Gobble, Gobble, its Turkey day already

Yesterday was August and we were getting ready to pick the girls up in Russia. Today it is a little less than a month from Christmas. You are getting old when almost half a year goes by and you don’t notice. I’ve noticed, so I guess I’m getting close to old or something like that.
Every day the girls speak a little better English and they surprise me again. On Thanksgiving they met for the first time Joe Van Demark and after all the things he has been through it would of hurt , but would have been expected if they had been afraid of him . He had an operation on his throat and had his voice box removed and uses a vibrating device to speak. When we got to Eric and Lynn’s house, Joe was already there and we went in and introduced the girls to him like nothing was different. He motioned he could not talk to them and in a few minutes he was using the device to talk to them and they were their charming selves. The three of them spend a good portion of the night together and had a good time I was very pleased and proud.

It was a typical Thanksgiving Day people watched football, other people sat around and talked and some talked, watched football and drank. I played poker with my nephews. Dennis who is all of about seven or so was begging me to play poker with him. We started doing this a couple of years ago and he got really into it except he will not gamble with money. He has chips and cards and likes to play black jack, but will not gamble with his money. I guess that is a good thing. I had him playing Texas hold em for a while. I’ll have to get everyone back into that.

Spell check and a good story

I guess after the last story it is clear I am not  good at spelling. I do hope you didn’t think anything else. I usually write the story and do not go back and proof read it. I guess I will be changing that policy now. I think I will also leave the last story as is.
Elena got sick again. It started on Sunday, when they were in Pennsylvania. The four of them, Teri, Nastia, Elena and Tony had gone to visit relatives and got back about six or so and we went out to the Hard Wok to eat. There Elena didn’t want to eat and she complained of stomach pains. Teri kept asking her if she had to go to the bathroom and twice the two of them had gone.
After one trip Teri had mentioned that Elena had gone and how long it was. I could not believe what followed. First off that this conversation was taking place at a table I was eating at. And second that Nastia was put out and saying that she could make one bigger. It was an odd night for table talk.
Elena didn’t eat anything that night, not even ice cream, so we knew she was sick. We put her to bed and were getting more concerned that she was complaining about stomach pains. She was walking all hunched over and it almost looked like she was putting on an act it was just a bit much I thought. Teri jumps to the conclusion it might be appendicitis. I didn’t think so, but she has been right so many times with her dad that I said it might be a stomach virus, but I wasn’t ruling out anything even appendicitis.
About three in the morning the bathroom light goes on and wakes me up I go over to the bathroom and Elena is finishing up using the toilet. She has a tear in her eye and is upset. I ask her why and I am thinking the last time she was sick she had an accident in the bed and it might be that. I walk her back to bed and it is dry so I tuck her in and take her temperature with that pointy thing from the last story. It was about the same as before, 100.7. I kiss her good night and go back to bed expecting her to get up at any moment and I don’t sleep very well. The next morning she is worse and Teri says she will stay home and take her to the doctor id I can call and make the appointment. She goes in at 11:15 and is sent over to the MRI place for a scan, it might be appendicitis. They also do some blood work and she is sent home with a prescription for a possible virus in her colon. She has to take the medicine every six hours and we give her the first pill at eight pm. The next pill I give her at 2am. About nine or so Teri has become very concerned about Elena because the pain seems to be getting worse. I call my mother and she says to call the doctor and see what she says. The Doctor doesn’t have a night service, but she does leave her cell number if it is an emergency, we decide to wait and give the medicine a chance to work. I wrote down her number in case later we need to call quickly.
The next morning she is a lot better, not 100%, but much better. I was almost ready to send her to school. Teri said she would take the day and work from home so common sense ruled again.
By the end of the day Elena’s energy level was down and it was a good thing we didn’t sent her. A teacher even said nothing was happening this week and she would miss little by not being in school.
Wednesday we kept her home and we will send her back on Monday.

A Day in the life*

*Thank You John Lennon
We had our first sick run yesterday. It showed me how unprepared I was for it and how we will have to depend on others to help us.
Up to yesterday, my plan, I don’t know what Teri’s was, was to hope the kids did not get sick until we had a plan in place to take care of them being sick and having to come home from school. Well Nastia wasn’t feeling good yesterday about 1 in the afternoon and the school called Teri and said someone should come and pick her up.
Elena had a cough the week before and Teri gave her cough medicine and that seemed to take care of it and I figured we were out of the woods. Then Nastia started coughing and I hoped we could skate by like we did with Elena and of course it did not work out.
Teri got the call to come pick her up and Teri called me to see if I could find anyone to pick her up because she had no one. I called my mom, but she was not home. I then called Lynn. I hate calling Lynn. She has agreed to take the kids on Tuesday so they can get out of Tony’s house. It’s not that Tony’s house is a bad bad place; it’s just that the girls have no place to go and nothing to do when they are there. They can’t go outside, because the only attractions around the house are a hole in the ground and busy streets. Both are low on the list of things you would want a child doing in the twenty-first century. As a kid growing up my mom would see us when we got home from school and then she would call us to come home for dinner when it was ready. No kids need to be looked over by an adult or at least we all think so.
Lynn agreed to pick up the girls and take them to Tony’s house, but Teri didn’t want a sick child near her eighty year old father, understandable. She arranged to pick the girls up from Lynn and she took part of another day off. Thank god for an understandable boss.
Teri called me later to pick up a thermometer, about fifteen years ago I purchased one of those ear reading thermometers and since Teri and I never get sick enough to need our temperature taken it was never used and I have no idea where it is or even if we still have it. Which is a shame because the price on a new one is now fifty dollars and I refuse to pay that? The thermal head scanning ones were thirty dollars and I was going to get one but I didn’t like what it said on the package about how long it took to work and you still needed to touch the child with it and if the child was sleeping you would wake them up and it made no sense to spent that kind of money. I ended up getting a battery operated one with an extra large display so I can see it and it changes color depending on wither the temperature is normal or border line or a high fever. It is pretty cool and it cost fourteen dollars. A regular thermometer non mercury style cost nine dollars so I figured the extra was ok and worth it so I could read it.
I got home and Teri had sent the girls to bed for lying about something so I went up stairs to check their temperatures. The problem became very clear when I told Nastia I wanted to take her temperature and she didn’t understand. How do you tell someone who doesn’t speak English to put this pointy thing under their thong? I think they figured it out. Their temperature came out a little low 97.6 and 97.8 so I think they were ok. I checked it on myself later and it read 98.6 so I guess it works.
The next day they were full of pep and energy and ran all the way to school and almost got hit by a bus turning into the school. Times like this make me feel like a real bad father. I was trying to give them a little freedom and I almost get them killed. It wasn’t like the bus slammed on its brakes, it was just the crossing guard telling me to have the girls stop at his corner and wait for him to cross them. I hope they live long enough for me to get being a parent down before they kill themselves. Could someone tell me about the rules for running with succors please?
Well it’s another week down and they had hot dogs for dinner, they called them sausage, hot dogs. I guess back in the early 1900’s if you read the Nathan’s tray cover they were originally called Vienna sausages. Elena had three dogs with some good fried potatoes and corn, she ate well. And Nastia had two dogs, potatoes and corn and ate almost as well. It’s nice to see them eat and enjoy their food. Most of it is so different from what they used to eat. I might try cooking something from the mother country.
The most heard sentence at the table these days is speaking English please. It is coming from the girls they are trying to become American and they don’t want us to speak Russian to them. I was told Nastia told the only Russian speaking girl in school not to speak Russian to her. I am also told that they were insulted when a Russian speaking teaching assistant came by to determine how well they read in Russian. They were not overly friendly to her. It is classic behavior of people from other cultures who come here to want to fit in that they stop speaking their native language and become more American than Americans. I read that somewhere.

Striking up the band at El Bandito’s in Spring Valley.

