May 8, 2008

Victor’s concert to celebrate the end of WWII

Mariya and Sasha picked us up at 9AM this morning to go to Poludino orphanage to see Victor and Kristina.   Victor and his classmates have been practicing a presentation to celebrate May 9 the end of WWII.   They were to put on a presentation today for the orphanage and local WWII veterans.

We arrived about a half an hour before the presentation and this allowed us time to play with Kristina.   She has become fascinated with Julie’s purse and digging through it for all sorts of treasure.  She especially likes to play with the camera.   She is not that gentle with it and Julie had to take it away.  When she told Kristina nyet (no) and tried to switch her to playing with a ball we saw a new side of Kristina.  She can flash that big smile but we learned she can also let you know when she is not pleased.  After Julie worked through this power struggle we went to see Victor’s groups’ presentation.

Just before the presentation four vets from WWII entered the room.  There were three gentlemen and one woman.  They were dressed wearing their medals and ribbons.  The children then marched in to begin their concert.  The children had all worked so hard and they did a great job.  They recited parts, sang, and danced.  The boys were all dressed in black pants, white shirts and had black bow ties.  The girls were in their best dresses and shoes and had their hair done in bows.  Victor was very serious and you could see he was taking his role very seriously.  He looked so handsome in his outfit and standing so tall and serious.  Nick and I enjoyed the concert and were very thankful we were able to attend.

The director of the orphanage, Uri, invites the families that are adopting to a lunch before they leave the country.  Because Uri was going to Almaty for a seminar for a week he invited us to join him and the veterans for lunch after the concert as he thought we may be gone before he was able to see us again.  We went to a room on the second floor of the orphanage and sat down for lunch.  There was Uri, the veterans, me and Nick, Mariya and a regional administration official from the orphanage.  We spent the next few hours eating and talking.  The vets told us about their families, the type of work they did in their lives after the war and even talked a little politics.  They asked us about our families, where we lived, and what brought us to Poludino.  Nick and I were able to speak at the lunch and tell the orphanage how thankful we are for the love and care they show the children and what a great job they do.  We enjoyed our lunch, sharing stories with our new friends, and the great hospitality provided by Uri and his staff.

Sasha and Mariya then brought us to our apartment where we stayed for the rest of the evening.  Mariya sent us an email that the Judge asked for some of the documents to be renewed as they had expired.  The flurry of emails started to try and get this taken care of 9000 miles away.  Nick and I are so thankful for my mom as she is at home running the house and taking care of Alex and Ben in our absence.  She makes sure they get to school, get fed, get cleaned, and get to soccer practice and games.  And most of all she makes sure they still get loved.  We are also very thankful for my brother Steve.  He ran around all day (thankfully he was off work today) getting the new documents we need and will take care of getting all the notaries and apostilles that need to be done.  I am not sure how we could make this happen without their help.  We have given Steve a promotion and he is now Executive Administrative Manager.

Thank you to everyone that has supported us in our journey and made this possible for us.

The Hrenko Family

Adoption Journey to Kazakhstan

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Victor at the Concert

Kristina likes getting in my purse

Kristina gets mad because Momma takes the camera