Orphanage visit with our son

We had an early morning visit with our son. Although we haven't gotten custody of him I think it is ok to call him that. At first we were the only ones in the playroom and he seemed a little tired. Not really wanting to play, just being more cuddly. Not really a problem, though. He has been active so a little cuddle time is good. A little later they brought in some 3 or so year old kids to have music and fun time. Baby Boy was interested in that, so he would sit on Heather's lap and watch some. He is just so curious about what goes on, it's cute.

They left but a little later 2 visitors came in, one guy and one girl, the guy with a (real) video camera. We didn't know what it was, but then realized as they laid out a blanket and baby toys that it must be for some new babies. To explain a little, when new children (or babies) come into the orphanage, the staff tries to find a Russian family. The first 8 or 9 months are reserved for domestic adoption, then if there are no families the child is opened to international adoption. They have a website of pictures and information, have adoption listings in magazines and also have some televised information. This must have been the televised portion of it for the babies. There ended up being 4 that they brought in, all no more than 2 months old. Baby Boy was 2 months when he went to the orphanage, so it is about as early as they can be. They were cute and hopefully they will find a family soon. It reminded us that there are still children here without families and more that arrive, though this is the first time we had seen new children.

We had lunch (again) at the California Pizza. Hawaiian pizza again, but we will try a dessert next time. An apple perog (pastry with apples inside) and a scoop of ice cream for 60 rubles, just under $2. There are several places we have eaten that have good looking desserts we haven't tried. The other pizza place had various cheesecakes that looked good, plus we found a dessert shop on the way to one of the markets

It's the final countdown ... (Cue Europe!)

Well, court went well, we passed!!! Yay!!! It was warm in there and nerve-wracking, but it went easier and better than we were expecting. We both did our parts, others did theirs, and the judge liked it all. Afterwards, the head doctor at the orphanage and representative of the Ministry of Education said they liked us and would like us to return so they could work with us again. Very nice of them.

We now have the 10 day appeals period, a standard thing from the law. We won't change our minds, and there is no family to say anything, so we can ease up a little. We are going back to the orphanage tomorrow morning to see our son, that will be cool. Our first visit after court.

Court started at 3:00 and as of 4:20 we were given the favorable decision. Thanks for everything from everyone. It certainly has helped us while being over here, knowing that everyone is behind us. It will be so great to get home and see everyone and let you meet our son. Very cool.

We are going to eat at the German restaurant tonight then will try an Italian place tomorrow. We need more options for eating, so are trying to branch out.

Anyway, that's all for now. More posting soon and maybe we'll have more visits to write about.

The Mullet has (not) left the building!

Another day in Kras, another visit to see Baby Boy. Today was special as it is not a work day so the orphanage was sort of closed. We were allowed to visit, though, which was very nice. I don't know if all Mondays are like this or just today, but we'll be here for a few more so we can find out.

The visit went well, just us there playing with Baby Boy. He came to Heather when he was brought in which was good. He enjoyed playing with us, playing in the ball pit, exploring in the room. It's funny as he likes to try and climb into the ball pit, then he gets in and just tries to climb back out. If we aren't watching, he might plop over the wall with his feet going up into the air as he goes head first into the pit. He is fearless. He is also very curious. They have these 2 little stationary bikes in the room, kid sized. He was exploring near then and was looking at one of the handle bars. It has foam grips and little plastic caps at the end, on a metal tube bar. He noticed the end of one, then went to look at the other end and saw that it was the same. He went back and forth a few times looking at them both, pushing the caps to see if they were a button that did something. Very cute. He then noticed the other bike and it's handlebars and made the connection there. 

Another time he ha this little alligator xylophone thing, with bars of different colors to hit for sounds and a plastic stick attached by a string. He wanted to turn the thing upside-down to try and figure it out, along with trying to take the stick off of it. He is just curious and smart. Very cool to see him that way, to get a better sense of what he is like. Although we missed his first months, we are seeing differences in him now and what makes him 'him'. They have these mats and other shapes of mat stuff, for playing, etc. There is one that is a tunnel. I was holding him on one side, Heather would play peekaboo on the other, Baby Boy would be excited then he crawled through to Heather. Later on we did the same thing, but him coming to me. That was cool for both of us. 

He is really taking to Heather. Not that he doesn't like me, but maybe because she is female and he is used to only females there. Heather is also good with kids, so that plays a big part. She was singing him by his arms, throwing him up in the air, making him laugh and smile. It was nice to just sit and watch just the two of them playing together. She will be great with him. 

Of course, it also gave me a break so I could rest. He is tiring, but he also tires himself out as he is not used to this kind of play. He was doing the thing where a kid tries to fight off the sleepiness, doing anything to keep moving. At one point he was laying Heather's lap, kicking his right leg up on her leg, then taking it down, then kicking it up, then down, on an on. Very fun.

