Wow! Great end to a hard day (long)

(Rob) Kathie Schweikert is the winner!

(Laura)
I am extremely blessed to have such a wonderful husband! God is good! Rob wouldn't let me read the post until today (sunday) and believe my when I say it made me cry too! I didn't even realize he could see my excitement over the first little gigle from our youngest, but it was and is a completely overwhelming feeling to see these boys smile and laugh. It takes everything I have not to just want to hold them the whole time we are there. Clearly that would be very boring for them but it warms my heart just to see them look up at me and smile or giggle.
The most recent visits were a little difficult though.

At the oldest ones orphanage we were told we weren't going to be able to see him without the presence of a social worker but Igor made some calls and got the director to allow us to see him. What I didn't know until later was that as we getting ready to take him outside to play he was told that we were there to take him away. That explains why he wouldn't take our hand and walked at least ten feet ahead of us. When we got outside Igot explained to him we were just there to play with him today. At that, he lightened up and looked relieved. We had fun playing with him outside with a ball. He has a great throwing arm and really enjoyed seeing himself on our digital camera. We played with him for about an hour and he laughed and smiled and we think he had fun. When we went back inside he was again grilled about whether or not he wanted us to take him away. He said he was afraid. Duh! Wouldn't any 7 year old be afraid if they were told some people they had only seen twice in their life were going to take them away! We asked if he was afraid of us or afraid of leaving the orphanage. Thank goodness he wasn't afraid of us, he was simply afraid of leaving the orphanage. Fairly normal, I think. Particularly when it is presented the way it was. The director staring at him and us sitting across a board room like table and him sitting by himself in a chair facing all of us. What a scary thing for anyone. Please pray for him that he will not have so much anxiety and that the peace of the Lord will come upon him and comfort him. He is clearly unsure what the future brings and isn't even sure he wants to be adopted because he isn't really sure what that means. We will continue to visit him and hope that he will start to feel more comfortable. I think he relates being adopted with whatever it was he has experienced when living with his birthmother. They also keep bringing up to him that a couple in another country have hosted him for 2 summers and have invited him back this summer but that he won't be going becasue we are going to take him away. We don't know whether or not they intended to adopt him or not but 3 years is long time. He said he didn't want them to adopt him either. Poor little guy. We hope to see him as often as we can. The good thing is that the director is a believer and even asked us if we were. Everything she said she said with a smile but the things she was saying to him were not smiling kinds of comments. Hopefully the Lord will also speak to her heart and see that this is what is best for him and that his brothers will also benefit from having him with them as well. We hope we will not have to separate them and just take the 2 youngest ones. That would be really sad for all of us. I'm sure God has it all worked out though.
We went again to the middle boy's orphanage as well and couldn't find any adults! All these kids were wondering around and we couldn't find anyone to help show us where to find our little guy. The other children followed us around wherever we would go. It was like a little herd we had behind us. One boy about 14 came up and started to talk to Rob and after couple of minutes had interlocked his arms with Rob's. I could see that Rob was about to tear up because he wasn't sure what to do. There was also a girl about the same age who was extremely helpful and led us everywhere we needed to go to look for the director. There was just something about her but we aren't sure yet what it is. We finally found out that the kids were in another building in school and that's where the other adults were. Our little guy came around the corner with his group but was a little hesistant when his teacher brought him over and said go with your mama and papa. Since they hadn't gotten back to thier area yet, I'm not sure what he thought but it was clear that he wanted to continue walking with his group. It's so cute, they all hold hands with one other person in their group. He would take my hand and we walked a little closer to his building but then he wanted to run ahead since his group was ahead of us. Once we got to his room and he got his house shoes on he was told he could play in the play room with us. Then he was just all smiles and he very busily played with each and every toy we brought and even when we cleaned of his little feet and hands he wanted another wipe to go over to Igor and Rob and I and clean us off too! He seems very compassionate. He is a little rough with that cleaning and if we weren't careful he might have poked an eye out in the process, but the thought was nice. He shared his cars with us and loved the puppets they had there. We got a precious picture of him looking at himself in the mirror with my sunglasses on. He asked if we would come play with him again and we said of course. He looked very proud of himself for that. Even though we had to correct him on a number of things this visit he still wanted us to come back and he even asked for kisses before we left. It is the cutest thing. He comes up to us each and says "kiss" (in Ukranian of course) and then he sticks his cheek out for us to kiss him. He loves to be huged too but for short amounts of time or until he sees something he wants to play with. I think our visits with him will have to be a little more stuctured so we don't have to keep saying "stop, don't, no, put that down" etc. His smile makes it very difficult to say no to. Papa is much better at that part.
Now for our youngest. This was the hardest one. We got there a little earlier than we had before in order to have more time with him. Bad move. They got him ready and he came out and stood between my knees for a minute or so but when he heard the caregiver ask the other kids to sit at their table he ran back in the room. When they stopped him and said he needed to go with us he had a little melt down. He was crying and said he just wanted to sit at the table. We showed him his favorite toy to play with and he shook his head no and continued to cry. They picked him up and gave him a cookie and that didn't help either. I almost started crying with him. When they put him down he backed away from the caregiver as well and was now almost hyperventilating. They just picked him up and handed him to me and said go. Boy that was hard. Even though he latched on to me and put his head on my shoulder he was stilling crying really loudly and his little body was trembling. Once we got him outside I rocked him a little and we gave him a banana and something to drink. He settled down but still had a frown on his face. It wasn't until after he finished his snack and we got his toy out to play with that he got back to his happy self. We finally figured out that they had just woken up from thier 4 hour nap and that is the time that they get their snack when they sit at the table. I think he thought he was going to not get a snack because he wasn't seated at the table. Timing is everything. Even when one of his caregivers came outside to go home and passed us, he only said hello and watched her go around the corner. He then looked at me and said something very matter of factly but I don't know what it was. My interpretation was "That was one of the ladies in my group". He didn't get upset or even try to go over to her. Then when his group came out to play later some of them came over to him and said something (Probably Hi _____) and he just continued to sit on my lap and watch them. It was so cute though; they all came out in just their underwear and a hat (to ovoid sunburned heads so I'm told) and were holding hands and carrying the toys they were going to play with. One kid had such a small head that they had to put a diaper cover on his head instead of a hat. What a hoot. They looked like the Ann Geddes babies only without accessories. He didn't try to get down and go with them and was just content to sit with us. The other caregivers said hello but didn't come over to him since they were watching all the other kids. His group is hilarious. They have some very strong personalities and seem close to each other. In fact when we got there, about half the class called him and said "_________ mama and papa" so they recognized us! Amazing. He had evidently fallen the day before and had a fat lip and a scrape on his forehead and chin. He still got to the point where he was smiling but I could tell that smiling hurt his lip a little so we didn't tickle him and made sure we were careful giving him a drink. None of them know how to drink out of a sippy cup or straw we found out. I had an insulated sippy cup to keep water or juice cool but they don't know that they have to suck on it to get the liquid to come out so we had to take the cap off and then they did just fine. In fact the middle one puts the whole opening of the bottled waters in his mouth and guzzles all he can get and doesn't seem to choke, although I'm not sure how he does that.
Soooo rough visits this time. BUT are you ready for the next part? Sure? OK

