Market success!!

February 6- Friday- DAY 3
We decided to go shopping this morning, both to give the girls a little break and to get some shopping done. So after breakfast of granola we rode a bus downtown. We started at the bookstore. We picked up a Ukrainian dictionary for older two (one for us as well) and an English picture book for the younger two. We picked up another internet card, meant to pick up more but this communication thing is difficult. In fact, the clerk was trying to tell us something that we didn’t have a prayer of understanding so she just took our money and sent another clerk somewhere down the street to pick up the card. But at least we are good for another day. Then we saw another store (I think Luba called it “Children’s World”). We ended up getting tights there, two pair for each girl. Spent nearly 500 grivna. Then we walked through another mall and didn’t see any kids’ clothes. So, Keith thought we should brave the OPEN AIR MARKET. (Did you all hear that ominous music?!?!) So we rode the bus there, got off and walked and walked and walked forever. We were told that the market was 3 km. We had this discussion about whether the market was 3 km or if you stacked all the rows end to end, if that was 3 km. Well, we have definitely come to an agreement that the whole market is 3 km long and if you walked down each aisle you would end up walking 15 or 20 km or more. It feels like we walked that much. But the good news is we were able to communicate enough (with the electronic translator and gestures) with two booths to be able to buy hats and scarves for each girl. We were trying to get each girls’ favorite color. Kristina- red, Alina- green, Anastasia- pink and blue for Ryah (she doesn’t know her colors yet and blue is different enough from the others). Problem is most places had blue, pink, red, black and cream. But we did end up finding a booth that had a pretty mint green set. Whew! Not very many places we went by had backpacks- the only other thing we had to buy that didn’t have size attached.
At 2:00 we drug ourselves home, hot and tired, but feeling very pleased with our purchases. Pretty pathetic—especially when we still have so much to buy. Good thing we have a native speaker going with us tomorrow.
We wanted to make sure we had measurements of the girls because it looks like at the market we can’t take things back if they don’t fit. So we took the dvd player to keep the kids busy while we measured them. The dvd player ended up being more of a pain than a help. We showed them a Sesame Street video-- admittedly too young for the older girls and only a half an hour long. So they brought out one of their videos (is there NOTHING that they DON’T have?!?!) and amazingly, it played. Ukrainian cartoons. Then one of the boys brought out his book on tape, that he got when he was hosted in California. But no one had patience to listen to it. K kept pushing buttons randomly so we just put it away. But we were able to get all the measurements except R’s dress length (she wasn’t very cooperative).
Elijah fell asleep on the away home from the orphanage so we laid him down and asked Luba if we could leave him there while we walked to the grocery store—we were getting pretty low on food and Sunday was coming up. Of course she said yes. She tells me everyday that every time she sees Elijah she just wants to scoop him up and hug him (or some variation of that). He’s not so cooperative though. He is just now getting to where he will go to her sometimes and will play with her most times if she doesn’t try to hold him.
It was nice to be able to walk to the store and hold Keith’s hand! We took the backpack and purchased juice, milk, water, bread, cheese, granola, a few dumplings, yogurt and some other things I can’t remember right now. Walking home wasn’t too bad as the heavy stuff was in the backpack. But the mud was a little hard to navigate in the dark.
We got home just in time for Elijah to wake up. We had supper and luckily, after an episode of Star Trek, he was still tired enough to go back to sleep. He is getting a hearty appetite, which is a good sign!

