It's The 40th Day, and We're Still in The Ark.

Vitals:  Our court date is still set for November 9th-which is next Tuesday.  And we are still looking at staying here all of November, but it is tiring!

Details:  Bill took Ruslan to meet Roman yesterday.  Ruslan was SO excited.  He started saying "America! America!" when they got to the metro stop.  Poor baby!  No America for another month.

In the end, Ruslan seemed to really like Roman.  He has asked about him a few times today.  This is a good sign because from Bill's perspective, the visit did not go well at all.  Roman tried to head-butt Ruslan over a puzzle and Ruslan was about to pound the tar out of Roman before Bill intervened.  It was worrisome, since Ruslan seemed to understand that they were in trouble, but Roman did not.  We've already been through one emotionally disturbed adoption, so we are gun shy about stuff like that.  Bill is discouraged.

So, I am going to go tomorrow with Matt and Ruslan and see if I can find any grey matter to work with in Roman.  I am much more optomistic than Bill.  ...we shall see.

On the bright side, Ruslan is pretty darn cute.  He fits into our family so much better than we expected, that on the one hand Bill and I are breathing a huge sigh of relief and on the other hand, we are both all the more worried that child #2 is going to screw it up!  Ruslan gets directions, he plays quietly while the kids are working on their school work, he gets along great with Sharon, he is getting attached well to all of us, and he has a reasonable disposition.  He has a stubborn streak, but it is manageable, so it's not a big deal (like some of my OTHER kids stubborn streaks are...not naming names here, just saying....)

He has learned all our names, the neighbors names (on skype), a few foods, some concept words (up, more, no, come, sleep, ouch), and quite a few nouns.  He also wormed his way into a reading lesson with Sharon this afternoon.  Sharon has all her school inside the cardboard refrigerator "house" and he came right in and planted himself in front of the reading book. It was a little tight.  After that, I took him into the kitchen and taught him "m," "s" and "a."  He can't write very well, but his mind is sharp.

He's starting to warm up to me.  A lot of times when I walk with him, I'll let him walk about half way until he gets tired.  At that point, it's natural to just pick him up and carry him in front of me, with him facing forward, until we get 'there.'  Lately I've noticed that he will lean his head back and put his cheek against mine while I do this. I thought he might be looking for the other kids or something, but now I think he is doing it out of affection.

He found me today as I was taking a nap.  I could hear him saying "oh mama!" and looking for me.  He finally crawled near the bed and started tapping my arm to wake me up.  I told him, 'No, no. Mama spaht' (mom sleep).  Next thing I knew, he had crawled to the end of the bed, hoisted himself half way up and was resting his cheek against my foot.... I guess it was time to get up anyway.

We all hate the milk here and Ruslan hates it too.  We've started giving everyone a glass at dinner, tapping our cups (cheers!), plugging our noses and chugging it down together just before we pray. Ruslan hates milk, but he loves drinking it like this.  It just cracks him up.  If we forget, he holds his cup up and plugs his nose so we remember.

On the down side, he was constipated today.  I heard him crying with Bill in the bathroom so I went in and hugged him until it was all over (nasty part of motherhood).  Anyway, after I got him cleaned up, I laid him down on the couch because he was really tired from straining.  His stool wasn't really hard but, his muscles are so stiff all the time that I'm not sure if he can ever relax.   All this is to say that he asked me to pray with him.  It was so sweet.  He put his hands together to pray. When I didn't catch on, he showed me a cross necklace that he always wears ("kreschik") and then he put my hands together until I clued in.  Is it possible for a child to be any more charming?  Back in an older post, I told a story about him praying that God would take away the pain after his surgery.  Apparently, it worked, because he definitely wanted to pray about this.  So, we prayed that God would help him stay regular and that he wouldn't be in pain  ...then I went and got him some little gel fiber pills I'd brought along, just to be on the safe side.

On the other down side ...I made chicken and dumplings the first day I found Rosemary. The kids hated it, but I loved it, and I ended up eating all the leftovers.  That's when I realized I was eating because I liked the taste, not because I was hungry, which was kind of a switch.  The food is strange enough here that I notice I don't eat because I really like the taste of stuff, I just eat until I'm not starving. Therefore, Bill and I have both lost about five to ten pounds so far which would be great, but Bill and I also noticed yesterday that we are starting to smell a little...European--either that or we are in Noah's Ark on the 40th day. This is very ...unfamiliar. I'm telling you, if this is the cost of five lost pounds, I think I'd rather deal with the tight pants.