What a HANDFUL!!

Boy did we learn a lot about our little Lena today! Lena is very devious: laughs when told "Jok!" (Kaz for "no") and goes right back to what she was told not to do. She's very, very smart, goes after what she wants, doesn't take no for an answer, and laughs when she's caught. She is going to be very strong-willed, so we will have to focus that strength of hers into the right directions.

Dub is just Dub. All little boy. Rolls with the punches.

We brought them some new kazakh alphabet blocks. Just good old square blocks with letters on them. They don't care about the letters, but both of them got very creative in making shapes and things with the blocks. Lena is very smart at blocks. She woud arrange them in certain shapes and knew exact symmetry - which block goes where and how they fit together. Dub would just build a tall tower and then knock it down. Good boy, or, in Kaz, "Joksi Balla". "Good girl" in Kaz is "Joksi Kz". (not a typo, just "kz").

After the morning session, we went shopping and found a Russian version of some Bugs Bunny cartoons as well as a Baba Yaga video. Then, Vera showed us a really close place to get "Samsa", a triangle shaped pastry of filo dough filled with cheese, chicken, or beef. YUMMMMMMMMYY! The best part is that each one, which is about the size of slice of NY Pizza but about 2 inches thick, is just 20 Tenge, or 15 cents.

Here's some interesting stuff: Lena and Dub will both need a little cosmetic surgery when we get home. Lena has a tally-wacker shaped belly button caused by (we think) a herniated navel, and Dub has not been circumcised! Put that on top of the fact that Dub had another accident - 5 minutes after we sat him on the potty (gashok) for 5 minutes - when we took him to his group to get changed, his caretaker (who loves him a lot) said something in Kaz and stuck out her index finger and made a chopping motion that looked like "stop having accidents or we'll cut it off!" And now we have to have him circumcised! What's the poor fella gonna think he did wrong?!? I'll try to get Vera to clarify what she said tomorrow.

We had several battles of will with Lena today. You tell her "NO!" and she just laughs in your face. This is partly because she does not yet recognize that we are her new authority figures, and partly her getting comfortable enough with us to try just about anything. Both are good and bad. But we are already exhausted of playing this game. I can see now why parents get beaten down after awhile. Oh, so much to learn...

Now for all the pictures!


You can see how she could use such expressions to manipulate her new parents.



And here are the stockings of the day! Imagine that: bland beige. Oh well.



We mentioned earlier that Lena is a very neat eater. It's true. Today with yogurt, not a drop was spilt. But then there's Dub, aka, I must eat it all in one bite or someone will take it from me!






It won't be long and I won't be able to do this anymore. Gotta hit those free weights!



Above is a picture of all the kids in Lena's play group. They are all very sweet kids, and they always talk to us when we're on our laps around Umit with Dub & Lena.



This is very typical of how one or two caretakers handle 6-10 infants at a time!




Finally, some more shots of the beautiful gardens around the orphanage. The roses are just about to explode, and these are some early bloomers.

We met a new family today, from St. Pete Florida. They are adopting a little girl from Dub's play group. Nice folks, and they are joining us in praying that our 15-day waiting period is waived. Please continue to pray that the judge will waive this requirement.

Blessings,
Angel & Kevin

PS - thank you for all the encouraging emails and comments on this blog. We're a long way from home, and it means so much to hear from our friends and family. Thank you again.