The Eight Month Nitty Gritty

Thought I'd share the nitty gritty with ya'll--there's a little more that goes on than just the adorable photos that make their way to Facebook.

when he lost his first front tooth

On the whole, Caleb is a happy easygoing little boy.  Developmentally, Caleb is most similar to an eight month old.  Since coming home, he has really grown into himself much more than he was able to do while sedated and isolated at his orphanage.  Since he has more freedom and is taking part in experiences, he doesn't have to fixate on individual toys like he used to.

Caleb has rough lumps on the backs of his hands from years of self-stimulating by biting himself.  He still bites the backs of his hands, but not as much as he used to.  The quirky things that Caleb does seem to change over time.  Currently he sometimes blows saliva bubbles that make little bubble beards.  (I don't know how he does it--he definitely has a special technique for it.)  He likes to lick his index fingers and then hold them in his ears.

He had a few days where he bit the fleshy part of his upper arm and ended up coming home from school with a giant gauze bandage after making himself bleed.  It turned into a large bruise with a scabbed over bite mark in the middle, but thankfully is almost healed and he has not done that again.

He also began exploring the sensation of gagging himself and making himself throw up recently.  This culminated into a voicemail from the school nurse about how we needed to come get our son because he had forced himself to throw up everything in his stomach and then proceeded to throw it around the room.  Oh. My. Word, is that not an acceptable activity for any child ever!  Thankfully, Caleb responds to the firm daddy voice and we seem to be done with the self-induced vomiting stage.

In August, we had a rough spell that is still too fresh in my mind.  Our typically happy son began to cry more and more until he cried for three days straight.  Doctors could not find anything wrong with him so they just kept telling us it was a behavior of his and sending us home.  I ended up spending one night in one emergency room (to be sent home), a second night in a different emergency room (where they admitted us and then sent us home the following afternoon), an hour drive to a behavioral intake appointment at the only place that could see us that day, and then a third night back at the first emergency room (where they finally admitted him because a rash had shown itself and given them something to diagnose).  At that point, he was so exhausted that he just slept and slept and received an anti-viral and fluids and really seemed to like the hospital.  By the time I drove home with him a week later, the entire frame of a new house had popped up in our subdivision.

At the hospital.  Because the crying photos are too hard to look at.

Due to how rough that was, any crying from him truly sets my nerves on edge.  He is an easygoing little boy, but he is also somewhat fussy.  He is perhaps beginning to learn the concept of communication, but mostly he conveys that he needs something by crying.  Then we have to figure it out.  Just this week, I've been driving him place to place and we've been trying to determine what exactly is bothering him.  It is not so severe as what happened in August, but something is hurting him.  We think now that it has to do with his teeth and he is going to receive some crowns soon.

With this fussy little boy, also comes a little boy that enjoys being cuddled by his mommy.  When we brought him home, I didn't know if he would ever want to be cuddled.  But he really does now.  He can't necessarily communicate it and he's really only learning to initiate contact with people, but sometimes when he is sad, the only thing that helps him stop crying is for me to just sit and hold him against my chest.  He takes cuddles from daddy too, but this week it has seemed like he really wants his mommy.

Which reminds me... I was able to go on an amazing week-long trip to Mexico with my collegio roomateo recently.  Coming back, I didn't expect to see a reaction from Caleb.  And I didn't.  But as we sat together on the floor, it would take a few moments and then he would turn and look at me and have a huge smile on his face.  We had a lot of really nice moments together.  It really did seem like he was happy and excited to see me and glad that I was home.  It was like his brain just needed a steady bit of time of us together and then it would register to him.

Caleb's special ed class seems great and he is integrated with a typical second grade classroom for a few subjects each day.  One sweet little girl in his sped class is his self-professed friend, which is just wonderful!  When you're not really a communicator, you kinda just need a girl to take control of the situation and declare yourselves friends.  She rides the bus home with him each day and she is so sweet.  Also, we found a church that we love and Caleb has a special friend (she herself is a special ed teacher) that goes with him to Sunday school.  On days that she cannot make it, we attend a different church that is near our house and has a special needs Sunday school class.  Also, Caleb attends another children's church when Matt and I go to our weekly married couples Bible class.  All of that to say, that though he is very much in parallel play stage, Caleb loves being a part of things.

