Worth It

I could tell you all about the 12 hours we spent today on paperwork, driving, and in waiting rooms, but let’s face it – you could care less about that. 

What you’re interested in is the approximately 10 minutes I spent with my son and the 45 minutes I spent with my daughters - aren’t you?   Less than an hour and worth every second of boring tasks. 

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Joel.

We were supposed to wait in the car while our agency staff member ran into his orphanage. She had to grab some documents for our day’s worth of paperwork.  We did as we were told, but this Mama was not too happy about it.

Then suddenly we see a tiny boy burst through the orphanage door and bolt towards our car.  He had spotted Svetlana in the hallway.  He asked where we were and before she even finished her sentence, he was out the door and in my arms.  That’s my boy!  Smart, speedy, and a snuggler with his Mom.

The rest of our precious minutes were spent tossing a ball, talking about Spiderman, shooting “webs”, playing tag, boasting that he was faster than Papa and he could climb a tree.

When it was time to say goodbye he was promised we would be back to pick him up soon he gave us a confident PAKA, a big smile, and waved goodbye. 

Slightly boring but important medical update:

In between paperwork appointments we were allowed to visit the girls.  The great news is whatever they had looked much better than we expected.  After researching both chicken pox and scabies, and consulting a few doctors back in the US…we are pretty confident/hopeful they were chicken pox. Whatever they were they’re definitely on their way out.  No scratching from either of the kiddos, just a few leftover bumpies on the mend.  Can we say “sigh of relief?”  (Fingers crossed it stays this way)

K, back to the girls…

Stella.

Stella’s favorite word is still “nyet”, so we were glad to see she hadn’t changed since our last visit. 

Have you eaten breakfast? Nyet.

Do you know how to sing? Nyet.

Will you braid Mama’s hair? Nyet.

Will you braid Papa’s hair? DA! 

And…she’s still a Papa’s girl. : )  She made a huge attachment step towards Jay today when she ran to him for comfort when she was upset. On our last trip back in May when she was told we had to leave she rocked back and forth to self soothe because she was upset.  This is a very common reaction for a child whose lived or does live in an orphanage. This time when she was told we were leaving she flung herself into Jay’s arms for comfort.  That’s big stuff.  Way to go, Stella girl.

Stella also continues to be very dramatic, um well, all the time, and in the middle of playing today, she stopped, looked around, put on her little half glare- half mischevious smile and asks…

“HEY! Why didn’t you bring my brother? Where’s my brother?”

Olivia.

Little Livvy shows us more and more of her personality each visit. She is still mostly comfortable on my lap and if I scoot away, she quickly scootches to find me.  She happily tossed the ball and made silly faces at all of us, tussled around with Stella and even said a few words in Russian…in a big loud voice!  We’ve not really heard her say much more than Ma-ma-ma and Pa-pa-pa…so to hear this booming voice come out of this little thing was a sweet and shocking surprise.

Speaking of sweet and shocking surprises – Family Day has been moved up a day!

Monday, July 2 – we’ll pick up the kids and become a forever family.  We’re pumped.  That gives us just 3 more days til things get really interesting.

Okay, sleepy time in Russia – thanks for listening to me gab, folks.