Tuesday August 17th, 2010

 

Today we venture out to the orphanage on our own. No translator, just a mad driver and a couple of cute kids who will hopefully remember us and want to see us again. We wake up early, have our instant coffee and toasted Nutella sandwiches and get ready for our first of many daily visits with the boys. At 9:45 am Gregori picks us up to take our high speed drive across town to the orphanage. We are greeted by the administrators, asked for our invitation letter from the director and told to have a seat. A few minutes later, Max and David come walking down the hall with their nurse, clutching the bag of toys we brought them yesterday and immediately run to us, calling out Mama and Papa and giving us hugs and kisses. I guess they do remember us!

This morning we venture out to the play ground to spend our 90 minutes on the slide, seesaw and merry-go-round. The boys are dressed up in new play clothes and caps to protect them from the sun. They are so happy to see us and smile for every picture and run around kicking their ball, sliding down the slide and pulling us in all directions to play on the seesaw or the merry-go-round. I pull out my iPod to see if David might be interested in a little French Horn music and he loves it, carrying it and dancing around and sharing it with Max. DJ's introduction to Mozart is complete.

 

The ninety minutes fly by very quickly, but not before hundreds of pictures and videos are taken. By 11:30 we are dripping wet from the humidity and the running around - these kids are pretty active! Not at all like the horror stories we heard about institutionalized children. We enjoy their energy and are thankful that they seem just like any other normal 3 and 4 year olds.

It's already time to bring them back, so we start the process of gathering the toys and dusting off the boys. Think anybody will notice the scrapes on Max's knees from all the times he stumbled over while running around?
They don't want to leave, but we tell them it is time to go. I take David's hand and he understands, leading me back into the building. Mad Max however, has different plans; he starts to pout and do his little temper tantrum and lays down in the dirt. David tries to tell him it's time to go in but he refuses. Finally Emma picks him up and calms him down and we slowly make our way back to the office. At 11:45 their nurse calmly takes the boys by the hand along with their bag of toys and tells them to say goodbye to Mama and Papa. They hug us and kiss us and politely wave goodbye as they are led back to their rooms. "See you this afternoon guys, bye bye!"...

This will go on twice a day for as long as we are here. We wonder if it's a good thing to keep doing this, especially if we have to leave the country for six weeks...oh well, every moment we spend with them will only make the bond stronger for later. As long as they don't feel abandoned again when we leave. Exhausted, hot and emotionally drained, we walk out to see crazy Gregori waiting to take us home. We climb the four flights of stairs in the hot muggy mid-day heat and fall into our air conditioned flat. After a quick rest and a few drinks of cola we decide to venture out to the 'Potato House' for lunch. We were told it was a Mexican style restaurant within walking distance, so why not? It turns out to be a chain of fast food, order at the counter type place with young Ukrainians wearing Western cowboy hats. Nothing on the menu appears recognizable, nor is the food or decor anyway Mexican, with the exception of cacti and Western prints on the wall. We order our lunch merely based on photos as no-one speaks English and the menus are all in Ukrainian. We make our best attempt at ordering food while people continue to line up behind us impatiently waiting to order their 'Mexican' lunch. Popular place and very cheap! As expected, we don't really get what we expected (where are the potatoes on the photo?), so I order another item to supplement my BBQ of four beef (?) ribs with something that looks like a chicken burrito, she asks me if I want cheese, to which I reply 'Da' and I pay the extra 2 bucks for my chicken, tomato and cheese burrito, but alas, it ends up being a crepe filled up with nothing but potatoes and cheese. The beer was good though!

After lunch we return to the flat to rest before our afternoon visit with the boys, stopping on the way to pick up a few groceries at the local shop, plus a few things for the boys. The humidity is brutal and we just aren't used to it, coming from the dry heat of Vegas. After a quick power nap and some cool air, we get ready for the return trip. At 3:30 we climb back into Gregori's taxi for the second visit to the orphanage. This time we bring the sippy cup we bought for Max and a large bottle of water and some sort of crystal mixer to sweeten the water. These boys need to drink fluids in this heat and we are glad we did it. They love the water, taking turns drinking from the large bottle until Max realizes how easy it is to drink from his little sippy cup. This afternoon's visit we decide to try a different part of the playground to play on the swings and the sandbox. This turns out to be a big hit and they love the swings, even after Max does a face plant from his swing after letting go in all the excitement. We spend most of the shorter afternoon session playing on the swings, sweating profusely, with high energy and activity.

We sense that the normal activity with their nurses is much more controlled and less rigorous so we take note that maybe tomorrow we will try a calmer approach to our visit and not wind them up so much. Yeah right...

5pm and it's time to say goodbye again. Max does his usual temper tantrum as he never wants to leave the playground, but calm little David persuades him to come along and Emma eventually picks him up to carry him in. It's getting harder and harder to say goodbye with each visit but we love every minute with them. It's funny to watch the transformation from when they leave us to the strict "don't give me that pouty shit, young man" from their nurses. These women have hundreds of kids to control and they know how to do it.

Gregori the mad taxi driver (just cover your eyes Emma!) takes us home and we climb the stairs to our comfy flat somewhere in the middle of central Ukraine where nobody speaks English. We cook up some dinner, read and write until we can't keep our eyes open any longer. Welcome to motherhood Emma! Goodnight...