A Day To Celebrate

Today, our 14-day bonding period ended!!! It is a great milestone for us and we celebrated with the Orphanage Asst. Director with a nice luncheon. I need to tell you more about the luncheon later!! Things really have been going well for us.

I know I haven’t written for awhile, so where do I begin. I’ll start with the weekend. Maria arranged for us to go see “Pirates of the Caribbean” part II here at the movie theatre. They used to play movies in English but they no longer do, so we went to see it in Russian. For those of you who know my boys, you know how much they LOVE pirates. Maybe this movie is a bit much for them, it was for me in some parts, but they looked forward to it all day Saturday, and it was a great bargaining chip for good behavior! It was quite interesting seeing a movie in Russian, but amazingly I think we got the gist of the movie! Of course, we want to see it again to hear the jokes and one liners that Captain Jack Sparrow has, but it was fun. Caleb constantly kept asking me “What did he say?” And I would have to say “I Don’t Know!!!” Movies are the same here as in America except there was not a concession stand, you bring your own food (I would love that, and not feel so guilty sneaking it in like I do in America), there are assigned seats like a concert or play, and as soon as the movie was over, everyone gets up and leaves. They even stop the movie before the credits end.

Sunday it rained and blew very hard. The weather has turned cold here. I am glad that I brought some sweatshirts for the boys and a jean jacket for myself. We are wearing the same thing everyday but that is OK. We stayed inside all day. We did have Sacrament Meeting (Caleb & I were the speakers!), and Larry had a primary for us all. We talked about Charity and it went over very well. I wish I had the new August Friend, because we have exhausted all the stories from the June & July Friend magazine.

We visit the girls every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We leave at 9:00 each morning and return back around 1:00. It takes about one hour to get there, so we usually are with the girls for about two hours. Monday we took them back their jeans that we had exchanged. Maria tried hers on and said that they were much more comfortable. I thought that having two sizes too small for me would not be very comfortable either! We also took some magnetic dress up doll toys that we all played with. We taught the girls how to play Duck, Duck, Goose and they loved it. It is so fun to hear them say English words with their accent! We also taught them “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “Once Their Was A Snowman”. They had a lot of fun with the songs.

On Monday I also felt impressed that we needed to let the girls know how the next month would play out and to let them know that we were going back to America and then I would come back and get them. Nastya took the news very well. She really has fun with everything and she said that that was what happened with other children so no big deal. Maria on the other hand, had a harder time with it. She started crying, which then started me crying, and I felt horrible. I told Masha to make sure Maria understood that it was not us that decided this, that it was the court that was making us wait. She does ask a lot when she is going to get to come with us. I think Nastya understands it more because she has been in the Poludino orphanage and she has seen the process. The caretakers and directors really talk to the children and prepare them for what is going to happen. Whereas Maria came from a different orphanage and has had no experience with the process. I promised her that I would come back. I kinda felt that maybe she had been promised this before and had been let down by her natural mother, but who knows. I just know she was very upset and sad. After awhile we were trying to get her cheered up and I asked if there was anything I could bring her to help pass the time away and help her be happy! Guess what she asked for???? A Game Boy like Nathanael’s!! They learn so fast don’t they???

We also decided on middle names for the girls. We are going to keep these names as their first names (sometimes people change the children’s names, but because they are older and we like the names we are keeping them). We wanted to give them a middle name that would tie them to our family. Both our boys have names after ancestors. After giving it a lot of thought, we decided to name them after their grandmothers. We showed them pictures of their “Babushka’s” and told them how much they loved these girls already and told them what special grandmothers they had. Their names will be Maria Naomi Kettenring and Anastacia Darlene Kettenring. They were very excited.

Today we taught the girls how to play spoons. Maria caught on very quickly, but I am not sure where Nastya’s head is. She understood the game and would tell everyone to grab a spoon, but she wouldn’t get one herself! Or we would keep telling her to keep the cards that matched so she would get four of a kind, but she just kept passing whatever cards she wanted to Caleb. She is so funny!! I have decided that she reminds me of someone in the family. I don’t know if anyone else will see the resemblance, but she reminds me of Robyn (our niece in Utah)!! She is vivacious, fun, outgoing, sweet, funny, and definitely keeps you on your toes. Sometimes you don’t know where her mind is, or how her mind works, but she is endearing. She has an older sister who tries to keep her in line, and she will listen to Maria, but then go ahead and do her own thing anyway. She also has taken it upon herself to keep Nathanael in line, which worries me at times, but I know all will go well. She is such a character! I knew she reminded me of someone and when I had this realization of who it was just made me love her even more!

