embassy | a moose in moscow

We got all of the embassy stuff straightened out yesterday. Fortunately, an extremely nice and proficient woman works in Aaron’s HR department. She got us taken care of. We also had an American helping us at the embassy. He was nice. Even a bit Mr. Rogers like.

The kids are still hard. Scratch that, Lena is still hard. Ilya has his moments… he talks to us in Russian and we don’t understand. He gets upset over food. He can get really wound up. Yes, he just seems like a 3 year old. He can also be so cute. Like finding a piece of string on the floor and telling us it’s a snake or how good he’s gotten at signing “more please”.

Lena on the other hand is really hard. Incredibly hard and frustrating at times. She has thrown two fits in the last hour. The first because I wouldn’t let her play with dirty tissues and the second because she wanted to drink out of the big water bottle or Ilya’s cup instead of her own– they all just had water in them. We also had a fit today because she wanted to go the bathroom at the same time as Ilya. She will repeat behavior that she knows she should not do and will laugh until she has something taken away from her. I am hoping it is just because she’s 3. I talked to my sister tonight and she was encouraging. I haven’t felt in my right mind lately, so it was good to hear how she’d handle the situation. And that her bio kids act the same way. Lena still is not talking much. I am hoping that this because she was with children even younger than her at the orphanage and she needs to catch up. She has picked up some words and will use them without being prompted. She also seems very comfortable signing with us and will sign sometimes when she is upset too. The signs we’re using are all pretty basic… “more” “please” “potty” “drink” “eat” “sleep” “wait” “no” “stop”. They both have more, eat and please down very well and seem to understand the rest, but will rarely sign them to us.

Ilya drinks A LOT. 1-2 cups of water an hour. I am not sure why this is. He has only had two accidents during the day. The first was when we were walking home a few days ago and could not get him to a bathroom. The second was today, he was upset because we were waiting on dinner and Lena was upset. He cannot make it through the night now, but he has accepted this and will let us put diapers on him now. I am not worried about him making it through the night.

I am really ready for bed. I have not been feeling too great for the last couple of days.

Don’t they make it look like everything is just perfect here?

I had a video of Ilya learning to count in English for you, but it won’t process in Flickr, so you’re just going to have to wait another day.

Today was a hard day. Not just as a parent and for the kids, but a hard day for us, just as people, trying to get all of the paperwork to get home.

We had to go to the embassy today. Our cab was supposed to come at 9:30. It pulled up at 9:52. We went downstairs at 9:30, Aaron waited out in the snow while I stood with the two kids in a very dirty staircase. Of course, Lena tripped and fell over into a pile of sludge just as Aaron came to tell us that the cab was there.

The embassy, ugh. I had paperwork to finishing filling out. Blanks that I wasn’t sure how to fill in. Aaron took the kids to play. So, I wrote the same information a dozen more times and gave it all back to her, paid a ridiculous amount of money and then she asked me what proof we had of our healthcare and that it would cover the children’s needs, because of their special needs. First of all, this is not something that we have ever been told we’d need. Not by Reece’s Rainbow, not by the embassy. Why? Because’s it’s absurd… really just discrimination. She gave me a paper, which was clearly written for the embassy staff and clearly not even intended for immigration as an adopted child. She told me proof of sufficient income and showing them our insurance card are not enough. My blood was boiling, but I went to get Aaron and the kids. And we went to the clinic for their medical exams. Uneventful, boring even, but there was another American family there who we talked to for awhile. Such a sweet family, and they have a heart for older boys. The boy they’re adopting is 15! They implied that they too left their hearts in the orphanage, all three of them– mother, father and 10 year old bio son.

We did find out approximately what the kids weigh. They were weighed with all of their winter gear on and Lena was about 25lbs and Ilya about 37lbs. You have to subtract a couple of pounds for the coats, hats, boots, gloves, etc.

I got home and started emailing about our embassy situation. There are some really wonderful, helpful people out there. People with connections who just want to see children come home. I love these people who dedicate lots of time and energy to helping people like us– tired and nervous in a foreign country. It sounds like the embassy fiasco will be taken care of. We did contact our insurance and Aaron’s employer about getting this letter. That will be done. If that won’t do the trick, more strings are being pulled by those lovely people I mentioned above. If you want more details about our embassy situation, if you are a family traveling soon, please contact me privately.

Both of the kids had hard days. I think they were tired. Ilya threw several fits today over weird things, like being asked to sit in his seat during lunch. Lena throws fits over more reasonable things, but she is very difficult to calm down. It seems like she needs to cry for 20 minutes before she will be okay. It is an encouragement to hear that this is a normal 3 year old thing… fits over nothing. I think I usually think of it as an effect of being in an orphanage because many of the fits are over things that most kids would not care about. Over food and sharing toys, and sometimes just when one of us wants to sit next to them. They think we’ll take their toy away.

Lena’s bedtime is really hard still. She seemed to be getting better the last few days… a little shorter and a little less fighting. Tonight was the worst night. I was actually kind of impressed by how hard she fought it… really, really fought it. We started signing with them today and what she always does is tries to get out of bed, and go out to where Aaron and Ilya are. She yells a combination of words, things I don’t understand, but sometimes yells “papa” “mama”. Tonight I signed and said “mama is here”. I am not sure that it helps her now, but I think it will eventually. Lena is definitely picking up the signing too. I am using them as much as I can remember, just so they begin to learn them. She has shown me “please” and “eat” so far. Eat was completely out of the blue. Aaron got oranges out and she wanted another one so she signed “eat” to him!

I have some new videos, but honestly, I am just EXHAUSTED and feeling too lazy to post them.