In short, I am the mother of a special needs child.  It is a whole new world and a day-to-day journey of faith.  There is much more I've been working on to say in regards to that, but that is for a different day.

Love you all.

all the chitlins

Continue to Remember Easton!

Friends, I'm writing about Easton... again.

I cannot believe he is still there.  Waiting.

God is big and strong and powerful and wonderful and humbling and it's crazy that He took us around the globe for Caleb.  And clearly that was the power of a lot of prayers at work.

When I met Easton, he was not listed on a website like Reece's Rainbow.  He was just an incredibly cheerful little boy that slept in the crib that bordered Caleb's and that clearly needed *desires!* his own family.  Our facilitator made inquiries and requests for me and discovered that, yes, he was available for international adoption.

And now I can see his information on RR and he is the same age as Caleb.  And just like Caleb, he's been laying and laying and laying and laying, but it was only earlier this year that any information was released to help him find a family.

Guys, he just lays.  Or he sits.  In his crib.  Because clearly his lower half has some mobility issues.  The only time I observed the nannies interacting with him, they were feeding him lunch while he remained in his crib.  I did not know that it was possible to feed a child that quickly.  We were told with Caleb, "He would like to feed himself, but we just do it for him because it's faster."  Take my word for it, it's definitely faster.  Easton just turned 8, but he is closer in size to a 4 or 5 year old.

Today I ask that you share this post about Easton and join me in praying for his family.  He was so very aware of what was going on around him.  So very cheerful though he has had so little to look forward to each day.  Please lift up this little boy.

Easton in July 2013

Easton in March 2014

VBS - Take One

Look for "VBS - Take Two" coming Summer 2015.

I took the kids to VBS tonight at a church near our house.  The plan was to stay at VBS so that I could help Caleb participate in activities.

Each of the children was in a different one of the five small groups--about 6 kids in each group.  Pertinent to this story is:  I don't think any of the small group leaders had a list of the children in their group.  I couldn't remember which group Caleb was in, but during the opening presentation when everyone was together, the leader named who was where and Caleb was in the green group.

The green group's leader was a teenage girl and as everyone was leaving to go to the first activity, I, pushing Caleb's wheelchair, got up to her and said, "I think Caleb's in your group."  She glanced down at him as she continued walking and said, "Umm, no, I don't think so."

So I continued to follow her group and we began in the game room.  The game was like musical chairs, but with paper plates on the floor.  The kids ran in a circle around them and you had to stand at a plate when the music stopped.  So there I am running Caleb around this circle and he's laughing and excited and enjoying it.  But we're eliminated first.

Caleb and I move off to the side to watch the other kids and while we're there, I think to myself that this teenage girl isn't going to do a very good job incorporating him into activities and that the other group none of our other kiddos is in had an older lady leading it and she'd probably be more sensitive to him and I decide to go there.

So we go to a different room where the blue group is.  In this room, all of the kids are at a table in the middle and the leader is off to the side at her own table.  The activities are being led by two teenage girls.  During the first activity, all of the kids are lined up into a line where they place their thumb on an ink pad and then mark on a poster board their thumb print.  I push Caleb over and we're in the back of the line.  After the last kid in front of us goes, the girl closes the stamp pad.  So then I say something/she sees our intention and she opens it back up.  I help Caleb stamp his thumb, but then he's just barely too short in his wheelchair to reach the board.  Awkward.  So I kind of wipe the ink of his thumb onto mine and I stamp it.

Next the kids crouched down on the floor on their knees and then stood up (I can't remember why), but by the time I got Caleb unbuckled, it was the stand up part.  So he stood for a moment.

The next activity was to make Gak.  The girls asked if Caleb wanted to be grouped up with someone.  Caleb made an even number of kids so I said, yes.  Now I should say, that every single kid we've seen up to this point seems slightly uncomfortable with Caleb's presence.  The little girl across the table from him (his partner) is no exception.  So as the girls get the supplies ready and start to explain the measurements to the kids, I know that this is something Caleb won't really be able to do, so I tell them that I think I'm going to take him to the preschool group.

Except I already know that the preschool group is mostly just making everyone's snacks tonight.  Something else that Caleb can't do.

