Daniel Feels Better (and more changes)

Old business: the washing machine was fixed yesterday. Apparently the drain was clogged. They asked us not to wash the bathroom rugs on a hot temperature again. We won’t. Also it turns out we are entitled to have the apartment cleaned once a week for free, we just have to let Sergei tell them when we would like it done.

Last night we tried at least 40 times (not an exaggeration, it could have been 50) to connect to the Internet. We were at it until nearly midnight when I had finally caught up on the blog and hoped for a reasonable bedtime. In the end we thought we must have run out of megabytes and gave up. First thing this morning I tried again: immediate connection. Who knows? After posting and checking/sending a couple of e-mails I had time to exercise, shower and eat yogurt, egg and orange for breakfast.

It had been raining steadily when we went to bed - wondered if it would all freeze into an Olympic speed-skating track. We did slip and slide more than any other day on the water over ice, but not to the extent we felt like we were going to fall down. We didn’t.

When we reached Daniel’s room the caregiver told us something we didn’t understand, then had the doctor who had told us yesterday Daniel had a fever take over. We called Sergei for translation. It was good news: Daniel was better, his fever had broken and we could take him out of group today. It did take a while to get him ready, but that was fine. He definitely felt much better: very chipper, energetic and with better color.

We had a very enjoyable visit in the green corridor with enough hugs and pictures to make up for last night. He was more interested in the motorcycle, he fished, and he flipped through the photo album a bit.
He also asked for my knitting, per routine. He just grins when I laugh and tell him “no, that’s Mama’s“. We were able to give the maintenance man a copy of the picture we had taken of him with Daniel over the weekend. I think he appreciated it. He has such a kind, friendly face. Daniel has been surrounded by many people with warm, open hearts.

When we went back to his room it wasn’t one of our most familiar caregivers who answered the door. When we asked for my passport (we always have to leave one with them when we take Daniel) she said “no”. I got just a little worried, but then realized she was joking, suggesting that perhaps Daniel didn’t want us to leave. Maybe she is the one from whom Daniel learns his teasing antics.

After dropping off the toys at the apartment we headed out to exchange money, get documents printed and eat lunch. We called Sergei to make arrangements to pick up my train tickets for Thursday (he was headed for his dentist for some on-going work on a tooth). We ended up walking all the way to the next Metro stop looking for a particular store. We did catch the train to the Naukova (Scientific) stop to eat lunch at our usual cafeteria. We both had borsch and shared a bread stick. John had rice with vegetables and something breaded. I had the sautéed potatoes, onions, etc. and chicken shish kabob. John’s food turned out to be fish. I shared my chicken (fish here is always very different than we are used to at home). We found an internet café in a lower level along Leningrad. We had to get past a ladder propped horizontally across the stairway where a man was removing letters from the shop above it. John was able to get his documents printed, using his Russian with an English-speaking clerk. Next stop . . . Coffee and French pastry. The steamer is still broken. I felt drained when we got home and was glad we had some time to relax before Sergei picked us up. We had time for a quick call to Nick and Dennis (6:47 AM their time), too. They were awake and eating pancakes for breakfast, didn’t have too much to say.

Sergei picked us up as planned and will not need to see the dentist for this tooth again. He had some news for us: the passport office in Kyiv is not currently processing passports and it is not known when they will be able to do so. However, since Kyiv is not able to process them, there is another route available in Kharkov and we may get it even more quickly. Our heads were spinning as we realized we might all be able to come home together as early as the end of next week! We decided to go ahead with our plans for me to go to Kyiv and do my part of the Embassy paperwork on Thursday this week just in case going home together doesn’t work out. At the train station it turns out a round trip ticket to and from Kyiv on the fast train for the same day costs less than $40. I was impressed.

We went straight to the orphanage when we were done (we had taken all of our gear with us). We arrived at 16:03, so he was still eating. No problem: have knitting, can wait! The director had the receipt for the bank deposit, thanked us warmly and had us come into her office for the photograph with her we had requested. Sergei also arranged to take Daniel out of the orphanage for passport photos. No one was available to go yet today, but someone would go with us at nine o’clock tomorrow. We actually took Nick and Dennis’ photographs ourselves last time and missed the opportunity for a legitimate outing. No finger jabs for blood this time!

Daniel was still feeling good. We headed off to our second floor landing (where we can spread out the blankets on the floor) and had another nice visit.
We started by offering him a banana and he accepted. After yesterday’s banana-eating-proficiency demonstration I just cut it in half and offered him the big chunk. He didn’t require us to actively entertain him the entire time and it was good to just hang out. He was interested in the large reusable shopping bag we use in the evening to carry the blankets, wooden train, etc. He emptied it before putting something else back in. I started handing him everything else, one at a time, except the remaining half-banana which was getting squishy.

I laid down and he used my stomach for a chair while he examined his new shoe/boots for a long time.

John also took a gazillion pictures of Daniel’s head just in case it doesn’t go well at the photo place tomorrow. I’m not sure any of them are even close to acceptable because he closes his eyes after the automatic focus light goes off and he almost always had his mouth open, even if we could manage to get his head straight. Maybe they are allowed to “Photoshop” it.

When we took him back to his room they asked for more diapers tomorrow. “Tomorrow” was reiterated. Back to the Billa, but not inconvenient since we walk right past it and through their parking lot on the way home.

Grilled ham and cheese for supper. John is becoming the expert. I did run a load of (normal) laundry tonight. It didn’t drain initially, but when I removed half the load and re-ran it, all was well. Just had to spin out the half I had removed so it also has a chance of drying soon. Hmm, guess I should get those hung up again.

John has spent his entire evening trying to rebook our flights and book Daniel’s. Turns out our “flexible” tickets from Lufthansa aren’t nearly flexible enough. But after a very long telephone conversation (free via Skype, thankfully) resulting in the need to ‘burn’ our previous fares and start completely over on-line, the gentleman did congratulate us on the adoption of our son. He left us both with a very good impression.