Last Day

As with most good things in life, this hosting experience came to an end way to fast.

Sunday morning we all got ready for church-no complaints from BoyOne other than a groan which I always get from my girls who are used to going to church every single Sunday. And again, we just did sacrament meeting. BoyTwo was a little restless, along with my girls. There were several drink and potty breaks. I didn't even care.

At home, I made some crepes. I had heard that Ukrainian crepes had sour cream in them. Not sure if this was an ingredient or a topping, I googled some recipes. I found recipes for both sour cream in crepes and on crepes. So, I came up with my own little recipe using sour cream both in the crepes and in a topping. They were really good. I had to make more. Yeah!

After lunch, the kids headed outside to play-except BoyOne. He started acting all somber. I wasn't sure if it was due to the fact he was leaving in the morning or because I don't allow computer on Sunday. He headed upstairs. I gave him a little time alone while I cleaned up from lunch and then headed up to check on him. He lay on his bed staring straight ahead. I sat next to him. I asked through my phone translator if he was ok. He gave his "cool" shrug. The "I don't know what you're talking about" one that I think EVERY kid gives. So I typed that I was sorry he was having a hard time. He continued to look at the wall. I typed to him that he ought to go play outside with dad and the kids because we would be leaving soon. Just then, huz poked his head around the corner and asked him to come outside and play. BoyOne turned on his side and buried his head it the pillow and said a very emotional, "no." Huz went outside with the kids and I stayed with BoyOne while he cried and cried. He didn't want to look at me or let me comfort him as he had done last week when he was upset. I think he was trying to "cut the ties" because he was leaving. It broke my heart. Finally he gained composure and ran outside. It was like he was able to flip a switch. From that moment until the last moment we saw him he was distant and kind of acting silly. It reminded me of what you do when you are trying hard not to be upset about something.

Sunday evening we headed to Huz's parents house as it would save us an hour of travel in the morning. The kids needed to be to the airport at 6 a.m. Yuck. I had arranged to speak with a translator that evening in regards to adoption. We met with some of the group at a church where the Ukrainian Jazz player, Fesenko, showed up, spoke for about 30 seconds and then signed some autographs. The boys thought it was pretty cool. They kept holding their hands way high up in the air to show that he was soooo tall.

When it was time to speak with the translator, BoyOne wanted his friend in the room with us. I asked the translator what he thought would be best. The translator, who has had this conversation with many many of these kids before, suggested to not allow the friend in the room as it may taint BoyOne's reply. So, I shooed him out. This annoyed BoyOne. Our little meeting lasted all of 2 minutes. I had the translator ask BoyOne how it made him feel when we asked him if he wanted to be in our family and what he thought about that. BoyOne answered back and the translator told me that he had said, "I have a family. A mom, a dad, a grandma. I don't need another family." That was fine, I really wanted to know what he was honestly thinking, even if that was it. The part that made me feel bad was that he wouldn't even look at me and the tone of his voice was so weird. He just kind of sounded like a little jerk. But, he is 13. So then I had the translator ask if it was ok if we still sent letters and packages as we had planned (we meaning BoyOne too). This answer hurt my feelings. "No. Don't contact me. I don't see the point. I will never see you again." And then I felt so bad for the translator. You could tell he felt really bad and probably really awkward. He asked if I wanted him to try to explain why he should want to stay in America. I said no. I didn't feel like I was interested in trying to win him over, so to speak. We do not want to force anyone into doing anything they are not interested in or comfortable with. And we truly have his best interest in mind.

After the little meeting we went to the hall where his friend was waiting. BoyOne asked to stay and visit for a little while. I said sure. After about 20 minutes the SAC leader told us all that we needed to leave as the building was about to be used for another meeting. I had this translated to BoyOne and told him that we needed to go. Then he flipped out. He started yelling at me in Russian and I have no idea what he was saying but I'm pretty sure it wasn't very nice as there were about 8 translators in the room and none of them would tell me what he said. What a nice way to end the evening.

Once we were back in the car he tried to chit chat and acted like nothing had happened. I tried to do the same but really I was pretty sad that he had just said whatever he had yelled at me, even though I had no idea what it was...

When we arrived at Huz's parents Huz and our kids were anxiously waiting to hear what his answer had been and were disappointed to say the least that he had said no. We tried to turn this into a little lesson for our older girls. Huz told them that this is probably how Heavenly Father feels a lot of the time. It is so obvious to Him and others what the best thing to do would be but then sometimes we make choices that in turn make our lives more difficult. He told the girls that just how we feel sad that BoyOne doesn't want us to contact him, Heavenly Father feels sad if we don't talk to him. The parallel was wonderful. But it still sucked. I tried to take a few more pictures of the boys with our girls. Huz's parents took one of all of us together. I will post two even though I'm not supposed to. I'm posting both because in the one with BoyTwo holding the transformer in front of his face, BoyOne is smiling. In the pic with BoyTwo's face showing, BoyOne is not smiling. So, there you go. It's a great picture, isn't it.

Monday morning at 4:30 we were up and loading all their luggage into the car. The boys were very tired but cooperated. They didn't want breakfast-I couldn't blame them, it was too early for me to eat, too. I brought along some bananas and apples for them to take. When we arrived at the airport we were one of the first families there. The others slowly trickled in. BoyOne was happy to see his friends, many of which had decided to be adopted and were having a difficult time parting with their families. The boys found a diet coke (lovely breakfast) and shared that. Actually, BoyTwo found the drink and then BoyOne chased him, pushed him down and took it away, then after we gave him some looks shared it. The boys kept coming by us saying bye and asking if they could take our watch or my diamond. I think they were trying to be funny but you never know...

They finally boarded the plane. It was hard to see them leave. It was harder to drive home from Huz's parents house without them and even harder to go into our house. There was virtually no reminder of them. We had sent everything we had for them with them. All that was left were their empty beds.