Day 6 of 14: Passport Fruit Bed, LOL!

Today was passport pick up day, and the official first glitch in our program here.

E and I left at 8:30 am. She was waiting in the lobby for us and Ian, in typical kid style, kept with the kid secret credo to act out when company comes, and only when company comes LOL! He's been such a CHAMP in the hotel restaurant, except for today.

He did okay until he dropped a piece of tomato on the floor and (1) got upset that I picked it up and didn't allow him to and (2) that I would not allow him to then eat that piece of tomato (size of a raisin BTW). We can all surmise where this is coming from, I am sure if the kids dropped what little food they had at the orphanage, they all scrambled for it and the lucky one who got it first had a little more to eat that day.

After the tomato incident, things went totally South. He began to eat wildly and make noises that are not appropriate for a place like where we were, and I do respect that others want to eat in peace, so I gathered him up to leave and he threw a fit. An Ian fit is pretty simple really, he'll stomp his feet, refuse to walk, might sit on the floor, wrinkle up his little face, turn red, and scream and cry.

So.....this is what our facilitator saw as she was in the lobby when we came out of the restaurant. Great! She did say she fully believed me when I told her that this was the first day he did that downstairs.

In order to leave with E, I had to once again, hire a babysitter. Babysitters here in Russia are uncommon and rare. There are also very few children, comparatively. This is because kids are VERY expensive here. However, our go to guy Boris hooked us up FOR REAL this time with an awesome person.













The new babysitter was WONDERFUL, she's a mama herself and despite her very limited English, we communicated enough for her to tell me that it was HER gift to have gotten to know Ian. She was blown away by how smart he is she called him a "miracle" boy. I did pay her extra, but not for saying those things, for just being a caring, lovely person, and because she has kids to care for in a country where not much is easy.

We left for the United documents center and to take the line at the Passport office. When our number was called, we went up and at the very last moment, after I had signed the for his passport, E caught TWO mistakes. Both his last name in English "Stewart", and his middle name in English "Will" were spelled wrong. OH. MUH. GOSH.

Momentary moment of panic. That one passport took a WEEK to produce. Panic paused and left me once we were told they would fix it - in TEN MIN! Sweet. We waited right there for it and it came off still warm from the presses. Thank goodness we had TWO passport pictures.

So, that was it, all St. Petersburg items were completed and E and I hugged and celebrated with a coffee and pastry in the cafe downstairs.

Next, we went to the peddlers market in the shadow's of the Church of the Spilled Blood and I was able to make some great deals on a few trinkets. The most important one however was Ian's keepsake from his birthplace. It's a hand painted music box that plays Katusha. He loves it but he can't touch it, it's one of those shelf things until he's an adult. It's something for him to keep for his entire lifetime. Now I just have to get it home safe.

If you have been reading my posts, you will recall a few days ago I wrote about our adoption facilitator here, Elena. I told a small fraction of her story. I am so overwhelmed with joy today that many of families in this region who are also depending on her to make their dreams of adoption a reality, heard my pleas for her and have come to the rescue. This time, we are going to effect a small rescue of the rescuer herself! While there is still 15 hours to give, as of this moment, I will hand her $3,100.00 as a token of our appreciation and love, and recognition that we KNOW she is in NEED and we are proud to be the hands and feet for her this time around.

Heck, if any of you where touched by her story and want to increase that amount for her, there is still time. Just email me at bringhopehome@gmail.com with the amount you want to give and then, before 8/26, go here: www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorstewart, to submit your gift using the donate to Ian button. I need to know within the next 15 hours though because I will be presenting it at that time to her, along with a bouquet of flowers so she can cry into them!! I'm so lucky to get to deliver this to her and I profusely thank all of the Region 2 families who gave, even in the midst of needing thousands for adoptions themselves.

So, what of Ian's day today after mama got from securing his passport? BTW, he has dual Russian and American citizenship until he's 18 years old - cool!

