Sunday, July 13, 2014

Where we were...Where we are

It has been a long time since I have
blogged.  There are several reasons for this and all of them have to do with this hectic rush hour I call life. As you will read later, Novograd-Volynsky (NV), the town where Georgina (Larissa's) orphanage is has a lot of things. Two things it does not have is air conditioning and consistent internet.  Novograd-Volynsky is a quaint little town infused with a lot of activity.  The first night there we walked to the park and it seemed that there were people everywhere.  Families filled the downtown area and there were shops, cafe's, and beautiful churches. Novograd-Volynsky is located on the Sluch River in the Zhytomyr Province. This city has a very dynamic history both as a cultural hub and as a location of a WWII concentration camp.  Interestingly enough, the kids that fill the streets in this unique town go to school in the same building that Hitler ordered the deaths of thousands of Jewish POWs.  With all of the interesting history this town brings, we were more concerned about the past and future of a little girl named Larissa. We had been waiting a long time to meet this little angel and we just wanted to go and see her for the first time. Earlier in the afternoon, we sat down with the orphanage director and the orphanage doctor and determined that Larissa has quite a medical history.  We knew she had a heart condition, hip dysplasia, strabismus, and fetal alcohol syndrome.  What we learned is that she was also born at 32 weeks.  It was determined that some of her mental delays were also a result of this premature birth.  Larissa's mom was a heavy drinker and smoker and I guess after all of that she really is lucky to be alive.  After our meeting we went to the playground and were told that the nannies would bring Larissa out in just a little bit. We sat there anxiously for about 10 minutes and when she finally came through the orphanage door she was dressed in this snazzy white dress with black polka-dots.  She had these pink and white shoes on and her hair was neatly combed. She looked beautiful!! She ran up to us and yelled mama and papa; she smiled and gave Debbie a big ole hug.  She then reached for me and did the same. We enjoyed the moment, but this may have been a bigger horse and pony show than observation day in a public education classroom. It was obvious she was told to act a certain way to impress us, but we had been here and done that and we knew that this would be the first and last day we saw her in that nice dress.  We played along, though, and were really just very excited to finally meet her.  They could have brought her out in a potato sack and we would have been just as excited. We just were happy to have the chance to finally get to know her.
When we adopted Stasik, we spent a lot of time alone with him away from the other kids. At this orphanage our bonding time with her was on a playground....with 20 other kids.  Now, I do not know the definition of bonding in the Ukraine, but if it is time spent watching your little girl running around, swinging, riding bikes, tackling other kids, climbing the fence to get contraband cherries, and listening to her get scolded by nannies for disobeying every directive.....then we bonded like super glue!  What we did discover, though, is that this girl is a little firecracker.  She may have been born early, but it was probably because she couldn't sit in one place anymore.  You know how when water is heated and particles start moving so fast that they create entropy, controlled chaos?  Yea it was like that, except for the controlled part.  The only time she came to see us was when the nannies told her to come give us a kiss or something.  We were like, hey it's ok, she doesn't know us...don't tell her that because we are gonna spend the next few years teaching her not to kiss strangers.  We just wanted to watch her and see how she interacted with other kids.  That was our main concern.  Would she get along with Carter and Stasik at home. For days we went to the orphanage at 10:00 and 4:00.  We watched her on the playground and gave her hugs when the nannies sent her to us.  She really wanted nothing to do with us.  Who can blame her. She is on a playground with other kids and she has no idea who we are.  We knew this would take time and we were ok with it.
The nannies at the orphanage call her Laura.  I guess it is short for Larissa, but most likely it is because they have to say it 103 times during recess. Laura..no, Laura nimoshna, Laura come over here, Laura...  It was all in Ukrainian, but we got the jist of it all.  So you might ask are we concerned about her behavior? Well, maybe a lot. We are used to a slower pace with two boys with down's syndrome; we are not sure we can keep up with her.  I guess that is a good problem considering she is lucky to be alive. I guess she does not want to lose another minute of any day.
After spending days there we had to fly back home.  We spent a couple of weeks back in Texas waiting for our court date.  We showed pictures to the boys and told them her name.  Unfortunately, we have not had internet at the house either so this is why this blog is so late.  Tonight we are back in NV, internet is working and I am typing away.  More about the last couple days in the next post.