The more I learn the less I know it seems. I always start a blog with a topic, an idea then thoughts get in the way and I go on my merry way writing down these thoughts. This is going to be a long one so if you have to go to the bathroom or you need a second cup of coffee, stop here and go and get it taken care of.
I thought I would be the best parent in the world when I had no children and everything was based on my thinking things out calmly and rationally. I can hear all the long time parents laughing way over here in Congers. Calmly? Rationally? What were you raised on Leave it to Beaver or Father knows best? No but all my best intentions were. I have rediscovered that bad ass temper that was only supposed to come out when no one was looking, and I don’t like it. Eric and Tony saw it on Sunday and Eric commented about drawing a line in the sand and that may have been true, but did I have to go from zero to sixty in the temper department to get the message across to Nastia it was time to go and her saying no she was not going to go to change things? What bothers me even more is it happened so quick I didn’t know it had happened until I was almost done scolding her.
The incident went something like this; I tell Nastia and Elena it is time to go and they ignore me. I say it a second time and Nastia says she doesn’t want to go and something else. Maybe she says she is not going to go. I don’t remember. The temper in me rises and boils over before I know what is happening. And I start the Once, no, second time no. do you want to find out what three times no is? While I’m saying this my hand is going under the net of the trampoline she is on and I am getting ready to smack her. I stop and she gets off and the storm has passed and Eric comments about drawing a line in the sand. I feel like crap and try to act like it never happened. What makes it worse is that they remember and they are trying to be really good kids and I think sometimes they behave out of fear. God I hope that is not true. It is taking a lot of work from all of us to make this work. I never would have thought it would be this kind of work. I thought it would be the school calling us up and telling us the girls are acting up and they are out of control and if you can’t calm them down they will be thrown out of school. I was all geared up for the problems to be their problems not mine. In school they are well liked and sometime get out of control when they are together, but they are doing well and are well liked. All the teachers and the office people all look after them. It’s great.
We went to El Bandito in Spring Valley on Friday. We didn’t really have the money to go but Teri and I needed to get out and relax. It was a real good time and the food as usual was great. We really didn’t expect any problems from the girls. They had tried tacos and other Mexican food we had made at home and loved it all. So we figured everything would go well. We get there at about seven thirty and get a table almost right away. With the economy still not great tables are easy to come by. We all sit, Tony came with us to make five, and almost at once the girls have a light in their eyes, there is live music. They are all smiles and are watching the band as the adults try to figure out orders. Teri and I have the usual, Tony has a peppers and chicken dish and the girls get two tacos, rice and refried beans, no cheese for Nastia. Chips and salsa are on the table, with cheese filled flour tortillas on the way.
It doesn’t take the girls long to get up from their chairs and start dancing. Every so often we have to tell them to move away from where the waiters are coming with food. They dance until the food comes and when the band leaves for a break they ask where the music has gone. How do you tell someone with only a little English they went on a break?
The girls sort of eat their food and Teri has a drink and I have one as we watch the girls dance. It was a really good night.
Saturday started out not so good. For some reason Teri and I were angry at each other. We could not get out of the others way and we had Sally Ann’s party to go to. I thought once or twice about not going. I have never been a big fan of going to parties for little kids, but this was Sally Ann and it was for her daughter and  she has always been there for us and it was important to Teri and She was already angry at me and I at her, so even if it had disaster written all over it I was going. So did going to the party when I was in a bad mood.
We got to Sally Ann’s house a few minutes late I thought and there were no cars. Teri commented that we must be the first ones here. I let it go figuring I must have not known the correct time we were expected. I get some chairs and Teri asks if I need help and I say no. On Sally Ann’s front porch are Tasha and Amanda they say hi and offer to help. They take a chair and start towards the door at the door they stop and say I should go in first. Then I notice the blind in the kitchen bend down and then quickly go back up. It all starts to come into focus and I try to push the girls in the door first figuring out this is the party Eric had mistakenly mentioned about a month ago, and the taco dinner my mother had talked about a month ago was not. I walk in first and take off my hat and try to fix my hair as everyone says ‘surprise’. Just about everyone was there.
The girls acted great and they were dressed in dresses so they looked like ladies even if near the end of the party I had to tell them to sit like ladies. The party went really great. The high light (sorry Sally Ann) was the free porn on the TV.
Now for all of you, who were not there, the TV had shown Scooby doo cartoons earlier and someone had turned it off. Well now the girls, Elena specifically wanted to watch some more, and I guess Phyllis being the caring person she is turned on the TV. Instead of Scooby there was a man and a woman going at it like rabbits. Well for the seven seconds it was on that was what it seemed like. Everyone got a big laugh from it and we were all terrified to turn the TV back on. Later it turned out to be a tape that had been in the VCR and was turned on. Sally Ann was a little upset, but she faced everyone right away which was good. If I had been in her shoes I would have done the same thing and made a joke out of it.
The party broke up around 9 or so and we stayed around until 10:30 until the place was clean and we loaded a mess of gifts for the girls in the car (Thank you everyone) and almost didn’t have room to fit everyone. It was a really nice party.

I am surprised and proud

It’s been a little over a month since we have gotten back from Russia with the girls and I know there was a time in my life where we did not have them but it is hard to remember when. I remember life was a lot simpler and easy then it is now but it was a lot less fun and interesting. No insult to my wife.
This weekend I had help with the leaves. I went out and started with the rake and had a large pile when at my side was Nastia, she wanted to help. I figured it would be like mowing the lawn. I would go from good progress to very little. She surprised me and was a good helper. A little while later her sister Elena was standing off to the side waiting for an invitation to join us and she too was a good worker and moved things along. But as you might well suspect there is a but to this story and the great progress we were making ground to a crawl when I saw a patch of grass with just a few leaves on it and decided that it need the leaf blower and of course the girls needed to use it and of course they were blowing leaves all over the place. They would blow leaves toward the spot I wanted them and then they would turn around and ask a question while blowing leaves where there were none. I had lots of fun. The girls got to jump in the pile of leaves that we gathered and they had lots of fun. It was a good Saturday.
Afterwards, Teri and I stayed up until two am watching a movie which we never do.
Sunday was bacon and pancakes, or a Bellini as they call them. A Bellini is a thin pancake in Europe and I had some with cream cheese and they were good. It was like a cross between a pancake and a crape. I don’t know if they ever had bacon before. We had to push them to try it and they have gotten pretty good at trying different things here. And like any kid they loved bacon. We have them eating pancakes with cranberries and walnuts in them and liking them too.
After breakfast I finished up the lawn and expected to see the girls come out to help, but I guess the novelty of raking leaves is one day. They did come out and jump in leaves later.
They wanted to go bike riding at Eric and Lynn’s so I stopped and took them over to Eric and Lynn’s and the first thing they did was go on the trampoline and that is where they stayed. Dennis came out later and the three of them got a beach ball and played keep away, usually from Dennis. Whenever Dennis got the ball the two girls would gang up on him and wrestle the ball away from him. I hope he had a good time. He did get mauled a little by Nastia and Elena.
The day there started at two and ended at about four. We then went over to Karl and Madeline’s so they could spend a little time with them. Karl and Madeline were insulating the walls of their house and we stayed for a short while, long enough for the girls to meet their two dogs. Sam and Malibu I think.
We then headed home. When we got there I got out of the car and went inside to watch TV. I noticed the girls didn’t follow, they were too busy playing their games (DS system) I let them sit out there a little while figuring they would come in, but they didn’t. I looked out the window and they are still playing that damn game. At this point I get a little evil and get my keys and press the alarm key and the horn started to honk. It took a honk or two until first one face pops up from the yellow light of the screen and then a second. They get out of the car and I’m laughing at their reaction. I turn the alarm off and they come in and for some reason don’t ask about the alarm. I wonder if they knew I did it.
We ended the day at the Hard Wok in Nanuet neither of us felt like cooking. I offered Nastia a piece of pineapple wrapped in bacon and she would not touch it, she likes both, never a dull moment.
   Having the girls a month has really been an eye opening experience. They have been really great to be around and I could not be more proud and pleased with them. Their progress in learning english and becoming Americans has been fantastic. I just hope they don't lose their Russian language. Getting these two has been the best idea my wife ever had and the reason I feel I was put on this earth for. I see a great future for the four of us.

