Called To Adopt
#2 - They Are With Us
posted Saturday, 18 September 2004
Saturday morning Dear family and friends, what an amazing and grace-filled day we had yesterday! We went to Gorodnya and came back to Kyiv with three children. The officials were willing to let us have custody of them until court, and so, they are with us. Truthfully, I did not expect this, but thought that we would have to wait until next week to get to spend some significant time with them. We were astonished at the rapidity with which Dima worked. Back and forth we went, from the Inspector’s office to the orphanage to the notary to another office, picked up the children, then back and forth again. Somewhere in there we had a great celebratory meal and then were back to Kyiv. Our court hearing will be Friday we hope.
The children are fabulous. The younger two, Oksana and Max, talk a hundred miles an hour. Ruslan smiles a lot, understands that we don’t understand Russian and tries to help us understand what the little ones are saying by using his own sign language. We are making out so far. We arrived in Kyiv around 6 or so. The little ones were exclaiming over the lights and the big buildings and all the cars and people! It was wonderful!
We had a simple supper – bread, cheese, mayo, fruit and juice – the kids each peeled off layers of clothes and had a bath. Then down to skivvies (no jamies), brushed teeth (we did remember to bring toothbrushes), and then into bed. Unfortunately Max has a pretty bad cough which kept him up for a while and we heard lots of giggling, but finally all settled down and we all slept. Everybody woke up around 7 this morning. Ruslan and I went off to the Tiko market for some breakfast supplies: bananas, apples, yoghurt, oatmeal, bread, banana juice (?), paper napkins, some kind of snack that they all loved, but was unknown to the American adults, and more water. While we were gone Oksana and Max both had an orange and we all had a feast when Ruslan I returned from the market.We spent some time checking out cartoons on the TV and now John has teamed up with Don Z. and his dynamic duo, and they have all headed for the park. I’m happy for a moment to communicate with the world.
Tomorrow Dima will take us to the market for some clothes shopping and later we will go to the Circus. Dima says “please don’t spoil them”, but it is hard to not want to do it. I have figured out that it is important to maintain some kind of structure and we are doing that, but, golly, this is a happy time and we want to celebrate.
I will try to post a picture of the gang if I can figure out how to do it...love to you all, Jennie
Your thoughts are invited.