Four is Enough...Sometimes Too Much...

Friday, June 2

Okay you parents out there that have been laughing at all of our funny ventures, I think we have you beat on this one! Have any of you had a two night spend the night party in a tiny one bedroom apartment where the kids all speak a language you do not understand? I think not! This puts a whole new spin on bonding time. We have cut out for ourselves another fun adventure. Were we up to it? There is at this point serious question to that and more along the lines of what were we thinking? In the kids defense they have actually been quite good. I mean when you are in close quarters there are little spats but bedtime was really good without incident. There was the usual laughing and talking and the ever famous 6am wakeup call for Garrett for two of the four talking. They were up and dressed at 7am with the bed made. This made for a very long morning because we usually are up around 8:30 or 9. They started talking about when was lunch and it was only 10:00!

We almost never sleep well here because it does not get dark until almost 10:00pm and it starts getting light around 4:00am. Many of you know Garrett’s desire to sleep in a cave and we do not have that luxury here so we are usually awake at odd times wondering what time it is. The kids do not always sleep either so we keep mornings kinda casual around here.

We are hoping to get to bed a little earlier tonight and that they might sleep in…perhaps. The kids have had a great time today and that is the point isn’t it? We started off the morning with a light breakfast and lots of laughter, gameboy, bubbles, leapster, Barbie and some cards. We taught Rada and Andre Uno and they really like it a lot. Apparently it is a crime to have this many children in one house and have just one Gameboy. We went upstairs and had lunch with lots of giggles and laughter. Everything was funny but again not knowing what they were saying it was hard sometimes to get the joke. I think in many cases we are too old to get the joke anyways. Do I have a witness out there?

We made a little jaunt over to the red grocery store for a few “supplies” like snacks and chocolate. We were going swimming at the Aqua Park later today and needed some things to keep our strength up. We had the weirdest thing happen at the checkout line. We got these little black seeds that they eat at the orphanage that are like little sunflower seeds. They cook them or roast them and then eat them one at a time breaking them in half and eating the seed and discarding the hull. It can be a little messy for indoor snacking but we try to keep it down to a minimum. They also have a love for sweetened condensed milk with bread and tea. We are kind of limited in our food selection here. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore!

Anyways back to the story. We had some chips, juice, chocolate and other necessary items on the conveyer belt and the last two items, the condensed milk and seeds, when one of the ladies that worked there scooped them up and took them back to the aisle and put them away. We were very confused! Had we reached our limit? Was she doing a price check? Did she think we did not want them? We were perplexed. When she came back she said something to us in Russian and Garrett and I had those American blank faces staring back at her trying to think of our best caveman phrase to solve the problem. We were ready to act it out if necessary! Fortunately we had our trusty Rada with us who asked her what was the deal and you will not believe what she told her! She said they do not sell these items before lunch!!! We were like WHAT! Are you with the KGG (Kazakhstan Grocery Gestapo)? Is there some unwritten condensed milk etiquette we are not aware of? We looked at our watch and it was 12:00pm so we were unsure when “lunch” officially starts. Anyways we were trying to figure out what to do when another lady working there got them for us and gave them to us. I guess she thought these crazy Americans don’t know you don’t buy condensed milk before lunch so we will let them go on their way with their milk. We were very confused so called our translator Nastya to get the inside scoop on the seeds and milk and she was as confused as we were so go figure. It is a strange experience shopping in some of the stores because it is not unusual to be watched by several people. When we were checking out at the grocery today there were 4 people standing there watching us, no joke! We feel famous but no one has asked for our autograph yet. We just thought we would share our humorous story with you.

After lunch Nastya came over and escorted our happy crew to the Aqua Park. We managed to squeeze 8 people in a car again, no seat belts of course! Driving here is an experience in itself. Most all the roads have no painted lanes and cars drive so close to each other when then pass you can count the freckles on their faces. The roads themselves are in such terrible shape with huge potholes and bumps that everyone zigzags and serpentines along. There may be 3 lanes wide for cars but hey why not fit 4 sometimes, just for the fun of it. They swerve and honk like there was no tomorrow. If you think about crossing the roads you must watch carefully. This is definitely not a pedestrian has the right of way kind of place.

We arrived at the swimming place and rented a room with a sauna in case we experienced arctic conditions again. We were pleasantly surprised to find it was indeed warmer…not warm but we will take warmer. We all did quite a bit of swimming which made us all hungry and tired. Everyone had a good dinner and we had a few rounds of UNO, a little birthday cake we purchased earlier today to celebrate Rada and Andrey’s birthday and a little Madagascar. The boys were officially passed out at 10:00pm and the girls we are hoping are quick to follow.

We have another fun filled, action packed adventure for tomorrow but we are not going to spoil the surprise by telling all about it now. We want you back thirsty for more tomorrow.

On the adoption front, Marina informed us this afternoon that the judge has yet to tell them what he is requiring for our next, and final I might add, court date on Tuesday. Therefore she is making arrangements to get the Birth Father to sign documents terminating his rights as their father. We sure could use some prayer covering for this. We are expecting him to sign it without question and we will be able to finalize everything with the judge on the 6th.