Great First Day!

Joseph really enjoyed his first day of school. He even enjoyed riding the bus home (his choice). There is a boy in his class who speaks Russian. His parents speak it and have taught it to him, they speak it at home. What great luck that he is in 4th grade at Joseph's school right?!?! So the teacher sat Joseph at his table but after today she said she will have to split them up. Apparently they talk too much (in Russian). I am sure the little boy, David, is happy to have another kid to speak Russian with and I know Joseph is happy to get to speak some Russian. They will just have to save their Russian conversations for recess and lunch! Keith met him at school for lunch (at 12:45) which was a surprise to Joseph. The only problem... by lunch time, Joseph had eaten nearly everything I had packed him for lunch! He had a quarter of a sandwich and a peach left, that was it! I think tomorrow I will pack him lunch again with just a little bit more food (although today's should have been more than enough!) and I will send him with a water bottle tomorrow. He is just going to have to learn that if he eats all of his lunch before lunchtime then he just won't have lunch! He will have to learn to pace himself with food. But we are ever thankful that he had such a great first day.

Happy Happy Happy!

Since we got home last Friday everything has been GREAT! Jackson and Joseph played together SO WELL last weekend. No, I do not expect that to last, but it was nice last weekend. I think they were so excited to be together again that they were unusually nice and accomodating with each other. Arranging for where Joseph was going to be every day this week was a bit complilcated. Monday and Wednesday he stayed home with Keith, Tuesday my mom took off of work and stayed home with him (and being the awesome nana she is, she let him do almost anything he wanted so by the end of the day he had completely worn her out!), Thursday he stayed at my parents' house while my dad worked at home, and today (Friday) I took the day off to stay with him and get him registered for school. We got the rest of the immunizations he needed and the eye and dental forms completed so I could register him for school today. He met the principal, his teacher, his new classmates, and his ESOL teacher. Although his age would have him in 5th grade, we are putting him in 4th grade now. He was in 4th grade in Ukraine and this will give him a whole year in elementary school next year. Not looking to push him into middle school yet, one middle schooler in my household is enough for now! He has a friend from the neighborhood, Carson, in his class and there is a boy in his class who speaks Russian! Apparently the boy's parents speak Russian him and have taught him and speak it at home with him. We have been so blessed and continue to be throughout this whole process. Joseph is VERY excited about his school. He was a little scared at first he told me but after getting the tour and seeing everything and meeting his teachers and classmates he is really excited for Monday. He says his school is AWESOME (he just recently learned this word and everything is awesome today). Poor Jackson has ahd SO MUCH homework this week, he has barely been able to hang out with us. Thankfully last night he finished up homework early enough that he and I could go out for icecream just the two of us. We had so much fun and it made me realize just how much he and I both needed some time just the two of us. We will have to be sure to have mother/son dates every now and then. I think it will be important that Keith and I both have individual time with both boys regularly.
We only had one incident of dishonesty this week with Joseph. He wants to eat so often, and usually wants to eat unhealthy stuff. I hate to tell him no about eating but if we said yes all the times he wanted to eat he would put on so much weight! He is already up to 100 pounds. He has put on at least 10 pounds since we started visiting him in the orphanage in February and at this rate he would be classified as overweight in no time. Usually when he asks for something unhealthy we offer him something healthy instead and he usually will eat the healthy choice (like fruit or yogurt or the like). But, for example, for lunch today he asked for 2 PBJ sandwiches and one bologna/cheese sandwich and fruit snacks. And I am sure he would have eaten all that. But I told him I would make him one sandwich and I cut up an orange and gave him one bag of fruit snacks. That seemed to tide him over for about 30 minutes until he asked for a yogurt and some gummy bears. I tried by telling him a time (an hour later) when he can eat again and that seems to work. And he knows he has to ask for food, he is not allowed to just take food without asking. This is where we had our issue this week. He knows he is only allowed one fruit snack per day so he chooses when he wants to eat it. Well, when we looked in the box one evening there were an extra to bags of fruit snacks missing. We asked him if he had taken them multiple times and he said no multiple times. He was very adamant that he had not taken them. After some discussion he finally told us he had. We told him we were very upset with him lying. And he lost his PSP and video games for a day. He was remorseful and I really think this behavior is going to get better but we have to be vigilant and make sure he knows that part of being in a family is that we are honest with each other. But we ended the discussion and the giving of the punishment by assuring him that we love him. Right now Keith and I feel like there are two really important things we want Joseph to know, that every action (good or bad) has a consequence, and we love him no matter what.
I just got a call from a guy at NASA (rec soccer league) that they are going to let Joseph join a team and he can practice with them tonight. He is so excited. He jumped up and down saying AWESOME (word of the day remember?)!!!! Getting regular exercise will help with the weight concerns I am having for him and it will be great for learning english and making friends. Again, God is working things out so well. True confirmation that Keith and I are on the right path.
LOVE MY BOYS!!!! (all 3 of them!)