Lions and Tigers and Halloween, oh my!

The concept of Halloween is not well known in Russia. It is an American event and from what I know it started in the north east.
I don’t know what the girls know about Halloween and I don’t really care right now, because they had a fun time dressing up as lions and they were part of a parade in school on Friday. They seemed to enjoy dressing up as lions. They practiced growing and jumping around like lions to the point that I warned the ESL teacher that they were really into it. Everything at school went fine. They were in the parade and Teri had the day off so she was able to see the parade. Her camera battery died as she went to take a video of the parade.
On Saturday, it rained. It looked like it was no going to stop all day, even if the weather service said it was going to. The girls got into their lions costumes around two in the afternoon and we went over to my mother’s house. It was Teri’s father’s weekend with us so he came along.
We gathered with my younger brother’s family and my sister’s family, forgetting about my older brother, sorry Karl and Madeline.
Eric and Lynn’s youngest, Dennis was dressed as an army soldier, the older, Billy kept changing from one thing to another and finally went out with a hard hat and a reflective vest, I guess he was a construction worker.
Ruth’s two; Cory and Ryan were dressed as soldiers.
The six kids, Cory, Ryan, Billy, Dennis, Nastia and Elena went out trick or treating. They were joined by several adults. It ain’t like old times that’s for sure. They went to about a dozen houses before it started raining again and they came back.
Teri wanted to bring the girls to the mall to trick or treat, but we ran out of time and we went to the Halloween parade in Nyack.
It rained off and on for most of the time we were in Nyack. We found a spot close to the parade route in one of the bank parking lots. We had Tony’s wheel chair and we rolled him over to the Helen Hayes theatre, on the upper level to see better. Close to the beginning of the parade there were spots still open on the street so we moved closer for the better view. I thought the girls would be afraid of some of the costumes and the only time they were was when the wicked witch of the west snuck up on them.
The parade lasted about thirty or forty minutes which was long enough. We were wet and hungry. We ended the night by going to Banchetta feast at the Nanuet Mall. It is a very nice restaurant.
When we got home I received a call from my sister telling me everyone had stayed at my brother’s and the kid’s had gone back out to trick or treat and they had ordered pizza. I never thought about finding out what everyone else was up to. It is taking time learning to be a parent, but it is harder remembering that the kids might enjoy hanging out with other kids. I’ll get the next holiday right (yeh, right, don’t laugh so hard it could happen.), how bad could thanksgiving be?

A little surprise from Mexico way

Teri and I love to eat at El Bandito restaurant. Now with the kids the cost is most likely out of the question. So on Monday we cooked tacos.
I got home earlier then Teri so I started cooking. The girls were home so I had them helping. I dumped some chop meat into the frying pan and
Nastia’s response was “ugh, no papa, no.” and she pointed at the meat. I laughed and continued to cook the meat. Elena asked to help and I told her if she wanted to help she would have to eat the meat.
Her response was just like her sisters “no, papa, no” and she pointed at the meat. I let Elena help cook the meat and then I added the spice mix to the meat, for some reason that got their attention.
When the meat was ready I asked if they would like to try it and they said nimnoga, a little. I put a small piece of meat on a spoon and each tried it. Elena first, she liked it. Nastia tried it second and she liked it so suddenly we were in business. We could feed them Mexican food, well at least taco and fajitas anyway. I gave each one a small plate with meat and some taco sauce. Elena wanted cheese. I asked each one to try a taco shell and at first neither one liked it, but almost as soon as I sat down they were after me to give them some of my tacos. I was smarter than they were. I told them they had to eat what they had first then they could have some of mine. This gave me a head start and I managed to finish just about all I had. I think they each swiped a taco from me. They ate well that night and we can now give them tacos. Or if they are like real kids the next time we have tacos they will forget that they like them and refuse to eat them.
School seems to be going well. We got up early today and went to the town hall to get some more photos for the new passports and get some papers notarized. It also made it easy to take care of a promise to show the people in the town hall the girls; they have been very nice and helpful through this whole process.
Now if I could only get to bed at a better hour then I have been.

Head, shoulders, sneeze and toes

It’s the newest song that the girls have learned in school. They touch a part of their body and say the name. They start at the head, go to the shoulders, then the knees and then the toes. They do it twice, than they name the features on their head, ears, eyes, mouth and repeat the shoulders and so forth.
In their version, it comes out as head, shoulders, sneeze and toes and on their head they have a mouse. I will try to post a video of it.
Their English is coming along as you might have guessed. At the dinner table one night Elena looks at Teri and says “What’s the matter?” which comes out as whatsa matter? It’s all very interesting watching the changes day by day.
The JCC after school care didn’t work out so we are trying it with Teri’s father and Amanda. The first week went pretty good. There was a little hitting by Nastia, where Donald was talking to her and I guess she was playing her Nintendo and he wanted her attention so she hit him. The second hitting she said she did not do, but I was told she hit Tony the same day. Nastia has gotten into trouble at school for biting and scratching two different children. I hope we are not witnessing a pattern.
We went to the eye doctors last week. We knew that the girls had eye sight problems and the eye doctor confirmed it. Both girls are extremely near sighted. Nastia’s vision was corrected to 20-80 and Elena’s was corrected to 20-60. She said that was the best she could do. I think the way the girls took the eye exam made it difficult to go further. Nastia kept switching from her right eye to her left eye and I think they kept moving away from the eye thing they put on your eyes to determine what strength glasses you need. Both kept looking over their shoulder to see the correct answer to the question which way the letter is facing. They didn’t want to give a wrong answer. The Russian speaking assistant told them there was no wrong answer. Still it was a test they wanted to do well in.
The Nintendo game again came in handy to keep them occupied while the other was being examined.
Everybody is being so nice to us. I have had people offer clothes for the girls. Every relative we have has gone out and purchased clothes. Teri and I are very touched by all the kindness of everyone. Even the eye doctor gave us a break on the cost of the glasses. We need a social security number for the girls before we can put them on insurance, but the school requires doctor visits, eye doctor visits and dentist visits (coming on Sunday the 25th at 10:30) within a certain number of days of admission to school, so all these doctor visits are coming out of our pocket. The eye doctor cut the exam price from 110.00 to 85.00 each and the glasses were cut in price too. The total bill was 320.00. I’ve spent that and more for glasses for myself. Teri and I were very pleased and we are thinking of moving our eye business totally to them. The only problem is Teri has been with Spring Valley Optical for just about her entire life and I’ve been going to them for the last fifteen years. Also the new place is in Englewood NJ.

Every thing old is new again

It seems like we went through this once before. The girls are in an after school program and the after school program has asked them to leave. They feel that the girls’ lack of understanding English is too time consuming and it takes time away from the other kids. It’s not that the girls were bad, except for today, it just the language. I’m really getting tired of all these people who don’t want to handle the girls, really tired.
Teri and I had a phone call with the principle Martha Ryan today, nothing to do with the JCC after school program. It was an interesting conversation. She talked about bring in more help for the girls. A teacher’s assistant some more ESL help and some Russian language programs. I’m just a babe in the woods when it comes to getting what a student in need needs, but it seems that she is trying her best to help the girls out and is not nickel and diming us. I hope it turns out to be true. She is a really nice person and her staff seems to be really nice and helpful. Again I hope it all works out right.
With work I don’t get to see the girls much. I was told that Elena acted up in the after school program. The two of them were barking like dogs, which they have done before. But Elena was climbing on furniture. Teri got the fun job of setting the two of them straight on proper behavior in public. I went to donate blood at the local FD. When I got back all three were alive and there were no obvious bruises so I guess it went well.
Up until two nights ago the girls were sleeping in the double bed in the back bedroom and Teri said they were talking too much and were not getting to sleep quick enough so she made them go back to their room and to sleep in their own beds. Elena did try to get into Nastia's bed, but was stopped. It always seems to be Elena who wants to be with Nastia and is stopped. I’m not sure I agree with it. I think for the two of them it is a security thing. But then again this is the second night of it and there seems to be no side effects. I guess when they are in therapy in ten years and they blame Teri for all their attachment problems I’ll know that it was a mistake.