February 6- Friday- DAY 3
We decided to go shopping this morning, both to give the girls a little break and to get some shopping done. So after breakfast of granola we rode a bus downtown. We started at the bookstore. We picked up a Ukrainian dictionary for older two (one for us as well) and an English picture book for the younger two. We picked up another internet card, meant to pick up more but this communication thing is difficult. In fact, the clerk was trying to tell us something that we didn’t have a prayer of understanding so she just took our money and sent another clerk somewhere down the street to pick up the card. But at least we are good for another day. Then we saw another store (I think Luba called it “Children’s World”). We ended up getting tights there, two pair for each girl. Spent nearly 500 grivna. Then we walked through another mall and didn’t see any kids’ clothes. So, Keith thought we should brave the OPEN AIR MARKET. (Did you all hear that ominous music?!?!) So we rode the bus there, got off and walked and walked and walked forever. We were told that the market was 3 km. We had this discussion about whether the market was 3 km or if you stacked all the rows end to end, if that was 3 km. Well, we have definitely come to an agreement that the whole market is 3 km long and if you walked down each aisle you would end up walking 15 or 20 km or more. It feels like we walked that much. But the good news is we were able to communicate enough (with the electronic translator and gestures) with two booths to be able to buy hats and scarves for each girl. We were trying to get each girls’ favorite color. Kristina- red, Alina- green, Anastasia- pink and blue for Ryah (she doesn’t know her colors yet and blue is different enough from the others). Problem is most places had blue, pink, red, black and cream. But we did end up finding a booth that had a pretty mint green set. Whew! Not very many places we went by had backpacks- the only other thing we had to buy that didn’t have size attached.
At 2:00 we drug ourselves home, hot and tired, but feeling very pleased with our purchases. Pretty pathetic—especially when we still have so much to buy. Good thing we have a native speaker going with us tomorrow.
We wanted to make sure we had measurements of the girls because it looks like at the market we can’t take things back if they don’t fit. So we took the dvd player to keep the kids busy while we measured them. The dvd player ended up being more of a pain than a help. We showed them a Sesame Street video-- admittedly too young for the older girls and only a half an hour long. So they brought out one of their videos (is there NOTHING that they DON’T have?!?!) and amazingly, it played. Ukrainian cartoons. Then one of the boys brought out his book on tape, that he got when he was hosted in California. But no one had patience to listen to it. K kept pushing buttons randomly so we just put it away. But we were able to get all the measurements except R’s dress length (she wasn’t very cooperative).
Elijah fell asleep on the away home from the orphanage so we laid him down and asked Luba if we could leave him there while we walked to the grocery store—we were getting pretty low on food and Sunday was coming up. Of course she said yes. She tells me everyday that every time she sees Elijah she just wants to scoop him up and hug him (or some variation of that). He’s not so cooperative though. He is just now getting to where he will go to her sometimes and will play with her most times if she doesn’t try to hold him.
It was nice to be able to walk to the store and hold Keith’s hand! We took the backpack and purchased juice, milk, water, bread, cheese, granola, a few dumplings, yogurt and some other things I can’t remember right now. Walking home wasn’t too bad as the heavy stuff was in the backpack. But the mud was a little hard to navigate in the dark.
We got home just in time for Elijah to wake up. We had supper and luckily, after an episode of Star Trek, he was still tired enough to go back to sleep. He is getting a hearty appetite, which is a good sign!

February 5- Thursday – DAY 2
Feeling a little better today. The kids called and we were so asleep that we almost missed them. As each day goes by we miss them more and more!
Keith made eggs and ham (sorry, not green) for breakfast. Then Elijah and I were off for the orphanage. It was a little strange because we were tired and had no energy and R and A2 were too. So it was very calm and blah. At about 11:30 (I’m guessing because I didn’t have a watch) just after everyone else went to play outside the girls started putting Elijah’s coat and shoes on. Not sure if it was a hint or just R being R. I was ok with leaving but not ok with leaving the girls alone. So I drug my feet, allowed them to dress me, and finally sat around with my coat on for a few more minutes before the others came back in.
Keith said he got one email sent and a couple more read. It is slow logging onto work from halfway across the world. We are going through a 20 grivna internet card a day. Will have to get more tomorrow.
Elijah was a bear trying to get down for a nap. I finally just held him until he calmed down (wore himself out) enough to sleep. Then he slept for 3 hours. I slept nearly that long. Keith slept but then got up and worked. Hopefully he can get enough work in that we don’t use all of our vacation and will be useful to them at work.