Pictures!

In our compartment in the train. And YES he did sleep on the train, without drugs (in case you were questioning my parental skills). Once it got dark (and the battery on the laptop died) he got a little sleepy. He slept from about 10:30pm until 2am, which he thought was time to PARTY. I informed him that he was clearly mistaken and after some coaxing got him to go back to sleep until the sun started to come up about 5:30am.

Working in one of the puzzle books I got him.

The bridge over a large river outside Kiev, that I am sure my 9th grade Geography teacher would be appalled I did not know the name of.

As we were crossing over that unnamed river you could see this hillside with two beautiful churches. There are beautiful churches everywhere here.

Joseph and I on the balcony of our apartment in Kiev.

HAD to take a picture of this. This is the ONLY high top conversion van I have seen in Ukraine (and I have been on the look out). Apparently there is only one wicked cool person in Ukraine (and he/she lives somewhere near Kiev) that can rock the high top! I must say, I love this in black, my NEXT high top conversion van will be in all black like this one.

On our walk yesterday we happened upon the Romanian Embassy. Pretty isn't it? (But not nearly as pretty as the aforementioned black high top conversion van...)

At the pizza place we went to tonight. I made the mistake of assuming that since said pizza place was next to the ENGLISH SCHOOL that someone who worked at the establishment would speak a little ENGLISH. Joseph helped me order correctly though, very good dinner tonight!

One of the great joys of having children... getting to act like a kid again!

Here he is with his onion and hot dog (kilbasa) pizza.

We are done!!!

So everything that needs to be done for the adoption here in Ukraine is DONE! We went back to the embassy for our second appointment today and got all our paperwork to hand over to the immigration people once we get into the states. If we had flight tickets out for tomorrow we could fly home tomorrow but ALAS our tickets are for Friday. So tomorrow we are going to go sightseeing and shopping for souvenirs.
We have had a bit of an "issue" with stealing and lying about it today. We have dealt with this before, during hosting the first time, and I know we are, in essence, starting over again. I think I did a really good job of handling the situation today when I discovered it (parenting pat on my back please) by letting it know him very clearly that it is NOT okay but after a tough "talking-to" I made sure to also let him know that I still love him very much. He cried and seemed very remorseful and apologized a couple of times. I have to remind myself that it is not personal and he is merely resorting to a behavior that was second nature to him over the last five years of his life. But I will have to be more vigilant about checking his pockets regularly, which I really don't want to have to do but it is a necessary evil until we get this straightened out. He is an amazing kid with a huge capacity for love and it is sad that because of the circumstances of his life that this behavior (stealing) had to develop in order for him to survive in the orphanage.
I am excited about our day of shopping and sightseeing tomorrow but even more excited about the day after tomorrow when I get to see Keith and Jackson again. This past weeks without seeing Jackson has seemed like an eternity. I love him dearly and can't wait to give him a BIG hug... and hold on for a while...

Made it to Kiev!

