Saturday, May 30, 2009

Chow



Another day, another chance to play. We are enjoying the beautiful spring weather. We are able to take Mariah outside each day. We are enjoying our time with her. We try and bring her a snack each day. She loves her snacks! It has been delightful to take a daily walk around the orphanage and see what new flowers are blooming. We have met many very nice people while we have been here. The caretakers have been very helpful. We have also met adopting families from Israel, Italy and the U.S.
We have learned one word in Italian. Chow means both hello and goodbye as far as we can tell. We use it often with the Italian family we have met here. It has been a great experience for us to meet people from so many different countries. We are also learning a few Russian words. Spa see ba means thank you. That is a great word to know in any culture. We try and use it often. If you only know one word, it is a pretty good word to know! We have also had a few funny experiences due to our lack of communication. The day we went to court the boys really needed to find a bathroom. We found a lady in the court house that didn't look too busy. We tried every word we could think of to ask where the bathroom was. Water closet? Toilet? Bathroom? No luck. I thought the potty dance was a universal symbol but apparently not. Oh well. We will have to look that up in our Russian dictionary. We eventually did find an outdoor potty that was truly European. Fine for the boys. Not so fine for Mom. We did find a restaurant that had all the latest plumbing. Thank goodness.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Just hangin' out





This morning marked a new milestone for us. When we went to take Mariah back to the caretakers, she did not want to leave us. This was the first time this has happened. We are hoping this is a good sign and that she is beginning to trust us and look forward to our time with her. It will be an amazing thing when we actually get to take her with us out of the orpahage. This visiting time each day has been a good opportunity to get to know each other. I hope it will make our transition home much easier. The boys are learning how to play with her. She seems to be reaching out to them more and more as the days go by. One thing I noticed about Mariah today is that she sure does have a lot of attention span for a child her age. I brought her a new toy, okay it was really a plactic egg carton. We put rocks in each of the sections for her. She probably played with that for twenty five minutes or so. That seems amazing to me. We sure got good use out of that egg carton! We have also been playing a game where we hum a tune and the rest of the family has to "Name that tune!" It is so cute that she starts to hum along with us. We are truly blessed.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Visiting and Waiting...




The boys are busy climbing trees, playing in the sandbox and getting to know their little sister. Mom and Dad are busy trying to keep everyone happy! As you can tell by the empty soda bottles, we are coming up with some creative ideas for toys. The kids were all able to come up with some games to play. It really is amazing how the simple things in life can be so fun. We are enjoying lots of family time, something that is harder to come by at home with the busy pace of life. We are thankful for each day that we have together. We know life will be busier again when we return home. We are finding out new things about Mariah each day. She seems to like music and enjoys it when we sing to her. We try and do this each time we see her. She is responding to us pretty well. There are times she shows frustration but will respond pretty quickly when we hold her and comfort her. We are encouraged by the fact that she seems to be comforted by us. Today is Thursday morning and we are on day seven of our ten day wait. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, they mean so much to us.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Circus and visits counting down the days...




Sunday was a mellow relaxing day. We do not have visits to the Orphanage on Sundays so we got up and spent some time reading and relaxing. We had arranged a trip to the Circus for Sunday afternoon. The driver picked us up at 2:00 PM. We were dropped off about two blocks from where we were going to the circus. There was an open air market but it was way too crowded so we went to a near by park for the boys to play. We went in to find our seats around 3:00 because it was pretty windy and kind of cold. The circus was inside a big building. There was one center ring where everything happened. We had great seats, they were in the second row in the middle. When the circus began we were not sure what to expect. The opening act was a little of a surprise let's say, modesty is a little different here. There was a clown that did some tricks etc. between all the different acts. There was a couple that did some tricks on roller skates and some men that did some tricks off a trampoline. They also had an act with camels. Then a lady did some tricks with some animals. They had bears, dogs, baboons, monkeys, horses, and... They had a short half time then they had some men do some acrobatics on high bars. Then more animals tricks, Lions, Foxes, Lemers, Porcupines, Wolves, etc.... All in all the boys loved to see all the different animals and some of the clown tricks. One was where he had a bunch of glasses with water and he played a song. The adults were a bit shocked by some of the show but it was interesting. After the show was over we walked down to the McDonalds and ate dinner it was good to have some food that looked pretty much American. One more Sunday left now before we head home.


Monday morning we woke up excited to see Mariah again. We got to the Orphanage and Mariah was dressed in a yellow sweater. She looked so cute. We went outside and found our little area to sit and play. Zach sat down with her and read a little of his story. We played on the slide and let her swing and walk. I think she is really starting to get used to us now. I think she was excited to see us. The visit went well. In the afternoon we picked her up and went outside as usual. We had only been there for no more then ten minutes when Zach had an accident. Jeremiah and Zach always play in these sand boxes they have all over in their playground. They are surrounded in cement about one to one and a half feet tall. Zach was running toward the sandbox when he triped on a root sticking up out of the ground. He fell forward and his check and nose hit the edge of the cement surrounding the sandbox. We were scared to see the result. His nose started to bleed pretty bad. That of course is scary to see coming from your kids. After we looked at his face it was not as bad as it seemed. He will have a bruse on his check but all things considered we are very Thankful that nothing worse happened. We continued to play with Mariah and everything went well. She even said MaMa for the first time. It is hard to say if she really understands what she is saying but we are excited anyway!In
the afternoon between visits we decided we needed to make another trip to the grocery store. We usually walk to the grocery store just about every day. It is about a 20 minute walk one way to the store. We needed to get water and milk which is heavy to carry. So we got our backpacks and headed to the store. It started to rain on the way but not too hard, thankfully. We got all our groceries which consisted on two 5 liter bottles of water and four containers of milk. Once we separated it between the backpacks it was not too bad to carry. We made it back. Today we need to go to a different grocery store to get more water and to get some Coke Light. I think Joe and Bridget bought out the other store. It is funny to walk to the store everyday but it gives us an outing in the afternoons, which is good for us, and uses up some of the boy's energy. We are enjoying the spring weather, which is very pleasant most days.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

ladies day out

We visited Mariah this morning. She is getting to be more and more responsive to us and the boys. She is happy to see us when we come and is content to snuggle on our shoulder. We are so blessed. I must say it is getting harder and harder to let her go at the end of the visit. We are only able to see her once on Saturday. To fill the time, Brigette and I had a nice walk into the market area. Clothes seem very reasonably priced and we both needed a few things to take our kiddos home in. We had a very nice afternoon together. We were so excited to find outfits for the children. There is one particular type of outfit that looks hand made and is so adorable. We each bought a couple to bring home. I would like to save them as a souvenir from Ukraine for Mariah when she is older. We stopped for a cold drink of tea on the way home. It was a very pleasant afternoon. We have so much to be thankful for. Please continue to pray for our timeline. It is still my heart's desire to go home together but I am trusting God with whatever happens. There are no visits on Sunday. We have planned an outing for the boys. We are planning to go to the circus. The boys have never been to the circus. It will be fun for them. Thank you to all of our friends and family who are continuing to pray for us.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Friday Memories...




Bubbles

During our visit today, the boys were able to blow bubbles for the children and play ball with them. It was so fun to see the little children smile and laugh at the bubbles. I hope they will have families someday. As for today, maybe we brought a smile to their little faces. Each child is so precious. Mariah loved her swing today and was so energetic we thought she might tip the whole thing over. She also enjoyed the slide. The boys were on a slide next to hers and they played a game to race down the slides together. It was fun to watch and I am sure the challenge will be on for tomorrow! We heard Mariah say her first English word today. Of course it was Dada...