We took the computer today. And all got turns except K who was playing in the other room on their computer. She did come in for a hug. At our facilitator’s suggestion we tried to talk to the girls about court, them being our girls now, and moving to America. I don’t know how much they understood, but we used our electronic translator (for the first time). I think we need to get Julia in there and see how much they know and understand. Keith said that (must have been while I was gone) in court the director said that she talked to the girls about being adopted and the younger two didn’t really understand, but the older two did. It is going to be an adjustment all around.
I was really getting frustrated with A2 grabbing everything away from people. Partly because I don’t feel well and am tired. I need to make sure I do better about giving her chances to be first, while still not rewarding the grabbing. Oh, the dance of parenthood.
We are in the process of figuring out plane tickets. Looks like each of the girls’ tickets will be about $1000. Wow! Now, hopefully we can get everyone on the same flight.
Weather is getting warmer. There for a couple of days I wondered if my long johns were going to be my second skin. But we are back to mud. Don’t like the mud but can deal with it to get away from that frosty wind. We actually saw people out on the river that was frozen but wet on top. Oh, how I wished I had my camera. That would have been a cool picture!

The Dance of Parenthood

OK, I'm playing catch up so you will get a couple posts at once

February 4- Wednesday- DAY 1 of waiting period
We woke up late. Elijah was up many times in the night and none of us are feeling very well. We had decided it was best if Keith worked in the mornings and I went and saw the girls by myself… well, with Elijah. I didn’t want to go because I wasn’t feeling well and we were late, but felt like I should. I’m really glad I did!! They had a person come in and put on a show for all the kids (except the school kids, of course). She was dressed as a mouse with big ears and had races and things for the kids to do. I couldn’t understand a word she said but she was very animated and gave out candy. A2 gave all of her candy to Elijah. She really is very kind, when she isn’t being mean.  But I sat in the little chair with Elijah on my lap and a girl on each side. I put my arm around them and they seemed reluctant to leave and go up to participate. I felt like we made some big progress in the physical touch/ show affection area. Also, after it was over and we were playing in the room again, R was upset about something (I can’t remember what, right now) and she let me hold her and rock her for a long time. Just as it was nearing 12:00 the kids brought out more toys and lunch wasn’t ready. So I ended up staying until about 12:30. I met Keith coming down the stairs just as I walked into the building. He was worried about us.
I really wanted to sleep for our lunch hour, but we felt like we needed to get a start on the clothes shopping or it was never going to get done. So we rode a bus to the new mall that the Cox’s told us about. In the mall there was a K-Mart-type store that had a little bit of everything. There was one style of pants for girls in a bunch of sizes and one style of boys. We decided that we would get the pants there. We picked up some underwear and undershirts. There were some other things we were able to get as well; fingernail clippers (finally), an extension cord (so our adapter doesn’t keep falling on the floor anymore), more juice and water, some notebooks and colored pencils for the trip home, a car and some animals for Elijah (he’s getting pretty bored with the train tracks). We spent about 500 grivna (~$60) which isn’t bad for 4 pairs of pants, 8 underwear, 8 t-shirts and some other miscellaneous stuff.
Getting on the bus was interesting. There was one seat open so I sat in it with the two bags of treasures, while Keith stood. The nice lady next to me took my bags and put them next to her so I was able to hold Elijah and the bottle of water and allow Keith to hold on the rail. Thank Heaven for nice people!!!
We took the pants to the girls to try on as we were still kind of unsure of the sizes. They all fit, K’s not as loose as we would have liked and R’s a little bit looser than we would have liked, but definitely good enough to “make it home” as everyone keeps telling us. The girls all seemed to like the pants. We thought later that we should have bought a pair for Miriam. We’ll see if we can make it back and do that. So now we need to get backpacks, coats, hats, gloves, scarves, shoes and tights, pjs and dresses. Wow, when I look at that list it feels like we didn’t accomplish much. I think if we don’t get to the dresses we should still be ok, but we need all the other stuff.