Tomorrow at 3pm here is our court time. The judge will ask me most of the questions, but we talked with our translator/coordinator about what to expect and how to prepare. We should be ready for tomorrow and know our stuff. The pictures in the photo album will also help to show the bonding we are doing. This judge seems to worry more about the bond you make with the child as opposed to repeating facts that she already has in paperwork. Describing our visits and showing the pictures will help her understand the bond we have and will continue to grow. 

After that is the 10 day period which is just a formality by law. It does allow any random family members to appear, although it won't happen in our case. We already have signed documents from them saying they won't interfere, and most wouldn't be allowed custody for various reasons. If all goes well we should pick him up Friday 5/22.

Last thing, the sour smelling milk that I bought was actually sour milk on purpose. Spoiled milk in a jug, why would you buy it! The smell made me almost ill. Just another part of the culture shock, people wanting foods that we wouldn't want. No biggy, just get me home for some regular milk and foods that are 'normal' to us. We are hitting up the California Pizza lots for their Hawaiian pizza. Very good, but it seems like people here don't get more than 1 slice at a time. Too bad for them, that's how we roll!

Walking around

Today we spent more time walking around the city. Not much else for us to do, not much on tv (especially in the morning) and we weren't really able to get out before. We had lunch at the California Pizza then walked around some. Headed back to the room, rested and relaxed, then in the afternoon walked some more. We then had some food at Subway, made a quick stop at the market then back to the room. It was very nice out and Krasnoyarsk is a nice place to walk around (at least the areas we were in). Most of the sidewalks are brick, the streets are clean for the most part, they put up lighted trees and tulips are everywhere (almost ready to bloom). There are lots of little parks and mini-parks, lots of fountains, just a neat place to see.

I have created a photo album of the pictures so they do not fill the blog up. Lots of the architecture looks neat so I took pictures of some buildings without knowing what they are.

Here is a link for the album: photos

In the morning we started off down to the California Pizza for lunch. The Hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple) is very good. We then explored some new areas but didn't find anything real exciting.

In the afternoon, we started off going down to the river and turning left. As we went past the plaza I took a picture of one of the carriages there. There are people with horses to give horse rides (more for kids) along with various horse-drawn carriages. I don't know if these along with the food/drink stands are normal or form the Victory Day weekend or what. Down at the river there is a river walk type of area, really just a paved pedestrian area to walk along the river. Lots of people walking, food and drink stands near the river. We headed back towards the hotel and went past it to the park near the Lenin statue. Another neat park with lots of tulips almost ready to bloom. If we are still here when they all bloom I'll take some more pictures of the various tulip areas. 

Although we are limited in what we can do this is still a nice city, for the areas we have been in. It's been fun spending time with Heather here. It will be interesting to see what the week brings with another orphanage visit and the court trip, then whatever else we are going to do. I don't know how many visits we might have during the waiting period. It will be nice to get home, but it isn't too bad being here. 

Rain, rain, go away

Well, the weather did clear up a little. It then started to drizzle again and got overcast, cold and then some thunder. Then the clouds moved off and the sun came out and it got warmer. We then took a walk through the crowd (that would grow and shrink based on the rain) at the plaza towards the river. We walked down the river some, then turned back into the city. Not really looking for anything specific, just walking around to see what we would find (without getting too far). We ended up getting near to where our previous walk was, one street over, and we at the other end of a park that has a status of Lenin. There were some construction things in the way so I couldn't get a picture, but we will walk more tomorrow if the weather is ok. 

We ended up on the 'main' street that we were on before and I spied the reclusive 'California Pizza' on a side street, actually near the Subway. We headed there for dinner and had a few slices of pizza which was actually good and still cheap. I was able to get the food without too much difficulty with my limited Russian, so that was also nice. We left there and headed back and it started to rain again. It was the type of rain where all of a sudden there are large drops of rain slowly coming down, then turning into more and more large drops of rain. We got back to the hotel as it slowed down so we didn't get too wet. We watched a movie (The Wedding Planner) and the rain did it's dance of increasing then decreasing, back and forth. As the evening went on the rain got worse and more thunder and the whole off and on thing.

We just got done watching a 15 minute or so fireworks display over the river, marking the end of Victory Day. The grand finale was 5 or more minutes. Pretty neat little extra.

When in doubt, smell it first ...

Ben Franklin had some good and timeless sayings in his 'Poor Richard's Almanack'. Just a few of them are:

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Fish and visitors stink after three days.

I think that a new one should be added: When in doubt, smell it first. I've had a tough time trying to find milk, at least something that resembles what we are used to. First we could only find higher percentages of milk fat, but we then found one that was 'only' 1.5% (we normally drink 1%). This didn't end up tasting too good. I was the guinea pig and poured a little into a cup, it smelled a little different, then I tried some. It wasn't so awful, but it had an odd taste and a little bit of an aftertaste. More than just it being 1.5%. Yesterday we got what I thought was 1% milk at the larger market. It would be nice to have some milk with cereal. I asked Heather to try it, she wasn't too sure about it, but she poured some into a glass and smelled it first. I guess I missed part of the label on the milk, because it smelled like spoiled milk. The carton had the word for milk, but also a word for yogurt that makes me think it is some sort of spoiled milk like yogurt kind of liquid.

