March 6

Oy! Some complications are now sorted out. That doesn't mean there may not be more, but we should not keep you out of the loop any longer. Check out the video and pics below:

This is Valeriy. His nickname is Valera. When he walked into the office to meet us, he grinned from ear to ear, stuck out his hand, and said, "Здравствуйте!" He is 6. Valera is a bundle of smiles and energy. His report describes him as tender, friendly, social, not aggressive, healthy, active, likes jokes, and athletic. You can trust this report.

In the video, the context is this: It was outside playtime from 10:30 - noon. The caretakers led us to a section of the play area where we could be more by ourselves. I think he went down this slide a hundred times. He should not have gone down at all, because the slide was rusty. I'm sure the laundry crew wishes that we will eat bad mushrooms tonight.


In the first picture, he is giving this truck through us to his sibling. In the second picture, we had been playing together for about an hour, where he had not stopped smiling and showing us all the fun he could have in a special playroom, when I showed him our videocamera. More curious than any cat, he was determined to figure out the function of every button. So we know he can be calm. :)

This is Alexander. His nickname is Sasha. Kjersten, you can call him Littler Sasha. Yes, Adrienne, two boys. I know, you told us your stipulations. Look at it this way. I doubt they will want to borrow your clothes. He is 8. Sasha's report describes him as smart, doing well, healthy, bright, and enjoys playing with Legos. Before being transferred to an orphanage in Mariupol for somewhat older children, he lived in Kramatorsk with Valera, his brother. He likes drawing and reading and dancing. His teachers at Kramatorsk remember him well. They said his main desire was to learn, and that he wants to be an architect. (Insert smile here!) Though the boys primarily speak Russian, Sasha began to read the "Twelve Dancing Princesses" to us in Ukrainian and didn't want to stop.

In the video, Sasha is playing piano for us. This song sounded so Russian--kind of somber and heavy. The next was lighter and more fun. In the first picture he is smiling for his brother. In the second we are playing Janga. He is very careful and coordinated. After we had taken out all the possible blocks and the stack still had not fallen, we began to build up. We had it balanced on rows alternating between one and two blocks until just before we ran out of blocks.

Then we played with Google SketchUp. I can hear you chortling, but think of it. It is immediately rewarding and fun, and teaching SketchUp doesn't require a lot of complicated English-to-Russian translation. We played for an hour and a half. I think it was his first time using a computer, but he is a quick study, and soon we had him isolating subcomponents of a car, coloring them, and putting it back together. I wish I could show it to you. It looks kind of like a cross between a pizza delivery car and Concordia's pimped up admissions van.