It's all happening at the zoo.

This past weekend we wanted to do something as a family. So we decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. We figured that the price of a ticket for the four of us and then we invited back up and babysitting, Amanda and Thrasha. Everything worked out about as well as could be expected. That sounds like I have some reservations about the day. I guess maybe I do. I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that every time we go out the price of everything we do is going to be twice what it was. We went to the Hard Wok Thursday and we had a great time, my mother and brother and his family and my sister and her family were all there and the price to take the four of us out was just a little short of fifty bucks and I always viewed the Hard Wok as a cheap place to go eat. I guess we will not be going to El Bandito, where Teri and I can do 80-100 dollars, anytime soon.
We invited CJ and Fran to go with us to the Zoo, but they could not come. So Teri, Amanda, Thrasha, Nastia, Elena and I all went to the zoo. We got there at about one pm and it was a warm day so like idiots, we at least me, we threw off our jackets forgetting it was October and not June. About an hour or so later in the shade it started to get a little cold.
The first animals we saw where the Water Buffalo and they were at the other end of their space. I wonder if the girls could see them, we still need to get them glasses.

Being Lions

They really enjoyed seeing the Tiger, the snow leopard and several other animals. They enjoyed seeing a peacock up close and after Birobidzan I didn’t trust Nastia to be alone with anything with feathers. If you don’t remember she enjoys chasing pigeons and trying to catch them. Got as close as a handful of feathers once. I don’t know what a peacock would do if it was chased and cornered by Nastia.
We ate some pretty poor food at the food court area and around four in the afternoon we were at the other end of the park. We started back by another route to see other things. We stopped at the Giraffe enclosure, but there was none to be seen. By this time most of the animals had been bought inside I guess to be fed.

We walked to one gate only to find out that it was the wrong gate. Finally as the sun was setting and it was getting colder we finally found the correct gate and got in the car and went home. All and all it was good to get out as a family and we dropped Amanda and Thrasha off at Tony’s house and picked up an old file cabinet that Nancy got from work and bought it home.
At Home I was bring the file cabinet out of the car and the cellar steps were exposed and out of the corner of my eye I see a figure tumble down the stairs. It was weird, it happened without any sound. The first sound I heard was Elena starting to cry. I dropped the cabinet and ran down the stairs. I picked her up, I know I should have seen if she was ok first, and I carry her inside and sit her down in a chair in the kitchen. I would not let her get up until I was sure she was ok. Teri checked out one side of her and I did the second. Now the most important thing out of all this was during the fall and me carrying her and checking her out she did not drop her Nintendo game. Oh also she was fine, maybe a knot on her head which she played up for the rest of the night, just a little bit

A bicycle ride and the trampoline

Today started slowly, we had work to catch up on that has been neglected for the past five weeks. The lawn hadn’t been mowed in six or so weeks and must have been a foot deep.
I started to mow the lawn and it was going slow. The bag would clog up with wet grass very quickly and have to be emptied often. I had the good fortune to get some help after about twenty minutes of this when the girls came out to help. They turned a job that was going to take an hour and cut the time to two hours. They both wanted to push the mower and both wanted to empty the bag of grass and then take the wheel barrow to the recycling pile to empty. As they emptied the wheel barrow I started the mower and did as much of the lawn as I could until they got back .This went along for a while until one got tired and went in and then the other one followed. I thought they were going to come back so I hurried to mow as much as I could. After a while I saw that they were in the dining room eating hot dogs so then I was able to finish the side yard at my leisure.
After they had lunch, they came out and wanted to go bike riding. I figured if I made them wait they would get into some trouble and they would never get to go, so we went.
My brother has a long paved driveway and it makes for a nice place to bike ride. Last year the girls had trouble going up the slight grade in the pavement. By the time they left it was a breeze.
This year they are out of practice and are having some difficulty going up the incline. Before the snows I hope they will have managed to go up and down the driveway with no problem. I would like to take them to the park near us it has a three and a half mile trail that they would enjoy biking once they are in shape. They went up and down the driveway about a dozen times and I stood at one end near the road. I took my eyes off them and they did not come back down the driveway. I went looking for them and I found the bikes and I continued and they had decided to go on the trampoline my brother has. I was angry they did not ask, so I played the parent and made them get off the trampoline and come to me and I told them that they have to ask before they do something like that and then I made them ask me. Some parent, it’s the same thing my mother did to me. I don’t know if that is good or not. In this everybody wins and there is no losers’ world and if you swat your kid they call the cops on you world it makes me wonder.
The day at my brothers lasted about two and a half hours and I hadn’t eaten lunch so I went to Nathans at the Nanuet Mall, which is very empty and had a hot dog and originally I got the girls one soda to share. Yea, you know what’s coming, I ended up getting them a second soda because they begged me and I’m sure Teri has told you she thinks I’m a soft touch, I not really.
Our final stop was the fruit store. I love the fact that these girls think fruit is a treat and I’m trying to maintain that. Teri says eating a dozen bananas in a two day period is not good. But isn’t fruit good for you?
We got home Teri made penne and sauce for dinner and the girls loved it, the good old standby. Thank god they will eat something.

First day at school

I’m writing this about four or so days after the fact and I think they went to school for the first time on Monday, the fifth.
I don’t remember the day, but I do remember what happened and how everyone felt. Well most everyone, I couldn’t read Teri too well that day.
Nastia and Elena started the day just like they started everyday of their time here last summer when they had to get up, they didn’t do it willingly. I came into the bedroom; while Teri was in the shower and tried to be gentle waking them up, it didn’t work. I should have known it would not. These two are survivors of an Orphanage and are used to noise and distractions and all that other stuff that goes along with it. When I remembered that I straightened up, grabbed a handful of covers and pulled them off of them. They didn’t move. I turned on the light and got a groan, progress. Finally I resorted to sitting them up on the edge of the bed only to see them fall back over as I reached for the other. The final solution turned out to be getting them to stand up and not let them get back into bed. Of course it would have also been a good idea to get them to bed at an earlier hour, which we did try. It started out as an 8:30 bed time and I think it was after 10pm by the time they quit talking.
With the two of them full upright and almost awake I told them to get dressed and started to leave and when I turned back guess what I saw. Yes that is why I have the smartest readership I know, they were both getting back into bed. So this time when I told them to get dressed I waited for them to start before I left.
We had toast for breakfast, Teri fixing it and maybe some fruit too. At about 7:45 we started to walk to school. Teri and I had a big discussion about their backpacks and I didn’t like the packs we had bought for the Russia trip being used, but they had a lot of stuff to bring to school and nothing else fit it all so we did it. I was afraid that they would seem like freaks if they went to school with backpacks that I thought of as airline luggage. I thought that they were going to have enough trouble fitting in without starting out with some weird backpack given to them by their out of touch parents. It turned out OK, all the kids had backpacks of various sizes and they didn’t standout too much.
Walking to school I ended up carrying both bags. I don’t know if it was a scam run by those two to get out of carrying the bags or if they were just too heavy. I thought they were too heavy. Kids are supposed to carry bags weighing no more than ten percent of their weight and these bags were more than ten pounds.
We entered the school and were greeted by the people we met on our first trip there. I was allowed to walk the girls to their class room and we first went to Elena’s. I thought Elena was handling it better then Nastia so I continued on to Nastia’s class. There Nastia was introduced to some of her class mates and a fifth grader who spoke Russian. The teachers are all very nice and the principle is extremely helpful and nice. The ESL teacher is good too.
Everyone is so helpful and I have good feelings about it all. It is about time these girls catch a break in their lives.
I have read a history of their lives and it is not pretty. Their mother got a government pension for some mental disorder that Nastia and Elena are said to suffer from to a lesser degree and she would use the money to buy Vodka.
A very telling incident happened while we were at the airport. Teri told me about it. She and Nastia were out in front of the duty free shop and Teri said something about Vodka and buying some and Nastia very pointedly said NOOOOOH. And then Teri asked about Papa buying some and again another emphatic NOOOOOH.
It seems somewhere in her memory she remembers that her mother drank and what happened when she did.
Another story; we were at some friends house last year and someone was drinking beer and Nastia asked if he was a drunk?
It’s sad that a person and especially someone that young has those demons running around in their head. Maybe it will save her the grief of getting involved with alcohol and not being able to stop like her mother, hopefully for both of them.
After the Nastia was settled in her class, she was given a hook for her jacket and a desk for her books and stuff; I went to see how Elena was doing. She was at her desk with her jacket and gloves still on and did not want to remove them, I guess they were her safety blanket.
I left with the Principle, Mrs. Ryan and we walked down the hall and she kept telling me they would be OK and I told her I knew they would and that I was feeling worse than they were right now.
I left after another quick talk with Mrs. Ryan and our separate days were starting.
Teri picked them up at 2:30 and sat and talked with Mrs. Ryan and told the same stuff I was told in a phone call I received about 11:30.
For a first day it went well.