We are here in our apartment in Kiev. We will be here until we leave (for our 5:45am flight) on Friday morning. Alexei took us straight from the train to the US Embassy to turn in our paperwork. Joseph was intrigued by the fact that he made the metal detector beep (I was not). They didn't find anything unless the gum I bought him here has metal in it, that could be a problem. Anyways, I had all the correct paperwork to turn in and was told to return tomorrow at 2pm with the medical forms I needed (this was expected). So we then went to the doctor and he reviewed Joseph's immunization form from the orphanage, translated it, and gave Joseph a once over. The only things the doctor find in Joseph's paperwork was that he has had bronchitis before and chicken pox. Otherwise he is totally healthy! After we were brought to our apartment we took a walk to a mall where we were told there was a "food court" (that exact phrase) on the top floor. So I am expecting a Sbarros, a Chinese food place, a Gyro Wraps, and a Chick-fil-A at a minimum! I was mistaken... again... I swear, if I have to eat food much longer that feels like it is prepared for an eighty year old grandpa with dentures... It was really just another cafeteria style restaurant, they have lots of those here, where you point to something and then they put it on a plate and they stick it in the microwave. I had mashed potatoes (not too bad) and what I thought was meatballs. There was more rice than meat and they fell apart under they weight of my fork. I like to think of them as mushballs (Ukraine has like 1100 varieties of a meatloaf type of substance and I am over it!). I want some food I can really sink my teeth (not dentures!) into! We went by the grocery store on the way home and I got Raman noodles for my dinner...

Some New Information

So this morning, Joseph and I are talking about getting on the train tonight. We will be getting on the train at about 7:30 and we arrive in Kiev around 11am tomorrow morning. That's over 15 hours of being on the train (do the math!). So during our conversation about the train ride Joseph informs me that he does not sleep on trains and planes. He says he sleeps on cars, buses, and boats but not on trains and planes. Unfortunately we are not taking a car, bus, or boat to get back to America, only a train and two planes! Including the train ride and the two planes we will be traveling for over 29 hours within the next 4 and a half days. Joseph has another think coming... Maybe I can make him run some laps around the train station first to wear him out...

Sleep deprived already...

So after all the excitement yesterday I finally got Joseph to agree to go to sleep a little after 11. He had said that he wanted to sleep on the couch (this is a small one bedroom apartment). So I tucked him in and headed to bed ready to PASS OUT with exhaustion and within 5 minutes, in he comes saying "Mom, me sleep bed". So I said okay and scooted over for him to sleep in the bed with me. We fell asleep quickly but I was awoken suddenly at 1am by a switch smack in the chest! Apparently Joseph moves A LOT in his sleep so over the next hour as I was trying to go back to sleep I was relegated to about a one foot wide section of the bed on the very edge due to flying arms and kicking legs. I finally fell back asleep and was awoken to Joseph doing who knows what in the kitchen at 6am. When he is excited he wakes up early like a kid on Christmas. So I got up too, powered up the laptop, and turned on some Tom and Jerry and was able to get about 30 minutes more of sleep. Finally, about 7:15am, he had had enough Tom and Jerry and wanted to go walking to by 7:30 am we were out the door to wander the streets and markets (the few booths that were open) of Luhansk, Ukraine. He was upset that so many things were still closed, I told him that he should have slept more then.  But it was not a completely unsuccessful outing because we did find a vendor set up in the open air market that had drinks and hotdogs. So at 8am, for breakfast, Joseph had a hotdog with slaw and a coke. I wish I had found this vendor sooner, there were many days I craved something American like a good ole slaw dog! Although, at 8am I wasn't as in the mood as Joseph was. So after getting lost in the endless open air market and seeing bunnies, birds, fishing and hunting equipment, and lots of cell phones (for which I had to repeatedly explain that a Ukraine cell phone will not work in America, we have to buy a cell phone in America for it to work in America - I think he thinks I am making that up to get out of buying him a cell phone yet!) we found our way out and returned to our apartment at 8:45am. Sergei is not picking us up until 10:15 to go back to Joseph's school for one last party/goodbye. Now he is killing time between watching some Russian cartoons on TV, listening to his MP3 player with his new headphones, and turning the stereo on to listen to the radio and he keeps asking when is Sergei going to be here. Its gonna be a long day... BUT I wouldn't trade it for the world... to finally have my son Joseph with me... I just might need a nap after I am done "not trading it for the world".   :)

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As of today Joseph is officially OURS! Here is in the school just minutes before we left. he had to change out of the clothes he had on and change into clothes and shoes I had brought him.

Here Joseph is waving goodbye!!! (No tears or frowns, only smiles and excitement!)

First time I have walked out of this gate with him!

                                His first Coke and dessert as a free man! (well, boy really...)                             Everything today went as smoothly and as quickly as it could have, When the morning started I was not hopeful that we would get everything done in time to get Joseph today but we did with time to spare for shopping and then dinner. Thanks for all the prayers, they worked!

