Longing for Home

Misha's car had broken down so we had Phillipich as our driver again today. He has such a beautiful smile and reminds me so much of family back home.



We rode with Phillipich to the babyhouse this morning. Deb and Bo have visits right before us and we get to see their daughter each morning as they take her back to her room. After they left, they were talking with the kids that we've seen playing outside during our visits. It took a few seconds but we finally made the connection that their daughter is in the group we've been watching. So they took some pictures, gave some hugs and got to watch their playtime for a little while this morning. We took some pictures from inside the PT room and will share them with them before we leave.





The visits are starting to go faster and it's amazing how much more time we spend looking out that big window now that we know there's a date coming up soon that we might be able to bring our baby home. There is a longing to be on the other side of that glass WITH our baby girl.



After our visit, Phillipich hauled us to the Big Market to meet up with Aliya and Deb & Bo. They had been there with Aliya for a little while shopping for shoes and clothes for their daughter. We did some shopping with them and found some shoes that Emily can grow into as she gets a little older. I wanted to buy her something from here that can be saved for when she is older. We found some other souvenirs that we will take back home with us but we still haven't found the hand lotions and other gifts that we wanted for the babyhouse staff. Maybe tomorrow.

After the Big Market, we rode with Phillipich again as he took us to the Atrium to have lunch with Aliya and Bo & Deb (and Vladimir). It was nice to share our favorite place to eat with them and "pass the torch" so to speak. Before I left for our afternoon visit I had to be sure to show Deb where the macaroni & cheese was at the grocery in the Atrium so Vlad would have a steady stash of food supplies while he was here. It's so nice to know that I share the same fine taste in food as a 6-year old! ;-)

Aliya accompanied us for the afternoon visit and I had her translate for Phillipich that he reminded us of family back home. When we first met him at the airport a few weeks ago, Tom said he reminded him of his dad while I thought he reminded me of a combination of both of my grandpas. I had Aliya tell him that he reminded me of family back home and he said that he would be our baby's grandfather soon. (He keeps track of all the adopted children he's driven for and calls them his grandchildren... he has well over 150 so far!)

During our afternoon visit, Aliya finally got to watch the last episode of "Friends". Ahhhh, what will we watch next? It's been a running joke between us that I have to bring my laptop and "Friends" to every visit and Tom constantly tries to find ways to hold the DVDs hostage from her. (Future families... consider bringing any episodes of "Friends" with you... from what we hear, most any of the interpreters would enjoy watching them... the show was a big hit over here too!)



At the end of our visit, after Aliya took Nadia/Emily back to her room, she surprised me by coming back to get my camera and said the caregivers would like to have a picture with Nadia and that Aliya could take pictures of her crib, sleeping room and play room for us. I gladly handed the camera off to Aliya and told her to take as many pictures as she could! I am so grateful that she was able to take these pictures for me... we will save these for Emily as she gets older and put them in her lifebook. I will post some of these pictures in an upcoming blog entry since I've already max'd out the number of pictures I can post in this entry.

After our afternoon visit we were both tired and ready to head home. We still need to make it to the internet cafe so we can let the folks back home know how things are going. It stinks to not have internet access whenever we want it, but we realize we are spoiled in that area back in Ohio with having DSL and access to family, friends and information any time we want. We don't mind walking to access internet at the cafe, but the room is REALLY hot and we have to cross the street to get there... which we really don't look forward to as traffic here is chaotic at best. People jump the stop lights before they change, they travel at random speeds, they don't seem to care about "lanes" and they tend to turn whenever they want to turn and plus, you look like an idiot here if you "run" across the street instead of confidently playing chicken with the cars. (The slow pace of Waldo traffic beckons me!)

On our trip back home Phillipich apparently started to feel a connection with us and suddenly felt a need to give us a mini tour of the city. It was fun. He speaks almost no English but he knows "OK!" - which is usually shouted as soon as we get in the car - and "Hello". ;-) He would drive by something, point to it and say one word... soldier, Manshut, home, etc. (but it was all in Russian and I did my best to translate) We "think" we got to see a military building with a tank outside, we saw the monument to the girl that died in WWII and we "think" we got to see where Phillipich lives. Then, he took us home, and announced Sva Dom... which apparently means 2 people's home... according to the number of fingers he held up. Regardless, of whether we comprehended what he was saying correctly or not, the entire mini-tour had me smiling the whole time. He has the kindest eyes and smile I've seen since I've been on this side of the world and it was very heart warming.

Back at home, it was mac and cheese and green beans for my supper and the recurring spaghetti for Tom. Don't worry, kids, surprisingly, I'm STILL not tired of mac and cheese yet and will continue eating it when we get home!