The weekend 10-03-04-2009

The weekend like friday went very fast. Here it is Sunday afternoon and I am having trouble remembering what happened.
Yesterday was spent at the house I was sick friday night and most of saturday I had no energy and could not eat.
Teri cleaned the house and went to a Bruce Springsteen concert at Giant Staduim with Amanda last night. I got some chinese food for Tony, the girls and myself and the girls didn't eat it. Remember they do not eat lo-main or at least on this day they did not and they also turned their noses up at broccolli which I can't blame them. Even though I like it I can imagine why they would not so they had spaghetti again for the forth time in two days and when they tire of that all that is left is peanut butter and jelly. 
  Sunday was better, first off  I felt better and I got the girls out of the house and we went to Corrado's in Patterson NJ. to get some pumpkins for halloween. They most likely don't know what it is so we are going to try and ease them into it slowly so they don't get scared. They did find funny and interesting a screaming head and it didn't scare them.
   After that we went to Lynn and Eric's to bike ride and they had cookies, popcorn and soda to make up for the missed lunch, my fault. They also jumped on the trampoline and Elena was doing flips on it. We are going to take Ruth's trampoline, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am about it.
  That took until about three in the afternoon and it is now five. The Giants have won, the Yankees are going to the playoffs and the Jets are just starting. Life is pretty good right now.

Back to reality, sorta 10-01-09

Today was very simple yet it took all day.
We’re back in America and Teri and I go back to work Monday, if the girl’s paper work is ok and we can get them into school.
We spent the day trying to do just that. I took the girls to the school to introduce them to the school and any official I could meet and I had some success. The Principle, Martha Ryan was in a meeting and she took a few minutes to meet the girls and had her secretary call the main administrative office to set up an appointment for us at 10:30 and then to come back after and get a tour of the school on Friday.
We then went over to Social services to get their social security cards and that didn’t take as long as you might think it would. We then bought sandwiches for Hartells and went home to have lunch. The rest of the day is a blur and I know we made the girls dinner. I know I didn’t have time to turn on the TV at all either.

The Long Trip Home 09-30-09

Our flight from Moscow was scheaduled to leave at 3:55 pm and as everyone who has traveled knows it is a long time to wait if you have nothing to do and it is too short a time to do anything. So we went to a breakfast buffet to eat and we got ready to leave. Never wanting to miss a flight you always get ready early and want to get to the airport early. So after we ate we took all our belongings to the lobby to wait for our ride. Anatoly was to pick us up at twelve-thirty, there was an hour ride to the airport and after customs and the like we should only have an hour to wait, not bad.

A street in Moscow near Hard Rock

During the ride I sat in the back and Teri sat up front. The strategy was to sit between the two girls and make it difficult for them to get crazy. I took out the camera and replayed some of the videos I took at the Moscow circus and some of the videos of the girls singing on the car trip to Kharbarsky. It was a good start until Elena wanted to use the camera. So I put it away and only occasionally took it out to take some videos of the city. I did give Elena my other camera and let her take pictures until the battery died (about 6 pictures).
We got to the airport in plenty of time and went through the security and got to the gates with about 35 or so minutes until the boarding started. During the wait to go through security Elena has to go to the bathroom and what do you tell a little girl? We tell her to wait. What else could you do?
After security she got her bathroom break and then they got some lays chip flavored with caviar.
We boarded the plane and our seats were not together. Two seats were in row 31 with a window seat. The other two were isle seats in row 35, seats g and h. Elena and Teri got the two seats together and Nastia and I go the seats on the aisle. The figuring was that Nastia could handle sitting next to a stranger better then Elena. That is exactly what happened. Nastia begins talking with this guy next to her and he is trying to sleep and he is polite and talks to her and every time I tell him I’m sorry for her he says it’s ok.
The plane takes off and everything goes well for the first several hours. Elena is up with Teri and Nastia has conned the guy out of his window seat. When dinner comes through Nastia switches again so I can get the majority of her dinner that she won’t eat. She won’t eat meat because someone told her it comes from dead cows and I end up with 90% of her dinner.
After dinner people start moving around the plane and the guy next to Nastia disappears and the guy next to me disappears. Elena sees this and asks to sit next to Nastia which is a mistake but I let her and I go up to talk to Teri who I have not seen much since Birobidzan. We talk and I look back toward the twisted sisters and it goes well for the first few minutes. I don’t remember what happens but I think the two of them start to get carried away and get noisy. I tell them to be quite and it gets to the point where I send Elena back to Teri and she refuses to go. I have to push her down the aisle of the plane and she grabs seats and refuses to move her feet. I feel as if the eyes of everyone on the plane are on me and judging me. Why is this American got these two Russian girls? He doesn’t know how to raise Russian girls. I have to lift her into her seat and that is the end of the first time. Yes it happens again and it is the same. She tells Teri she has to go to the bathroom and she tries to sit in my seat and I have to grab her and force her down the aisle. I lose my temper at this point and I hiss into her ear that if she ever wants to get out of that seat again she better get in it now. I could have recited the star spangled banner for all the difference it made, she doesn’t understand English.
I guess that was the low point of the flight if you don’t include the viewing for the third time in a month ‘What happens in Vegas’ and ‘Twenty-Seven Dresses’.
We land at about six-thirty at J.F.K. Airport we go through customs, we go through passport control where the officer checking us out had adopted a child from Korea and we exchanged a few stories, the guy was real nice. We are then asked to go to a small room where they were going to take care of some paperwork. It took about fifteen minutes and then we get our bags and find our driver and finally we are on our way home. It is a strange feeling to be away for so long and then to finally be back. Everything is strange, yet familiar. It is now about seven in the evening in New York, in Moscow it is two am and in Birobidzan it is ten in the morning, everyone is tired and doesn’t know how many hours of sleep they are missing. We yell at the girls to keep the noise down and the first person to fall asleep is Teri.
On the plane Nastia fell asleep at the end of the flight and Elena I don’t know if she slept at all.
When we get to t he house there are a bunch of car and all the lights in the house are on. I was not happy. A welcome home party for the girls is a nice idea but the adoption people said it would not be good for the girls. So I approached the house with some reserve. After a few minutes the girls seem to be unaffected by everything I relax. Again the girls go against the norm. The party was the nicest way to end the trip and I was glad almost everyone came over. Thank you all.