One week until we are HOME!!!

More boys crowded around the laptop - are you surprised?!?! The boys on the left and right (Roman *I think* and Toilik) are dressed up to do a dance for some sort of performance they did today.

Then Vladik took my camera and he told me to smile...

These are only two of the (at least) 8 pictures he took of me and (at least) 30 pictures he took all around the orphanage today. I was with him from 11am - 5pm today and this was later in the afternoon when he/we started to get a little bored...

Some of his friends...

CUTE kid right?!?! His name is Sasha (when in doubt just call a kid Sasha or Vlad and you got a good chance of being right!)

One of the twins, Ruslan (I think). I am much better at telling which one is which in person than I am on film. I am sure their soon-to-be parents can tell them apart better than I can!

I can't remember his name. But yet another cute kid right?!?!

Video TWO from today

This is another video of the boys playing soccer today. Vladik is playing goalie on the far side. He is the one who yells at me "Black Please!" Which I decipher as meaning I would like you to bring me a cookie because they are chocolate covered cookies that look black (I don't think he knows the word brown yet). So he is playing goalie and asks me to deliver him a cookie in the meantime - he's a riot!

Video ONE from today

Here is a short video of some of the boys playing soccer (football) out behind the school today. Notice that they are playing in snow! For Vlad's mom and dad: he is playing goalie and he has on the navy pants with the light blue stripe down the side.

Great LONG visit at the orphanage today

Here is Vladik working on the robotic bird kit I brought for us to build today.

This is Ruslan and Roman, the twins who I got a package from today to send to their American Mom and Pop.

This is Vlad who I also got a back of stuff to send to his American Mom and Pop when I get home. These kids were so excited with the chance to send something back to America to their host parents.

My silly kid trying on my glasses. Pretty goofy looking! I was at the orphanage from 10am until 3pm today! I brought Vladik lunch today because yesterday he actually refused to go to lunch. He said "this lunch (pointing over to the building where they eat lunch) yucky!" I think he is OVER this orphanage food and ready for some good ole Southern America food (and cheeseburgers!) Also, Vladik explained to his friend Toilik that he needed to call me a Goober. Now this is something we call Vladik from time to time when we are being silly and now he turned it around on me! So Toilik, who knows very little English, proceeded to call me a Goober over the next few hours every time he saw me. I don't think I have ever enjoyed being taunted and name-called so much ever before!

Almost there...

So as I am beginning to think about leaving Luhansk (either next Monday or Tuesday) I am thinking about the things that have made Luhansk, Ukraine unique:
1) STRAY /HOMELESS DOGS: The first few days we were here Keith asked our translator Sergei "What kind of wildlife do you have here?" and his answer was "dogs and cats". That is definitely true. On my ride home from the orphanage today (about 30 minutes) I counted 24 stray dogs! This is definitely not a place my Aunt Shirlean could call home, because she would have brought home all 24 dogs today. And that count of 24 is not including the litter of 5 puppies we usually see at on e of the bus stops. They were not there today.
2) YELLOW LIGHTS: Yes, I know we have yellow lights in America but only before the light turns red. Here they have a yellow light before it turns green! I guess there are a lot of impatient Ukrainians so they have this light to let you know you have almost made it to a green light.
3) POT HOLES: The sheer abundance of pot holes and dips in the road here is painful. It is painful because either we are driving through them so there is a lot of bouncing or we are driving around them so there is a lot of swerving. I am always physically tired after the drive to and from the orphanage.
4) LACK OF LANES: Very few roads here have lines on them. So you never know where the lanes are. Essentially, I have figured out, the rule of thumb is if you can pass a car/bus then you do pass the car/bus. And deciding whether or not  you can pass is determined by swinging out to the left of the car to look past it and if you think you can make it around it before the oncoming traffic gets to you then you go for it! And a road can fit as many cars wide as you make it.
5) NO KNICK-KNACKS: Maybe this is because Luhansk, Ukraine is not a big tourist destination but I can't seem to find ANYTHING to buy as a souvenir unless I would like a souvenir to be a pair of trendy boots, a fur coat, low rise jeans, a knock off purse, a hat, high-end jewelry, or flowers. All of those things are in abundance here but where's an I LOVE UKRAINE shirt when you need it?!?!  I have been assured that when we get to Kiev we will have an opportunity to do some tourist shopping.
6) VLADIK JOSEPH: He is also something unique I have found in Ukraine. He is an amazing kid and I am so happy to be able to call him son and in 3 (hopefully but maybe 5) days I will be able to "spring" him from the orphanage!

