Day 12 & 13-Saturday and Sunday

Saturday we checked the boys out of the internat and let them decide what to do. We offered a movie and Oak Park as one idea. They wanted to go to the beach and the park instead. We started at the park. Apparently BoyTwo has quite the vocabulary for Russian swear words (Yana told me that she has never heard such a young child say so many terrible words! Glad that we can set ourselves apart somehow!) and we were getting a lot of looks. I'm so glad that I can't understand him! When people would stare too long, he'd just give them the finger. It was fun. (I'm being sarcastic) He got to have a time out with me, the first we've had to do since we've been here. BoyOne was upset because he wasn't old enough to go on a ride and therefore chose to pout for nearly the entire time we were at the park. Before I go on, I need to tell you our biggest news. We are adopting a third boy. He will be referred to as BoyThree. It is a long story for another post, but for now I'll tell you that he is 16 and the reason we need to have the SDA stay open through July. So, BoyOne was mad that he couldn't go on this one ride that you have to be 16 to go on and was off on his own. BoyThree offered to go on a different ride, but since BoyOne had taken off, Huz decided to take BoyThree and go on this ride with him. I thought for sure Huz was going to barf as this ride straps you in like the catapult at Lagoon and then starts spinning you around and your chair starts spinning too. The biggest problem with these rides is that they let them go for seriously four or five minutes. At least you get your hryvnia worth:) Anyhow, somehow Huz held it together and we all met up together finally and headed for the beach. At the beach the older boys wanted to jump off the pier and swim, but BoyTwo was too young and not a good enough swimmer to do that, so he stayed with me and Yana, Huz went to sit in the shade. That guy does not do the sun. 75 degrees is too hot for him. BoyTwo's favorite activity was to go dunk himself in the water and then come cover himself in the sand. Yana let me know that there were several people criticizing my parenting, in case I was concerned. Of course, I wasn't because to me sand is not a big deal. It washes off. I thought all the underage kids drinking and smoking were a much bigger problem. I could see the big boys the whole time and it was fun to watch them when they had no idea I was looking. It was even more fun for me when they realized I was looking and they tried to act all casual. haha. After the beach we had to hustle to get a quick dinner and then get them back to the internat in time for their 'curfew.'

Sunday, we went to the internat at 1:00. The boys grandmother had told us she would be coming and asked that we meet her there. The boys were bugged that we wouldn't take them anywhere and had pouty attitudes (BoyOne and BoyTwo). Their grandma got pretty ticked with them for being such stinkers since she had come all this way to spend time with them. BoyOne shaped up and ended up taking her to the store to help her buy some things and then walked her to the bus stop and waited with her until the bus came. It was so cute. He is a good kid. She also brought me something that is now one of my most prized posessions, a picture of BoyOne on his third birthday. All of you adoptive moms out there know how priceless these things are, and those of you who are not adoptive parents can certainly understand. I am so grateful to her for thinking of us and giving this to us. She will miss the boys so much and loves them so much.

During all this time, the older boys at the internat caught wind that we were around and came outside to play a game called 'Jonny.' It was so fun to watch them all playing. Huz, of course, played with them. Basically there are two teams. You stack eight rocks in the center of eight squares. Each team takes a turn throwing a midsize ball at the rocks trying to knock them over. If you are on the team of the person who knocks the rocks over, you try to get to the square and put one rock in each square. Once all the rocks are in the square you yell "Jonny!" The opposing team uses the ball to try to hit the other team. If you are hit with the ball, you are out. They played this for two hours. These are the most fit, athletic boys I have ever seen. I couldn't believe they could play for such a long time without any water and some without wearing shoes. My word! The game reminded me of dodge ball on steroids. They take this game very seriously, as do all boys, with all games. At one point Yana and I were huddles together on the bench hoping to not get hit and she said to me, "Look at their faces! They are so serious! It is as if all eternity depends on this game!" I said, "Yana, all boys are like this. It is international."

I think this group of boys feels pretty comfortable around us because they will tease us and joke around with us and just hang out. I'm sure they love the food we bring and that Huz can keep up with them at all their sporting endeavors. At one point, I was about two feet away from my bag and I tried to toss a bag of suckers into it, but missed. In English, one of the boys, Ruslan, says to me, "No basketball for you!" to which I answered "Shto?!" which is what?! They are great kids.

After the music class, the younger kids came out and swarmed me which really ticked BoyTwo off. He started running around hitting them and shooing them away saying, "This is my American!! Get your own American!" I had to laugh and then show him how to share, which of course he didn't like. His grandma swatted his butt for it. I wish he had said, "This is my mommy, get your own!" But I'll take this. I took him to the smaller kid playground and teeter tottered with him and sat with him on this awesome spinny thing and we spun for a while.

Eventually the boys were called for dinner and had to leave. We said good-bye to them and then were able to have our own good-bye with the three boys. I'm not sure that BoyTwo understands that we will not be there tomorrow, but the other two boys do. I started to cry when we told them good-bye. I had a hard time letting go. We will miss them so much. We have missed them since before they even went home in October! I cried at least half of the way home and had finally gathered myself when we parked. But then I had to say good-bye to Yana! I started to cry again. I love this place. I will miss it so much. I will miss all the children at the internat. When we come back, most of them will be at summer camp, so today was good-bye. I will miss my babushkas that sit on the benches outside our door. I will miss the darling girl who waits on us each day at Celentanos. I will miss it all. I'm hoping that time flies. When Huz and I were back at the apartment, he said that we were both exhausted. Him physically, me emotionally. He was right.

BoyTwo at the beach, rolling around in the sand. This is before he started dumping handfuls in his hair.

BoyTwo with his very own sucker that he doesn't have to share with his "American" on the spinny toy

BoyOne playing frisbee with BoyTwo. BoyOne hurt his toes playing soccer this morning. They may be broken. Anyhow, he was a great sport to try to play with BoyTwo even though he couldn't walk.

Evidently, it is super uncool to have your picture taken by your soon-to-be mom. These two were wrestling and laughing so hard and so I snuck up hoping to get a pic of them smiling. BoyOne saw me coming and started yelling "Mommy is coming with the camera!!" and they both jumped up, and ran off. They better get over that one fast.

This is a picture of the picture BoyOne's grandma gave me. He is the cutest one in there, the one in the stripes:) So serious, even back then.

I thought this was precious. BoyTwo colored a picture for his grandma and here she is helping him write his name. So sweet.

Here the boys are trying to explain the rules of Jonny to Huz using drawings in the dirt, and Yana.

The game.

More of the game.

Since I'm already posting a ton of pics, I thought I'd throw in more hairbow pictures that I took. I wish these kids didn't turn off when you took a picture of them!! They were really so thrilled and had the biggest most beautiful smiles on their faces-until you take the picture.

There's a smile!!!!!!!

And two more smiles. These two are sisters!

At least he's not afraid to smile! Everyone tells us that he is too happy, too carefree. I guess that would describe all of us in America? I'm so glad that he is still happy!

Because the boys were too cool to smile, Huz said that he wouldn't smile either, which made BoyOne start to smile even though he was trying soooo hard not to.