IT DID NOT RAIN TODAY, AND.....drum roll please....THE SUN WAS OUT FULL FORCE!! A perfect and beautiful last full day here for us.

We walked more than a mile today.













I had not planned on stopping at my favorite Russian wanna be Starbucks but Ian recognized it as we walked by and HE pulled me to the steps! Haha! He loves to sit and enjoy the outdoors and "read" the menu and drink his fresh made Apple Juice. What a kid!













Perusing the choices.













I'll miss the latte's here, they are kind of yummy.













Then, a trip to the fountain to throw coins in. It was clearly, this little boy's FIRST TIME seeing a fountain. OH he had SO MUCH FUN! At first he stood there in absolute amazement, he yelled in delight over this new strange but neat thing.













Then he got up the courage to touch it and lean in!













Then, in true boy fashion, he tried to jump in! LOL, luckily I was already one step ahead of him and his little jacket became my pull tab to keep him from keeling over into the fountain.













It was HARD to leave the fountain. I think tomorrow morning before we leave, since I'm already all packed, we will go back so he can throw more Rubles into his new found pleasure.













How adorable is THIS? Ian likes to play in the hotel room. He is SO CONTENT doing so. Haven't you been wondering how I am getting time to blog? He's a SUPERSTAR of independent play and it's what he wants to do so I just go with it. A happy Ian is all I'm worried about. Yes, I want to play with him and I do, but he's soaking up this little freedom of being able to do what he wants when he wants, I just get the pure JOY of watching it all.













The fruit bowl the babysitter ordered as a part of lunch was well stocked for that of a Roman God! Ian took full control over that bunch of fruit for about an hour today, transporting it to different places in the room and eating little bits as he went along. He crosses his legs when we eats, so cute!













The best play for today that I got to watch was him making a bed by the door, taking his little jeans off, placing his slippers on one side of his little bed and his jeans on the other, with his fruit bowl right up next to his pillow, and then laying down next to it, while reaching in for grapes to eat.













CAN YOU GET ANY MORE AWESOME THAN THAT? He wanted to sleep with his bounty. Love this child, more than words will ever be able to say. Thank you to every single person who helped us raise the more than $40,000.00 that it took so he could sleep with fruit. :) Just LOOK at this child's eyes, he's in heaven.













To cap the night off, dinner was ordered up. Again, I was sad about his inability to eat solid foods, but he is trying. He SMELLED the french fries (not what I ordered but oh well) and then after trying to eat one and not being able to, he had an absolute ball, and so did I, feeding them, catsup ladened, to ME! We pretended I was the fry monster, fun, memorable times our last night in his birthplace.













We roll out of here at noon tomorrow, heading for the fast train to MOSCOW! It's been 23 years since I was in Moscow last, it will be good to be back.

I won't be mad at cha' at ALL if you choose to start praying NOW for our flight from Frankfurt to home. 8 hours folks, in a small space with many people who want to sleep. I promised not to rose color my blog, and I have been gifted with a kid that is so amazing and transitioning so well right now, that I have not really had any horrors to report.

The worst thing he does do, at least a few times per day, is yell and scream and there is nothing I can do to make him not do that. It is a little bit unpredictable too, so that makes it hard. My plan for the plane ride home is to let him run through the Frankfurt airport as much as I can to tire him out before we get on the plane, and that's all I got folks so your prayers are needed! Prayer does work and this I KNOW to be TRUE.

Please also keep Craig in your prayers tonight. He is in Denver, CO at a spiritual retreat and we cannot communicate until Monday so I have no clue how he is doing.

Goodnight America, we are heading a few more miles your way! Oh, and I almost forgot, guess who I got to STOP sucking his thumb and fidgeting with his ear AND guess who is sleeping soundly now, NOT tossing and turning and rocking for most of the night! OH JOY of JOYS! I think a little bit of love, some freedom, some time to be a child with NO WORRIES and no CARES, has already changed his life.

Tonight, he learned to PLAY in the bath.

Amen.


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