Poster Boy

People use the phrase "poster boy" in a general sense for the most part, but for our son it is quite literal. Our friend Lauren came across this adoption add while walking through town yesterday. He'll enjoy looking back at that someday.

We started the morning in the play yard today, hoping to get some time outside before the throngs of children came out for scheduled play. The other day when that happened, it was impossible to keep our kids' toys from getting taken. Alina has proven to be quite an acrobat. She has no problem swinging from bars and fence tops. We put together a model plane outside and had great fun watching it not fly. More fun with bubbles.

Incidentally, Kostin appeared today in a new outfit that just screamed "grandpa". Let us just state for the record that we did not purchase these clothes, though we guess it was good to see he does change his attire occassionaly. Of course, Blythe spied his old outfit on another kid, but that's his problem.

Once indoors, things were surprisingly subdued - probably because the kids burned of alot of energy running around outside. This is going to be our strategy going forward, particularly given we have not quite shaken the jet leg. Seth slept a total of 3 hours last night, while Blythe tripped on a poorly placed ottoman in the middle of the room while half asleep, resulting in a twisted ankle. That in combination with a room on an upper floor and an elevator that has not worked since we arrived has been quite a challange. Keep the prayers coming to keep us strong and full of energy.

Another of Blythe's ingenious activity packets from "Michael's" kept Alina busy with sewing together a cloth mobile. She really seemed to take to it, and told us she loves to sew. Since the Michael's kit marks the extent of Blythe's sewing aptitude, this sounds like a hobby that Gramma can foster once we get back home.

Towards the end our time together Alina slipped away from the room for some alone time. We suspect the reality of leaving this place and her friends is beginning to sink in. Given her age, this probably will be a harder transition than it will be for Kostin. We are trying to walk a fine line between giving her enough space and showing her that she can trust us and that we will always be there for her. Well, guess we have our whole lives ahead of us to sort that one out.

Thanks once again to everyone who has left comments. It has become a fun ritual to read these each morning before we head off to the orphanage. By the way, if anyone is curious, this map of Kazakhstan (which hangs on the wall in the orphanage) shows our location as the large blue dot on the right. To give you a sense of scale, the country is roughly the size of western Europe. Impressive given that most Americans think it was a fictional invention of "Borat".