Day Five of Bonding – Friday, February 22nd, 2008

February 24, 2008 at 8:04 pm · Filed under Adoption Stories

One month from today will be Karina’s 4th birthday!  I really wish I would be able to be here but I figure when she comes home I can have a party for her and she will for the most part not know the difference.  Today was again a great day of visits.  We have started to develop a pattern in that I arrive and Karina comes to me and we unload all the gear out of her cubby.  First comes out the play dough, then the coloring book, then the crayons, then the doll, then the teddy bear, then the backpack filled with other items. Then I get down the balloon.  Today we had a slight variation as the children in Karina’s group were led out into the entry room where we are at to get their coats on.  I asked if Karina could go outside too.  I was told yes and we spent the next ten minutes pulling on snow pants and big coats and mittens and boots onto the 8 or so little munchkins.  By the time we were ready to go I had broken out into a sweat.  Those caregivers are hard working ladies that obviously so obviously care about the children.  What an impressive group of human beings they are.  Just goes to show you that in the US we do not have the market cornered on goodness.  It is everywhere there are human beings.  So much that is the same and really not all that much that is different. 

 We followed the children downstairs and out the door and our little group of eight or so short people dressed in heavy coats with double hats and scarves and mittens (no I did not get a picture—-AAAARGH!!!  i will have to hope we go out again so I can get one) walked around the side of the orphanage led by one lovely caretaker called I believe Aliya.  We looked at the sky and the birds…we stepped in the snow and made prints with our shoes…..we drew in the snow the sun, a bird, a house (dom).  Little Zhenya, a cute as pie little boy with brown hair, kept lagging behind.  Then there is the little girl with very dark brown almost black hair that is so animated with her expressions that kept falling down in the snow so someone would come and help her up and then brush her off.  The sweet little blond haired boy with the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen that was crying the day before for some unknown reason, and the sweet little fair haired girl with curls and blue eyes that needed help going up the stairs when we were coming back in (and wanted me to carry her up but I didn’t have enough arms/hands), the other little fair haired angel that has called me Mama several times.  They are all like short sweet innocent angels and I bristle at the notion that anyone should think that just because these sweet beings are not babies that they are somehow damaged and not good enough.  Several of the families (couples as well as single women) that are here now have made mention to me how sweet the older (relative term) children are and how if they came back they would most certainly be willing to adopt a child that was older.  

If you are interested in the possibility of adopting one of these ancient two/three year olds and want to know what they are like I can tell you exactly.  Go to your local day care center and check out the two/three year olds for about an hour.  That is what they are like.  No different…and I know because back in my college days I taught this age gymnastics for several hours in the afternoon.  These kids are as normal and healthy and lovely as any kids I have ever met….maybe moreso because their eyes sparkle with appreciation over the smallest thing. 

 I am posting some more pictures for you to see!

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