I think he's a keeper

I went to visit Andrey this morning, by myself. Thomas and Jeanette were exhausted from the week and the hour long drives back and forth every time we head to the orphanage. Let me expand on that. These hour drives are nutty. The traffic is horrible and there are no rules. We dart in and out of traffic- its tiresome. I can expand more on the traffic later, but until you have driven in it, there’s no way to fully explain it to you.. One quick fun fact. My Police friends will appreciate this. Three cops for Krasnoyarsk (1 million people) handle 148 accidents A DAY! They each handle roughly 50 accidents each! It commonly takes 5 + hours for anyone to respond to these accidents, even when there are serious injuries. I may get a ride along, but we’ll see..

So.... the drive is tiring and Jeanette and T needed a break.. And keep in mind, no carseats, so it’s little sketchy. So I had some one on one time with Andrey, and it was great. He spoke to me, smiled, he really loosened up. You can really see the difference in him from the first day to today. He is becoming more himself. We had fun. I found a Russian keyword that he liked, it is pronounced “Moi mah Lihsh” the last word sounds like “leash” It means, “My baby”. He loved it. We have a great book put together by a woman who did the adoption thing and thought it would be a great idea if some key words and phrases were all put together in a book for adoptive parents. When these kids come out of the orphanage, everything changes for them, the clothes, food, people, so it’s nice for them to hear some comforting words in Russian. So I say the above words to him, along with “good” “I am your papa” stuff like that. It seems to work, cause he doesn’t know anything else that we are saying. Keep in mind it is a book of words to use with kids, and when the guy at a pizza place put our 2 pieces of pizza in a to go box, I said, “”Hah rah Shoh” which means “good”, he looked at me funny, like I was saying “goo goo ga ga good boy!” So I need to use it in the right settings :) So we had fun, Andrey fed me goldfish, and we played and hugged, it was really a good time!

Take a look at some of the vid clips, they are priceless.

Saturday was quiet because it was “Women’s day”. A lot of the businesses were closed and the streets were very quiet. All the women out had flowers in their hands, Women’s day is quite a big deal here.... I would add that if any of my single male blog readers want to find a woman, come to Russia. I can say no more without risking getting in trouble with my own Sicilian Princess. But, I call it the 50 foot rule. Email me for more..... But everyone is good.. We (me) are all actually trying to shake off colds, and the cold weather has come back to Siberia. It is sunny no more... it snowed yesterday, and the temp has dropped 10 degrees with a little wind. I guess there’s prostitution going on in our hotel.

Our pals the Swingles were awoken to some “Bumpin and grindin” at like 6am. And we have heard it goes on here a lot.

We’re getting a tad sick of the breakfast buffet. Even my lovely wife has stopped singing its praises. I drink 2-3 cups of Maxwell house, and with each cup it tastes worse, but an addict has gotta have his fix!

So... that’s all for now.. We’re just waiting for Friday so we can pick up Andrey, so between now and then we’re just hanging out. There’s not a lot of things to do, but its nice to have some family time before we expand to 4 :) and we’ll go visit the orphanage every day this week, Mon-Fri. Feel free to email me or post comments, Jeanette and I love to see who is reading the blog. We actually have a lot of time to read them, so send away :) (It helps pass the time) Thank you for those who have posted so far. I really means a lot to us :) So, one more thing to say : Pah Kah!! (Good bye)