First Sunday in Siberia

We had a good night's sleep and woke at 6am to be ready to leave at 7am again. Uneventful trip and a nice visit. We had brought a little Fisher Price flip phone that says numbers and teaches numbers and letters, etc - and takes some fake pictures. Nathan Genya loved that and would not give it up! He was very sad leaving the room without it at the end of the day! And you all know how Brian continually opens and closes his phone??? Well, Nathan Genya does the same thing! Somewhat annoying - LOL! We played with a balloon again, watched a Russian DVD, saw his "costume room" and got a picture with us all in funny hats and just had a nice, though much quieter than the previous days, visit. Maybe he realized he doesn't have to entertain us all the time. We did some color with water and played cars awhile too - but the phone was the big star.

After we got back into IRK Alex came by to go over the court hearing with us. He wasn't able yet to make any medical appointments for us as he's trying to check what "correct hospitals" we need to go to. So we're not certain how far the court hearing will go tomorrow - if it will end after we do all the introductions, etc and after she rejects our medical papers (that we know will happen) or if she'll go further before postponing. The postponement length is uncertain at this time - after we would resubmit the papers it could be a few days or many days. Life is just full of lack of timeframes right now.

I was thinking of this on the trip home today - how it's so hard to be away from JJ for this length of time but yet this is not a trip for him to have taken. He is at the best place he can be right now (surrounded by friends and family and in competent care) - and he has known us as his mom & dad since he was 1-day old and he's 8 3/4 years old -- so now JJ needs to give us up for 1-week for every year he's been alive so we can give another little boy a chance to have a family. We are Nathan's chance - he probably won't get another one - and we press on.

As for the communication barrier - yeah, it's there! But we do manage to get our points across - Nathan Genya pulls you to where/what he wants you to do or says "nyet" when you pull something out to do and he doesn't want to or if all else fails we just go to something else. Starting to do a little bit with "signing" and saying the english and russian work -- but he really does repeat so well that once he stops hearing the Russian so much I think the English will come. And once we're home in WI I do have a friend lined up to come in and translate for us -- she's a native Russian speaker and will be an immeasurable help to our family (Hi, Elena!) :)

Tonight for dinner I'm making pork chops with some "tex fries" - we didn't have lunch so it will be an early dinner. We'll probably hit a convenience store for some sodas and ice cream too - yummy russian ice cream! My travel scale says I've dropped 5 lbs in these last days (which probably isn't right) but gives me some room to eat ice cream. Since we now don't have to go to the internet cafes to post we don't get out of the apartment as much!

The trip to Cheremkhovo today was again done in the dark - the sun doesn't rise until after 8:30am! But the trip back today I actually got to see the countryside and small villages we go through as I didn't fall asleep! It has to be a very hard life for many people here.

Few final things - 1. Happy Birthday, Betty! I never remember the exact day but I know it either just was, is or is coming soon (the 17th is it?) and 2. JJ you can have the gift when Grandma gives it to you - remember I said Sunday or Monday?? You don't have many this time so you have to spread them out! 3. Samantha, how's Candy doing?

And to all of you suffering in the cold in Wisconsin - it's actually very pleasant here in Siberia - it was -11c this morning and is much warmer when the sun comes out -- yep, we came here to warm up!

JJ, we love you and miss you so much! Everyone, please keep us in your prayers tonight - we're anxious but not nervous for tomorrow - we will answer any questions honestly and feel quite prepared for what she might ask us. We'll just review and review in our heads tonight and then get a good night's sleep and have breakfast and then we'll be there. We give our trust to God.

Love the comments - keep them coming!