Because of the rain, we weren’t able to make it to McDonald’s yesterday afternoon. I wrote this post yesterday, but this is the first chance I have had to post it. Today’s visit was nice, but uneventful. I took a few pictures, but haven’t gotten them off the camera yet. I will try to do that this evening and post them tomorrow. Greg missed the visit again today because he seems to have come down with Meghan’s bug. We are still praying that the kids and I won’t get it. Now, on to yesterday’s post…
Finally after so many days of intense heat, Simferopol cooled off today. This morning was much, much cooler, which enabled us to have a very nice visit with Mikaela. We still aren’t allowed to hold her outside, but it was pleasant to sit in the shade with the cool breeze blowing on us and talk and sing to her. Greg missed today’s visit, because he wasn’t feeling well. The strain of the trip and a few short nights of sleep thanks to Gabriela’s teeth were starting to catch up with him, and he woke up this morning with the early warning signs of a migraine. He decided to stay home and rest, and fortunately it seems that he was able to avoid the migraine entirely. Gabriela stayed here to take her nap, and Meghan and I took Josiah to the orphanage. We are really getting to know some of the other families who are adopting, and it is nice to sit around and talk while our children play together. Josiah has gotten to be very good friends with a little boy named Max. Max is being adopted by an Italian couple, and we have gotten to be pretty good friends with them. The father has done some work in the States, and speaks excellent English. We look forward to seeing them each day, almost as much as Josiah looks forward to seeing Max. It is sad to think that after about a week, we will go our separate ways and probably never see each other again. Adoption creates such a strong bond between people who never would have known each other without it. Mikaela was pleasant as always, but it was clear that she wanted to be held. She played with her little toys very well, but each time we reached into the stroller, she grabbed our hands and tried to pull us toward her. She also wiggled to the foot of the stroller to be as close to us as possible, and kept arching her back and trying to get out. I felt so bad for her. There is no way to explain that we WANT to hold her, but just can’t. Meghan and I kept stroking her face and rubbing her stomach and playing pat-a-cake with her to get as much contact as possible. Her eye-contact is amazing, and any time I got close enough, she reached up to touch my face and hair. I just hope that these days won’t undo any of the bond that she has started to form with us.
On the way home, we stopped by the supermarket to grab a few groceries. Just about the time we got there, it started pouring! We all three got pretty wet dashing from the taxi to the store. We have learned the Russian words for most of the essentials, and shopping is fairly easy now. We made some interesting mistakes early on and learned a few important lessons. For example – always buy milk in a box, never plastic bottle; and just because the picture on the front looks like butter doesn’t mean that it is butter. 🙂 Perhaps most importantly, most water comes carbonated here, so make sure it says “nyegazovana”! We really are having a great time, and are becoming more and more comfortable with the everyday details of living here. Once we finished shopping and came back out, the rain had stopped. It was a really strange storm, because it was very short, but very intense. Since the rain, it has been almost chilly here. Meghan actually wore her jacket outside for a little while. It feels wonderful! We are so thankful for the coolness and are just praying that it will last, especially since we have heard that the train rides can be very uncomfortable in the summer months. We were blessed with very cool weather for our train ride from Kyiv to Simferopol, and we are praying for the same thing on the way back up to Kyiv.