Wednesday July 21, 2010

We just got back to our apartment.  It’s about 9:15 at night. After we climb the five levels to our apartment, you’ve never seen two people strip faster after we close the door.  No, it’s not a romantic retreat, it’s just so blinkin’ hot we can’t get under the air conditioner fast enough.  As soon as we leave the house in the day, we are almost immediately wet because of the high humidity, and we stay that way the rest of the day.  (Think: sweat literally rolling down your back.)

Today we went to the orphanage and picked up Anastasia.  We took a bus into town and did some shopping at the outside market.  We bought her a very cute skirt and got a bite to eat at an outside BBQ (Tatar style).  We then went back to the orphanage where Calvin played tag with the boys.  It was so fun to watch the boys show off for us afterwards.  They all look like athletes and gymnasts.  

Anastasia with a couple of the other children at the orphanage

Anastasia and Cheryl at an outside restaurant (Tatar style B-B-Q)

Calvin playing tag with the boys at the orphanage

There are quite a few 15-16 year old boys who can do back flips off of trees and handrails.  They jump off of roofs and bounce off of window ledges.  They have quite a small courtyard that has a volleyball net strung across it, and a ping pong table in a roofed patio area.  They play in this small area daily (no grass) and so they have turned every surface into a potential toy.  It almost makes me wonder if we take some of the creativity away from children when we give them so many toys, although I really think they need more space and their set up is sparse.  It’s amazing to me what they’re able to come up with on their own and their little bodies all look so sturdy and lean and solid.

Sadly, some of the best candidates for adoption (smart, healthy, respectful and hard working) are some of these older boys.  What tremendously fine sons they would make, but finding families for them would be close to impossible.  They still hang around nearby, obviously trying to catch our eye in the hopes that we might be their ticket to a family.  It was good to see Sergei (13) and Dima (16) who were hosted last year by Lilly and Ken.  Sergei couldn’t get enough of us and stayed very close.  He said to give a VERY big hello to Lilly and Ken.  (If somebody could forward this to them I’d appreciate it, I don’t think they’re following our blog).  Vera wondered out loud if Dima is regretting his decision not to get adopted now that he is older.  She says she thinks that he probably understands now that the odds of their mother taking them back is probably nil.  Sad.