We’re finally adjusted our wake/sleep cycle to local time. A little after 9 am Bill headed to the Iceberg for water and a couple other things. When you only buy as many groceries at a time as you can carry, you’re pretty limited, so grocery shopping is an every other day event now.
Although the Iceberg is smaller than US grocery stores, the shelves are always stocked. Due to the frequency of our visits it is easy to see that they have pretty significant stock turnover as well, so things tend to be fresh. Be sure to check expiration dates though, some less popular items had a little dust on them… The days are quickly getting shorter too. It’s just after 6:30 pm and daylight is fading fast. But it was another beautiful Indian Summer day with the temperature reaching 60.
Another observation is that technology, even at dial-up speed, is great. The substitute teacher sitting in for Cathe asked the students in her class at St Francis to generate questions to ask us while we are in Kazakhstan. Every day a new a new list arrives. Filling in the questionnaire has become our morning ritual and has been a great way to pass the time until our most anticipated event of each day: The two hours we get to spend with our children.
Technology has also helped us navigate around a couple speed bumps… Although the I-171 is our official approval to adopt two children and does not list any age, our home study does and it is a part of our Dossier. That three inch thick document does get a thorough review and we have seen ours come out of the files a few times now. Since we are now adopting children a little older than we originally planned, yesterday evening (Kaz time) we sent off an e-mail request for our social worker for an update covering the new age range. She did, and then faxed it to our house sitter who then scanned and e-mailed it to us so it was waiting for us in our e-box this morning. We would like to extend a Thanks to Anne at Catholic Charities and Scott, our house sitter, for pulling that rabbit out of the hat. It may never be a big deal, but at least our attorney now has paperwork in hand if necessary. Isn’t technology great!
Cathe’s feeling a little under the weather today. Nothing major, just some congestion and a slight headache. Being a teacher, she’s used to it. Anything the kids bring to school comes home. Due to the radically swinging temperatures in Petro, several kids have the sniffles.
Masha borrowed our movie collection a few days ago, so we have been cycling through our newly acquired supply of Russian-English movies. We’ve watched them in every combination of English and Russian along with subtitles, we even dabbed in a little Polish. Not to mention the special features in both Russian and English. Finding Nemo is pretty entertaining in Russian. It will be an interesting adventure the first few times the kids have friends over to watch a movie!
We don’t know what LG had for lunch today, but it sure packed some punch. Maybe she downed a case of energy drinks right before our session… Whatever it was, she was wound up pretty tight and had far too much bottled energy to expend. Today the representative from the Dept of Guardianship (DoG) came to observe our session, so it was definitely the wrong day for that, but there she was in all her glory and we all got through it. More on that later.
Since we’ve been off campus several visits, it has been several days since the DoG Lady’s last observation (no disrespect intended, we just like the acronym since we’re dog people, as attested to by our Christmas photo at the beginning of our blog). We reviewed our daily visit log along with many of the pictures we’ve taken since our first meeting. In our 9 days together we have taken almost 600 pictures with the kids, of the kids, their friends, and the sights, so we didn’t look at them all. Otherwise, there would not have been sufficient time for her observation. Both LG and LB could hardly wait for a turn at the blackboard to demonstrate that they can write their names in English. Then it was time for LB to give quick gymnastics/break dancing demonstration. He’s pretty good! Next LG demonstrated her mastery of the western alphabet, singing the ABC song and pulling out the appropriate flashcard for each letter as she sang. The DoG Lady asked the children if they liked us and were sure that this is what they want to do. Absolutely without hesitation they simultaneously answered, “Da!”
Probably a third of our pictures have been taken by our budding photographers who have now discovered the video record button. Our philosophy is to take a lot of pictures so we are more likely to capture those gems. We also have 10-12 years of the children’s history to make up for. They have captured some real prize-winners which will go on the wall surrounding our house motto sign, “Live, Laugh, Love!”
As mentioned before, LG was absolutely wound up and full of energy. She wanted to sing, dance, and be the center of attention today, much to the annoyance of her brother. LG wanted all of Papa’s attention today and would do anything to get it. Her confidence and comfort level with us has peaked, and we are seeing her true personality emerge. We think the joy and the reality that she and her brother are really going to be adopted is starting to sink in. LB has been great from day 1. His confidence and maturity is showing through. LG has been somewhat open, but still very cautious. Today, she was ready to burst.
As soon as the DoG Lady (still gotta chuckle) left we headed outdoors where the kids proceeded to wear dad out. Everyone peeled off sweaters but still built up a sweat despite the cool, comfortable afternoon. It’ll take them a while to adjust to Memphis! Today’s high in Petro was 5 degrees cooler than the low in Memphis. Anyway, we are really impressed with the gymnastics confidence both children have on the parallel bars, balance beam and high bars.
This afternoon we finally had a formal introduction with Boris from Antares Orphans (http://www.antares-orphans.com/). Cathe liked him immediately because he was wearing Detroit Red Wings sweatshirt (Also in the picture is the RBS Social Worker and one of the Teachers). During our research and preparation for the big trip we met Laura and Apryl (Antares Pres and VP) through the internet and tracked the daily updates from their recent visit to Petropavlovsk. Their organization works with families in the US to sponsor children, celebrate academic achievement and provide birthday parties and outings for children in Northern Kazakhstan regional orphanages. They also help families who have adopted from the Petropavlovsk region stay in touch with one another and with their children’s friends who are still in the system awaiting their families. Please take a few minutes to visit their site.
Here's a quick picture of the Regional Boarding School, just before we turned into the driveway. Note the ever-present steam pipes which provide almost every building in the city with heat and hot water. There's a huge plant east of town where the steam is produced.About the only thing we forgot to do today was to capture our daily silly version of the family photo. (We did get one with the DoG Lady, but not one with just the four of us). We’ll have to do two tomorrow. 8-D What else can we say other than, “What a Great Day!”
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