Peace At Last

Jim:

Today I detected some excitement in Ashley about coming home! She was so much more at peace today, so I know all those prayers have been answered. Now we need to pray that the fear and guilt don't find their way back in.

I got up at 6:45 am and skyped Austin. We didn’t talk too long since it was 10pm his time and it is a school night. It was good to talk to him, though, and Kari, too.

Josh and I had cereal and fruit for breakfast, and then just hung out in the room. Afterwards, he wanted to watch the DVD again, so I let him. (did I learn nothing from last night?) We had a few “no” issues, so soon he was without the DVD player, Leapster, and his new toy motorcycle, and he wasn’t too happy.

About 9:30 Oksana called and said that Valentyn told her that we need to have an HIV test and a syphilis test because some doctors in Kiev require them for the medical release. They know I’m trying to get home by next weekend, so I think they just want to avoid any possible delay. Oksana picked up Ashley and met us at the Bible House. We went to the hospital and climbed to the 5th floor. The doctor there said they only do HIV tests, and we’d have to go somewhere else to do the syphilis, but Oksana somehow talked them into doing it so we wouldn’t need to draw blood twice in two different hospitals. So they had a small vile of blood drawn from their arms. Ashley went first and said it didn't hurt. Josh was squeamish, and wouldn't watch when they drew Ashley's, but he was interested when they prepped him. He didn't watch, though, and he also said that it didn't hurt. The nurses said a couple of times that he will be a doctor because he was so interested.

I told Ashley that we're leaving for Kiev on Sunday night, and that we're all going to church Sunday morning. I was curious how she’d react to hearing the date, but she was fine with it. Like I said, you could tell she was at peace today. I told her to pack on Saturday, and I asked if she was going to bring that big suitcase of hers (she brought a bunch of stuff home from her USA trip. I’m not sure what all was in the suitcase). She said no, so she must be planning on giving a lot of stuff away. I also told her about the family we are staying with, and that there will be another girl staying with them, so Ashley will share a room with her. She just wanted to know if they spoke Russian (yes, they do). I asked her to decide who to give her phone to, but she wanted to bring it to Kiev so she could call her friends. I told her that it won’t work in America and that she’ll have to leave it in Kiev. She suggested trading phones with a friend who has a really old one that she can throw away, so that’s what we’re going to do. She also said she would write down everyone’s phone #’s and email addresses, and that she still has the phone # of a family she stayed with in California. I told her she can call them for free when she’s in America, which she seemed to like. She told us again that she was also in Washington and Oregon. We told them both that we're going to visit Josh's babushka, aunt and sister tomorrow at 1:00pm. They both laughed when Oksana said his sister's name is Nastia, and that they are about the same age. We took her back to the orphanage so she could return to her classes, and we took our first picture of us all together.


After this picture, she gave Josh a big hug, and said his name while she did it. As she walked away, Josh said, "Baca, Nastia!" (I thought her name was Ashley, but oh well) (Tatum informs me that he was just calling her by her middle name). It was so good to see her relaxed and talkative.

We went back to the passport office to drop off Josh’s pictures, and then we went home. Back in the room we had lunch, two sausage links each, fruit and juice. Again, he had some of his mystery meat, cheese and bread for dessert. Then we did a little more work on the alphabet, but not much. Around 3 he started asking me a question over and over, so I called Oksana to translate. She laughed and said he wanted to know if I was going to take him to the grocery store again for more food. “Da”, I said. So we headed out and walked to the supermarket. On the way, we stopped in a bookstore. I bought a “Learn to Write” workbook with English letters and Russian directions, and two other small books that he can read. Then we went to the supermarket. I like seeing what he picks out. Today it was crab sticks and some mystery thing in a sausage-like bag. I think it’s some kind of cheese – we haven’t tried it yet, but he assures me it's good. And I need to figure out how to prepare the crab sticks. They were in the frozen section – any ideas?. We had talked earlier about taking a cake to his Babushka’s house, and maybe some fruit, so Josh helped me pick out a cake, and some oranges and bananas. Then we got some more juice for us, and he said, “Sistra?” so I grabbed a juice box for her as well. He’s a thoughtful boy. Then he wanted every piece of candy in the store, but I said he has plenty in the room. He knew I was right. Next, we picked up some photos I had printed up for Ashley’s friends. When we got home I pulled a grocery store locker key out of my pocket. I had put the books in the locker and then forgot them, so we jumped back on the bus and made a quick trip to the store and back.
I told him that for every minute he worked on his writing, or reading, he could have one minute on the DVD. Then I showed him his new workbook and two new books and asked him which one he wanted to do. He chose the workbook. It’s very basic, but it shows you how to write your letters, and starts with a lot of tracing. He spent 30 minutes doing that, just as happy as a clam. He’d finish a page and say, “Papa!” so I’d check his work and tell him he was doing great, which he was. A couple of times he wanted to see my watch to find out how much time he’d earned. Also during this time, he was helping me with dinner. We brought a potato soup mix from home – just add milk and water. So he helped mix it, and put it in the microwave and turn it on for 10 minutes, then stir, and repeat. He enjoyed the taste tests to see if it was done, and would get up and bolt to the kitchen when he heard the microwave ding. Then he’d hide from me and laugh, and at one point he just gave me a big hug and looked up at me with an ear to ear grin. After dinner he helped wash the dishes, then asked if he could watch the DVD. I said "No, I was just kidding about the minute for minute rule." Just kidding - of course I said yes, and told him he had 30 minutes. At the end of that he was a little reluctant to turn it off, but he quickly did after I said, “tomorrow, no DVD?”.

I can tell he’s excited about seeing his sister tomorrow. I pray it goes well for him.

Thanks for all of the kind comments. That's the best part of being here by myself. I do all the blogging and can make myself look as good as I want to !! :-) I don't have to talk about how stressful it is trying to figure out how to interact with Ashley during our visits. I know I can't do it on the fly since I'm such an introvert so I have been planning out each visit ahead of time(Kari's the planner, so this has been a real stretch for me! - although it's one of those "good", no-pain, no-gain types of stretches) and wishing I could speak the language so she could talk to me instead of always gravitating to Oksana. Or feeling bad that I'm spending most of my time thinking about Ashley and not Josh as much, since he's so much easier. Don't get me wrong, I'm only stressed a little of the time (during the planning stages). When Josh is literally hopping around giggling because he's so happy, well, that is certainly a spirit lifter. Actually, I'm never stressed and have everything completely under control and planned out to the exact detail at all times. That's how all us superheros do it!

I'm thankful that God continues to open the path for us. I've been meaning to talk to certain people, and they just come to me. We just happened to run into Ashley's primary teacher while walking across the orphanage (it's a huge orphanage), and she had time to talk right then. The nurse at SB came and sat down with us during our final day there. Both cases saved me the trouble of tracking them down. Ashley's newfound peace shows up today, just in time for me to take her with me. We've found favor in so many people's eyes and they have gone above and beyond to help us (Nicholae coming in from his vacation, and all the inspectors dropping everything to get our stuff done are two things that come to mind - oh, and them having court in the middle of the holidays was huge, too) .

Just keep those prayers comin'.