Bump

Awake at 6. Haven’t been sleeping very well for a few nights, but felt more rested this morning. John and I have had lingering coughs since arrival. We don’t cough very often, and otherwise feel well so I am wondering if it is in response to residual cigarette smoke in the apartment. We could smell the cigarettes much more strongly in Kyiv when the manager constantly smoked right outside of our door, but Anya says she can assure us 120% that a lot of smoking was done in this apartment, too. Getting away from that and getting back to many more fresh vegetables and no fried foods are some of the things I look forward to at home.

The Engebrechts’ Internet is back up. Nick and Dennis have obviously been listening to their Bible stories at home, school and Sunday school. Christine writes: “Last night at bedtime, Nick and Dennis noticed that the story of the men in the fiery furnace was coming up and were telling me what their names were. "Me-shack, You-shadrack, and Bednigo" was what Dennis thought. I tried to tell them that I though maybe one of the names was "To-bed-we-go" but they didn't buy it. Today he thinks they are "Shadrack, Me-shadrack and Bednigo." “ (The third chapter of the book of Daniel covers the fiery furnace, chapters one, two and three cover more of their story.)

The devotional from LHM was good, and since I don’t want any of you to waste time chasing a field mouse when you started with bigger aspirations, I will encourage you to check out http://www.lhm.org/dailydevotions.asp?date=20100306 . IVP Hard Saying of the Day covered Isaiah 7:14: A Virgin Shall Conceive? I’ll include the website once here for anyone who is interested: http://ivpress.com/hardsay/

Managed to do more of the Level 2 workout today. We had eggs and yogurt for breakfast. Saturday is cleaning day at the Engebrechts’ (and many homes), and by 9 AM our bathroom was also clean and John had the first wave of sweeping done, with plans to sweep the landing outside our door and wash the towel placed there as a door mat.

They brought Daniel to us in his camouflage fleece - guess we got too much banana on yesterday’s outfit - and had the smaller wool socks over the braces. Tight fit, but they did it. The caregiver pointed out that the other socks were quite big. We gestured with English to show the big ones were for the braces. She seemed to catch on but we said we would take care of it ourselves.

We didn’t see any other adoptive families at all this morning. Last night two of the other couples stayed just past 6 PM. Daniel chose the first couch we passed, asked for the black bag and quickly found the banana which of course he wanted to eat. We cut it in half. Lately he gets to the last bite of banana or cookie and just holds it in his mouth, laughing when he tell him to ‘kushi’ (eat). His next bigger brother went through a very similar phase. He did some fishing, some hairdressing, played Putthefishinsidethebag and Dumpthemoutagain (a variation on last night’s train theme), and rode the motorcycle. While helping him drink water I noticed his forehead felt warm. When the doctor on duty passed by, she walked over and felt his forehead, too, noting that he was “choot-choot” (a little) warm. He looked fine to me, so I’m not sure how she knew to check. Maybe he was warm up in his group room earlier this morning.

He was mesmerized when John combed his hair. We will definitely have a comb available for every stage of the trip home!

When he got tired of all our couch activities, John put him up on his back for a walk. He was randomly walking around and wondered what Daniel would think if he tried to walk through the wall. He started gently bumping his (John’s) head into walls and saying “bump”, then moving to the next space with open wall and doing it again. Daniel thought this was hysterically funny, cracking up every time and even learning to enunciate a very clear “bump” for the occasion. Again, I wish uploading video was easier, because I got a pretty good clip of that too, I think.

After he emptied his first cup of (real) water, we pretended to refill his cup with water, juice and coffee and encouraged him to drink it. He seemed to understand this game, although eventually he wanted something real and asked for “wawa“ (water).

At one point he was rather naughty, and itching for a similar showdown as on the 24th, but for this round we ignored and distracted, and he gave up.

He gave no arguments, but showed no eagerness either when it was time to return to group. He does, however, get smiley-excited when we knock on the door to his room, and always reaches to do the same. Since they rarely hear our knock and his is much softer, we let him go for it.

Stopped at the Billa on the way home for water and a stiff broom John wants to use out on the landing. We also picked up some chocolate to take home.

