It rained all day today…very dreary! But was able to see Victoria again today. We were picked up at 9:00. There was confusion when we arrived. Irina was not there yet and of course we don’t speak Russian, so we could not really figure out what was going on. One of the ladies in the orphanage was talking away while walking with us up to the visiting room. We were able to make out our children’s Russian names, but that was about it. A few different women came in and tried to explain something to us. I think at that point we had determined it had something to do with Blake. They did bring Victoria out to us. She had on different clothes today, that was good! Irina showed up shortly and was able to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, Blake was not there. He had been taken to the Dr. for some medical exams. These poor kids, I tell you, they seem to have lots of “medical” people messing with them all the time. I felt bad for Heather and Justin, like me they were really looking forward to spending time with their child. Irina took them back to the hotel in her car and the driver stayed until we finished our visit.
Again we tried another dress today….24 months. She really enjoys the clothes and is starting to really enjoy getting her picture taken, realizing she needs to smile when the camera is aimed in her direction. I had some M&M’s for her today. She really liked those. When you learn about adopting a child from an institution, you also learn of food issues. Typically the children will hoard food, stuff themselves, for fear of not knowing if there will be more or when it will come again. This continues until the child begins to feel trust and knows there will be more food and there is not a shortage. The orphanage Dr. talked to me about some of her eating habits a few days ago and I thought we might not have this issue, but after observing today, I could be very wrong. The Dr. had explained that Victoria is a very picky eater; she does not eat much and also eats very slowly. Today she was not swallowing what was already in her mouth and also just continued packing it in. I let her do this for a bit, but then just put one or two candies in my hand for her to take and broke off pieces of the shortbread cookie instead of giving her the whole one. This is for sure not the first time she has had chocolate or cookies with me, but the first time I have seen this behavior. Maybe showing she is becoming more comfortable with taking food from me, but of course no secure enough to know she won’t be deprived. I am not concerned about it at all. It is to be expected. Just thought that might be an issue I would not have seen with her. In time…
She still loves the gloves and purse. She really enjoyed me picking her up and allowing her to look out the window on the second floor of the orphanage. She found this fascinating, like she had never seen the view from the second story window before….who knows? Today she gave me a sweet hug, really wrapped her arms around my neck. Very sweet!
We left to go back to the hotel and pick up Heather and Justin. We were told we would go to a grocery store and children’s store downtown, which we did. There stores were right next to each other. In the children’s store I picked up some things for both Dylan and Victoria. We looked in other shops and then headed to the market. Ha! We did the best we could. We do have a small fridge. We tried to get items that we felt we could recognize (crackers, cheese, cereal…etc).
It rained all day and it is suppose to do the same tomorrow, ugh. Tomorrow we visit Victoria in the morning and Thursday in the afternoon, due to the kids getting some medical stuff done Thursday morning.