Vitamin C anyone?!?!- kinda long

February 3- Tuesday
We woke up early, showered, dressed in our Sunday clothes and tried to get Elijah up. He was really sleepy and we would have let him sleep but court was at 9:00 and we had to be there a little bit early. Keith was up with him a couple times in the night. I woke up very tired and with a full blown sore throat.
We rode a taxi to the courthouse. It stopped at this beautifully painted bright blue building. I thought “wow” nice building- wishing I would have brought my camera. I was going to but forgot, wasn’t thinking very clearly. Anyway, it happened to be the building NEXT to the beautifully painted bright blue building., which was very non-descript. Once you got inside it was very nice—inlaid granite (or some similar stone) on the walls, beautifully carved doors- but the outside didn’t fit my American expectation of a courthouse. We waited in the genkan--- oh what is the English word for that?!?! The place between the two sets of doors and you are inside but not actually in the building yet. Great! I’m becoming tri-illiterate. Anyway, we waited for what seemed like forever there but was probably only 15 or 20 minutes. Then the orphanage director came in and we all went through the metal detector (I didn’t set it off, by the way—I’m always nervous about that, even though I don’t carry anything worth detecting) and upstairs. We waited for a while there while the prosecutor and the social worker came. Then we were ushered into the courtroom. We all rose and in came the judge. She was all business and no smile. Everyone stood up and gave their name and any acronyms after along with credentials. Then she had everyone but Keith and Kostya sit down. She quizzed Keith about why we were adopting when we could still have children. She asked if we had the finances to support them. She asked him how we got a long with the girls; if the girls understood that they were being adopted and taken away forever (I’m not 100% sure they do, so I’m glad I didn’t get asked that). She probably asked more, but I can’t remember more. Then she had me stand up and asked if I had anything to add. I said that we were committed to adopting them and providing for them just like they were born to us, that we had a great support group. She seemed concerned that if we had more children we wouldn’t want the ones that we adopted.
Then the orphanage director stood up and told how the girls came into the orphanage on October 17, 2007. Then on October 23 (I think it was) their grandmother came and wanted to take them home but they wouldn’t let her because the girls needed a safe home and the chance to go to school. Since then no-one has visited them. It was about that time that Elijah started making a big fuss. I took him out. I even promised him candy (something I NEVER do, but I didn’t feel well and was somewhat desperate) if he was good and quiet. But he was tired (and probably a little sick) and wouldn’t cooperate. It turned out to be ok, Keith came out a few minutes later and took Elijah so I could go in and say that “yes, we still wanted to adopt” (in legal-ese, of course) and “could we change the names on the birth certificates?” She then declared that we were the parents of these four children. She then wished us well and hoped we wouldn’t have any regrets. I think she might have even smiled then.
Apparently, I missed the best part. The prosecutor got up and was basically our best advocate. He said that we were approved for 5 children. (Which is funny, when he grilled me in the orphanage I was hesitant about telling him that, but Keith- probably following the spirit- fed that to me when I was answering one of the questions. My wonderful husband!!!) He said that he had no reservations about our ability to parent these children. He checked the log book at the orphanage and no one had visited the children since their grandmother came. I’m impressed, he’s thorough. Wait a minute, log book!?!?!?!? There’s a log book!?!?! Anyway, I was glad I was quizzed by him at the orphanage rather than today. I wouldn’t have been very clear-headed today. He said that he talked to each of the girls and they all said they wanted to be adopted. K even wrote something down saying she wanted to be adopted.
Oh, I forgot. Apparently the orphanage director also said that K, when she was being hosted in America, left the house without permission and they wondered if she was running away. Oh, that would have been nice to know. And what a place to bring that up.
