Weds, 5 April

Here are a few photos from our home away from home. We live on the first floor corner of the apartment building. We live off Blvd. Mira, which I was told means peace. It has a ton of trees and hopefully will bud soon and get some green into our world. Next is the first door of 3 to get into our apartment door. Ian is a budding scientist in our down time from visiting the orphanage. He uses the rope we brought for our clothesline to find out what will weight it down and what won't. He also makes traps, mostly "lovey" traps for us. He's really into being a spy these days, which is hillarious since we're in the former USSR. Both of our boys love to do crafts and investigate things as you can see from some of the photos above. Notice how Vitalik will not let go of his ball on while watching Daddy help fix his "samilyot" airplane. We were glad to get a nice photo of Vitalik with us actually smiling. You should be able to double click on each photo to enlarge it, we just kept them small for an easy upload.

We’re all almost on a normal sleeping schedule, though we need to wake up around 0600 so that we can dial-up to the internet and add posts to our webpage, read our emails and surf a bit. Ian is in love with his morning breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios and yogurt. Thank G-d he loves yogurt, because all we can find for him to eat here is oatmeal, yogurt, canned corn, milk, cereal and apples and bananas. The fresh fruit selection is limited in regards to quantity and quality with vegetables being even scarcer. I have yet to find fresh carrots and spinach. The two yellow and orange bell peppers we purchased were close to $4.00. Other items are incredibly inexpensive like bread, milk, yogurt, cheese, Tide, and treats. We purchased something that reminds me of pot stickers or dim sum’s shu mai, but we’re not certain what type of condiment to sprinkle on them. I tried balsamic vinegar and that was good, Tim likes them plain, and I found some no-brand soy sauce that we’ll have to try tomorrow night. There are also good breads that have meat and cheese or veggies and cheese in them, but we have yet to purchase any of these. We’ve also decided everyone wears black, brown, or navy because it hides the dirt. The water is less than clear and let’s just say that our white /light colored clothing has a slight tinge to it. Still, we’ve found the people to be very helpful if we try to ask for something and our translator, driver and orphanage coordinator are wonderful. Today we met with Vitalik’s Dr. at the orphanage and she told us about his history. He has no siblings, his birth mother is a single woman from a broken home who lived with her mom and sister and one day took off and then dropped Vitalik back home @ 3months and then disappeared. Vitalik’s Grandma tried to raise him the best she could but in 2003 she brought him to his first baby house and explained her situation and asked that if he were to be adopted to be notified that he went to a good home. This made me feel good and Olga promised me she will pass on the news that if all goes well, Vitalik will live well with a family that will cherish him forever.

Everyday our visits with Vitalik get better and better. He is still shy, but very caring and thoughtful. Yesterday we bought each of them a ball. We left Ian’s at home today and when Vitalik saw that Ian didn’t have a ball during our visitation, he ran back into his caregiver to ask for a ball for Ian too. He also went to get some Lego’s when Ian was a bit sad that he couldn’t play ball as well as Vitalik. He laughed much more today and smiled a ton. He’s a little ham and I think all will go well down the road. Vitalik is very independent and if he falls down or bumps his head, he just keeps on going. He also is very resilient and doesn’t seem to mind if he can’t accomplish something on the first try. I think this is due to the fact that he is simply so glad to have had the opportunity to be given the chance to play on his own uninterrupted. He’s warming up to our hugs and tickles and being picked up, but isn’t quite certain why we do these things. So the boys will be good for each other in that Vitalik will teach Ian to keep going/trying when things get tough and Ian will teach Vitalik how great love can be and how to show it and receive it. Today we’re off to watch a musical put on at the Orphanage. We hope to bring Vitalik’s group some fresh fruit sometime soon, as they don’t seem to receive any. I think we’ll bring him home to the apartment next week and I can’t wait to give him a proper bath, hair washing and clean his ears. He loves to play and loves being able to drink fresh water. Wow, this trip has made us thankful for so many things we have at home, but also we’ve learned we can do without a ton as well. I’ll try to post some more photos of where we live and of our little man soon. We were hoping to see the musical today by Vitalik’s group, but the music teacher didn’t show up, so we had a bit of a longer visit and it went well for the most part. We were bad parents and forgot to bring Ian’s ball to the orphanage and Vitalik cherishes the ball we gave him and loves to keep it close, even when we’re doing another activity like coloring or working on a puzzle. He is slowly realizing that once we give him something it is his and we won’t take it away. He has been using his please, more, and drink signs, and says please, more and mama, papa, and Ian in the most adorable accent. He still likes to say spysibo, thank-you in Russian. Today we worked more on taking turns and sharing the ball. It went well overall and when he didn’t want to give Ian his special ball from us, he again went back to his room and brought Ian his favorite ball from Monday. It’s hilarious to hear Ian say, nyet spysibo, for no thank-you. His giggles and smiles are increasing and his trust for us as well, it has been great to watch. Ian was a bit sad that he pushed him out of the way to get the ball. It’s hard for Ian, because he has been taught that pushing is unacceptable. When Vitalik does it, we tell him it’s wrong, but we also explain to Ian why he probably does it and that slowly we will correct his behavior as well, but first he needs to be able to trust us. Ian sees it as Vitalik getting to break the rules. So today I made certain to correct Vitalik for pushing and for touching the camera after I asked him not to do so. This way Ian could see that there will be no favorites in our home. We all crashed about 2000 and then the phone rang; it was a friend I met on the internet who had her court hearing today. She was hilarious to talk to and is very happy to be going state side very soon. She adopted a girl who is 6 and we’ll meet for dinner on Saturday. Well I need to hit the hay…. Thanks for reading our daily novellas.