What an amazing day we have had! We got up
and ate a late breakfast, then went to Home Depot. Alesia had to get paint
chips for an art project.
We came home and had lunch and cleaned up
around the house. The kids helped me a lot.
We spent the afternoon making a video. The
purpose of this video, which is being put together by Adoption Ark, my agency,
is to give it to adoption officials in Kazakhstan, to persuade them to make
more disabled kids and kids with medical issues or disabilities available for
adoption. Kazakhstan officials have a hard time understanding that Americans
will adopt kids with issues, and the kids will have loving homes, and will
thrive. So the agency asked for the cooperation of several families, mine being
one of them. I was tickled to be able to participate.
Michael was really nervous last night and
had a hard time getting to sleep. He was worried about speaking Russian. The
agency wanted some footage of him conversing in Russian, with a Russian
speaker, to show he retained his native language. My friend Kate, a wonderful Russian
translator, came over. She showed the kids a cartoon in Russian, then chatted
with Michael. He was shy and it was hard for him to remember his Russian. She
actually had to coach him to say things in Russian like “I live swimming” or “I
like school.” They will probably have to edit it heavily. However, he still
understood everything Kate said to him, which is good.
Tom, the videographer, is the brother of a
friend of mine and I have known him for years. He is very easygoing, and he has
a son so he is used to kids. He was wonderful with Michael.
We probably will be sending too much
footage, but I figured better to send too much, and they can edit it down to
5-10 minutes. We got shots of Mike playing a game with Alesia, working on
homework with mother, eating cookies in the kitchen, playing soccer in the
backyard with Kate’s son, etc. After some initial shyness, he seemed to finally
relax and I am hoping at least some of the film will show his cute personality.
The therapist was supposed to come and discuss
his prosthesis and his progress, but she couldn’t make it so we will reschedule
her.
Bruce came in around 3, and hung out with us
for a while. He then had to go back to Ft. Benning. He took my cousin Lesleigh,
and she drove his truck back here, because he is not supposed to have a
personal behicle on the base. He doesn’t know it, but I am looking forward to
driving it. He has a big ol’ V-8 engine on it, and that thing can haul a**. I
am channeling my inner redneck! Yikes!
After the filming, we went to the Russian
store with Kate and her son. We got lots of goodies, including pirogkis, and
cookies, and cherry juice. Russian cherry juice is so far superior to American
it’s not funny. It’s not artificially sweetened. It’s terrific stuff. I also
saw seerniki in the bakery section – it’s a big store – and got some. They are
like cheesy muffins, but flat. These were good, but too sweet.
I feel like we had a very successful day,
and I am so excited to see what the final film will look like. I am to get a
copy. If there’s any way, I can figure out a way to post some of it here, I
will…