***We had a great visit today and he really helped by translating with some of the kids today. There are quite a few kids at the orphanage who are in the process of being adopted by an American family so Vladik helped me talk with them today about getting letters from them for us to take back home to their soon-to-be parents in America. I am hopefully getting letters from: Vlad (blond hair, grade 5), Ruslan and Roman (brown hair, twins, grade 5), and Kolya (tall, light brown hair, captivating green eyes, grade 5). Also, especially for Maks' mom Kelly, I will have a letter from Toilik for you. When he heard Vladik asking the other kids for letters he asked if he could send one back for Maks' mom. Seems you left quite the impression Kelly!
For the Macys: We saw Snezhana for a second today and then she went back into a classroom. Vladik remembered that her brother had been adopted in America! So he his going to help me ask her for her phone number. I told him that Dennis and her America Mom and Pop really want to talk to her so we will make sure we track her down over the next day or two and get you her number!

Pictures from today

This is what happened when I told them to SMILE! Most of them looked at the camera and smiled but some of them (Vladik included) just smiled at the laptop! Mitchem is the one with huge smile on the left and Toilik is the one on the far right. The girl is Eleana, she was the one girl who hung out with all the boys today.

Vladik was teaching Toilik how to play Super Mario Brothers, which was a huge hit!

Mitchem took a picture of me doing origami.

Happy Women's Day!

I should have known there was a reason they celebrated Women's Day yesterday even though Women's Day is officially today... the school was closed today. So when I showed up at 10am the main school building was locked. Thank goodness Vladik and a good number of other kids were playing outside. Vladik saw me and came running. He and his friend Toilik were playing soccer and so the three of us kicked the ball around for a while. Toilik was called "Smiley" by Kelly, one of the other American moms who left just last week with their new son. It is an appropriate nickname. He just smiles every time you look at him and he is so sweet and polite and for that reason he has gotten a candy bar or a lollipop from me for nearly every day I have been here. While we were playing outside 2 of the teachers came to talk to me, one of the spoke broken English, enough English to ask what they wanted. Which was "How old you?". I told them I was 30. I guess they were a bit surprised that someone my age was adopting an 11 year old. Then I was invited into the building where Vladik's classroom and bedroom are in. When we got in there Vladik pulled out the laptop and began "showing off" what he had. He showed them it played Nintendo games and I even convinced him to share and let another kid or two play; and then he played Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo , I had downloaded, for them. Then when a few of them got bored watching all the things on the laptop, I pulled out the travel Trouble game I had and played with a couple of boys. I also pulled out the magnetic Tangram set I have. It is this set of magnets (couple size triangles, square, parallelogram etc.) and a little book of different things (animals mostly) that you are supposed to figure out how to make using only the set of magnet shapes. Mitchem was really good at this. The last trick I pulled out my hat was the origami paper and instructions I had (thanks to Kristin Schloemer!) and we made origami ninja stars. Anything Ninja is cool in any country. Right in the middle of all this fun (about 12:30) comes in a large readheaded Russian speaking woman and I don't know what she said but she said it loud and those kids scattered. Apparently she was not too pleased with the other teachers decision to invite me, what with the kids having so much fun and all. She sent them back to their rooms Vladik told me. So Vladik helped me pack up as it seemed it was time for me to leave.  I gave Vladik a big hug and headed home. It was a great morning getting to hang out with those kids, there are some amazing kids here. The only bad part is the day is not ending so well... my throat was feeling a little weird yesterday and now tonight I am sick. My throat hurts and I think I may have a fever. I started taking the antibiotics that I had gotten back in America. Hopefully I will be well by Saturday, when all the running around starts. Saturday is the day we drive to Vladik's hometown, 2 hours away, to get his new birth certificate, and also hopefully get to apply for his new Tax ID in Lutugino (like our SS#) and also apply for his passport in Luhansk. So Saturday is shaping up to be a busy day so hopefully I am well by then!

Let the countdown begin...

