The Past Few Days

Thankfully the past few days have been "busy."

Yesterday, Wednesday, we walked up the road a bit to the cafe to eat a late breakfast/lunch. Cavin fell asleep on the walk home, so after Matt got a bit of work done, we all laid down and were able to take a short nap! Then we went to the "city" center to take R's prescription to the place where you buy glasses. We found out they had everything in stock, and then we ventured to walk to a bank to exchange some more money. It was really cold outside, with a bitter cold wind. 

After exchanging money we got a taxi and went to the orphanage to visit R. He is starting to remember the English we are teaching him, which is exciting for us! He knows a lot of the colors, a few animals, and a few pleasantries such as hello, thank you, please, and bye.

Last night we also got to see a bit more of the orphanage. We got to see the room where they play, do lessons, and spend all of their time indoor. Its not a very big room, especially for 9 kids to play in. We had asked to meet R's group, which is the group of kids (all 5 and 6 years old) he spends all of his time with. They were all hanging out in the room when we went up to get the "tour." Some were watching television while others were reading books. They are precious kiddos, and they were not shy! They played with us right away!

Matt jokes that "human jungle gym" must be written on him in every language! In no time at all they had flocked around Matt and were having a grand ole time. It was so sweet to get to play with all of them just a bit, and to see R interact with other kids his age. We wish we could play with them more, but we are not allowed to, as they don't want them to get attached to us, or be jealous of R.

The entire time we were with them, which wasn't but 20 minutes or so, we were both fighting back tears. Yes, some of them had some health issues, but they were all so precious and eager for attention. We wish we could take them all.

We came home to eat dinner at the cafe in the hotel, to find they were hosting a company new year's party. Unlike us, New Year's in their holiday they celebrate the most. It was interesting to observe their party as we ate our dinner. It was not so fun to hear their loud discotech music until 4 in the morning! It didn't seem to bother Matt or Cavin, but I didn't get much sleep.

So far today....

We walked down the street to the cafe for brunch. Then we took a taxi to the orphanage to pick up the orphanage director and R. We went to the city center where our translator and the orphanage director dropped off a bunch of paperwork with the social worker. We left the orphanage director there and we were able to take R by ourselves to pick out glasses!! They didn't have much of a selection, so we will have to get some nicer ones once we get back to the States, but the pair we got today were about $15.00. Not too bad! We needed to get them now as they are part of his therapy to help his lazy eye.

We were thrilled to find out we could take R to get some tea and a snack after picking out his glasses. It was so fun to spend time with him outside of the orphanage. You could tell he has not been outside of the orphanage much at all, as everything was new and exciting! We had some strawberry green tea and a banana for each of the boys for a snack. I think R had the most fun playing on the ice outside. They do not clear their sidewalks or roads very well here, and so all of the snow has been compressed into ice. Makes me nervous to walk anywhere, but it was fun for R!

We are so ready for the day when we don't have to drop R back off at the orphanage, when he is truly ours! 

We will rest for a while here at the hotel, and then probably walk back down the street to the cafe for an early dinner.

Please continue to pray for the adoption process to go as smoothly and quickly as possible, even with the holiday delays!

Please also pray for Matt and I as decisions are made!