So, they are our children, but wait, not yet. We still have the 10 day-waiting period. That starts tomorrow. Looks like Gotcha day will be Valentines day. But not really, because the 10 days ends on a Friday and the courts are closed on Saturdays. So technically we can’t take them until that Monday, but legally they will be ours on the 14th. But we won’t take them until we get birth certificates and passport paperwork done. I must be tired. It sounds like I’m rambling.
After that was all over our facilitator was talking with the director out in the hall. Then he came to us and said that because of the logistics of taking the girls plus an orphanage worker, plus one of us, plus our facilitator to translate to get passport pictures taken, the director would arrange for all that to happen. So he needed money to give her NOW. Wait a minute, he told us just that morning that we didn’t need to take any money other than cab fare. Luckily, we did have some money stashed away. So we gave her 300 grivna. The next hour was kind of a blur for me. I was VERY tired. We got in a cab and drove to about 3 different places. Luckily, we kept the same cab and I stayed there with a sleeping Elijah and snoozed while Keith went with our facilitator to do busy work. I think it was all about passports and birth certificates. They do the new kind of blue cover passports, here. Without the long explanation, they are the ones with the pictures printed on the page, they cost less, but take about a week to process (as opposed to the red ones that can be done immediately). So we will be here at least a week after the 10 days, plus one or two days in Kyiv for embassy stuff.
Then back to the courthouse to get a draft of the court decree (I think to take to the SDA--- am I following all this?!?!?!). Then to the bus station to see our facilitator off to Kyiv. We are alone again. But not really, it has been a HUGE comfort that the missionaries and Elder and Sister Thatcher are here and have offered to help. Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing, doesn’t he?!?
Back to the apartment- morning visiting hours are mostly over at the orphanage. Dumplings for a quick lunch and then 3.5 hour nap for everyone, even Elijah, his second today. After nap I felt MUCH better!!
We took the computer for the evening visit. And they played ok with it, except somehow they got out of the program and hung the computer. We had better have a system at home for the kids that doesn’t have our stuff on it.
I got some good one on one time with Ryah, I helped her build a tower of blocks and then she sat on my lap and took pictures (of the ceiling, the window, the tops of people’s heads- she can’t quite figure out the close-one-eye-and-use-the-open-eye-to-look-in-the -viewfinder- thing). I still think she doesn’t feel well. It was nice to just cuddle with her.
Near the end, I finally communicated to K that we needed to figure out sizes of clothing. She ran and got our favorite caregiver and through a lot of pantomiming and “da”s we think we got sizes of coats, shoes, pants and shirts. It was kind of funny, most of the clothes the kids were wearing didn’t have tags. A1’s pants and shirts (she had on two) had American sizes on them. So the caregiver had them trying on shirts and pants. There were clothes and worn out kids everywhere when we were done. Whew!!
While we were doing that Tim Cox came in and said that they wanted to take us out to eat to celebrate our court date. Sure, except it is our treat, they treated last time.
So, despite being somewhat sick, it being bitterly cold (topped off with an icy wind) We rode the bus downtown to meet at Naomi bistro. We had a nice evening with them. They have decided just to stay until their 20 days were up (next week sometime) and see if the man who filed the intent to file an appeal actually files the appeal. If he does they will go home and come back after the court stuff is done. If he doesn’t they will be able to take their son home.
Sharon will also give our email to the two ladies who hosted K and A1 so they can communicate with us. Apparently, the one who hosted A1, was trying to pursue adopting the girls. Oops. Didn’t know that. Not that it changes.
We didn’t get home until after 9:00 and Elijah was pretty wired. I was hoping he would fall asleep on the bus, no such luck. It took us until after 10:00 to get him to sleep. Hopefully we can sleep in tomorrow. Vitamin C, anyone?!?!

Yeah!! Court tomorrow!