It snowed yesterday evening. It seemed like a lot of snow for me in a few hours but what do I know about snow?!?! Here is Vladik Joseph making a snowball which he threw at me after I took this picture. :) The title of my blog post is "Let the countdown begin..." because from today it will be either 5 or 7 days until I get to walk out of the orphanage with Vladik Joseph for the first and last time. If all goes REALLY well I will get him on Saturday but worst case scenario I will get him on Monday. Either way, in a week or less, the day Keith, Jackson and I had talked about, worked towards, and dreamed about for months will finally be here. He will NO LONGER belong to the orphanage but to our family!

A tree in the orphanage yard. I thought it looked so beautiful with the snow on the branches.

I convince him to go outside and play and then he wants to play the iPod... outside.

Notice he is wearing red Doc Marten type of boots. You have to have participated somehow in the Grunge era of the 90s to respect these boots. I don't know where the orphanage got them but they are AWESOME!

Vladik Joseph took a picture of the spread on the table today for the Women's Day celebration that I got to participate in with his class.

Three boys in his class: from the left Alex, Mitchem, and Sasha. Alex and Sasha are kinda quiet, Mitchem... is not :)

Vladik shared the iPod momentarily to let Mitchem play.

The iPod certainly drew a crowd of boys. The girl on the right (Angela) was just sitting down to rest from dancing.

 

My LONG LAZY Sunday...

I did not go visit Vladik Joseph today. Sunday visits with the younger kids are a challenge because the main school building is shut down, Vladik does not have a cell phone so I can call and tell him I am there, and I am not allowed to just walk into his building. So I spent my Sunday hanging around Luhansk. I slept in and then went to the mall at about 10:15 to exchange some money so I could go shopping in the open air market. Nearly every booth was open and there were tons of people shopping. My goal was to find a present for Jax (and I did) which I will not reveal what totally awesome thing I got since he reads my blog too! In the beginning most of the booths have shoes (mostly womens boots) and clothing. But as I got further into it I passed an aisle full of booths selling bedding and linens. Then I passed he aisle of grocery products and the furniture aisle too. Then I found a large building to go into. I assumed that since this was actually a building (kinda like a warehouse) that the really awesome booths would be inside... I was mistaken. It was the meat market. I walked in and immediately wanted to get back out but the flow of the crowd made that impossible. So I walked through it to the exit on the opposite side. It was at least the size of half a football field and there were tables/counters everywhere I looked of raw meat! It is not a way in which I am accustomed to shopping for meat for dinner. I so wished I had brought my camera. After I made as quick of an exit as possible I ended up passing the fish booths. Whole, stinky fish. I made my way back out the main street and meandered through the street vendors who were mostly selling flowers, a welcome smell after the meat market and fish booths! My shopping excursion over, I went to City Cafe to have a cappuccino. I drank, relaxed, and read my e-book on my iPod. Then I went to the grocery store in the basement of the mall to pick up a couple things for dinner tonight and for Vladik this week. The last stop on my Sunday run was to go to Two Geese for lunch where I had some kind of pork/chicken barbeque meatloaf and seasoned potatoes. Not too bad a lunch. Then I came back home and made this video from my balcony (which is actually not posting right now so I will try and post it separately). The only exciting thing left on my Sunday agenda is to dye my hair. I meant to do it before I left to come to Ukraine but couldn't find the time... and now... all I have is time :)

He finally said it!

This picture is actually from yesterday. I was surprised when he took his hat off to see that he had gotten a haircut! The mom in me was like "wait, nobody asked me if I wanted his haircut!" But he didn't seem to mind even though he had been telling us that he wanted to have a mohawk like Jackson did last summer and now that's not really possible. Maybe by summer it will be long enough that he can do a short mohawk. I would prefer him not to go to school with one but he can wear his hair however he wants in the summer. And he looks so cute with a little buzz cut. Plus his head is so soft and he lets me rub it when he is playing video games on the laptop :)

More fun times with the iPod.