The girls have really bonded well with Larry and I, and today we wanted to focus more on the boys. Last time we were there Maria asked Masha if the boys could stay with her and just the girls go with Mama and Papa. I told her she had to get used to it and she laughed, I think she was joking. Today they really did get along well, especially Maria and Caleb. I think there will be a special bond between them. I had Maria go up and get Nastya’s photo album and she took Caleb’s hand and had him go with her. That made us very happy! Nathanael was having a hard time because he doesn’t quite know how to play with the girls. Nastya gets frustrated with him easily and goes and does her own thing. Today we had them play soccer together because we are going to put them on the same team when we get home. They did quite well and then started playing together more. Nathanael still doesn’t know how to say Anastacia’s name and calls her the “little” girl, and Nastya still doesn’t know how to say Nathanael’s name (there is no “th” sound in Russian). So ….. well see how it all goes. I think they will all get along well together.

Maria kept asking for her game boy today. It is amazing how well we communicate with each other. Masha was commenting on that as well. I have been so worried about communication with them, but it seems that I know what they are saying to me, and they can understand me. God is hearing my prayers. Masha did find an electronic game here in Petropavlovsk that played four different games, and had headphones. Guess how much??? 370 tenga ($3.70)!!!! It is not a game boy but an answer to my prayers. We also bought them some cute skirts and I tried to do their hair today with some clips. I realized how poorly out of practice I am. Their hair is short, so I will need to get some ideas of how to do short hair. On Monday the girls wanted to look very nice for us when we arrived. The took extra care to pick out their outfits and to wear the bows I had bought them. They told their caretakers to make their hair like this (see picture). It was so cute (and a little silly looking) that I had to laugh! They were so proud of themselves. That is why I tried a different style on Wednesday, but mine was not much better.

We have been able to pray with them every time we go. I am so grateful for that. Each time they are very respectful and it is like second nature to them. For me that is so important as well. I want them to have a strong belief and faith in God. It is going to be so hard for me to leave them. We have asked if Masha can come and visit them while I am gone and she has asked her boss. They are thinking about it and will get back to us.

Oh, and one more exciting thing we found here in Petropavlovsk, the MARKET! It is customary that you give gifts to those that have helped you with the adoption process, like the orphanage directors, the caretakers, the judge, our lawyer, etc… Maria was taking me around to buy these gifts and I saw this large area with lots of little stores. I asked what it was, so she took me there. I was so excited! Masha couldn’t believe I was so excited about this place, but for my family, if you imagine a Mexican swap meet, but 100 times larger, that is what the market is! There are hundreds of little shops (the size of a small room), each different filled with purses, or shoes, or clothes, or toys. You could spend hours and hours there! Masha told me to hold on tight to my purse because there are a lot of thieves there. I told her we had to come back and bring Larry. She even said that the people will bargain with you on price like in Mexico. She couldn’t understand why I thought such a place was so neat, I told her Americans love to find good deals and buy anything cheap! It was just fun.

We also got good news that we are allowed to bring Maria and Nastya to Petropavlovsk tomorrow to get their passports pictures. The Asst. Director likes us so she agreed to let them stay the entire day. I am so excited!!! Now we can take them to the park and take them shopping and really have some quality time.

Finally I need to tell you about the lunch today. We didn’t realize that this would happen today because usually you have a luncheon after the court date. But the orphanage director is out of town and the Asst. Director wanted to celebrate with us. We thought that we would give the Asst. Director her gift. We had found out that she didn’t have a camera and we thought that would be so great for her to have one. She is genuinely interested in the children and loves them. She needs a camera to remember them all. I am glad we brought the camera today since she had prepared this wonderful meal. (Also it helped in her approval for us to get the girls tomorrow!) Anyway, here in Kazakhstan, and especially in the smaller towns like Poludino, it is customary to have many toasts. There was another couple there and she poured them wine and the husband vodka. She was drinking vodka as well. You would not believe how many toasts we had!! Everyone had to give one, then we toasted the orphanage director, then the children, then the families adopting the children, then the president of Kazakhstan, and it goes on and on… The husband kept saying that that was enough, and she would promise that this would be the last one, and then she would have one more. It was so funny. I know the boys were intently watching Larry and I to see if we would drink the wine given to us. Even though we told them we didn’t drink she still poured us a glass because she felt that it would be rude of her not to pour us some. Anyway, I am thinking the husband wished he had admitted he didn’t drink and we all agreed that the Asst. Director could drink anyone under the table. We stayed there for a long time and talked. She is so kind and nice. Nathanael was a little restless, but finally fell asleep, and Caleb did so well just sitting there and listening. The girls had gone back to their groups so they weren’t there. I was so thankful for how well the boys did. Larry toasted that the country is great, the people are wonderful, and the children are beautiful (very profound I thought for someone who doesn’t toast much!), and I toasted to our wonderful translator Maria. What would we do without her. She has been reading our blog too, so Maria – you are so wonderful and we have grown to love you very much. Thank you so much for everything and for taking care of us so well!!!!!! This is Maria and her apartment is the top one of the building behind her.

Oh, there is so much more but I think I have written a novel already! Thank you for all your prayers and support back home. You are all wonderful. We are reading all your comments; although we may not respond to each of you, we really appreciate your comments. We love you!!