Mail 08 - June 4th
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Mail 08 - June 4th |
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June 4
No court date today, no court date for Monday, and Tuesday isn't looking too good either. The judge is in some kind of a temper, and refusing to schedule. He says he is too busy to see us, but considering Gorodnya is the size of a strip mall, I doubt it. Bill really took it hard. I think he feels things more personally than I do; I know this has nothing to do with us or with how our petition will be granted. He worries, and so does Nelly, that there might be problems. Certainly, there could be, but it isn't related to the judge's pique right now.
Today was the last day before another family left for the US. They adopted two kids from the same orphanage, and Nelly has enjoyed spending time with them. We went to the park, played badminton, had a picnic and stopped for ice cream. All was well until time to say good-by, then she just started bawling. It broke my heart; she just lay in my lap in the taxi and sobbed. She is feeling isolated I know, because every time she asks about someone who was adopted from her region, in hopes of visiting them, we have to say "no'. One family is in Virginia, one in Texas, one in Pennsylvania and another in Georgia. None of these places are anywhere we ever go, and trips will be out of the question for awhile. When we got back to the apartment, Bill & I drew her a map of the US and showed her where everyone is living and why it would be hard. She had no idea of the geography or massive size of the US compared to Ukraine. She is feeling a bit better now, and I will stop on the walk home from the internet cafe and buy her some sour cherries. She loves them and I am sure they will cheer her. I've tried to explain to her about emailing, but without trying it, she doesn't understand. Tomorrow I will bring her to the internet cafe and we will send some e-cards to our friends and ourselves. Hopefully that will help. Bella was so distraught when Nelly cried; it was actually quite sweet. They have bonded, and really act like sisters. Neil loves her, although he treats her a bit like a jungle gym - climbing over her head and standing on her feet and bouncing on her lap.
It is hot tonight, and we are cranky. The streets cool off quickly in the evenings, but our apartment doesn't. Today we were without water for hours, and we are all filthy and smelly. I know one day without water is relatively nothing, but I admit, I am spoiled and used to a response when I turn on the tap. I am tired of dingy, wrinkled clothes, honking cars, jostling crowds and the smell of urine. I am tired of instant coffee. I am tired of 5 people in 300 square feet and I am sick of bread and cheese. We are trying to bribe our facilitator into babysitting on Monday for 3 hours so Bill can realize his birthday dream of Independence Square, the art museum and the opera house without children. We offered $5 an hour and it got his attention. We'll see what happens. :-) I think a three-hour break would do wonders for all of us. Regardless, we are very glad we brought them. Overall, they are having a wonderful time, and the bonding has been helped immensely by the presence of the little ones. Nelly trusts us more
than she might have otherwise, and is more comfortable with physical affection and with limit setting, as she sees it constantly. She is a very funny girl, with a sly, teasing sense of humor. You might not see this at first, as she is very easily overwhelmed in new situations and in crowds. She retracts into herself, barely speaking, not eating and just sort of shrugging at questions, afraid to answer or offer an opinion. Once she loosens up, she is giggly and silly. She likes to tease Bill by offering him a piece of her chocolate bar, and when he eagerly accepts, scraping off the tiniest fleck of chocolate and carefully placing it in the palm of his hand. This cracks them both up every time. Otherwise, she is very generous, and rarely asks for anything, although she did ask for a tomato and a Swan Lake Barbie. She wanted me to know that she is too big to actually play with it, she just wants to have one and leave it in the box to look at forever. Of course, we will get her one; they are fairly inexpensive here (About $10) which is a fraction of the cost at home. Money stretches pretty far. Cigarettes are about 80 cents a pack for American ones, 60 cents for Ukrainian. My hopes that the financial cost of smoking might curb Bill is not working to my advantage. I'll start in again when we get home.
Tomorrow is Saturday, so we will get no more news about Court or official proceedings until at least Monday. We will keep ourselves busy, and it will go quickly. Bella has two little friends in our area, Tanya and Vika, and that helps. They play on the swings and make up funny little games. Tanya
can sing "Good Morning To You" in English; Vika knows "hello" and "goodbye" and "cute".
Bella knows "spasiba","pah kah" and "da", but they get along great. The girls
come up under our window and yell "Bayla, Bayla" until she pokes her head out. Neil loves
it, because it's a chance for him to ride the "alligator" to the first floor so I can watch
the girls. Thanks again for all the notes and calls. We'll keep you posted.
Love, Liz