May 5, 2008

A Day With Kristina

Today Mariya and Sasha picked us up at 9:00 to drive to Poludino to see Kristina and Victor.  We needed to get there early as Mariya needed to get some documents signed and stamped by the Director.  We also brought pictures from each day of the bonding period for Mariya to put in the daily journal.  This is required as part of the adoption process.

When we arrived at the orphanage we were told Victor was in Kazakh class and would join us in a little bit.  Kristina came in right away and once again was putting the charm on heavy.  Not that Nick or I mind at all!  Mariya went to check on Victor when he had not showed up for a while.  She found out he was practicing for a concert that the children his age would be performing on May 9th.  May 9th is a big celebration day in Kazakhstan to commemorate the end of WWII and the soldiers that fought in the war.  There is no school that day so we will pick up Alyona and will all be able to attend the concert.

We were able to spend an hour or more with just Kristina today.  We played ball with her and Nick chased her around and tickled her.  She wanted me to hold her a little more than usual today, which I was happy to oblige.  Today she decided she wanted to take pictures with the camera and then she wanted to learn what every button was and to test them all in rapid succession.  The camera did not seem to enjoy being tested like this so we decided it was time for us to take the camera back.  Well Kristina did not agree with that so it became a little game to get the camera back.  Once I finally had it and was able to hide it form her she was determined to find it.  She looked through everything and then finally got to my purse.  That was just the distraction she needed from the camera.  She loved all the little goodies she was finding – candy, gum, chapstick (which she thought was lipstick) pens and paper.  She ate all the candy she could find and must have put her lipstick on 20 times.  Then she found the sweet and salty peanut butter bar I had in my purse and gobbled that down in an instant.  I gave her a pen and paper and she had a great time drawing a picture of a house and a Christmas tree.

It was getting close to lunch time, which is when we have to leave and Victor still had not showed up.  We were just preparing to go when he came in and gave us all a look that just made us laugh.  The look said “They worked me so hard I thought I would never get to come and play.”  We stayed a few minutes longer so we could play ball with Victor also.  He said some of the other boys were not doing what they were supposed to so they had to practice over and over again.  Victor said he was good and did what he was supposed to.  Their lunch meal is important so we could not keep him long and we soon had to say good bye.  It was nice to have extra time with Kristina but we did miss our time with Victor today.

After Sasha and Mariya dropped us off they were off to apply for our Court date.  Each day is one day closer to having our entire family together.

Nick and I walked to a new Italian restaurant we found and had pizza and lasagna for dinner.  It was nice and we enjoyed our walk to and from dinner.  The weather tonight is gorgeous.  It looks like the next few days should be nice weather.  I guess that is good since Kristina kept my “lipstick”.

The Hrenko Family

Adoption Journey to Kazakhstan

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Kristina Playing With The Ball