So I go to the kitchen and join Ella's group, which consists only of Ella because some other kids hadn't arrived yet.  They were just finishing making parfaits and she was having a great time.  One of the ladies asked me if Caleb would like to help and when I said he couldn't, she said that he'd probably enjoy watching.  And I explained that after spending most of the years of his life confined to a crib, he doesn't really have the patience for just watching things yet.  I said that he might next year.  (He spent so many years neglected that downtime brings on his self-stimulation behaviors.)

Then I spoke with Ella's group leader and the rest of their activities for the night included watching a video, coloring, and doing crafts, more things that would be difficult for Caleb.  I would have helped him with the craft, but there was still at least an hour before it would be time for that.

There were almost two more hours of VBS left so I decided to take him home.  And I was sad.  I do plan on trying again tomorrow, though, and staying with Ella's group.  We'll see how it goes.

It was just hard.  And there's no great answer.

EDIT - The rest of the week went really well.  I was going to write about it, but maybe that's all anyone cares about.  The rest of the week went well.  And there were a lot (a lot) of supportive people at the church.

Moral of the story is:  Try.  And try again.

A Happy Happy Blog Post

Okay, it's also an emotional blog post.  I share this with tears in my eyes.

First, check out this blog post.  *Click me!*  *Click me!*

Picture that "Stellan"'s Reece's Rainbow profile has jumped off the page at me and I can't get this little boy off my mind and I think to google him--who knows why I thought to do that?--and I find this blog post (through a link from another blog!) and it is the information given by this momma (and the prayers collected by this momma) that directly influenced our decision to adopt Caleb ("Stellan").

Looking at those photos now, it's hard to believe that's our little boy.

And on to the tears-in-my-eyes good news:

Janna's family has met her and soon Janna will be a part of a family!  You can read about it here.  *You know you want to click me.*  On our very last day at the orphanage, minutes from being on our way outta there for good, we were led across the hall and got to meet children in another laying room. (I had assumed Caleb's laying room was the only one and that perhaps Janna had been transferred.)  Guys, this little girl (this little girl that I had underestimated due to her photos and her special needs) this little girl was warm and sweet and so very present and so very desiring of touch and connection and I was blown away.  She held my eyes and reached up to hold my hand for as long as I was able and smiled such sweetness.  And I am so so so very happy for her.

Praise the Lord, everyone!  Join me in praise for one more little girl who's life is never going to be the same and who is about to experience such love as she's never experienced before.  I can't imagine how God's heart breaks, knowing the suffering of children (of people) all over the world.  But hallelujah that there is one less orphan in the world!

Almost 3 Months Home

Caleb is very easy to love.

He is sweet and happy and easy going.

He has already grown since coming home from the orphanage in that he is beginning to recognize that we are here for him--to love him, hold him, meet his needs.

A few weeks ago, the kids had been upstairs playing (Caleb crawls around and throws toys) and I headed upstairs to put them in bed.  As I neared the top, I looked over and saw Caleb laying in the loft, quietly crying.  Immediately I said, "Oh, Caleb!  What's the matter?!"  And relief washed over his face.  He knew that I was concerned about him.  He knew that I was going to take care of him.  And he was all happiness as I scooped him up and held him and then went to get him water.

We have definitely seen him grow in regard to us.  I have estimated, conservatively, that during his lifetime Caleb has had at least 35 caregivers.  During our 6 weeks visiting him alone, I saw perhaps 12 different nannies in his room.  In Ukraine, he was pretty indifferent to us and mostly just interested in the toys.

And now...

He occasionally gives me a kiss.  They're kind of open-mouthed, but I roll with it.

If you lay beside him, he likes to put a hand on your arm or your hand.  One night, he rolled over every so often while going to sleep to reach out make sure Matt was still there.  Just today, I curled up behind him with my hand on his side and he relaxed and fell asleep.

And though I've been meaning to write this post for a week or two, today he crawled to me for the first time when I said his name.  And I didn't have a toy or anything that I was luring him with.

Caleb is finally getting to be a little boy.  To have his own family.  To experience the world.  Here he is at a splash pad for the first time.  We had just arrived and fountain had just turned off.  Sorry, you do not get to see the fountain turn back on in the video, but you do get to see Caleb's anticipation of it.