We got home and thought we would just chill out since it was a very hot and emotionally draining day. Even though it was our anniversary I told Rob I didn't mind if we just went to McDonalds for ice cream. That would be enough for me. He agreed and made some comment about how I deserved better but it was hard to find something great to do here. I understood and was fine with it and appreciated the thought. He said he and Igor were going out to the inernet cafe so I said I'll pass and just get in the shower to cool off. When I got out Rob called and said he wanted to show me something and could I be ready in 10 minutes. Well, of course I could. Here it is easy since I could just put my hair up or not curl it or whatever. So I got ready and put on the last set of clothes I had that weren't crunchy and when we got the cab Igor got out and said have fun. My first clue, no Igor. Hmmmm. We headed out and finally stopped at a place by the water (what water, I haven't got a clue) where I thought maybe we would watch the sunset. Noooo. We were going to eat at the fancy looking restaurant. When the waitress came, she showed to a table that had a reservation plaque on it and guess what? There were 15 huge long stemmed red roses on the table waiting for me! Wow! That was really cool. Evidently he and Igor had gone out, bought the flowers, made the reservations and got back all in the time I was showering. Whew! I am so blessed to have such an awesome man to love me and make me feel special. God surely picked him out special. Pictured above is what they called steak (although I think it was a pork chop) some marinated onions, and some kind of garnish, I think. Great meal and wonderful man to share it with. As the title says "Great end to hard day" (and long post, sorry)