It's Saturday today. The baby house staff was down to it's bare minimum (and will be tomorrow as well,) and our agency ladies don't work on weekends, so we got to fend for ourselves pretty much. Our coordinator told her driver what times to pick us up, and instructed him ahead of time to go into the baby house with us and tell the workers that we're here to see Hazel (not her real name yet, fyi) and ask them to go get her for us. So that's what he did. He speaks maybe 10 words of English, so he wasn't much help in the translation department. We somehow related to him that we wanted to take Hazel outside for our morning visit. So he did tell them that, and they were fine with it. They must have been, because she came running down the hallway to us in a cute little crocheted hat.
Our driver directed us to a little play area that was probably not used in years. The sandbox was filled with dandelions and there wasn't a stitch of shade around.
We sat there for a while blowing on dandelions, then decided there was no way we were going to hang out there for two hours in the full sun. So we took it upon ourselves to relocate to the shady playground.
I think bubbles are a new discovery for little miss Hazel. Yesterday when we pulled them out, she seemed confused, like, "what in the world is that?" But today, she was all over the bubble idea.
So proud of herself. She learned how to blow bubbles just by watching mommy do it!
After a few minutes, she decided she was sick of the hat, so she pulled it right of her head, then pulled her pigtail out.
I loved seeing her hair in it's natural, wispy state. I couldn't help but run my fingers through it for a while.
See what I mean about Anya's picture? She had to get her fill of big sister for a minute before we went on to the next activity. My friend commented that she wondered if these two knew each other in the past life. I can't help but wonder the same thing.
This visit was really neat for us. We had all that time with just the three of us, outside in the fresh air, with no distractions. All we could do is stare at this little beauty and soak in every little bit of her that we could.
After our morning visit, we asked our driver where we could buy some t-shirts. He didn't understand anything except the gesture that Jeremy was making, pulling on his shirt. He ended up dropping us off a few blocks from our hotel at an under-street vendor place that sold everything from clothes to toiletries to purses. No t-shirts. But it was nice of him to do that. When we emerged, we found the main square (Lenin Square) in the city, with the Chapel of St. Nicholas (originally built in 1915, then destroyed and rebuilt in 1993,) which marks the exact geographical center of the former Soviet Union. Cool gee whiz fact, don't you think?
Behind the statue of Lenin that you see here, is the largest opera and ballet house in this country. It's world-renowned. We tried to get tickets to the ballet but you have to buy them weeks in advance. We'll have to remember that for our next trip.
The area was bustling with activity. There was some kind of festival going on with singers and vendors lined up along the sidewalk. We were very happy to find a pizza restaurant there, although the pizza wasn't that good. One fun thing is that two British girls came over to our table and asked if we were from the States. Amazing how great it was to find someone we could actually communicate with! They had just graduated from college and were traveling across the country on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. They were in town for the night. We had a nice chat for a few minutes.
Have I mentioned how totally exhausting this trip has been? I remember our first trip being like this with Anya's adoption, too. Don't know why the first one is so much more tiring than the others, but it seems like, no matter how many naps we have, we still feel tired all the time!
Anyhow, we went back to the hotel after lunch and slept for an hour and a half before Nicolai the driver came back to pick us up for our evening visit with Hazel. The drive to and from the baby house is a half-hour.
Her caregivers changed her into the same cute little Russian dress that she had on yesterday. So fun.
We spent our time in the therapy room again.
It's really weird, but for some reason, our visits inside the baby house have been very different from the ones outside. She isn't her carefree self when she's in these rooms. She's more intense. She head-butts us, grabs our skin, and hits. I wonder if it's just what they do there. I left feeling worried and down this afternoon. I think we're going to have some training to do with her for the first little while. After chatting with my fellow adoptive moms on Facebook about it, though, I was reminded that this is totally normal, and that she'll learn fast once she comes home.
Hazel is basically a 15 to 18 month old little girl. Babies that age like to pull hair, pinch, smack, etc. And babies who have Ds like to throw themselves into you. You really have to defend yourself so you don't get head-butted in the nose! Anya was past this stage when she came home, so it's not something we've dealt with much. But we'll just have to be really consistent with her, teaching her all about soft hands and gentleness. I don't think her caregivers have time to work with her on these things.
Tomorrow morning will be our last visit with our little peanut for this trip. I'm so sad we have to leave her for two months. Don't like this part at all. But I know it will fly by. It's summertime, and we have six kids in our house to keep busy! And lots of fun things on the calendar. So we'll be back for court before we know it.
Well, it's time to snooze again. Thank you for your comments. This is such an emotional, draining experience. It's amazing how much your words sustain us, strengthen us and help us to keep the big picture in mind. This experience is like a marathon that keeps going and going. Some days, you feel great, other days you feel so weary that you can't keep the tears from leaking. Especially when you spend time with children who are without parents.. It's so heartbreaking.
47 million other children are out there, waiting for someone to cherish them. Some day they will all know what it's like to be loved. It may not be in this life, but some day. We can at least find comfort in that. And in the meantime, we can only do what we can do to help.
Until tomorrow, dahsvedanya!
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