Feb 8th, 2008

Today’s a long one….I’d like to call this one…”How we got kicked out of the groupa’s playroom”….now that I have your attention we’ll start at the beginning, Sheila and I are feeling marginally better…we slept most of yesterday…dealt with bathroom issues, did some laundry in the bathtub and were awakened 4 times last night by our hotel neighbors. We decided since we only have 4 days left in Izmail we really needed to spend as much time as possible with Lera and we needed to get some much overdue photo’s of some cuties in the orphanage.


First up was Timur...he’s a cutie!! This little dude is gonna be something special…we didn’t have much success getting photos of him smiling, but we got to see them for ourselves and he is precious to say the least, very good natured and seemed to like both of us. He had a little bit of a cold and they said his cheeks rash from juice.


Next up was Slava…this little dude is a tank and has some serious energy! He quickly took command of the room and demanded that all be aware of his presence and trust me…we were. He, like Timur, had an adorable smile that was easier to see than to photograph…he reminds me a lot of Caelia…very sturdy and sweet. He wanted to play and would not be denied!!


Last but not least Alina...she is a little peanut…she is so sweet and cute and oddly enough reminds me of myself…I swear I have photos of me from childhood that look just like her…she’s tiny and has a prominent nose…much like myself(when I was little, now I’m prominent and have a big nose!!) I would take them all in a heartbeat if given the means…but alas Ellen and Timur are already spoken for…Slava on the other hand needs his forever family….someone needs to adopt this boy!! We took a bunch of photos and some video we will forward on when we get back to the US. The Director is going to give us their medical information and will forward them onto Andrea or Victoria for those who are interested. To the best of his knowledge none of the 3 have significant medical issues.



Next onto Lera, we were a little later than usual due to our visits with the 3 cuties. When we got to her groupa’s room they were all sitting down for a video(yes! A TV…I hadn’t noticed it before) Lera was not happy to see Momma and Poppa…she wanted her video, so we pulled up a piece of floor and sat to watch…this was fine in theory…but these little orphans were way too excited by visitors to sit still….I assured Lera we were staying and she could watch, so she calmed down and took her place on the floor. Sheila went over to the playpen and picked up Lena…making many in the groupa jealous….I’m not sure but I think a few of them have been attempting to get us to adopt them instead…they say “Nyet Lera” “Mya Momma, Poppa” It’s cute, but heartbreaking at the same time. Lena became way to excited by the stimulation and was raising heck…Lera in the mean time had worked her way over to my lap(mostly because a caregiver had given me candy to bribe her) Soon one of the caregivers left the room and came back a few minutes later…while she was gone half the groupa had surrounded us and the other half had begun All-Star wrestling…needless to say, the caregiver insisted we take Lera elsewhere….and that is how we came to be kicked out of the groupa’s room…we sulked away luring Lera with the promise of a cookie(I conveniently left out the part where she kicked another girl on her way to the door) and took her to one of our favorite spots in the orphanage for some play time…Things went good and she had fun…although we failed to recognize Lera’s plea for potty time…so she wet herself…I have a feeling her potty training is more ritualistic at this time…with them giving her regular scheduled potty breaks…we’ll work on that more when we get home…She gave us waves today…but no kisses…maybe tomorrow!?!?!