Passport Photo Day

I was definitely tired enough to sleep well last night. Heeding Denis’ urging from Sunday, I got up a little earlier than usual and searched the scripture using BibleGateway.com for every reference to adoption. More than I expected. And on the “topical” references for adoption I came to realize that the relationship of the Israelites to God was clearly one of adoption, too.

I didn’t have enough discipline to exercise before checking e-mail for the daily Nick-and-Dennis update from my sister, though. In part:
“We've been practicing colors with Dennis. On the "color" day he seems to have the color down. But a week later, he gets mixed up again. One of his problem colors is yellow. At supper Nick was quizzing Dennis on his colors by pointing to different colored flowers in an arrangement on the table. He got blue, "pinka," and green correct, but couldn't think of yellow. So Nick was giving him a hint, "yah, yah, yah" to which Dennis responded, "yah-blue."

But I did eventually exercise and had to hustle to get ready scarfing down an egg, yogurt, and granola bar while doing so. Sergei called to say he’d be about ten minutes late due to worse-than-the-normally bad traffic. That was quite helpful as far as I was concerned.

It didn’t take too long to get Daniel ready and assign a caregiver (his favorite Natalya) to accompany us, although they did take him back inside to add a second hat. Natalya never seems very comfortable around us and I always sense her anticipation of a painful separation coming soon. She knew a place to get passport photos nearby. It was a tiny, highly efficient studio/photo shop. Sergei had thought we would have to wait a day or two for the photos, we thought maybe an hour. It was only five minutes. Daniel had major hat hair and no amount of hand-combing helped. He sat on Natalya’s lap side-ways. It took quite a few shots and effort on the part of all of us to get him looking straight ahead with his head relatively straight, but this photographer knows his business and it didn’t take very long. He was able to quickly straighten out the picture, size it appropriately and print both the rectangular pictures needed for his Ukrainian passport and the square ones for the visa. Without extra charge he also copied the digital images onto one of our camera SD cards. Total cost: less than $4 US. John e-mailed the square ones to Oleksandr in Kyiv in the afternoon.

We were back at the orphanage just after 10:00. Not a very long outing. They took him back into the room to take off the hats and coat and to apply the braces. While we were out and about he clearly preferred to be with Natalya but when we went off to play inside he left her without a problem.

We started off with a cookie - just handed him the whole thing, and other than spitting out the last soggy bite (I think because we wouldn’t move on to the next thing till he was done chewing) he ate it well.

He was interested in his shoes for a long time again, did some very nice quite intensive magnetic fishing, and combed his own hair (rather after the fact) and Dad’s. When we went up at 11:30 Sergei was already back, trying to catch the director to request a letter about Daniel’s medical ‘insurance’ coverage. He did.

Back to the paper chase: the notary, caught lunch while documents were prepared (at ‘our’ cafeteria at the Naukova Metro Stop), back to the notary and then the bank. We were able to conclude our business there and stopped in at the nearby apartment agency to pay rent through next Wednesday. Thankfully they accept grevna because the nationals seem to have difficulty getting our American dollars exchanged, even if they appear to be in excellent condition to us. John and I have had no difficulty getting the same bills exchanged. We suggested to Sergei he might have more success if he speaks very little Russian, and badly.

We exposed Sergei to an American-style coffee shop and his first mocha on the way back to the car.


Somewhere in the midst of this Sergei let Oleksandr know the details of my train trip to and from Kyiv tomorrow. Then Oleksandr called back to clarify the plans. He was still under the impression I was planning to sign the Embassy papers on Thursday and fly home Friday (this week). Guess we neglected to let him on the grand change in plans once we sorted it out last night. He pointed out that since we would all be coming to Kyiv next week I can take care of it then, even if John and Daniel do have to wait a couple of extra days. Um, yeah, he was right. It would be a totally wasted and exhausting (5 AM to midnight) trip. So when everything else was taken care of we headed back to the train station to cancel the tickets for a small fee.

It doesn’t seem like just riding in the car and sitting (mostly) to wait at all these various places should be that tiring, but I was totally drained when we got back to the apartment. This has been the case in the past, too. We were in time to call Nick and Dennis a little bit late. I had a Coke Light for lunch, the double shot (I presume) mocha, and started another Coke Light on the way back to the orphanage just to have a little energy for Daniel. It seemed to help. (Also - sending Dennis off to give everyone hugs for us seems to help him let go of the phone, today even before we said ‘good-bye‘!)

Our favorite evening spot was available so we spread out the blankets and made ourselves at home (even the security gentleman commented).
Daniel didn’t have any interest in fishing, but the comb was put to good use again - first himself, then Dad, and then he called my name emphatically and held out the comb to me.
I have no idea why but he finds it very soothing to have me comb his hair, and I love it! We always try to have him walk a bit (refusing for the last several days) and practice standing and sitting. Tonight was his best effort yet for the latter. I was on the floor and had him sit with his legs between mine, firmly anchoring his feet to the floor. I didn’t have too many expectations when we first suggested standing, but he did - and responded so well to our effusive praise that he just kept standing up (his own strength with a one-finger hold) and sitting down again (very controlled). It was pretty exciting, so the effusive praise was easy to continue.

After six o’clock he developed an interest in the big travel bag, and the wooden train. We were able to direct him to put all the pieces to the train in it’s Ziploc bag, and that in the big bag, as well as the balls, his shoes, etc. The train bag was pulled out a couple of times, but eventually all but the blankets were in place. Then it was the other black carry-all. We had put some things in, but I handed him the airplane and showed him where to put it. He thought maybe he would prefer to pull the fishing (and perhaps everything else) out, but when I asked if he wanted to go to group (yes), I told him “nada” (must) and he put up no further objections. We packed up everything and John took him up and down the hallway a couple of times while I picked up the blankets and put on my boots. That hallway, by the way, is the same where Nick managed to grab a crayon and leave a long, horizontal mark on the wall nearly three years ago. We weren’t able to remove it then, but it is gone now.

I finished my Coke Light before we left so I wouldn’t fall asleep before writing this. It’s only 9 PM, so I’m way ahead of usual schedule - just have to wait till John is ready to give up the Internet device. Once he enters the “work box” he doesn’t really hear me anymore so I get to listen to my iPod. Tonight I played Spider Solitaire (rare indulgence of late) to "Action Bible Toons"(children’s songs), journaled to Brother’s "As You Were" and now Robin Mark’s "Days of Elijah". We ate an orange and a piece bread with peanut butter for supper. Oops - bet my tea is cold again. Anything else you could possibly want to know about our day? :) Oh - Sergei was able to review the drafted court decree after he dropped us off this afternoon and made a few minor changes so all will be perfect on the 10th Day.