Our 10-day wait period ends today (yeah!), Alla returns tomorrow and we put on roller blades to get lots of paperwork/details taken care of. We look forward to the adoption process moving to completion. We are hoping and praying to be able to return home on or by 11/7. We were able to get Steve's flight changed easily to 11/7 and to secure a seat for Cole. What an answer to prayer.
On Friday we took our new friend Dasha out for a late lunch which was so enjoyable. It was fun getting to know each other. Her knowledge of history is amazing and she taught us so much about the country of Ukraine and its people. After lunch our driver took us to a local botanical garden that Dasha wanted to show us and we enjoyed a time of walking and talking through the beautifully landscaped and manicured garden. This was the place to be. Lots of locals were there and a wedding to boot. We've seen a number of woman standing/walking arm in arm here, something normal to their culture. It brings tears to my (Kelly's) eyes as I think about how we were walking along and Dasha linked her arm in mine; such a gesture of kind friendship. We were given opportunity to talk with her too about the Lord which was so meaningful.
We played with Coleman outside at the orphanage on Friday. It was so much fun! We noticed an older gentleman playing with one of the young girls from the orphanage and assumed it was a relative visiting her. It ended up being her grandfather whose name is Eugene. I (Kelly) had smiled at him and he called out to me something like "Ah, an American smile. What a dream. Thank you!" It ended up that he knew English rather well and we had a great time of talking with him. He was very pro American and seemed wistful about us being American. He had very strong political viewpoints about Ukraine, Communism and was a most interesting man to talk with. We're thankful for our interaction with him.
Each day we feel closer and closer to Cole. We feel lost at times when he speaks a string of Russian sentences to us and looks up at us for a response. I mistakingly one day said 'what?' to him after this occurance, but I didn't mean 'what?'. I meant 'what are you saying?????' ! We'll get through the language barrier, little by little. We feel we've been able to interact rather well with him despite our limited understanding of each other's language. You can't contain love! Our knowledge of the Russian language has certainly increased while we've been here and has been useful in getting Coleman to listen and respond to us.
We look forward to taking him home and beginning our life together on American soil, although it has been incredibly beneficial for us to spend extended time in his country of origin. As we think about the plane ride home, we're talking about things for him to do. If anyone has any creative ideas, please share them with us.
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2 comments:
Oh it's so nice to hear your 10-day wait is nearly done! I remember vividly feeling like that was the longest 10 days of my life. Not that it isn't great having more time to bond with your son, but by now, you just want to get him home!
Hope all goes well as you run the paperwork chase these last few days. Knowing Alla, I'm sure she we'll be very efficient. If you work with Olga at all (another translator with Valentina) tell her we say hello!
You're in our thoughts!
We returned home in August. In Amsterdam we bought some playdough and it was a hit. It occupied our youngest daughter for almost 3 hours on the plane. We bought another arts/crafts item that different patterns could be made from for our oldest and it occupied our two oldest for several hours too.
Good luck with getting the final paperwork done. Say "hi" to Alla from Ken and Lisa. She was our translator in July/August. She runs fast so come prepared with snacks. It was worth it though to get our girls.
Enjoy the time it will go faster than you think.
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