An American in Moscow 09-29-09

An American in Moscow
The last step in our long trip happened today. The American Embassy to pay for our children to become American citizens. It’s the American way. The Russians want paperwork on top of paperwork, the Americans want cold hard cash. God bless America, I can’t wait to get back!
We started the day getting breakfast at the cafe in the lobby. This time Elena didn’t want to eat and she was angry. Yesterday or today we gave those Nintendo DS systems and we have been telling them we would take them away if they were not good. At breakfast Elena was mad and made what looked like a stabbing motion with her fork toward Teri. We both say it and interpreted it that way, Elena said she it was a throwing motion not a stabbing one, and we talked it over and left it on hold for the time being.
We had decided to go take a trip on the metro today to the zoo and red square and the hard rock café. Last night we had decided to do just the Hard Rock Café and see what time we had left after that. We walked past the crap dog café and went down into the metro. It took a few minutes to get our barring and off we went on the next train. We had seven stops to our location and we also got a newer train that showed the stops and what stop we were at, life was good. At our stop we get off and head up to the surface. This is where the trouble started. We had neglected to get more specific data and a better map to help us out. I went to the street and tried to find a street on my map while Teri held on to the girls. I neglected to mention that it is a windy and occasionally showery day and the girl’s jackets and sweaters are a little light for the weather. Bad Parents, Bad! I take our little party to the left and we get to New Arbot st. We wanted Old Arbot st. so I look at the map, ask a person, with my wife’s kindly encouragement and he say we are going in the wrong direction and need to go back the way we came. In reality he said “Hard Rock Café” and pointed in the direction we’d just came. We walk past Old Arbot st. and again with my wife’s quiet encouragement I ask another man and he again says we have passed the location we are looking for and must go back to the corner we have just passed and it is just down the street. And yes, all he did was point and said soon, soon.
We got to the Hard Rock and had lunch, we gave the girls French fries, Teri had a Cobb salad and I had a burger. It was expensive, but it was nice to again eat something you could relate to.
Anatoly picked us up at the Hard Rock and a few minutes later we were at the Embassy. They ask you to get on a line separate from other people; I guess it is the line for Americans. We showed the guard our invitation and we then went to the desk and gave up anything that was not allowed inside, camera, cell phones, and the like. We then went to window four A and we gave the government 800.00 and I didn’t mind, it’s the end of the road and there is no line and my instructions say to go to window one and hand in my instructions, which we do. We are asked to sit down and wait until we are called. Within a few minutes several other families come in with the same business. They are from Texas, California, Chicago and one was from St Petersburg and she was adopting a girl and had plans stay in Russia for about a year and a half to teach Foreign Service worker’s children.
We were out in about an hour or so and we imposed on Anatoly to take us to Red Square, I guess I did. No one else wanted to really go. We were close to it so the trip was short. I have seen Red Square and some of the other building on TV for years and to finally see it in person was nothing short of amazing. I saw where leaders of the USSR would stand during parades, I stood where soldiers marched by and where Czars of Russia had walked. It was truly a great experience.
We got back to the Hotel and had dinner in another buffet in our hotel and went to our rooms.

Turn your Head and cough 09-28-09

I know some of the girls in the audience will not understand the title of today's blog title. We went to the doctors office and being a boy all my life that was one of the things I never understood the doctor doing. He would put his had between our legs and say turn your head and cough. We all thought the doctor a little strange.
  Got up and had no breakfast had to get to the Doctor's Office at nine and it's an hours trip. Traffic in Moscow is bad and its going to get worse. The roads are mostly side streets in width and they have buildings on both sides and no space to widen.

On the way to the Doctor’s office we stopped at a clothing store to get the girl’s jackets or at least sweaters. We walked into a store that would fit into any American downtown and it had the prices to match. Jackets started at fifty dollars and went up. Sweaters started at thirty and went up. Anatoly our driver said it was the cheapest store around. We bit the bullet and purchased two sweaters and hope that will be enough for now.
Got to the Doctor’s Office before nine and we were guided through a group of people to a private office and we were the first people there. We were greeted by a woman wearing a very short dress and I really didn’t mind except it was a place of business and not proper attire. Plus she was wearing clothes you’d expect a woman younger than her to wear. She needs to update her wardrobe.
The Doctor came in and we went into the examination room he talk to Teri and I for a moment, then he talked to the girls and he then asked one of them to undress. That was when I got the look that I will have to get used to. It said go,Pappa, I don’t want you to be here. So I left. I did get a rundown from Teri afterwards. Both have flat feet, we have to watch Elena’s TB spot and they need glasses, Dentist and one other doctor I don’t remember.
We Left the Doctor’s and went to McDonalds for an early lunch. I was waiting for Anatoly to park the car to order. Teri said she was in disparate need of a coffee and I said that I could order one. Coffee in Russian is Coffee, easy. Just fake all questions. I get on line, when it’s my turn I say coffee, pajalessta. The guy behind the counter says anything else? I'm dumbstruck and not prepared to do an order and I am a little surprised so I say no. I take the coffee back to Teri and get an order and go back.

The food was MacDonald’s and it was nice to have something familiar after all of the mystery foods that I have eaten lately. Nastia again refuses to eat her meal, this time it was a fish sandwich. We are at the point that if she doesn’t eat she gets nothing else until the next meal. We took some pictures and left. Anatoly had to take care of CJ and Fran (their day at the embassy) so we were on our own. We were going to try the metro on our own, but we went back to the rooms and took a nap. Mostly the reason we took a nap was because Nastia was bad and we sent her to bed. It turns out it was a much needed nap everyone except Teri slept for a few hours.
We went to eat at a buffet at another hotel and it was not bad. The food was a little cold and that seems to be a Russian typical. There is no ice to make drinks colder and a lot of the things you buy from coolers are just slightly cold. At the buffet I bought two bottles of beer. I saw the display on the cashier’s desk and I asked for two. I figured I’d get two from a cooler; nope I got the two on the counter. Trying to not be the ugly American I took them and left.
We went back to the room, CJ came over and we sat around and talked about things and drank some cold beer we had. He talked about some people he knew who were doing a bike trip across Russia. It sounded fun but I would never want to do it.

