




Wednesday, April 7 Bonding Day #13. “GROUP HUG – DAY”
Gulnara is gone for next two days (taking train to Astana to pick up new American single mom at airport and get this woman into the only baby house in Astana tomorrow). Thus, we are on our own with no translator and no coordinator and feeling quite empowered, if I may say so myself! We woke up to snow today with all puddles frozen over. 25 degrees high/14 low so no outside, “u-listu” time with Kirill. Now when we bring Kirill into the bonding room, he helps us empty out our backpack to see what we have brought to play with. We have tried to spread the new stuff (markers, crayons, coloring book, stickers, bubbles, candy, ect.) out over the 14 days of visiting so that we don’t run out of things to do. The battery operated race car set has lost its “wow” factor so we have moved onto other things. Really, he is content playing with whatever. Today he is loving the physical interaction.
All boy and wide open this afternoon (sort of on the hyper side but maybe he had a big bar of chocolate for lunch!) We found some dry erase markers in the teacher’s closet and drew on the dry erase board (nothing recognizable, but he was happy to be drawing). I turned my back for a moment and turned back to discover a multitude of circles Kirill had drawn on top of a round plastic children’s table. He was proud but John and I were mortified. We are working hard to stay on our best behavior while here and weren’t sure what they would say if they saw this mess. Fortunately, with a bit of elbow grease and our handy bubbles liquid everything came clean.
We enjoyed a great dinner at a German restaurant (why not?) with folks from our “native land.” Kind of fun to be enjoying meals and bonding time with people who are all very different, yet have this one quite significant shared experience between us. John and I decided to pass on the taxi ride home and went for a 15 minute, very brisk and very cold walk back to our apartment. Our days move at such a slower pace here than what we are used to at home. The “power walk” felt great.
Gulnara is gone for next two days (taking train to Astana to pick up new American single mom at airport and get this woman into the only baby house in Astana tomorrow). Thus, we are on our own with no translator and no coordinator and feeling quite empowered, if I may say so myself! We woke up to snow today with all puddles frozen over. 25 degrees high/14 low so no outside, “u-listu” time with Kirill. Now when we bring Kirill into the bonding room, he helps us empty out our backpack to see what we have brought to play with. We have tried to spread the new stuff (markers, crayons, coloring book, stickers, bubbles, candy, ect.) out over the 14 days of visiting so that we don’t run out of things to do. The battery operated race car set has lost its “wow” factor so we have moved onto other things. Really, he is content playing with whatever. Today he is loving the physical interaction.
All boy and wide open this afternoon (sort of on the hyper side but maybe he had a big bar of chocolate for lunch!) We found some dry erase markers in the teacher’s closet and drew on the dry erase board (nothing recognizable, but he was happy to be drawing). I turned my back for a moment and turned back to discover a multitude of circles Kirill had drawn on top of a round plastic children’s table. He was proud but John and I were mortified. We are working hard to stay on our best behavior while here and weren’t sure what they would say if they saw this mess. Fortunately, with a bit of elbow grease and our handy bubbles liquid everything came clean.
We enjoyed a great dinner at a German restaurant (why not?) with folks from our “native land.” Kind of fun to be enjoying meals and bonding time with people who are all very different, yet have this one quite significant shared experience between us. John and I decided to pass on the taxi ride home and went for a 15 minute, very brisk and very cold walk back to our apartment. Our days move at such a slower pace here than what we are used to at home. The “power walk” felt great.
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ReplyDeleteHave been trying to get messages to go through since you left. I would write these long stories and then it would go away. I'll get back to you later now that I can. Have to take Hannah to doctor in Greenville today. Have been so excited for you and reading blog every day.
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