This is from today. I had bought a puzzle ball from the toy store and we put it together today. But more exciting than the puzzle ball is that today FOR THE FIRST TIME VLADIK TOLD ME HE LOVED ME! Well, actually a couple weeks ago Keith tickled him and told him to say I love you mom for him to stop, which he did, but I didn't count that. Today was of his own free will. We were watching Scooby Doo, that I had downloaded for him, on the laptop when it started to beep because the battery was low. I had brought the charger because I knew I was going to be at the orphanage a long time today. So we went and plugged the laptop in and the couch nearest where the plug was was occupied by some other kids so he stood up with the laptop sitting on the windowsill for a while. Then the kids left so I pulled the couch a little closer to the plug and put the laptop on it for him to watch there and he said "Mom sit". So I obliged and he snuggled up to me and said "I like Mom" and I put my arm around him and squeezed. Then he said "I love Mom". SO HAPPY!!! I couldn't count the number of times I have told Vladik I love him and I was starting to get a bit sad that he hadn't said it back but I reminded myself that it would happen and it did! If you think about, how many times in the last 5 years that Vladik has been in the orphanage would Vladik have had someone tell him they love him or him tell them he loves them too? Probably never. Living life without being told you are loved everyday must be tough. But Keith and I plan for Vladik to never go another day in his life without knowing and hearing that he is loved.

A picture looking out the balcony of my new apartment. The store with the yellow front is called Two Geese (in Russian) and there are pictures of two geese everywhere. It is a cafeteria style restaurant. They don't have a ton of selection but the food is decent, the beer is CHEAP, and one of the girls who works there actually speaks a little English so she can tell what each of the food items are.

Another picture off the balcony of my new apartment.

This little hut is actually a food stand. This is the place where we ordered the pancake/burrito things using the digital camera. I went this morning to get some for Vladik and the girl working there was new so it took her a minute to figure out why I was showing her a picture on a camera and then took her another minute to find the right entry on the computer/cash register. I had to show her the pictures a couple times but I ended up with a correct order!

Just me, myself , and I...

I am all by my lonesome now. Keith left Tuesday night, the other two American moms and their newly adopted kids went home Thursday morning, and Sergei the translator/facilitator went home Thursday afternoon. So today is my first full day by myself. Sergei, the driver, picked me up this morning and I went and visited Vladik from 10am - 1pm. Then Sergei brought me back to my apartment (my new 3rd, and final, apartment). This apartment is right on a main street so I am really close to shops, the grocery store, and some cafes. The one I was at before was too far from everything for me to stay there alone without being able to drive. Now I can easily walk to everything I might need. This apartment has WiFi as well. It is coming in very handy to download movies and TV shows to keep me entertained. I also downloaded an Scooby Doo movie to watch with Vladik at the orphanage today. He loves Scooby Doo and it seems like any kid who stopped by and saw what we were watching loved Scooby Doo too! I guess its just universal - Scooby Doo rocks! Thank goodness for my iPod and the laptop computer. As much as I love seeing Vladik every day, those 3 or 4 hours can get really LONG. If we didn't have the iPod or the computer to play games and watch movies it would be difficult. There is just one place we were are allowed to hang out. It is a big common area that has quite a few classrooms off of it and there are 3 couches. So every day we sit on one of those 3 couches and pass the time. Thankfully the weather is improving (whoever thought that I would say the weather is improving because it is finally getting to be 20+ degrees!) so we can go outside some to break up the monotony. I just really wish I could take him and do things with him, like go to the store, or take him out to lunch. But until we get the court decree, which we only get after our mandatory 10 day waiting period, I am not allowed to take him anywhere. But I am doing my best to enjoy this precious time I have with him (and with myself and my own thoughts) because once life gets back to "normal" I will never have time like this to spend with him. I only wish I could be spending this much quality time with both my boys, I really do miss Jackson. I am really blessed to have one amazing hubby and TWO wonderful sons.

Hanging with Joseph...

 

Video of Vladik being goofy today (as he is most days). Many thanks to my mother for buying me this fabulous green jacket. Not only has it protected me from the atrocious cold here in Ukraine but it has provided Vladik with lots of enjoyment!

These pictures are actually from yesterday. This is the dog we affectionately named Bob (before we realized she was a girl) who hangs out at the orphanage.

She-Bob is begging for something from Keith. This was after she ate at least 3 cookies out of Vladik's hand.

From left to right, Doilik, Vladik, and Mitchem, three of the most charming boys at this school. I'm a bit partial to the one in the middle but the other two tug at my heartstrings too.

She-Bob trying to lick the remaining cookie crumbs from Vladik's face.

A picture with Dad before he left.