(Turn the volume down--it's pretty loud.)

A Burdened Heart

 There are so many children alone, without families of their own.

I know that this isn't new information.

But when you take a moment to really see...

Many of my friends helped by voting and sharing for Jake to be featured and receive a grant toward his adoption.  Jake's birthday is listed as May 2007 yet in his photo he is perhaps one.  Now he is about to turn seven and where is he?  Most likely almost-forgotten in a crib somewhere, known only to his nannies.  At seven, perhaps he has been transferred to an institution and finds himself in a prison of locked doors, sedation, bed restraints--not a life.  (Click here for a documentary giving a glimpse into orphanage/institution life in Eastern Europe.)

Here is Easton, imprinted in my mind.  He was Caleb's crib neighbor for at least the last year.  We saw him every day we picked Caleb up for our visits.  That smile on his face?  That is legitimately his smile.  The nannies told us that he was "smart" and that he talks with them.  We do not know to what extent; we never heard him speak ourselves... but I do know how desperately this little boy wanted to interact with us... how desperately he wanted to be out of his crib, taking part in life, interacting with someone... I think of him still there... and it's just too much.  At any time he could be transferred to an institution and I hate to think just how much more bleak his life would become. 

These next two little girls have both been transferred to institutions.  They are both five years old.  I believe Debbie's special needs are all mobility related.  

Ariel

Debbie

This little boy is 12 years old and would like to be adopted.  Did you know that children 3 years and older are considered "older children" and much less likely to be adopted?  I look at his photo and I see so much hope there.  Could you imagine knowing that you're being photographed for an opportunity at a family of your own?  So you pick out a nice outfit from the selection of orphanage clothing and try to present who you are, hoping that a family might want you.

It reminds me of those that travel to interview children for orphan hosting trips.  Usually these are children recommended by their orphanage directors to take part in hosting programs and get the opportunity to go on  trip to America for an "American experience".  These are responsible children, children that get good grades, etc.  But I've read accounts from those that go over to photograph and interview the children that all kinds of children will try to impress and present themselves for those visiting.  Picture teenage boys dressing in suits and trying to present their best selves.  It's heartbreaking.

And though I didn't intend to write about orphan hosting, summer is at our doorstep and it's a perfect time to host a child for the summer.  Usually children ages 5-16 are available.  Usually most are also available for adoption but some may not be; sometimes the older teenagers are too old to be adoption eligible.  Also, there are a variety of countries that work with hosting programs for orphan children to visit the U.S. including China, the Philippines, Latvia, Colombia, and Uganda.  Some programs you can look up online or on Facebook include Children's Cultural Connection, New Horizons for Children, Bridge of Hope/Cradle of Hope, Ukrainian Resource Center, and Children of All Nations.  If I can help answer any questions, please ask!

So I wrap this up with, we must pray.  We must be lifting up these children, we must be lifting up the vulnerable to our Lord regularly.  Thankfully, we cannot be expected to save every child, but we can be burdened as He is and we can open ourselves to ways in which we can help.  We cannot save every child, but we may be able to make a difference for this one or for that one.  Maybe for Easton or for Debbie.  We can choose to not forget them.  We can share their information with others.  You can financially assist those hosting or adopting children.  Or you can be willing to host or adopt children and trust God to work out the rest.

I truly believe that the reason Caleb is upstairs sleeping is because there were many many prayers said on his behalf.  And I do not know why God chose to give him to us.  Perhaps it was merely because He knew we would be willing and He knew that Caleb could not be left where he was.  But we were never forced to go bring him home.  We have a God that LOVES us.  He LOVES us.  And it is okay to take steps in faith and talk to Him and open yourself to what He might ask you to do.  You do not need to fear what God may want to do with your life.  He loves you enough that He gave you free will--He doesn't want to control you--He wants you to choose Him.  He loves you so much that He wants to you to choose to put your trust in Him.

Maybe your heart will be burdened by the orphan.  Maybe your heart will be pulled in another direction.  But it is okay to surrender your heart to Him.

5 1/2 Weeks Home

I wanted to write an update for those interested.  I know you're out there.

