Day 10 - My "Big" play day....(double click for pics)

Friday, July 7th--Day 10 Visitation

BRRRRR....Yes, we awoke to another day of no hot water! We have been told it is something with our building, but we are lucky to have our own individual hot water heater here in our apartment--this is for emergencies only. The bad news is that someone will not be able to come turn it on until tomorrow around lunch! Better than waiting for another couple of weeks for hot water----I think we will make it!

On a side note, I have to tell you about the birds that Bobby is befriending. There are trees right outside our kitchen window and there are a couple birds that we noticed are always out there. One day, Bobby got the bright idea of putting bread out on our window ledge. Well, we now have some new friends. They are constantly out there checking us out and waiting for more food. You can tell if it has been a while since he fed them, because they stand at window looking in---like "come on, Dad, we're hungry. Can you tell we miss all of our animals? Bobby even made the comment that he is going to worry about them when we leave, because they are going to be waiting for him to feed them. I assured him that they will be fine!

Today has been a pretty uneventful day....a great one, but about the same as the last couple days. It was another gorgeous day! I hope the weather stays like this.... I did walk down to the internet cafe this morning, while Bobby and Rylee got ready. I went and paid bills. It just amazes me that I am halfway around the world and can communicate with my family and friends, share photos, and pay all my bills! Mr. Bill seems to find us where ever we go! Other than that we had a normal morning. Bobby did make us cheese omelets! They were yummy!

On our way to the baby house, Lena shared a book with us that the children here study in 7th thru 9th grade. It teaches them English and all about America! It amazed me to look through it, because these children learn more about America than most of our own children know! They even have a chapter in this book about Atlanta! When people here learn that we are from America they all seem very interested and try to speak English with us.....this turns into a somewhat comical encounter at times, because Bobby thinks if he adds his hispanic accent to whatever he is saying everyone can understand him! Needless to say, we get a good laugh out of it.

Our 1st visit went very well...Landen was in a great mood and was smiles most of the visit. We have found he likes to play on the ground for about 30 minutes and then he wants to be held. If you try to set him down after that he starts whining. Smart boy....he knows how to get what he wants...and let me tell you....if he wants to be held...I will hold him all day long! We played in the music room for most of the visit. It was a daddy day today. A lady even came in the room while we were there and looked at us with a huge smile. She made a gesture letting us know she wanted to see Landen's face. I turned him around and she shook her head no and said "Mama" and nodded her head smiling said yes "Daddy." Everyone that sees the two of them together cannot believe how much they look alike. We have been so blessed! The last 30 minutes we went outside. He loves just looking around out there at the trees, birds and dragonflies. When it was time to go and I took him back upstairs he went to his caregiver, but the he said "DaDa!" (Told you it was a Daddy day) They all started laughing and said he was is already starting to speak English. It is amazing how much Russian he knows. I love watching him respond when they talk with in Russian!

We went straight back to the apartment after our 1st visit. We ate a quick lunch of a type of Ramen noodles we have found. We then all took a much needed nap for about an hour! I don't know if this helped or hurt, because it was so hard to get up after that. But, we had lots of motivation, because we got to go for our 2nd visit. I went upstairs to get Landen, and all of the babies were still sleeping. They had to go wake Landen up. I felt so bad, but he didn't seem to mind. We went outside for the whole visit. There was a new group of orphans playing out there. They appeared to be about 3 years old. They all climbed up on a fence and stood there starring at us. One of them started saying "Mama, Mama!" It brought tears to my eyes. I hope that all of you will pray these children soon find a family to love them. The reality of the orphanage has really set in. These children are very well taken care of and loved by the caregivers, but they all deserve a home and family of their own. Bobby started to try to talk to them, and told them what Landen's name was....I don't know if they understood, but they all kept coming to the fence saying "Landen, Landen!" Landen loves watching them play. As always, it was a very short visit, and I was happy when I took him back to his group, because he did not reach to go back to his caretaker. He was very interested in the music they had playing--they must not play this very often, because he was about to break his neck to look at the radio. I quickly kissed him good-bye!

We had Sergi drop us off a one of our favorite stores across the street. We picked up a few items. One of them being, the best candy we have ever had! For those of you that have ever had the caramel cake that Mama Bick used to always bring us during holidays......it taste like the icing on that cake. It just melts in your mouth. We are going to try to bring some back for everyone! Well, time to go cook dinner. Poka, Poka!