I tried to stay awake last night until Karen made it home but I failed. I fell asleep on the couch. At some point I must have moved to the bed because that's where my day started. I had some breakfast while my computer started up and then I logged onto facebook to get an update on Karen's travels. What a relief it was to see that she made it home....finally! It was about 5 a.m. EST (too early to skype Karen and Mason) so I killed time by reading and watching old episodes of The Shield (one of the only English speaking shows I could find...however it did have arabic subtitles across the middle of the screen). Still, better than the close second-place choice of old tennis matches that I've already seen 3-4 times on ESPN Classic Europe.
And then...finally. I received a message from Karen and Mason. It was so good....no it was GREAT... to skype with them. Even though their video wasn't working it really sunk in that she made it home and they're together. Mason sounded so happy to be with his mama again. Boy do I miss them.
At 8:45 a.m. EST I started my uneventful walk to the orphanage. Today I wasn't so lucky with the guard at the gate. My fear came true when he popped out of the door to his building and asked me something in Russian. I did the only thing I had rehearsed. I said Ruslan's name. Then he said something else (or maybe the same thing) so I repeated Ruslan's name again. This seemed to work. He nodded his head and I was in. This time when I walked into the room upstairs Ruslan and the other children were just waking up from their nap and sitting down for snack. I waited and watched as he ate a piece of bread (which actually looked really good) and drank something from his cup. He cleaned up his space and brought his dishes to the sink. Warning: Proud Papa moment...From around the corner I heard him say Spaseba (thank-you) to the woman who put out the snack. What a good job! I'd like to say that I taught him that, but I think that was all on his own. He went to his cubby and got dressed and we went outside.
It was a beautiful day today. The wind was blowing and the sun was out, but not overpowering. We sat at our table, he had his daily banana and juice, and then we got down to business. He pulled out the scissors and started cutting paper to glue onto other sheets of paper. That's when we discovered that I left the glue stick back at the apartment. He took this in stride and decided that he'd rather play with the camera anyway. He found two functions on the camera that he really likes, the video camera feature and the voice recorder. He really likes to sing while he's working with crafts or drawing or writing so I took a video of him singing a song. Then he made a special video for his mama. I knew he wanted to do it because he handed me the camera. 9 out of 10 times once he gets his hands on it, he doesn't like to let it go. Karen, if you're reading this, this is for you:
We really got along great today. He didn't try to kick me out at 5 p.m. and was really happy the whole time. He still gets a little defensive when some of the kids want to play with my watch, but once he says his peace (it's in Russian so I'm not sure what exactly his peace is) he's fine with them being around. We walked around the orphanage building while he took pictures and joked with each other about what the other one would eat. Supposedly he won't eat snails but he says that I will. We talked about swimming in America. He's really excited about doing that and eating ice cream and pizza....yes we talked about ice cream and pizza again. They are a real love of his. We said our goodbyes and he double-checked that I'd be there between 4 and 6 p.m. tomorrow. Once that was confirmed he was more than happy to go back with his group. On the way out I saw the gaurd and told him I'd be back tomorrow (a little preemptive strike). He smiled and nodded so we'll see what happens.
I walked to the store and had my usual, a soup, a plate of stuffed cabbage, and another plate of curry rice. For some reason they will not put the two of these on the same plate. If I get rice and chicken, they put them together....but not the rice and cabbage. Anyway, it's fine with me. I just feel funny carrying a tray with two plates and a bowl. The lady that helped me asked where my wife was and then pretended she was sleeping....we do a lot of charades. At first I thought that we eat there way too often because the people that work there know us by sight...but then I had a pretty nice thought, I realized that there are now three people here that miss Karen already.
And then...finally. I received a message from Karen and Mason. It was so good....no it was GREAT... to skype with them. Even though their video wasn't working it really sunk in that she made it home and they're together. Mason sounded so happy to be with his mama again. Boy do I miss them.
At 8:45 a.m. EST I started my uneventful walk to the orphanage. Today I wasn't so lucky with the guard at the gate. My fear came true when he popped out of the door to his building and asked me something in Russian. I did the only thing I had rehearsed. I said Ruslan's name. Then he said something else (or maybe the same thing) so I repeated Ruslan's name again. This seemed to work. He nodded his head and I was in. This time when I walked into the room upstairs Ruslan and the other children were just waking up from their nap and sitting down for snack. I waited and watched as he ate a piece of bread (which actually looked really good) and drank something from his cup. He cleaned up his space and brought his dishes to the sink. Warning: Proud Papa moment...From around the corner I heard him say Spaseba (thank-you) to the woman who put out the snack. What a good job! I'd like to say that I taught him that, but I think that was all on his own. He went to his cubby and got dressed and we went outside.
It was a beautiful day today. The wind was blowing and the sun was out, but not overpowering. We sat at our table, he had his daily banana and juice, and then we got down to business. He pulled out the scissors and started cutting paper to glue onto other sheets of paper. That's when we discovered that I left the glue stick back at the apartment. He took this in stride and decided that he'd rather play with the camera anyway. He found two functions on the camera that he really likes, the video camera feature and the voice recorder. He really likes to sing while he's working with crafts or drawing or writing so I took a video of him singing a song. Then he made a special video for his mama. I knew he wanted to do it because he handed me the camera. 9 out of 10 times once he gets his hands on it, he doesn't like to let it go. Karen, if you're reading this, this is for you:
We really got along great today. He didn't try to kick me out at 5 p.m. and was really happy the whole time. He still gets a little defensive when some of the kids want to play with my watch, but once he says his peace (it's in Russian so I'm not sure what exactly his peace is) he's fine with them being around. We walked around the orphanage building while he took pictures and joked with each other about what the other one would eat. Supposedly he won't eat snails but he says that I will. We talked about swimming in America. He's really excited about doing that and eating ice cream and pizza....yes we talked about ice cream and pizza again. They are a real love of his. We said our goodbyes and he double-checked that I'd be there between 4 and 6 p.m. tomorrow. Once that was confirmed he was more than happy to go back with his group. On the way out I saw the gaurd and told him I'd be back tomorrow (a little preemptive strike). He smiled and nodded so we'll see what happens.
I walked to the store and had my usual, a soup, a plate of stuffed cabbage, and another plate of curry rice. For some reason they will not put the two of these on the same plate. If I get rice and chicken, they put them together....but not the rice and cabbage. Anyway, it's fine with me. I just feel funny carrying a tray with two plates and a bowl. The lady that helped me asked where my wife was and then pretended she was sleeping....we do a lot of charades. At first I thought that we eat there way too often because the people that work there know us by sight...but then I had a pretty nice thought, I realized that there are now three people here that miss Karen already.
Bill, our SDA appointment is tomorrow!! Hope to see you in Bilgorod soon!!!! I promise to cook something nice, and we can all have a nice dinner together!
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