uncle Paul, Aunt Michele, Matthew, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Christine, Uncle Brian, Ben, Katie, Caleb, Uncle John and Aunt Jackie. He was good at finding Mama and Papa (we are introducing the names Mom and Daddy) in every picture. In the picture of the boys’ bedroom he consistently identifies the bed for “Nick” and the bed for “Dennis” (and the dog, again). We also showed him the photographs of a train, then Kyiv, then airplane, then London, then airport, then our car and finally our home. Alec and Nadya have a good photograph from their travels of people getting onto a plane. We don’t know if Nick understands that people actually ride on them. He doesn’t seem to have a word for ‘train’ different from that for ‘car’ (machine). I suppose he will know the difference soon enough!

When the boys got restless we went outside and walked around for a while first. We met another adoptive family – from Spain. They speak English and seemed as happy as we to be able to converse. They have been here for a month already and tomorrow they head for Kyiv and then home. Hurray! They seemed to approve of us adopting two brothers. Bill and Susan were in court this morning, and we sort of camped out in their usual area. The caretakers seemed to be keeping the kids off the dirt and grass, maybe because of the moisture, so we tried to keep the boys clean, too. We brought the juice boxes today to see how the boys would handle them: Nick had no problem; Dennis had no clue! I had tried to give Dennis water in the sipper cup earlier, but that didn’t seem to work well. We put the juice in, and he figured it out when John held him in a semi-reclined position. He liked it very much – and didn’t like waiting for me to put more in. Dennis clearly enunciated the word “Da” today, the first time it seemed in response to a ‘yes-or-no’ question we asked Nick. After that it was “DaDa” or “DaDaDa”. Recall that his caretakers told us he has a few words, but we have never heard them before. Nick really liked the chocolate cookies we had today, too. Around 11:30 Nick, after throwing the toys inappropriately, and then kicking them, he abruptly began to stack and pack everything up and indicated it was time to go. Maybe he’s just used to the shorter time with us in the morning because until today he always had music practice for the first half-hour, but he also seemed sad. ???

When we took Dennis back to his room Bill and Susan were waiting outside the director’s office. Their court appointment went well. They had a different judge (a woman) and only had to answer two questions. Hurray!

Hot dogs for lunch. What can I say but that we like them?

Nick’s group was in the playroom which has glass walls to the outdoors. His group-mates saw us coming first and alerted him. He was ready to go and the teacher let him come out the side door. Dennis was also quickly ready. This afternoon we took the big camera, set it up on the outdoor steps, put new Oshkosh B’Gosh shirts on the boys and took our first family photos. We used the remote control and it worked pretty well, although we may also ask Bill and Susan to take a few later this week. We spoke briefly to the Italian couple – they also ascertained we are adopting both of the boys and said “Good!” Nick spent a lot of time on John’s shoulders – looking over the wall at children climbing a tree and at a cat that also climbed a tree and walked along the wall. Dennis let me show him the photographs from home this afternoon. I think he was recognizing and pointing at Mama and Papa. We’ve been singing the “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song. For some reason I also sing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to Dennis a lot. At 6:20 we packed up per usual and began a leisurely walk back to their rooms. Nick’s group was still outside. He seemed to be content to say good-bye there and join his friends. The front door was locked. Katya was working in a garden out front, when she finished she seemed willing to take Dennis (and he was will to go to her), but we still needed John’s passport back, so we found a side door open and took him to his room. The caretakers always try to get Dennis to say “PaKa”, but he doesn’t. We don’t know if he has before, or if they are still training him. Last Friday he did lift up his hand to wave.

John cooked chicken barbecue spaghetti for supper. Yum!

(Sometimes we are too tired to transfer and add pictures when we post at night, so you may want to scroll back through the blog from time to time to see if photos have been added.)