Just Another Day

End of Day 19

Vitals: I heard from Nadya.  They filed our papers yesterday for Ruslan, so we should have the court date for him next week.  It's not set yet, but it is likely.  They are still working on Roman's papers.  They need an approval from a social worker and she said they would get it early next week.   This means the earliest they could file for Roman is Monday, but probably Tuesday or Wednesday, possibly making court a week after Ruslans. This makes things tricky because there is a ten day waiting period between the court date and the date they release the child. If they don't overlap, we won't have a natural break in which to go home and we will probably just stay here the whole time.

Not So Vital: Still here...Still have no heat!  It's fine during the day, but it's getting a little chilly at night.  They told me a few weeks ago about some electric heaters hung on the walls.  I have them turned on and I think they will take some of the edge off, but my hopes are only moderate. They are not all that huge and, unlike the states, everything is cement. It has been really cold on our feet, so today I cut pieces of cardboard the shapes of our feet and we sandwiched them in between two socks.  This has made a huge difference.  Who knew cardboard could be so warm?  It was so nice to have warm feet all day but not have to wear shoes. 

Anyway, this morning Matt and Reilly both felt sick.  This worked well since we had planned to stay home today and catch up on school.  They both slept most of the morning. It was pretty quiet around here. 

About 4pm, I thought about going outside, but they were still sluggish.  Bill is in the states still and he skyped us for the first time this afternoon.  It was odd, because the screen was tipped up, so I was mostly looking at Bill's face and the ceiling of our bedroom.  I was doing pretty well emotionally until Bill tilted the screen down and I caught the side of an antique dresser that is in our room.  That's when I got the proverbial lump in my throat--and I don't even especially like that dresser.  Go Figure.

Anyway, Bill had the neighbor kids come over and so my kids got to see their best friends.  I was worried that they would cry.  They did great though.  They definitely miss each other, but I think they are handling it well.  It was so cute to hear them talk about their lives and what was important to share. The call lasted quite a while and it was really therapeutic to see that their friends and home are still THERE, somewhere and OK.

I have wondered in the past, whether, if I lived in a smaller house, I would clean less.   The answer is NO. I'm still dealing with the same amount of dirt, it's just in a smaller space.  So, it looks like a lot more dirt than if it was spread out over, say, twice the square feet.  Therefore, the upshot is that I am cleaning less space, but more often.  ...There is no escape.