Thursday, January 19, 2012

Day 3, Kremenchuk

Day 3’s morning visit to the orphanage was a fun one, filled with lots of laughter.  Summer (another mom adopting via Reece’s Rainbow) was there to visit her 3-year-old son.  They’ve already had court, and she gets to take him permanently January 19.  Woohoo!  Her little guy is very active, alert, and SMART.  Such a cutie! 

 

The other American family (adopting an autistic boy) was also present for the morning visit, so there were lots of boys in the room.  Conner and Cooper had lots of fun, with lots of laughter.  You’ve GOT to watch the videos from today.  Click HERE and be sure to watch the one entitled “Conner and Cooper Day 3, lots of laughs”.  It’s priceless. 

 

Cooper seemed groggy this morning, but Conner was totally alert and exploring the entire room.  He was crawling everywhere, and even standing up on his own a few times!  He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to sit in my lap.  He will crawl across the entire room to me, turn himself around (so his back is toward me), then crawl into my lap and plop himself down.  Oh my gracious, it’s absolutely precious.  Conner is definitely getting comfortable with us.  He is a little love bug who loves cuddling and sweet hugs.  When we pick him up, he immediately lays his head on our shoulder, very gently.  He also LOVES to laugh.  He loves to jump and be tossed in the air.  Lots of laughter and hugs from this sweet boy. 

 

Although Cooper was groggy for his morning visit, he was so excited when we arrived in his room to pick him up.  He started squealing, and he immediately slapped Matt.  That’s something we’re going to have to work on.  He’s not doing it to be mean, he just got such a big reaction from Matt the first few times he whopped him in the face, that he now thinks it’s what he should do. Smile  Cooper is definitely more reserved than Conner, at least in the playroom environment.  He prefers to observe everything, and not take an outgoing, explorative approach like his brother.  He’s content to sit and watch, but some of that might just be the sedation/grogginess.  It’s hard to tell for sure.

 

I didn’t take photos today of the boys, just videos, so I apologize if you don’t have access to the YouTube videos.

 

After our morning visit to the orphanage, we had our cab driver drop us off at an American missionary’s apartment in Kremenchuk.  Jennifer (the American missionary who played a role in obtaining our apartment here in Kremenchuk) took Matt to buy some better snow shoes.  Matt only brought his cowboy boots, and he slipped and fell a few times.  So, he got a pair of Ecco hiking boots that were less than $40 (probably fake Ecco), but they’re perfect for snow and ice.

 

After we got Matt into his safe shoes, Jennifer showed us around town.  We walked a good ways, seeing the sights of Kremenchuk, then we treated Jennifer to lunch at a local coffee/Internet café with an African theme.  The food was good, all except for an interesting drink the waitress talked me into.  I asked for Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke), and she said this other drink was BETTER than Coca-Cola Light. 

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Well, unfortunately, this drink was NOT better than Diet Coke.  We think the waitress thought I said Coca-Cola LIME.  This drink was some kind of iced coffee (black) mixed with limes, lemons, oranges, and pineapple.  I like my coffee with cream and lots of sugar, not citrus.  The straw was way cool though.  It had a strainer on the end of it, made of brass, to prevent the pulp from being sucked up the straw.  No worries, one sip and I was done. Smile

 

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Here’s the Kremenchuk Christmas tree, taken while standing still this time. Smile

 

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I wish the glare wasn’t so bad off these windows so you could see the fabulous art inside.  This is the window of a children’s library.  The artwork is all done by children.

 

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They create art by folding paper to create designs and sculptures.  It’s pretty amazing stuff.

 

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This is beaded artwork.  Teeny tiny stranded beads formed into flowers and other artwork.  Again, pretty amazing.

 

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These are bowls, vases, and other containers, all made of folded paper.  Incredible.

 

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This is a park with a statue of Lenin.  They call it Lenin Square.

 

After our excursion with Jennifer, she showed us how to take a city bus back to our apartment.  We made it successfully, then decided we would take the bus to the orphanage.  That didn’t work out so well.  We couldn’t find the right bus (there are lots of different busses with different routes, and not all busses stop at all of the bus stops).  I asked a young man using Google Translate on my phone where Bus 18 picks passengers up, and bless his heart, he spoke English, but he had no idea about bus routes.  I think he was “better than” the bus! Smile

 

So, our translator called us a cab instead, and we made it to our evening visit.  Below is a picture of the boys’ building.  The upstairs room that is illuminated is our boys’ room.

 

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These are a couple of old strollers that are kept on the porch by the entrance to this building.  They have nicer strollers inside the building.

 

The boys were both much more alert for our afternoon visit.  I took some video, then put the phone away and we fully concentrated on being with the boys, no cameras, no people besides us.  This was our first visit to the playroom when it was completely empty. 

 

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After we dropped the boys off so they could eat dinner, we headed down the stairs and out the door to their building.  We noticed a kitten lying on the carpet.  (No, it’s not dead, even though it looks like it in the photo above.)  We wondered if it sneaked inside.  Regardless, we snapped a photo, then left it inside.  Hope that was OK!

 

We decided to purchase a rotisserie chicken from the little grocery mart that is across from our apartment.  We ate dinner in our apartment, and the chicken was good, to my surprise.  We’re totally bored in the evenings, after our evening visit with the boys, after dinner, and after “down time”.  We’ve decided to rent movies on the iPad.  I asked on Facebook for movie suggestions, unfortunately, we’ve already seen most of the movies suggested.  So, if you have a movie suggestion, let us know.  It’s hard to pass time in a foreign country in the evenings, and since we rarely watch TV/movies, we decided to take advantage of this time.

 

Looking forward to seeing the boys in the morning.  Missing our kiddos at home.  Thanking God for His abundant provision.

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