It's hard to take the many thoughts and compile them.

Maybe I should start with, we are not great people.  I don't know what we are, but not that.  Pretty sure we're the same.  Pretty sure we are craptastically sinful screw-ups.  Pretty sure that we are taking this one step at a time and it is what it is.  And isn't that a fun update to read?  It is what it is.  ;)

I hope that didn't sound negative.  I hope it sounded even, steady, constant; I don't have profound things to say about where we are.  But we are a family.

Caleb started school a week and a half ago.  I think he really likes it.  He is finishing the year as a first grader in a multiple disabilities classroom. I think it is a good fit.  On his first day of school, he was so excited when we wheeled him into his classroom and was very excited as each classmate was introduced to him.

First Day of School!

I never planned to have a child with special needs.  Or if I did, the special needs would fit within my parameters.  But we committed to Caleb.  And to loving him.  And providing for him.  And the fact that he wasn't born to me doesn't lessen that commitment.

Time and I work well together; change takes some adjusting; and I'm becoming a mom that doesn't need her child to make good eye contact.  I'm becoming a mom that cares for a child that cannot communicate with her.  I'd say the hardest parts at this point are a.) he gets somewhat bored at home (hopefully this will be better once we have some therapy appointments and specific things to work on) and b.) I hate that when he cries I do not know what it is that he needs or wants.  So I hold him.  And I get him water.  At this point, he probably thinks--better cry so mom knows I'm thirsty again.  ;)

We have nice moments.  Little moments of connection.  Moments where you feel like the two of you are in on a joke together.  Or sharing something with one another.  Maybe a kiss or a cuddle or some "Mama tickles Caleb"--three individual words that I thought I should start stringing together.  We're working on the word "sit" as when he wants a drink out of his sippy cup I ask him to "sit" first.

Overall, he is a very nice, happy, easy going, and cheerful boy.

I'm making appointments and taking the troops to appointments all of the time.  And the only appointments I've actually been able to get to so far included general pediatrician appt., dentist, school appointments, and DDD (an Arizona thing).  The more important appointments are all coming in May, like with the orthopedic surgeon.  (I tried to make all of these while we were still in Ukraine, but no one would let us until he was officially ours.)

He has a wheelchair now, but I just realized that I don't have a photo of him in it to share!  (And I can't wake him up now for a little photo opp.)  It's super-cute and is a loaner as long as we need it from the family of one of his classmates.

I tried to get him a wheelchair... had to call our pediatrician and ask her to request a wheelchair evaluation for us.  Thus began a two week saga of hounding both her line and the phones of the company that was supposed to be doing the evaluation.  I seriously called back and forth 10 times one day:  "They say they haven't gotten the fax."  "They say they sent the fax."  "They say that if they had received the fax it would be in their system within an hour."  "They say they talked to guy named Paul and he's going to be calling us."  "They say no one who works there is named Paul."  And back and forth.  And in the end, we received this wheelchair (that fits him perfectly!) to use as long as we need to.  So I called to cancel the wheelchair evaluation that had finally been scheduled only to wait on hold for 20 minutes and then be told that there wasn't a record of our appointment in their system.  Hah!  We plan to schedule an evaluation for him with a different company after his orthopedic appointment in a few weeks.

Please pray for all of us.  I'm doing much better--sort of in the swing of things now.  Pray for Matt too, though, it's definitely a learning curve.  And the kids.  They're all doing well with him and they interact with him off and on throughout the day.  Please pray for Caleb.  I feel like his brain is used to these patterns and will need to learn how to break out of them.  For instance, he's not the child rushing to do everything on his own--he is so used to others doing things for him.  I just picture that someday, regardless of how far it is in the future, it will finally don on him that he doesn't have to just throw things.  That he can choose to not throw things and I picture that the floodgates will really start to open.  :)

Week and a half Home

To give everyone an update...

Within a few days of getting home, Kali was throwing up.  On day 3 with Caleb, I took him to urgent care and he had a pretty bad ear infection.  (At first, I had thought his ear pulling was an institutionalized behavior.)  Also, Titus had some sort of pink eye.

