10/20/04-And the changes keep coming...

Well, things just keep changing. Just as I put out an update saying I will not talk about the apartment until we are sitting in it, I am sitting in our apartment writing today’s entry. This afternoon, they called to let us know we could move tonight. Apparently, Lena was trying to call us this morning, but I must have been working on the computer. She tried the other couples, but they were also on the computer. Mornings are a big time for us to get our info update, especially with the Baseball play-offs going on. One of the other couples has a huge Yankee fan among.

The apartment is adequate. It definitely has more space. We have three rooms, one living area (which will also serve as our bedroom), one bedroom, which has the cribs and a full kitchen. I think the kitchen will be the biggest advantage to moving here. At least it is better than trying to feed these kids using a hot plate. Any worries about not having heat have been elevated. The room is currently “about a hundred degrees” by Mary Jo’s estimate and this with all the windows open. Apparently the concept of the thermostat has not hit Karaganda. The weather is nice out, so we are finding this a little warm.

Mary Jo is currently trying to figure out the bedding situation. Is this a duvet cover or a sheet? Whatever it is, it has just become a sheet. I’m guessing we are not going to need big blankets right now, but that will probably change. We stopped at the grocery on the way out today and stocked up on the essentials. It was quite interesting having two new parents trying to figure out what they will feed these kids, when everything is in Russian. I am not sure we know what we want to feed them in English. But with help from our translator, we picked a variety of foods and got plenty of diapers. We also stocked up on water.

We don’t have the kids yet. We will pick them up in the morning. We found out to late to be able to bring them over. Today was a nice day. It didn’t start out great as Jack was accosted by one of his playmates and had a big red mark on the side of his face. He wasn’t crying, but it was very obvious that he got hurt. Jack fell asleep in the playroom for about ½ hour and I followed Grace around the room most of the morning. In the afternoon, we had a baby gathering on the play mat with Jack, Grace, Allie and Francis all just hanging out with their parents. They didn’t kill each other and everyone seemed to have fun. Both of our kids seemed be in chipper moods this afternoon. Jack cried when Mary Jo took him back to his room. Grace just went back to her caregiver without any reaction. (We do get a good reaction out of her when we pick her up in the morning.)

We’ve settled in for the night and will probably be watching our nightly flick. In the morning, we take in a set of clothes and pick the kids up. I don’t know if we hang at the orphanage in the morning or come right back. In either case, when we get back, they stay with us. Our only other trip back to the orphanage will be after court when we go have parties with their caregivers. Court is still on schedule for next Tuesday.