Salt Life

Krasnoyarsk, Day 1

We arrived at the door of Chris and Penny's hotel room around 7:30 a.m. I put my ear to the door to check for stirring and was able to hear some talking. That was my green light for a gentle knock. They were expecting us and I could hear Chris prompt Roman to answer the door for "Totya" & "Dodya". He was all smiles, a little shy, but willing to give a generous hug. Jadon was curious and smiling as well. After about 10 minutes of intrigue he could stand it no longer; he was in my arms! I felt like I was in a dream, a haze. Maybe the fact that we hadn't slept that night on a plane full of badly behaving adolescents was a factor, who knows? It felt like nothing new; like we'd known them since birth, so natural, so peaceful. They were so accepting of us, so affectionate and loving. Like they'd known us as well. God was in this moment and I'll never forget it as long as I live.

Roman took to Dave quickly, Jadon took a little longer, but once he was comfortable there was no hint of trepidation on his part. We visited for several minutes and then headed for the short walk to the breakfast room. The food was interesting - stew, slaws and tofu-like egg squares. I landed on a pastry and "sanka". Dave and Chris got the boys' plates ready and helped feed them. I played photojournalist! As you can see by the last photo, Roman loves "chai" and it's so sweet to watch him drink it! I had to get a shot of that!

After breakfast we went back to their room and pulled out the books we'd purchased for them in St. Petersburg. They were a hit! Jadon liked the pop-up ones and Roman liked the pull-out pages on the "Shto eta?" book ("What's That?"). Dodya Dave read to them in Russian and Roman was especially interested and interactive.

After a morning of getting to know our new little nephews and catching up with Chris and Penny, the boys went down for a nap and so did we. An hour of rest was all I needed to get through and adjust to the new 4-hour time change. We were now 12 hours ahead of our Florida time zone!

After the boys awoke from their rest, we took a walk around the plaza in front of the hotel. It was very cold but the air did us all good. By 5:30 we were all hungry. There's a little German restaurant on the other side of the plaza and the proximity made for a perfect place for dinner. We met the Swingle's, another couple from Ohio adopting a little boy, and enjoyed an evening out with new friends and family. The food was good, and enough to fill us. We headed back for an early night and slept like babies!

Labels: adoption

posted by Kushmama @ 9:39 AM