Wow!! Only two more days left here in Petropavlovsk. I wasn’t going to blog anymore until we had our court date tomorrow, but I had to tell you about our excursion to the forest. It was a lot of fun.
They eat a lot of mushrooms around here, and one of the reasons is because they grow out in the birch tree forests abundantly. You can buy along the side of the road almost anywhere you go. We ask Maria if we could go, so she and Sasha took us out Saturday. Maria told us that her family would go every year with her grandparents and take the whole day. They had a big car and they would pick so many mushrooms that it would fill the whole car. Then they would bottle them for the winter. We were kind of late in the season, and since so many people do it, we thought there might not be any mushrooms left. But we found some!!!
The forest is very beautiful, but there are lots of bugs, spiders, and spider webs. We had to make sure to wear long sleeves and long pants to avoid getting bit by mesquites (which we have had lots of experience with here). It was a haven for the boys! They found inch worms, a tarantula, a wasp nest (actually Sasha found the nest), and frogs!!! There were more interested in finding the bugs than the mushrooms, but once we started finding the mushrooms the boys got more excited. I didn’t realize how many varieties of mushrooms there are, and you have to know which ones are the right ones, because some can make you sick. Luckily, Maria was an expert, there were a few that were suspicious and she had us throw them out because she wanted to make sure we showed up for court on Tuesday!
They also had these berries in the forest (they have strawberry plants, but they were out of season!) that Nathanael and Caleb loved. They were a little sour, but I enjoyed them as well. Nathanael ate them all the way back to the city, while watching his little inch worm crawl all over him. It was quite a cute sight to see!
Afterwards we treated Sasha and Maria to lunch. Lunch is their big meal of the day here in Kazakhstan, and it usually involves meat. Sasha took us to a Georgia restaurant (not Georgia the state, but Georgia the country near Turkey!). It was really good. They served us this salad that had crushed walnuts all over the tomatoes and cucumbers – Mom, you would have loved it!! Also the meat was seasoned very well, and there was his bread pastry thing with cheese in it that we liked too! It was fun.
Yesterday we walked around the city one last time; we made it back to our apartment before the big rain came in. You never know when it is going to rain because the clouds come in within minutes, but once you see the clouds, you start for home, because they will burst on you!
Today we visited the girls and said our goodbyes. It is possible that we may see them tomorrow, but we didn’t know for sure. I was asking Anastacia if she would be scared to go with me on the plane, and she told me that she wasn’t scared of anything. I know that to be true! She is one spunky, adorable girl. Maria drew a picture of me and her outside our home. She had a very hard time saying goodbye. She had told the caretakers that today was the last day she would see us and she was going to cry all day. And I guess she had! She cried when we left, and it broke my heart. We drew her a calendar to mark off the days and put in a couple of extra days in case something goes wrong. That way she will be surprised if I come earlier. Maria is going to be able to visit them and after our visit we went to the market to buy them some little trinkets like nail polish, jewelry, sunglasses, etc…. so she would have something to bring to them. I don’t know if I want to visit them again tomorrow because it was so hard saying goodbye today. I don’t want to go through it again. Anastacia took it well; she didn’t seem affected at all. We gave them some dolls today and when we went back to their room, Maria was crying and Anastacia just said, “I’m not leaving my doll here.” She is such a character, she just makes me laugh!!!!!
I was thinking of some things that I will miss here, and then I started thinking of some things that I miss at home. I will be grateful to get back to my bed and pillow!! These beds are very hard, and the pillows are even harder! I also miss my washing machine and dryer. I don't think we ever really learned how to use the washing machine correctly because our clothes just don't seem to get very clean. I told Maria I was going to bring her back some food from America. Things like maple syrup with your pancakes (or blingies as they are called here), ranch dressing instead of mayonaise as salad dressing, MEXICAN FOOD!!!!! (I miss my Someburros!), chips and salsa, tortillas, and peanut butter. Most things you can find here but not these things. If I ever come back here again I will also bring bug repellant! All of us have been eaten alive by the mesquitos and our nighttime ritual is casing the apartment looking for mesquitos before we turn off the lights. When we get them we slap them and then you get blood all over you, because they are so full of our blood! Poor little Nathanael's bites have swollen up so large!
But I will miss things here too! I will miss being to walk anywhere I want, the fresh foods in the market, the peaceful times in the park, the friendly attitude everyone has (unless they are driving and then they are crazy!), the beautiful scenary in the countryside, the market!!!! Today we brought a gift to the little boy that our boys have been playing with that lives below us. We had Maria go with us so we could actually talk to them and find out their names, but he was taking a nap. When Larry and the boys went back he was so excited and the parents invited them in and they talked (communicated through sign language!!!) They even gave our boys a gift, which I didn't want them to do, but they are just so kind. Larry said that was one of his highlights, to be invited into their home for awhile. We will also miss the friends that we have made here, like Maria and Sasha!
Well, tomorrow is the big day. We hope everything goes well and the adoption goes through. Maria tells us to be ready, they could ask us anything, and you never know what they will ask, so you can’t really prepare. We told Maria that no matter what we said, she just tell them the right answer! In less than 24 hours we will have officially adopted two girls. It is amazing.
I tried to add some pictures today, but the computer is acting funny. I don’t know why some days I can add pictures easily and other days I can’t. So sorry!!!!
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