February 2- Monday
After breakfast we made our way to the orphanage. It has been bitterly cold. For the last few days there has been a nice smooth layer of ice over everything. But today it actually warmed up enough (although it doesn’t feel like it warmed up) for a lot of the ice on the roads and sidewalks to melt and evaporate or soak in, or run off. So the mud has been frozen and there hasn’t been much ice. So then our facilitator’s wish for snow to get rid of the mud finally came true. At first, I would have rather had the mud than the ice, but now that the ice is gone I’d rather have snow than mud. I guess I’m rambling.
We played with A2 and R. I took the video camera and got quite a bit of video of them. I also got some video of their friends. Usually the caregivers usher everyone else out of the room but today they let them stay for a little while.
While we were there our facilitator called and said that he was able to pick up our paperwork at the SDA all signed and ready to go. Yeah!!! Court, here we come. Everyone’s prayers and fasting helped!!!
When 12:00 rolled around we hurried and caught a bus downtown. We needed to get internet cards to be able to continue to get onto the internet. We also wanted to go shopping at the big grocery store. We were out of treats for the girls and a few essentials like milk, butter and eggs. I was bound and determined to get stuff for making soup. With all the cold weather I was craving soup. Last time we went shopping, we bought some noodles, and meat to make the soup, but couldn’t get any vegetables or flavoring. This time we got some fresh cabbage, canned peas and flavoring. We also got some kiwi. Not for the soup but we are really missing our fresh fruit, here. We went from 5 servings of fruit a day to nothing. We ended up spending another 400 grivna. Ahh. Hope the money doesn’t run out. We were relatively smart this time. We took an empty backpack to put a lot of the food in. We put the heavy things in like milk and juice and I carried that on my back. We each still had a bag to carry but they were lighter (and not threatening to break) it was much easier on our hands. Oh, it was kind of comical getting on the bus with all that stuff. The area they allow for personal space on the bus is negligible. But we somehow squished in ourselves, our large backpack, Elijah and two grocery bags of food… and we didn’t even break any eggs.  We are getting the hang of this even if we still look like we don’t fit in.
We got back to the apartment with enough time for lunch and Keith to take a short nap. Elijah has decided that whenever we ride a bus he is going to fall asleep. He fell asleep on the way to the grocery story. I tried to catch up on emails.
We took cookies with us for the girls to share with their group. It was A1’s turn to pass them around. I later saw one of her friends holding two of the cookies. I think she must have not given one to everyone, but she got a stern talking to from one of the caregivers. (I think that is what the caregiver was talking about—when it is in another language you get to make up what you think they are saying ) So I hope that doesn’t happen anymore. I had taken the camera hoping to get more pictures to share with everyone. I got a few of each girl (not too many of K— will have to work on that). I also got some pictures of a few things inside; their cupboards—each child has their own and they put their outside clothes and backpacks in them, the chore chart and hair scarves for the children who help at meal times. I’m going to try to take my camera each day and get more pictures.
We put puzzles together and played blocks. At the grocery store we purchased two more puzzles, one of Pooh and friends that has 160 pieces and one of Little Mermaid that has 260 pieces. We took the Pooh one and K made short work of it. I kind of wish we had waited until tomorrow morning and let A2 put it together first. But maybe we won’t even be at the orphanage tomorrow, for court. R must have been very tired today (or not feeling well). At the end she just cried and cried, not sure what set her off. Luckily, Keith was able to calm her down.
We left about 15 minutes early so that we could make it to Family Home Evening. But we barely missed bus #50 and waited for about ½ hour for bus #23 to come by. So we were 45 minutes late. But we still enjoyed ourselves. They played games and had treats. There were quite a few more people there than were at church. There was one teenage girl who apparently loves kids. She tried all night long to get Elijah to play with her. He hasn’t been too friendly to people, especially if he is away from Keith or I. But she won him over and he actually left my sight.
While we were there the topic of how much we were paying in rent came up with the missionaries. They were all horrified at how much it was. They said they could have gotten us a better deal. Sister Thatcher even offered to let us come live at their apartment for free. That is something that we will have to talk about. It would be really nice to be able to save some money, but would be it rude?