Now we've all been sick for about a week.  Caleb seems to be doing okay because he has been on antibiotics the whole time.  Though it does seem like he's always running a very slight temperature (99-ish).  He has a well check appointment on Thursday where we'll also follow up on his ears and hopefully be referred to some therapists, etc.

As for the rest of us, Matt is sick the worst.  He's had it a day or two longer than I have.  Counting that first trip with Caleb, we've had four appointments at urgent care now.  (None were for my uber-sick husband, of course.)  Kali and I are also on antibiotics now.  She had an ear infection.  The pink eye that has hit everyone else finally made its way to me today.

Let's see... so far we've had a week of vomit, ear infections, pink eye, sinus infections, intense coughing, and sore throats.  But ALSO nose bleeds!  Caleb has had about three... pretty sure they're from hitting himself in the face while throwing toys, but I'll discuss it with our pediatrician.  The first one, I walk back over to Caleb and he's on the living room carpet with blood all over and smearing it around his face.

Caleb is doing well.  He loves to eat!  And I think he's enjoying his new freedom, but it's also hard for him, not being able to get around as well as he'd like and not knowing how to play with toys when he does get there.  Biting and throwing are the staples, though he occasionally holds on to one and will try to play with it.  The last few nights, he's played with a pinwheel before bed and I noticed tonight that it seemed like he was finally trying to actually spin it with his hand.  Not sure if this is accurate, but it seemed like the concentration of trying to purposefully perform an action with it, created larger jerkier motions than I typically see, making it more difficult to spin the wheel.

Overall, it's been pretty uneventful.  He loves drinking things as well.  I really think his only liquids in the orphanage might have been through borscht and yogurt, etc., but I don't know.  He's been figuring out how to use a straw and a sippy cup, but he sometimes takes too much or takes it wrong and spits a bunch back out.  Sometimes he does just fine, though.

The most I have for stories (though I think they're good ones) are:

One of our first days back, Matt was going around the room saying something to each kid like "Titus!  I love you!"  "Kali!  I love you!" or something like that and he did Caleb last and Caleb had totally been paying attention because he broke out into a big excited smile at his turn.

Then on a different night, the girls wanted juice.  And I told them we had lemon juice and that was it, but it's really sour.  So everyone wanted to try it and I poured some into a cup and brought it into the living room.  I told them that I would try it first and I took a sip and my face puckered into all kinds of shapes.  I had kind of forgotten about Caleb lying on the floor, but he had been watching me and he busted up laughing and thought it was hilarious.  So after each girl took their sips (Ella was able to take three guzzles later and said she liked it!), I brought it over to Caleb and let him have his sip of lemon juice too.  He puckered his face and seemed to really enjoy being part of the excitement.

Also, he really likes the doggies.  :)

Day 10

We just got in from a little journey in the city a few hours ago.  I said, "We could do this everyday and then I'd lose weight."

"Buy donuts and pop?"

Well played, husband.

So I'm really excited to buy souvenirs for family back home.  And we would like to do this before Matt leaves so that he can take things back with him in his bags.  So I searched online and found a website for a store that's a little over 1.5 miles from us.  And then we rocked the subway.

Here is a picture of this statue that I saw fleetingly on an earlier ride through the city.  It was really catching the light and I thought it was very intriguing:

When we came up out of the subway today, there it was!  Lovebirds Monument:

Then I thought this old building colored in graffiti was very interesting.  I thought it was a perfect site for senior pictures:

I thought my photographer-friends would like my senior pictures:

Self-portraits while walking:

 

I guess sushi places have grown very popular here.  There is another of this chain very close to our apartment.  Once I'm on my own, I'll start eating there with my Arizona girls in spirit.

So we located our souvenir shop.  We walked into a clothing store and were directed downstairs to a little room full of national items.  But I thought the prices were too high.  :(  There were some little vendor stands close to the DAP offices in the capitol, but it was freezing cold and I had wanted to price compare a little.  I also had assumed prices might be better not in the capitol.  But... the key is finding the vendors!  So... we still don't know where to go, but I didn't think the prices in that little store were reasonable enough.

Then we ate lunch.  The prices weren't higher than any other restaurant we've been in, but the decor was very nice:

And on our way back to our apartment, we discovered our new favorite thing:  subway vendors!

