Day 7 started early

Since the boys have no school on Sunday, we were allowed to visit them at 10:00 in the morning today. We were picked up at 8am; it was a clear day and we made good time on the road, arriving 15 minutes early for our visit. We stepped inside the front door to get out of the cold (it was in the 30's outside) and waited for someone to tell us where we should go...the director had told us yesterday that we would be in a different room for our visit since the offices are all closed on Sunday. While we were waiting, Craig was suddenly tackled from behind...and it was Madiyar who was hugging him and laughing. Aniyar hurried up to us a few minutes and more hugs were given.

Soon we were led to a recreation room where the girls dance, sing and play in their free time; the boys' recreation room is apparently a bit too noisy for visitors. We sat down on the very nice couch and gave the boys sketch pads and markers to draw with, telling them we wanted to see their art work. They immediately started to draw elaborate works of art that pretty much blew us away. Aniyar drew tiny cats and dogs and a Spiderman and a ninja, all in excellent detail. Madiyar drew a mythical creature that looked like a wolf with wings...again the detail was amazing...and a Spiderman that was so accurate, it could have been an illustration in a comic book. Madiyar also wanted us to see more of his work; he ran to his room to get the notebook we gave him the other day...and we were surprised to see that he's already filled several pages with drawings of comic book characters. These boys clearly love to draw and they're good at it.

After some drawing, Aniyar turned to me and said, “Mama, GameBoy?” and then put his arms around me and added, “Pazhalousta?” with his best puppy dog face. Well, pazhalousta means please and I'm a sucker for this kid's big brown eyes already...so it was GameBoy time. Madiyar was still drawing until he saw the GameBoys come out of my bag but it took all of 2 seconds for the artwork to disappear and he was ready for video games. The boys played contentedly while we chatted with Tatyana, the local English teacher who has been helping us communicate during our visits. A couple of the boy's tutors looked in on us and told us what good boys Aniyar and Madiyar are; we can see that they are well loved here and will be missed.

We saw no sign of sadness today in either Madiyar or Aniyar but we expect there will be some ups and downs for both of them in the next few weeks. Aniyar's tutor said he was crying the other day and that he's frightened; she said she thinks it's harder for older children to be adopted than for little ones who don't really understand the changes they face. I agree...it's a big change and there's bound to be sadness as they leave the caregivers and friends who are the closest thing to a family that they have had. In spite of their fears and tears, however, we feel them growing more comfortable with us each day and we admire their courage as they open their hearts to us. That's what the bonding period is all about...letting us all get to know each other and build the trust we will all need for Aniyar's and Madiyar's journey to a new life. One day at a time...