We left a little early as we needed to make sure we were home when our facilitator arrived here. Although we needn’t have bothered. He didn’t come until after 10:00 pm. He gave us a run-down of what to expect tomorrow. Now I’m getting nervous. I’m also getting a sore throat.

Anyone have a measuring tape?!?!

February 1- Sunday
Wow! Is it February already??
I woke up to the kids calling at 6:00 am. It was really nice to talk to Caleb and Miriam. Jonas had fallen asleep. It was good to hear their voices. We really miss them!!
We all took baths and ate granola and yogurt. Then we hurried to see the girls. We played with Duplos mostly. We were only there for an hour so we could catch the bus and make it to church. It was very nice to be in church again. We both bore our testimony and one of the elders translated for us. The lesson in Sunday school was on personal revelation. It was good to be reminded of how much we have been led and guided on this whole adoption journey!! We need to be more aware of that and thankful! Don’t know what RS lesson was on as I had no translator, but it was good to be there and feel the spirit, sing the songs (in another language ) and take the sacrament. They asked Keith to help pass. I guess they have to tap the Priesthood whenever they get a chance. I was very impressed with Elder Thatcher, the branch president. Last week he said maybe one or two sentences in Ukrainian, everything else the missionary translated for him. This week he did about half in Ukrainian (some of it he had written down). I know what it is like learning a language and it isn’t easy, especially getting up in front of people like that.
After church they had a “break the fast” lunch. We thought it would be impolite if we didn’t stay after practically everyone in the ward invited us to. Sister Thatcher made spaghetti, garlic bread, a salad, and a green salad (complete with real ranch dressing that Sister Thatcher brought from America). It was all very delicious!! But we enjoyed the company more. We didn’t want to leave. It is amazing how you crave association with members when you don’t have it. The Thatchers have 10 children, all boys (it is Sister Thatcher’s fault—according to Elder Thatcher -- she said “we both know differently, don’t we.”) They were only in the MTC for a week.
Oh, there is a member, I think her name is Ann, who was told about us, who apparently has been wanting to meet with us and practice her English. She offered to take us to the market to buy clothes. That was very nice of her, and we accepted. Problem is, she is very timid on her English. But I guess just knowing the market will be a big help. Hopefully we can figure it all out.
We finally left at 4:00, feeling guilty for going to the girls late, but very physically, spiritually and socially fed. After running home quickly to get the computer, we were greeted very warmly at the orphanage. Each of the girls made it a point of giving each of us a hug.
There was a new (to us, at least) caregiver. She was very nice and Elijah even shook her hand. He will usually smile at people but you have to be “in” to get a touch from him.
The older 3 girls took turns nicely on the computer. They even let some other kids take a turn. I put duplos together with A2 and A1 (when she wasn’t playing the computer). Keith also got to play a memory game (from Unicef, incidentally) with whatever girls weren’t playing computer. R got all dressed up to go to school, again. I think the girls have learned at one point or another that they need to demand attention, usually by being mean or bugging one of the other girls. So each time we go we try to be aware that each girl gets some one on one time with at least one of us. It has helped a great deal. We also try to not let them be grabby. For instance, when we were getting ready to leave and picking up blocks, Elijah had the last one and was being a little slow putting it away. K forcefully grabbed it away from him and put it in the bag. I took it and gave it back to him. She gave me a little smile and patted Elijah on the head. We are getting somewhere, maybe?!?! That is going to take a lot of work!
Oh, I peeked at R’s shoes and A1’s shoes to see if I could figure out the sizes. R’s said 26 and A1’s said 33. This is going to be harder than I figured. But how in the world is that going to help us buy clothes if the sizes aren’t the same here?!?! If you can’t tell this figuring out sizes and how we can buy clothes takes up a big part of our time and discussion lately.