Join the circus, like you wanted to when you were a kid* 09-27-09

Join the circus, like you wanted to when you were a kid* 09-27-09
* Jim Dale from Barnum the musical
And going to see all those Broadway shows finally pays off, isn’t it a wonderful life Jimmy Stewart.
Monday was a nonevent day. We didn’t get moving very fast and when we were moving we went nowhere.
The previous night the hotel was filled with guests and the vast majorities were athletes. I walked around the hotel looking for some soda because I was in need. Caffeine headaches are not fun. I was tired and it seemed too much trouble to go through the language barrier to get what I wanted so I just went back to the room. I paid for it the next morning.
We had two hungry kids and I had a headache. We went down stairs at 7am to catch the opening of the breakfast buffet, we had waited several hours. I don’t know what time it opened, the sign said 7am last night, but the place was busy and very full at a few minutes after seven. It was twelve dollars per and it was a pretty good buffet. Being a nonamerican buffet they had no soda. I had cranberry juice which has no caffeine in it. Teri had a coffee. The buffet was good. It had a lot of things that Nastia would eat. Peppers, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, and lots of stuff Elena would eat. Teri and I enjoyed it too. The Russian pastries as I’ve said before are not as sweet as American and are a little disappointing.
After breakfast we tried to get a hold of CJ and Fran, but we waited too long. It was chilly and we had no coats for the girls and we were short on clothes that fit the girls so we went to an outlet mall to get some clothes for the girls. We ended up at Gloria Jeans, I don’t know if they have them in America, but the mall was just like an American mall, just smaller. We spent about two hundred dollars on about six outfits and I took the girls outside while Teri checked out. The girls weren’t cooperating and a security guard came by and told them quit climbing on the rails and act good. We then went up stairs to see if there was anywhere to eat and while looking the girls were climbing on the rails again and again a security guard came over and told them to quit climbing on the rails and act good. Where was I during all this you might ask? I kept telling them to quit climbing on the rails and act good. I think the guards noticed the trouble I was having with them and came over. They weren’t out of control; they were just not listening as quickly as I wanted. Does that sound credible? I really did have them under control. They like and respect me. Really, they do, really!
We went to eat lunch after that and on the third floor of the mall there is a food court. They had a KFC, an Uncle Sam’s café and two other places that didn’t interest us (Teri and I). We decided to eat at Uncle Sam’s and have a pizza, French fries and soda. We start ordering in Russian (a word or two in Russian and lots of pointing) to a girl. A guy takes over after we have ordered the pizza and he slips in a word of English and Teri goes you speak English? He smiles and says yes he does and that he’s has not been to American, but would like to go. Teri says that if he is wording here we are coming here for every meal he is working. He only works weekends. So we ate lunch, it was ok, and haven’t been back.
English is very often spoken here in Moscow; it seems the exception when it is not. The only think I really hate is not being able to read the signs and the memos and street signs. I feel like a functioning illiterate. It can make you feel real dumb sometimes.
After the lunch and shopping we tried CJ and Fran and they still weren’t back and we were going to try to go the zoo, but I didn’t feel confident we could get there. We ended up staying in the room We seem to be getting up a like 3am, 4am, sometime as late as 5am. This may sound like it is not a bad thing, but come early afternoon you get tired really quickly and so we all went to the room. CJ and Fran called and said they were going to the Moscow Circus and we sort of invited ourselves and without tickets CJ and Fran introduced us to the Moscow Metro. It is beautiful, mostly easy to use and has a few surprises, like the escalators (they are fast and steep).
We get on a train down the street from the hotel, past a little hot dog stand that looks like its name is crap dog. Several stops later we get off and switch to another train, and arrive at the circus. During the ride over to the circus CJ tells me about the metro and how to use it we are going to try and use it tomorrow and go to red square and or The Hard Rock Café.
On the way to the circus there are several aisles of vendors. CJ and I split off from the others to get Teri, Nastia, Elena and I tickets, on the way there we stop at a vendor and get this potato thing, which is good and eat it on the way to get the tickets. I comment to CJ that if this was the city I would never buy something from a vendor like I have been doing here. He replies that he just wants to know if it walks or flies. I add creeps (as in Mice and Rats). We meet at an agreed spot and have a flour tortilla filled with chicken, ketchup, mayonnaise, peppers and other assorted items and again it was good.
At the Moscow circus, it is a small building maybe half the size of Madison square garden and the like. We go inside and of course a bathroom break is needed. The show starts and we have to hustle to get to our seats and we miss a little of the start. It’s a lot pageant and light show with some amazing feats of strength.
The first act is a dog act and it was very good, next the clowns, a man and a women who entertained while the next act set up. It was different from circuses of old. Here there were lots of pageant, lots of beautiful women with little clothing on at sometimes and a dazzling light show.
During all this enjoyment, we had two suddenly sleepy girls on our hands. One tried to crawl into my arms and sleep. Failing to get comfortable she chose to sleep next to me. The other one, Elena has to go to the bathroom and when she gets back she too wants to fall asleep. She starts in my arms, tries to stretch out over two seats in my arm, then use my coat as a pillow, next she slides under an arm rest and finally she stretches her legs under a third seat, kicking and awakening her sister. I am not exagerateing when I say the minute she got comfortable the house lights go up and people get up and start moving around. Mind you I didn’t say leave. Teri and I are tired and the kids are asleep already, we figure we will try and find CJ, Fran and their son Max to convince them to leave. I look around for them and see them in the mirrored wall talking to Teri and the girls. They are ready to go even of it is only intermission. So we all get out of there having had an enjoyable evening even if we only saw half the show.
The Metro home was enjoyable and an easy trip. Teri played flip the invisible coin with the girls and everyone got involved. We got home around ten and went to bed and I think we got up again around five or so.

It’s the trip, the best part it’s the trip.* 09-26-09

It’s the trip, the best part it’s the trip.* 09-26-09
*Jim Morrison and the Doors -Soft parade I think
Oh shut the %@c& up! God I have not wanted someone to kill more than I ever have on that almost eight hour plane trip. And we are only half way home. It didn’t seem this long when we were going in the other direction. To make matters worse again I don’t know what time it is. My body told me it was two in the morning and I was starting to see double, but the sun was still up in the air. We tried to get the girls to go to bed and they didn’t want to. They finally crashed at about 3am Sunday Birobidzan time (I found out Birobidzan is spelt that way. I was spelling it wrong.) Moscow time 7pm Saturday, New York time 11am Saturday.
I don’t want to be too harsh on my observations of the girls it was an eight hour trip that needed a three hour car ride to get started, oh and there was an hour and a half sitting in the airport, so it was a long day and they really didn’t act that bad when you take it all in perspective.
We got up about 7am in Birobidzan. Our car was coming at 9am. I dressed and took the girls to the market to buy something to eat and maybe get them a jacket or two if I could find them. The market was just opening and people were just putting out their wares. It was cold and none of the jacket places open so I bought some bananas and some grapes for the girls. We went to the bakery to get something more to eat and they didn’t have anything that looked tasty. Russian’s are not into very sweet pastries like Americans. On the way to the room the girls ate two bananas and started on the grapes. In the room they ate the other two bananas. I took the girls back down with the luggage while Teri finished up her makeup. Our car and Yulila arrived on time and shortly after that Teri came down stairs and into the Mitsubishi something or other (an interesting 4wheel drive van type vehicle with folding seats. It’s not sold in America as far as I know and I also didn’t get pictures.) for our trip.
Pass some places that had become familiar landmarks and then a left out of town and nothing but trees and farms.
After an hour or so we stopped in front of a house and were asked if we wanted potato croquette like things about four or so inches long and still warm. They were pretty good. After this the girls asked how much longer, Teri caught it without a translator. A little while later it was time to take a pee break. We pulled off the road in front of a building that looked closed. Our driver told us we could go here so the girls and I get out and walk toward the building. Our Driver says something and points toward the side of the building and we walk ( I carried Nastia, suddenly she was too girlie to walk through weeds) toward it and from around the corner I see a small wooden building and except for lacking the quarter moons in the doors I was sure what was coming. It was a two door model and it was in need of some repair. The doors either didn’t stay closed (the left) or didn’t want to open (the right). I would like to call this outhouse a two seat model but there were no seats, just a rectangle in each floor with metal rails running parallel to the hole. I was scared someone would fall in. Teri didn’t even get out of the car. When I got back I told her she would have not survived the experience. Fate had a trick up her sleeve for Teri later. I didn’t know at the time but this was the end of the really great behavior by the girls. The girls started to get more restless. We had expected them to start acting up as the trip progressed either from stress of leaving or from boredom. At the airport our first support left us, our driver who had been very patient with the girls and friendly. When we went through the metal detectors our final support left when Yulila said good bye.
Inside the airport the girls were antsy and we tried to distract them with gum, then coloring books, then blank sheets of paper to write on and finally we gave in and let them eat the crab potato chips Teri was saving for her father. They were being pigs and were getting carried away with eating the chips when Nastia pulled away from Elena and the bag ripped already down the side sprayed the remaining contents across the floor towards me sitting across from them. Nastia went down on her knees; I thought to clean up the mess. Elena joined her. While Elena helped me clean it up, Nastia continued to eat the chips. She had to be pulled away from the chips. She thought it was funny to continue eating the chips. Blessedly the plane was called not long after that I thought. It was not a blessing really.
Have you ever watched the horror film the evil dead? Doesn’t matter, in it our hero has to battle the forces of evil until the sun comes up. When he succeeds and the sun comes up, you think it is over and there is a short period of calm, then suddenly everything changes when the evil spirits speed up time and make it sun down again and it all starts again. Well that describes or day to a tee. The evil spirits take a break until the plane is in the air and there is no going back. One has to go to the bathroom, so does the other. I don’t trust them in the bathroom together, so they have to go separately. They are not interested in coloring books, blank sheets of paper, their magna-doodle and to top it off the headphone jack doesn’t work well for Nastia and mine not at all. Teri’s worked and I think Elena’s was ok. The first feature is some Russian cartoons that the girls know well and watch for several seconds. After that it’s koopotza time (bathroom). They went about a dozen times during the flight and it was only an eight hour flight. I know I fed them grapes and maybe that got things going inside, but I also gave them bananas and that should have counteracted the grapes and on the car ride they had cheese. I know some of the trips to the bathroom at the end of the flight were bogus, but I’ll get into that in a minute. At one point early in the flight Nastia makes friends with the two women behind her and tell them she is going to America and has been adopted by the Americans and they don’t understand us too well. She makes friends with someone across the aisle who was reading a magazine about airplanes through history, it looked interesting. And finally she made friends with the stewardesses, all of them. She would call them by name and she even hung out with them in the back of the plane, which by this point was a blessing. She stayed with them for about half an hour and only came back when they started serving food again. I didn’t not let her go back with them because they were working, so she said she had to go to the bathroom and I’d been accompanying her there, this time I let her go ahead of me and she heads for the bathroom, hangs a turn at them, goes around and down the other aisle to the back of the plane. I follow her there and I am fuming. I don’t like being lied to like that. I grab her arm and take her back to her seat and she is stuck there for the rest of the flight. I’d like to think I’d let her go back to the end of the plane after the stewardesses had finished working, I’d know. When the plane landed both Teri and I were on the verge of killing something. So we bit into each other, or at least I did. I don’t remember what it was about or if I gave the first snotty remark or the second or even just imagined the tone. It was like a nuclear war, just quiet. It was quick like a summer rain and when the sun came back out you had two grumpy people instead of a bunch of flowers reaching for the sun.
We are met at the gate by Anatoly, which was god sent. We divide up the bags and head for the car. Now the girls are wired still and Teri and I are still pissed at each other, but we’re trying to work it out. Repeatedly the girls are warned about consequence for acting up in the car. I swat Elena and tell her spot, which is bed. We get to the hotel and have to fill out papers for embassy. The first thing we do is put Elena to bed, the second thing we do is start to work on the paperwork. It is five or six at night in Moscow and I may have said this before, I’m writing this over three days, it is 2am in the morning in Birobidzan. Elena is fighting every inch of the way to get out of bed. Nastia is on her bed it is relaxing and quiet. Elena is on my bed and inching off it, rolling over toward Nastia to tell her a joke. I tell her to be quiet, to turn over and face away for Nastia. Finally I turn her over and swat her on the backside. She gets angry, turns over, if only for a moment, pulls the cover over her head and for a little while we have silence to finish the paperwork, which is good, because letters and numbers are starting not to make much sense and I need sleep. Which I get soon afterwards, we decide to be bad parents or maybe its smart parents and not wake the girls to go to dinner and we all go to bed.
Next morning I wake up at 3am, Moscow time, 11am Birobidzan time.

Moving into the Homestretch 09-25-09

On line at the Pit Stop

It is 9:24 pm; Teri is trying to put the girls to bed after they insisted on taking a shower. Yes they got more water and the water was hot, on the floor then on them. I offered to take over so she wouldn’t get overwhelmed like I sometimes feel, but she said no.
A long day started early this morning when the alarm went off at 7:30. We had gotten to bed late last night. It was a little alcohol and some talking and suddenly it was 1am. I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep so I went into the living room and laid down on the pull down couch. I did manage to get back to sleep about an hour later.
Yulila was to pick us up at 10:45 so we wanted to get out to the market early and get a few more things for the girl’s party. We picked up some more chocolate, looked at some fruit, picked up some more bubbles and some nice hair ribbons for the older girls at the party (older meaning 12,13and maybe 14). It was a successful trip and I even traded in some dollars for Rubles.
Yulila picked us up a little late and we went over to the bank to cash in the girls savings accounts. It took over an hour to do three accounts at two different banks. You get on line, or in the Russian way or so it seems you cut in line to the front and get service. Yea, I’m overstated what happened except for us. We always seemed to go to the front of the line. It might be Nadashda’s at work again. After the bank we went back to the Hotel and met Nadashda’s where she gave us all our paper work for Moscow.
We were running very late for the party. It was 2:30 and it was to a have started at 2:00. We still had to pick up the cake and some juice. Yulila called and it was rescheduled for 4pm. We hadn’t eaten yet today and had hopes for a quick bit which didn’t happen. We got to the Orphanage at 3:30 and waited for 4pm.
At 4, we went to the lunch room and they had cut the watermelon and some peaches up. I was supposed to cut the cake and service it after they had their snack, which I did, with the help of Teri and Nastia.
They had a little ceremony where a few kids got up to say something and I think it was basically good luck and we will miss you.
After that there was a little dancing and in less than two hours it was over and suddenly we are getting ready to leave. On the way out a young boy was hiding behind a curtain and I noticed something wrong and I called Yulila back so she could ask him what was wrong? I thought he was upset because the girls were leaving or maybe he was sorry that he didn’t have parents taking him out of this place. It never occurred to me that I might not be to help him with his problem until Yulila had started talking to him. It turned out it was fixable, but a little sadder then what I thought. We had given out toy trucks to every boy who came to the party, girls got dolls and someone had taken his, by mistake or on purpose I don’t but this kid who had nothing had lost his gift, a dumb little truck that cost 40 rubles (about a buck ten). Luck was with us that day because we had one extra truck left over and we gave it to him and I even gave him an extra candy bar. I hope he felt as good as I did.
We next went into the office of the director and signed paperwork saying that we have received all our paperwork and we are going to take the girls out of the Orphanage and bring them to America and I think it said put them in school.
The last thing I was asked to leave the room for. All the clothes the girls were wearing were removed and clothes we bought with us were given to them. Waste nothing, and then we left. It started to really sink in again on the ride home while the girls are starting to act up that we are the proud new owners of two young girls and will remain forever.
It was late and Yulila had worked a long day too so we sent her home figuring we could chance Smock with its pigeon English menu. So they pull out and we walk over to the restaurant and it is having a private party until about 8pm. So we says Ok, let’s go to the Chinese restaurant with the picture menu in the Hotel. We get there and they are having a private party. If we had thought about it there are three or more Chinese restaurants with picture menus.
At that point Teri said “I guess you know what this means? It means we’re going to Pit Stop.” Yes we are tired of the food, but when we went in there several people smiled at us and we could just point at what we wanted and say one or two or whatever and we were comfortable and the girls ate everything they ordered and didn’t ask to play air hockey, which I would have said yes to. It was a nice way to end our Birobadijan adventure. If this had been an adventure story in the background the sun would be setting in brilliant reds and oranges behind big white puffy clouds and you’d know our intrepid adventurers would be save until their next adventure.
Well kiddies this ain’t Hollywood and we still had to put two sugar hyped kids to bed and considering everything that happened today it went real well, The girls took showers and at first were in the same bed and when that didn’t work we separated them and Teri laid down with Elena. When Nastia saw she wanted me to lay down with her and it looked like it was going to work when Teri got up to use the bathroom and I thought that they were quiet enough to be back together. Again at first it worked and then you could feel it begin to build. They started whispering and then a little more and then a little more, then came the kisses good night. First once then twice then everyone had to get kissed on the forehead and then it started over and that was when we separated them again. This time it stuck and we just put them back in the bed together. A strange thing happened when I picked Elena up to bring her to the other bed she grabbed on to the other side of the bed. I wonder what that is about.
Tomorrow, I will be reporting from Moscow, eight hours earlier then tonight. So don’t touch that dial. See you all in Moscow.
In the coming days look for pictures of us in Red square and in front of the Kremlin, can you really believe it? I’m going and I can’t!