Rainy Saturday

Check the middle of yesterday's blog: John was able to add a link to the video mentioned.

A correction on earlier information: looks like Daniel’s birth weight was 2100 grams rather than 1200. When Sergei copied down all recorded measurements he found the 2100 gram number.

To follow up on the snow storm (Monday night) and snow removal, we discovered that the alley behind our apartment building was being cleared by city workers on Thursday morning. Yesterday morning the large parking lot in front of the Billa was cleared off, and today the street running along side the Billa, as well as the road (lane) going back to the orphanage had been plowed.

Since we were committed to staying in the apartment over lunch we decided to get our cappuccino and pastry early. We left the apartment around 8:20, took the Metro to the Nayakova station, and discovered the French Bakery doesn’t open until 10 on weekends (9 on weekdays). Well, Saturday breakfast at a restaurant is a family tradition now, so we headed over to the nearby McDonalds. By then I was craving carbs and John chocolate, so with our cappuccinos (good ones, by the way) John had a chocolate muffin and I had the pancakes. The Styrofoam container is familiar and even says “Pancakes” in English, but those were blini inside, to my great satisfaction. I had a packet of strawberry jam/syrup to go with them.

Back on the Metro to the orphanage. Pretty quiet on weekends - no music classes, no physical training - bet its pretty boring for children and staff alike. Plenty of staff walked passed us in the green corridor, but no children. Oh - the staff were all dressed up yesterday - an important visitor or lots of Friday night plans! Daniel was eager for a cookie today. We were encouraged because after one slightly sweet cookie on Monday, and a third of a chocolate wafer cookie on Tuesday, he had not wanted anything all week. He is on a medicine for a respiratory issue that may be upsetting his stomach (and causing muscle and joint pain). Anyway, I think he would have eaten as much as we had with us, but we cut him off after about half a chocolate cookie. He is always asking for our coats, so today we put mine on him - he didn’t like the hood on, but otherwise it was okay. We didn’t leave it on long because the orphanage has been quite warm the past couple days and they always have a fleece jacket over this t-shirt. Otherwise he was hard to amuse and we spent at least 20 minutes just walking up and down the corridor carrying him. We took him back up at 11:30 - out of ideas and needing to get back to the apartment by noon. Heading back upstairs I set him down to “climb” the second flight. He got a big kick out of it as I had him hold on to the hand rail and helped him maneuver each leg/foot. He had a great smile on his face and each time I asked if he wanted to keep going he gave me a happy “Da” (yes). The (smiling, English-speaking) doctor who has told us to try to make him walk came by and looked surprised but pleased with the effort. Daniel had so much fun with that, that by the time we reached the top he was willing to try walking for us again. It was a good way to end the morning.

For lunch we had hotdogs warmed up in the microwave, naval oranges, the rest of the potato chips and (of course) multivitamin juice. The repairman came shortly after 1 PM and it did take about 30 minutes, mostly because he had to keep going back down and up the four flights of stairs to get equipment/parts from his vehicle. A shower tomorrow - hurray! I worked on medical CME and finished Daniel’s (second) hat. John was putting Russian words with English transliterations into a document on his computer.

We also spoke to Nick and Dennis and a couple of Engebrechts. From Christine’s note on the 17th: “Right now they are busy making adoptions papers with markers and shopping list paper so they can adopt Daniel and start playing with him.” Yesterday she wrote: “Cute story for the morning was that Dennis's preschool theme was suitcases today, so we got out a medium rolling suitcase for him to play with. When Nick got done with his school, he and Dennis played "Going to Adopt Daniel from the Ukraine." They packed things for themselves to do on the airplane and a bunch of stuffed animals for Daniel and went to the airport. We made sure they had their adoption papers and they took off leaving Nick and Dennis behind. Later I asked if they had called Nick and Dennis and they said, "Yes." I asked how Nick and Dennis were doing and they said, "Fine."“

It definitely felt warmer outside today and you could hear dripping from the melting ice and snow. By 4PM it was raining. When we picked up Daniel for our afternoon visit we were ordered not to feed him. We weren’t really planning to anyway, but we were surprised to get the instructions in English, and curious. Our plan now is to spend mornings in the green corridor and evenings on the blankets up on the big landing. We laid out the blankets and put the wooden train in the center. We set Daniel down on the edge of the blanket and he quickly army-crawled to the train. He seems to tire quickly of lifting his chest up and playing while prone. Before long he flips himself over and holds the toys above him. That’s okay with the plastic blocks, but we get a bit apprehensive when he gets frustrated with the heavier wooden pieces. Not bad today. I tried his second hat on - got the OF circumference right this time, but should have started the decreases on top closer to the letters. This one says ‘Daniel’ in the Cyrillic letters in the Ukrainian form. We ran through our usuals: magnetic fishing, putting fish in the plastic bag, marking one faint line on the paper with each crayon, tickling his bellybutton and armpits, taking away Mama’s knitting and papers, trying to interest him in the smaller train and airplane. It was another session of walking and walking, mostly with him on our backs. Other than when we’ve just had to tell him “no” and take something away, it sure is hard to figure out what upsets him: the braces uncomfortable, being in one position for too long, being tired, hearing familiar voices we are keeping him from, the inability to communicate what he wants to have or do, the impending sense of change and loss . . . Kinda like a newborn or young infant. We were done by 6:30. For once he didn’t indicate ‘yes’ when we asked if he wanted to go back to group, and didn’t get excited as we packed up and walked back together. He did, however, start smiling when I made up a song of “I love you Daniel” in Russian (John and Nick are usually the best at making up songs). We told them we wouldn’t be there in the morning, but planned to be back at 4 PM.

It was still raining when we walked home. It has been slippery enough as it is. If this freezes overnight it will be quite an amazing ice rink. We were both very tired when we got back, but John found enough energy to grill ham and cheese sandwiches again. The juice will have to suffice for the rest of our fruits and vegetables today (NOT how I do things at home where juice is reserved for stay-at-home illnesses). That put me on the clean-up detail. Although the orphanage has been warmer, we don’t seem to have heat on in the apartment the last day or two. We’ve been keeping a window open to counteract the cigarette smoke coming in from the hallway. The temperature only feels uncomfortable after sitting still for a while, though.

It really doesn’t much feel like a weekend. John wore jeans today. I’m in a sweatshirt now and put jammie pants on early. Sure looking forward to church tomorrow!