Here's a picture from when we arrived in region at the train station so you can get an idea of what these vendors look like:

They're little kiosks and only one that we saw today was big enough to actually go through a door and step inside.  First, as we were heading back down to get on the subway, we saw a little meat vendor, so we stopped to buy some sausage.  The prices were great and the sausage might be chicken sausage, which I haven't seen at our nearest grocery store.  Then we bought what might be a sweet roll or a cinnamon roll from a lady with a table and bins of rolls.

Then we stepped out of the subway closest to us and noticed there were even more vendors.  So this time we perused.  We found a lady with some knock-off toys and got one for each of the kids.  The girls are getting "My Little Horses".  They also had knock-off Lego's, but we got a police truck for Titus.

Then it was into a little grocery kiosk for some nicely-priced snacks.  Matt found Lay's potato chips and I got some cheese and crackers.  We also found a 2 liter of Pepsi here.  Our usual grocery store just has lots of sizes of Coke and a few cans of Pepsi.

Then we saw a kiosk with real-looking donuts in the window.  So I stopped and got us two of these (hmm... I was going to try to remember the word I used for these sprinkled ones, but I don't remember):

But we were sort of disappointed when we got home to find jelly inside!  How can you do that to ringed donut?  ;)

And, for bonus, I got a quick email last night that our dogs are alive and doing well. Total lapdogs:

Day 6

Yesterday we met Caleb.  Sorry that I won't have a lot to say on the topic on here--I put most everything on Facebook.  Mainly because I don't think you're supposed to share photos until the child is officially your child and also because there's a lot of emotional processing to be done and I'm not feeling like posting it out in the bloggy world yet. 

For your viewing pleasure today.  We actually walked around a bit.  (Last night with the other Americans--represent!--we ventured to an Italian restaurant.)  So we were feeling braver to face the cold today.  And it didn't seem nearly so bad today either.  Don't get me wrong, I still need to wrap my scarf around my face, but it didn't seem too bad. 

Matt's Rus-sian smile.  An American smile would hurt his frozen face.

McDonDon's.

It said to add a "complement" over the coke so that's what we tried doing.  Pretty sure it would be like if someone wanted to add a marketing slogan to their meal rather than the actual item.  She looked at us kind of funny and asked if we wanted a meal.  ;)

I'm tired of blogger's formatting issues.  Why is it such a pain to add photos between text?  Why does it not register when  photo has been rotated and saved on your PC?  Not messing with it tonight.

Modeling the McD's.  They had fountain pop, but it was served without ice and the cups aren't exactly full.  Also, I'm not sure if we were supposed to drink it.  Anyone know if they filter their water first?

So after our meal we noticed this on the tray.  After we ordered, she pointed to a list of condiments.  I tried to explain that I wanted what was shown in the picture on my burger.  Matt said he wanted cheese only.  So... his quarter pounder came with everything usual on it, but he got this cup of Heinz cheese.  Oh... that's what she meant by the little sign.

Our sad, wasted cheese.

We went to the 5 story kids' store.  Checkout these carseats and boosters.  They were nice!  The boosters we saw were $300 USD.

The top floor was a giant play area.  Our kids would love it:  first you get to ride four escalators (to our kids, this is an amusement park ride), then you get to play more!

looking down the escalators

I thought all of these little desks and chairs were cute.

This bedroom set with fairy godmothers was also really cute.

Disney princess chairs!

European made trucks.  They were around $30 USD and plastic.  They wouldn't last long at our house.  :P

train on the first floor

another shot of the first floor--I was trying to capture how many rooms of things open up behind the main areas on each floor

pretty sure the only difference between these diapers was boys vs. girls

these fish look sort of like dried fish?

grocery shopping

Matt wanted to get pasta sauce.  I told him I heard that might be hard to do.  Like we'd maybe just find a jar and it would taste like plain tomatoes.  So there were these.  And I was all down for getting the one on the right with tomatoes, carrots, eggplant on the label.  (I'm sure it would have been an experience.)

Then I saw what I'm pretty sure will be legitimate spaghetti sauce so we switched for it.

Coke and Christmas coke  :)

Our cart--can't get too many things because we have to carry it all.  For the record, this was our first time buying any junk food.

The checkout--can you see past it is a luggage store?