Day 5 of 14: Play!

Whew! This mama is getting tired. It's not bad here, in fact today was pretty good, it rained again, ALL DAY LONG, till about 7:00 pm and then, thank the heavens, a bit of sun shone through and we could get outside.

It's so much better than spending the ENTIRE day in our small hotel room. I'm glad it's small though because Ian would have torn an apartment to shreds by now LOL! At least in this small space I can see him all the time. He seems to love the hotel room and he sometimes does not want to go outside, but rather he would stay inside and play.

Today, his again made up his own game. This time he made a bed on the floor up against the mirror and pretend slept while looking at himself in the mirror. I don't imagine the kids got to see themselves in the mirror very much at the orphanage, he seems fascinated with his mirror image.








He would hide under here and then pop up like this:







and laugh and laugh. I would say, in Russian, "where's Vasya?" and oh that was so funny to him!








In this picture you can see the scar on his chest from his heart surgery. I wanna cry when I see it because I know that when he was operated on, he was alone, an orphan, it is a WONDER that he survived it. Just goes to show again, that he's a fighter, the littlest hero. I admire him, he has a little unbreakable spirit in him, despite his past life, I'm so glad he's out of the orphanage, and I hope the memories of what was not good will one day disappear from his head.

It's SO hard to not just look at him and bust out crying and squeeze him tight. For us, its like we did it, we rescued a child from the depths of despair. You'd think we'd be happy with ourselves. You'd think. We are not. We are happy FOR Ian, but we are still, and likely will be, ill for a long time over the orphan crisis. You just can't be around orphaned children and then think you'll not remember their faces or their voices. IT HAUNTS the soul because the soul knows it's the worst kind of travesty.

I talk to my family everyday - SKYPE RULES - and we have committed to help two other families get kids home now. I don't know who they are yet, Craig has the honor of choosing, but when I get home, we are going to support these families with a donation and whatever else we can do. Please if you read this blog and have not considered adoption and are looking for God, please pray about it. The need is clear, the bible tells us what to do. It's NOT easy, it the hardest thing we've ever done, but anything worth anything is never easy.

Okay, rant for day over, now back to Ian!

I just don't know how else to tell you all that Ian is smart other than to say, the kid is smart! Yes, the communication is lacking, he cannot speak in words in Russian but he understands EVERYTHING, everything. He is keen to his surroundings and the moment and I feel like he is always trying, even though it's really difficult for him to win sometimes over those ugly orphanage behaviors that are raging inside of him.

He guards his food, so sad. If he even SEEs food, he flips out and screams if he cannot have it that instant, which makes cutting his food in front of him a trying task.

Still, he pushes though and amazes me every single day, many times per day.

Today we ventured out twice. We kind of have this routine where we get up and play in the room in the morning, and then we go outside right before nap. Were you ask? To the Russian Starbucks of course! He LOVES it there because the outside patio has neat chairs and the juice is yummy.















Sorry for the blurry pictures, it was so dull out today and I'm working with a new camera so...this next one is Ian signing "more." He's kind of a genius so he points at the juice bottle and then his cup, making a pouring gesture, which is way more sophisticated than making the simple sign for "more." I think he thinks I'm an idiot for not getting what he wants with his complex modeling for me LOL! I get it but I don't want to encourage it too much because he's gonna need to learn and use some signs in his new world at home and at school in order to get what he wants.









He wants to talk but I think that will be a while. He's got a ton of mouth issues happening. He'll need therapy but no problem, he will get ALL that he needs, rest assured on that one. He gets 25 visits a year (which is once per week of each if you minus the holidays they are closed, sick kids days, sick parent days, and summer break) of all types (PT, OT, Speech) on my insurance and then he'll get it at school too. There is a $35 co-pay for each session but as we have seen in Ari, it works, and we are ALL TO HAPPY to pay it for Ian too. We can't wait to get him the interventions he needs, just can't wait.

I feel for his doctors though, we tried to buy a pair of shoes today so that we could ditch the girls shoes, and when the sales lady tried to measure his feet, all heck broke loose. He was terrified to say the least. We had to pretty much leave but I did grab him an awesome fall hat and some play food, which he loved.








For real food for dinner, we walked down the street to the promenade area where I discovered that there was a crepe shop of the sort we went to on Trip #2 with Boris. It's an awesome chain here, cheap and delicious eats. There was a mess up in me ordering because I had to order fast to avoid Ian screaming in the place, so while I meant to order one mushroom crepe for me and one ham and cheese for him, we got one mushroom and one chocolate banana!

Needless to say, the mushroom crepe was not a hit with Ian. Ari inhales all food, including all manner of mushrooms, spinach, and whatever else. Ian does not. He's new to solid food, just three days new. He is awesome though because again, he tries. He liked the crepe part, just not the filling. He loved the banana though so yea, I fed my kid a chocolate banana for dinner:), and I ain't mad about it either.

They have a tasty berry juice there too, and he licked his lips over that, I love that juice as well, just about every single thing Ian does is gushing with cuteness, even his little fits.

So, you are wondering how his stomach is taking all of this new food? He has not had any issues, it all seems to be digesting okay. That's another reason I'm okay with giving him yogurt before bed, it might be helping the digestive system to keep some order.

Tomorrow is pick up his passport day so he will have a babysitter in the hotel again. This time, it is not an agency sitter like on Tuesday, which cost me $100.00 for 5 hours. The person coming tomorrow is a mom to many small children and she's only charging me $10.00 and hour, which is more sane. She is a close friend of Boris for many years and so once again, Boris saves the day.

Tomorrow is our last day in St. Petersburg for many years to come. Craig and I promised to bring the boys back here when they are older to they can see Ian's birthplace. I marvel at this city, it is beautiful and so full of history that is still so visible and kind of grand in a way. It's a neat place. I'll miss it in a way, I guess I've been operating with always planning the next trip here, over the last year during Ian's adoption.

That is all done now.

Saturday morning we take the train to Moscow. There, we are staying for 6 days with the mother of my friend of 24 years there, Anastasia. I'm a little bit nervous about it, last time I saw Ludmila we were 18 years old and Anastasia and I got into some trouble together. Hopefully she's kind of over it:). I had to provide Anastasia's address to our adoption agency facilitators in Moscow and the phone number so they could arrange for the doctor to come over to the apartment and examine Ian. When I showed the address, our facilitator here kind of gasped. She then told me that the address is one of Moscow's nicest addresses. Anastasia's father was a filmmaker here in days gone by, so I'm not surprised. She owns her own marketing firm in Moscow and she makes films and advertising that appear at the Cannes Film Festival. She is always traveling and thus will be the case when we are in her home, she will be in Istanbul, Turkey, filming. I've been to Russia three times and I have not seen her, I'm so bummed about that fact.

Likely the next time I see her will be in the United States, how funny is that.

I am going to do a small amount of shopping tomorrow while the sitter is here with Ian. I am buying him a Russian handmade music box for the item that will be his keepsake from his homeland. I will have to bargain for it at the market. I also need something for Ari. Matrioshka dolls are probably going to be my best bet for him, they make boy centered ones. I'd like a Russian olympics shirt but I don't know if I can get one for a reasonable price so I may settle for a scarf or something. I'm so glad we have a small family when I am charged with gift shopping.

I plan to buy some flowers for Elena and Anastasia's mother, they have beautiful flowers here.

To cap this post off, please enjoy some funny faces of our boy:) He's a living doll and I just love him so.















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Location:12-я линия,St Petersburg,Russia