A light snow was falling and a bit colder chill in the air, so the soup we had planned at the cafeteria near the Naukova station sounded better than ever. After soup and bread we looked for a blank card or piece of stationery paper for the note I want to leave for Daniel’s favorite Natalya, but stationery stores here carry no such thing (we were assured by an English-speaking clerk)! I have something that will work well enough, so we left that store to get some reviving, warming cappuccinos and . . . Chocolate French pastries, of course. The steamer is fixed again, by the way. John also order some hot chocolate to mix with his espresso, and drink plain. The rich, thick hot chocolate here is nothing like you will ever find back home. Another food we will miss.

Then back to the apartment to rest. John tried to take a nap, but couldn’t stay in bed wanting to check on the towel door mat in the washing machine. When it finally emerged, the ‘door mat’ turned out to be a small tea towel and a large yellow sleeveless shirt. His attempt to sweep the landing was short-lived. It kicked up way to much dirt and he was wishing for a Shop-Vac with a HEPA filter or a power washer instead.

We arrived at the orphanage shortly after 4 PM and headed up to the landing. Hurray - it was vacant! We started with a video Skype call to the Engebrechts so the brothers could see each other again. Daniel poked Dennis in the eye. Good thing it doesn’t hurt via the Internet. We aren’t sure, but we think Daniel understood they are real people, and talking to us. His interest didn’t last too long, even being fed bits of cookie, but it was sure was good to see Nick, Dennis, Christine and all the cousins.

Daniel asked for “Bump” before we brought it up at all this evening. Dad complied with the same hysterical response from Daniel. Later we found out it is pretty funny when Mom plays, too.

John and Daniel stood at the window looking outside with Daniel talking more and longer than we have ever heard before. We understood none of it, like toddler jargon or babbling, but I caught a full two minutes of it on video. Tonight his ‘cracker’ wasn’t as distinct as previously, but he agreed to do the sign for “fish”.

John invented a new game. When Daniel was fishing, John picked one specific fish and told it to “stay here”. Every time Daniel picked it up with the fishing pole, John took it off and told it ‘no, stay here’ (Russian). Every other fish was allowed to leave the wooden ‘ocean’ and go into the plastic bag, just not that one. Daniel caught on pretty quickly and enjoyed the game very much. Later he played it with me, too. We did see the mom with the older twin girls down in the corridor tonight, and the man with the blond boy made the circuit up the stairs and down the hall a couple of times.

Cleaning the apartment was the prerequisite for eating ice cream tonight. We took the Metro to Bella Pizza for supper. A one-centimeter layer of snow brightened and cleaned up the landscape today. A very thin glaze of ice made it far more treacherous. We each had a couple of slips that could have landed us on the ground, but we were able to hold each other up.

John had a Chief (chef) Salad with salami and slices of white Italian cheese and spaghetti with bologna. I had a Cesar salad and the Macaroni del ? (I can’t remember) - it was a tasty white sauce with cherry tomatoes and chicken. We have been scrupulous about the water we drink, but if we are supposed to be avoiding fresh fruits and vegetables that haven’t been cooked or need to be peeled, it is far too late to bother with it now. We were so nearly full we agreed to share an ice cream dessert - but didn’t make ourselves clear with the waitress, who brought two dishes of ice cream to accompany our two cappuccinos. The only right thing to do was to enjoy them both to the best of our ability, right? And take a picture, of course.

Miscellaneous:

Recent new words: ‘pole’ (as in fishing), ‘no’ (English) and ‘hi’ in addition to ‘bump’ and ‘water’.

We learned that yellow flowers here indicate ‘good-bye’. Anya was gracious enough to accept our bright yellow tulips in the welcoming spirit in which they were intended without comment. Thanks, Anya!

While we were still in Kyiv Oleksandr told us he likes to hold his daughters close to him and smell them. It seemed a little odd at first, but children really do change in aroma as they grow. He told us he had heard (wish I could remember the source) that children are like ice cream. They are going to melt no matter what, so you should be sure to taste them. The longer we are away from Nick and Dennis, the more eager I am to ‘taste’ them again! This month away from them is a month we can never share again, although I think their experience with my sister’s family is very good for them, and the phone calls and e-mails have definitely bridged the distance.