This is part of the culture shock of being here, things seem like they are going to be 'normal' other than the language, but the customs and things that are normal here are not the same. It is an old country and an old city, a far cry from the modern, rich life we take for granted. They don't have the same government assistance for everything that we have. The market has odd things for sale in it, not the same types of things that we are used to. 

We felt more like ourselves today, though we still didn't get much sleep last night. The mattress is terrible. You can feel each coil while laying there. We are going to try sleeping on top of the covers to give us more padding and see if that helps. It rained in the morning but cleared up around noon. We spent time trying to find out where a KFC was and also a 'California Pizza' (knock-off of California Pizza Kitchen). We had no luck, so headed out into the city. There is a plaza outside of the hotel where many people were for the Victory Day celebrations. Souvenir stands set up, food and drink tents (shish-kabobs are big here). We walked to one of the main streets and just went down to see what we could find. We found the Baskin Robbins and the Kodak 1 hour photo and stumbled across a Subway. We walked a little further then headed back to the Subway. My minimal Russian allowed us to get a few sandwiches and drinks which were good (and cheap). We then walked around some more and headed back the plaza in front of the hotel.

Here is a photo of a statue in the plaza. Behind it is an opera and ballet theater.

Heather ad the Russian flag Heather wanted to buy for Baby Boy in front of one of the lions guarding the entrance form the street.

Here is the clock tower that tolls every hour, along with a short song every half hour.

The weather seems to be clearing up (it started raining again) so we will try and walk around some more. We want to try and find someplace different for dinner, but I don't know if that will happen. Maybe we can get some more pictures since these aren't that exciting. It was just nice to feel somewhat normal today and to get out and walk some in the city.

Friday is here, although for us Saturday is almost here

This whole time zone thing is just tough. Even being out of town for almost a week, we still aren't 100% caught up here. I thought we would be, but I sure was wrong.

Today started off early with a morning visit to the orphanage. We met one of our translator's students downstairs to act as our translator today. Our normal one is working on translating the recent document we brought for the court and hopefully submitting them to the judge today. We found out that we would be going to the orphanage with another person adopting. A single woman and her out-of-town friend were heading there also. She is actually adopting 2 girls who are sisters, but one is at the same orphanage as us and one is more in the city. This is her first trip but was busy making trips to two orphanages. 

We get there and Baby Boy comes out relatively quickly. These early visits are hard on him, he seems to get tired more quickly. It was also busy in there so he was curious about all that was going on. Not only did this other lady have her girl in there, but a little later on the caretakers had 'fun time' for some of the children. They did this when we were here last time (they do it each Friday). They were having a puppet show for the kids and Baby Boy was interested in what was going on. That in addition to his being tired made him a little cranky. He wanted to watch the puppet show and then started to break down from being tired. He didn't want to be held and sleep or even sleep on a mat, I guess he just wanted his bed. Heather was able to get him to sit with her and watch the puppet show some, but then it ended and it was getting close to when we were leaving and he just cried. Nothing we could do, but then his caretaker came in to get him and he stopped crying a little. Whether because she had him or he knew that he was going to his bed, I don't know, but it was nice that he was feeling better. We did get some good play time and pictures and he was laughing some. 

His laugh isn't quite what a kid's normally is, not as loud or 'external'. I guess he doesn't get the one-on-one contact as much so doesn't laugh as much as normal, so he hasn't gotten to the laugh out loud type of stage. That will change, he will be in for so many changes it will probably be hard for him at first but hopefully he will adjust quickly. 

We got back to the hotel and rested a little before heading out for lunch. We went to get the same pizza as before, it's a nice lunch meal and actually very good pizza. That and 2 cokes makes for a good lunch. We went there at about 2:30 and it was real busy. I don't know if the normal lunch time is later or what. We watched a little more hockey on tv (the IIHF world championships in Switzerland) and then headed out to a different grocery store. It was supposed to be bigger and have more options. It was about 2 blocks from the hotel and had more things to choose from, including baby food and diapers, etc. so we will be heading back there after we get Baby Boy. We had dinner in the restaurant and that was it for us. The time change monster hit us again, though we had hoped it would let us get through the day. We almost made it without hitting a wall so that was nice. 

So, tomorrow is the Victory Day celebration. It will be interesting to see if there is a parade or other things going on. Hopefully we can get out and see it. I promise to get some pictures but it has been a little overcast and we are having issues with the time change so don't hold it against me, please. Orphanage again on Monday, then court on Tuesday. Fingers crossed! Although the judge shouldn't say 'Nyet!', she could still give us a hard time.