The girls meeting Silas

Tyler is somewhere over the ocean with Keith right now. We miss them already, but are trying to fill our heads with the idea of “fun girl time” and enjoy the last week here in Russia. J

Sveta picked all 4 of us up and we went to see Silas today. Wow. Silas is ready for a big family. He had a BLAST playing with us. Anna really enjoyed playing with him and devoted much of the time to making him laugh and smile. Iryna was more interested in playing will all the cool toys that she’s never seen before. And so all three of my kids were happy and occupied and that made MAMA happy.

I talked with Sveta again about the 7 day requirement to see both of the boys. I guess that the orphanage doesn’t count how many visits that I make to see the boys, so I could potentially go to court and say that I saw them the required 14 times, but I won’t do that because it’s not honest. By the time we go home next week, I will have visited both Calvin and Silas 6 times each. Tyler saw them 3 times each. So we’re already in the hole on our 7 visits. Sveta said that the judge actually made this law to see each child 7x per visit. It seems to me that this law will restrict how many children can be adopted, as I’ve already stated before – who can afford to take so much time off to do the required 7 visits?! My plan is to just do the best that we can do and pray that God will make up the difference. He knows that we need these boys and that they need us and He will make it happen.

Some items I wish that I had here:

Facial lotion. The airport police people confiscated my cetaphil facial cream because we accidentally packed it in the carryon instead of the checked luggage. We bought some funky blue “spa” lotion here, but it doesn’t do a good job and it actually makes my face break out. You can imagine how fun that is.

A decent potato peeler. We bought one here but it’s a piece of junk and only works 10% of the time.

An oven. I am limited in what I can make with just two burners. Tyler was actually tired of so many homemade white sauces…I am eager to return home to my 2 ovens and crock-pot. J

A larger supply of DR Pepper. I can buy one small can of it for $4 – it’s practically liquid gold at that price! We’re trying to not spend a lot of money this trip so we can have it for the second trip, but I am missing my DP. *sniff sniff*

Microwavable popcorn. I don’t eat it often at home, but it’s a great salty snack and it’s nice to have something salty along with all of the sweet treats that we have here.

Some things I’m glad I packed:

Instant oatmeal packets. Maple and brown sugar oatmeal for breakfast – fast and easy and super satisfying! I bought 6 boxes of the packets and we have 2 left. It was a great idea that I had prior to coming and I plan to bring more on the second trip.

Ziploc bags. We were told to bring tons of Ziploc bags to Ukraine for our adoption of Keith & Iryna. So, I brought a ton with me and I brought a ton of them home. We didn’t need them. Here in Russia, however, we use them as snack bags and in place of Tupperware in the fridge. Nice and convenient and they don’t sell them here, from what I understand.

The first four seasons of HOUSE, compliments of my best friend, Sarah (Thanks, girl!). We watch it almost every evening. Sarah introduced it to me during my surprise visit to see her and now I’m hooked on it. It’s great to have something entertaining to watch at the end of the day.

The wii. Seriously. Anna plays it. I play it. It’s a lot of fun and who doesn’t like Mario party? So fun.

Games! Quirkle and Yahtzee are played almost daily. I love games and they help pass the long hours.

Picture time: