Lights, Camera, Action!


Well, yesterday was the big production. It was so cute!!! The girls were all dressed in costumes that resembled Belle’s yellow dress, complete with the elbow-length gloves. They were in all different colors, and of course each girl had the requisite giant white bow in her hair. For those of you that don’t know, in Eastern Europe little girls get dressed up with big white bows in their hair almost the size of their heads. It is really cute and the girls all seem to love it. I have never seen anything like it in California. We are going to have to find some of the bows to bring home. I don’t think there is any chance that I might convince Amber to put one in her hair, but our other daughter might still want one occasionally. The boys were in full suits, complete with bow ties. So very proper. Some of the older kids even performed dances and recited poetry in Russian. The older kids are so sweet. I think we have mentioned before how they really dote on the younger kids and take care of them. They helped to keep the younger kids in check during the performance. The first dance was the boy-girl waltz type of dance. Of course, our daughter really was the best. She is a born performer. Her dance partner was a little boy named Danil that is such a sweetheart. We would bring him home, too, in heartbeat if we had the chance, but he has three teenage sisters and is not available for adoption. Not that anyone ever visits him. It really does break my heart. For now we bring whatever we can for him every day, just like we do for the other children, and we pray for his future.

Back to the production, though. After the first dance we were surprised to see all the girls, including our daughter, get up in front in a line. They all had several lines to say from another Russian poem or story. Guess what? Our daughter has lungs! She belted out all of her lines for several minutes and we got it all on video. After the reading, it was time for the girls to do their cheerleading/songleading routine – the one with the hip swinging. Once again, our daughter was of course the star – not that we have become the least bit biased. I’m just sure she was the best even though I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and watch any of the other girls! Once the show was over, the kids all changed and we got to go play outside. We teased our daughter with our coordinator that we actually have her on film talking a whole bunch. She started giggling because she knows that we know she is really just playing a game about not talking very much. The way I see it, that is the only thing she has any control over in her life right now. Even though she loves spending time with us and comes running to hug us when we get there, she is still scared, so this little game is okay for now.

We have definitely gotten to know the city well. Pretty much every place except the orphanage is within walking distance, provided we pay attention during the human Frogger game when we cross the street. Actually we have to pay attention at all times, because there doesn’t seem to be a distinction between streets and sidewalks. We found the great amusement park and went back this morning. The park is so beautiful and goes on for what seems like miles. It is filled with shady trees and fun little rides. The carousel looks like one of the antique tin toys. Today we even got to ride on a tractor that pulled tiny train cars and went all over the park. At around 50 cents a ride, we could spend all day there. We have had so much fun getting to know the other adoptive mom, Marcia, and her daughter Sara that are in the room across the hall from us. The kids have such a great time together, and we took them there today to play. I think we may have to make it a daily activity, as it is even better than the nightly bounce house party. Marcia and I were laughing that we have become such locals here that people actually do confuse us for Russian women. We now get approached all the time on the street with people asking us the time or something else in Russian. When we look back at them with blank looks and say “Sorry, Pangliske”, they look totally surprised.

Yesterday afternoon there was a huge crowd in the town square outside. There were hundreds of people all in track suits with numbers pinned to their chests. We found out it was the “Taraz Day of Health” and there was going to be some sort of race. It looked just like the start of a marathon, until you looked closer and saw that more than half of the race participants were smoking, and didn’t look like they were going to put their cigarettes out for the race. The other half were eating ice cream or drinking sugar sodas. So much for good health, but at least it’s a start! We also found a great little bakery with an upstairs tea room that does not allow smoking or alcohol, so it is always empty. They make great banana milkshakes that Jacob loves, and wonderful pastries. It makes for such a nice morning to walk to the bakery, get something yummy and sit and sip tea and milkshakes while we watch all the people walk outside.

Tonight we are going to have dinner at the Turkish restaurant again for pizza and kebobs. We had our coordinator, Vera, write out in Russian exactly what we wanted to order, just to make sure there aren’t any communication breakdowns. Mitchell, I almost asked her to write the Russian word for “Turkish delight”, but I don’t think they have it. We are going to be joined by Marcia and Sara, and another adoptive mom that is here from Canada. We won’t know what to do with ourselves with a table full of English-speaking people. I’m sure we will cause quite a spectacle, except for the fact that we are eating at 5 and no one goes to restaurants here before 8. I hope the restaurant is open! Tomorrow is our guardianship hearing. Jeff will have to give some sort of speech, we have been told, and there will be a lot of questions as to why we are adopting, why Kazakhstan, why Taraz, and so on. Hopefully we will answer the questions right. We think it is going to be fine, but you just never know, so we are not letting our guard down. Please pray for us if you happen to be awake at 3 am Monday morning California time, as that is when we will be at the hearing. Hopefully we will have good news for you tomorrow! For today, though, we continue our Groundhog’s Day existence of the same thing everyday at the same time.

Mitchell, I hope your football game went great, and Amber, I hope your first day in your new class on Tuesday goes well, too. I can’t wait to hear all about it! I love you more than you could ever imagine, and I can’t wait to come home to you two sweeties!