Monday March 31, 2003 - Pictures in an album

Clarke: 

Natalie has a runny nose today (again) so nurse Ratchet won’t let her go outside (45-50 degree weather) and enjoy the sun. The sanitation inspectors are here visiting today, so we won’t get to mingle with her groupa or go into their privet room. We are told to keep quiet about all of our special treatment and mixing with the children from yesterday. 

We present nurse Natasha with some cute clothes for our Natalie to wear. She is adorable. During our two-hour morning visit, it’s back to Marin’s room for playtime. Georgiy is in the hallway talking someone’s ear off while we play. Her favorite type of activity is taking apart and putting away anything. Kris is always thinking. She has thoughts to get some pictures developed here and to add them to Natalie’s photo album of our family. This is the first time I’ve tried writing while during out time together. Natalie seems to be doing better the less we smother her. 

She is not much into coloring. She loves to dump out the crayons, turn the page, watch us color, gather up the crayons, and then put the back into the box. She extremely meticulous and finds comfort in the order of things. It’s so wonderful to see her search our eyes for responses.

We visit the same café for lunch (dinner) enjoying liver and onions. If you think that’s bad, Kris Coca-Cola Light, fish from the Azor Sea, and ice cream.  “Dinner” was a bit more expensive today!  $8.00 USD for the 4 of us. We visit our typical Internet café, and keep in touch with our family and friends. Though the laptop is heavy, we are so glad to have it.  It gives us instantly developed pictures to view and more computer storage memory than we need.

We headed back to the orphanage.  During our 9th visit, we were able to insert our newly developed print of Natalie into her little album.  Now, she can view herself as one of our family.  She continually surprised us with a gasp or excitement and raising of her eyebrows.  Every time something catches her eye, she is excited, or surprised herself. Her eyes are so bright and pleasant, words cannot describe the shear joy she transmits with her facial expressions.

It is this communication that keeps us spell bound. She is intelligent and even verbally responsive to her caretakers. However, to us, there are very few words. Natalie is enjoying her sudden rise to fame amongst her fellow orphans. She knows that we represent something special for her. Each time we meet, she is so happy to come to us. We have broken the bribery barrier by giving her sweet crackers at this visit. It’s almost unfair, because these children could easily be tempted by any food much less sweets.

Our treats to her are few and controlled. They have added to the simple pleasure that she is so grateful to receive. Each time I engage in a playful game of teasing her about taking some of her crackers, she shows her wit more and more. She is quite the teaser herself and loves to play back. She has now elevated (with my help) the game to the point of me tackling her, and she refusing to clean up anything. She is laughing and giggling very loud, and lets me smoother her. She is now extremely ornery, and not listening at all.

 She is displaying 100% normal 3 years old behavior. 

It is not frustrating, but rather refreshing to see. I finally squeeze her against the wall, while starting to pick up her last spilled puzzle. Almost ignoring her, she cannot resist to help me finish putting it away. She is still feeling wild, but is confronted by Kris’s firm voice and another cracker. In a flash, our previous Natalie is returns. 

Sasha enters the neighboring room and she gasps, and grabs her new yellow coat. (Thinking that she is now leaving for??? something other than here!) She can hardly walk while holding her new hat, coat, album and doll. She is on the top of the world! (And so are we) However, we are still guarded, we have many obstacles to overcome. 

Our stay in Lugansk is starting to seem long. Tomorrow is our 6^th day, and we don’t have a court date set yet.

We go to the market again for dinner/supper, and home to cook. Natalie has given her cold to Kris and she is quite run down. Kris wants pizza tonight, and so we try Ukrainian frozen pizza. 

Sounds good…Huh! 

Time for my prayer, daily refection and to bed I go.

Kris***************************************************************************

 

Sasha (our driver), let me describe him to you. 1^st of all, he always gets the closest parking spot! He usually parks on the sidewalks! It is so funny. I think I have figured out that honking here in Lugansk is a friendly gesture. Sasha is very concerned for our safety and comfort. Right now he is accompanying Clarke while Clarke is taking some photos of some bricklayers. Sasha has a wife and 2 sons. He would like to move to Texas for 2 years to be a truck driver. He wants to earn enough money for his family back in Ukraine. 

This country is very poor and has no opportunity. You really can’t make a living by doing an honest days work. There is so much ”black” market stuff that dollars for is about 3 years ago. He is friends with a man from USA, Leroy is his name.  Leroy does missionary work in Ukraine. We actually had a chance to meet him when we were at the market. Sasha had a brain tumor a couple of years ago and Leroy paid for him to have it removed! What a miracle. 

Woke up all stuffed up! I think I am sick from spending so much time at the orphanage. 

I think it is ground hog day again!