Dearest Alex,
Another rainy day in London! I swear, someone should have warned me that we were traveling to Europe in monsoon season. Rain has followed us everywhere! Good thing I packed those travel umbrellas.
This morning Amanda and I took the tube into Kensington to go shopping at Harrods. Six floors of fun. We have never had so much fun going through a department store. There was a pet area that shames anything in America. There were more outfits for dogs alone than a whole Nordstrom’s. Then their food area! Oh my! The only problem was the prices. We saw a scarf for 1099 pounds (about $1600). Really? For a scarf? We did find some fun things in the toy area - some Doctor Who items that G4 will love.
Afterwards, we found ourselves near the Baden-Powell house. Since G4 Eagled last year, we thought that we should go and look at the museum and take a tour of his house. Wrong! Several years ago, it was turned into a youth hostel. There is still a conference center there and a small exhibit - but no museum. We were a little disappointed.
Then on to a traditional English tea with the most sublime lemongrass teas and delicious scones and clotted creme at a teahouse called Bumpkins. And then back to the apartment for Amanda to get in her Physics class. She has opted to go to another section that meets in the evening European time (rather than getting up in the middle of the night).
We really miss you Alex (or Dima). We go back and forth calling you both names! We want to show you all of these sights and feel bad that you are not here with us. I was just reflecting how much you are a part of our life now even though you are not physically here. We got word today that the court date has been set for the 28th. This is great news - now we just have to hope that the SDA gets the paperwork back in time.
I have taken some of this time that we have been separated from you to think more about how we will teach you and integrate you into our family. Emotions are not as running rampant as when I am near you and just want to baby and cuddle you (probably much to your disgust!) It is easier for me to be more objective away from you right now! I know that you have been in survival mode in the orphanage since you have been there and have become somewhat hardened to life. It shows when we are with you - you tend to act very much more like an adult than we expect. However, at times you are very much a little boy - almost like on one level your maturing stopped at 12 when you went in the orphanage. I want to give those years back to you - where you are just carefree and loving life knowing that you are loved, rather than just surviving. But I know it will be a delicate balance as you are used to hard core video games, smoking, explicit music, and other things that are foreign to us. You will think I am babying you for a while and taking away fun things, but I promise I will replace them with other things like a family, travel, movies, sports, etc. Hopefully this will not be too traumatic to you! But know that we are doing it for your own good - not to be mean or restrictive. We will show you that fun and games can be had in other ways.
I was also thinking more about the time in Mariupol. I treasured those days - that were pretty lazy days really. It was fun doing things with Amanda, school work and games. G3 spent most of the time working on his computer but Amanda and I lazed about. It was great time for us - I think it will prove to be very useful in the future to have spent this time bonding with her as I am sure there will be times when I am super busy with you. Hopefully there will not be too much sibling rivalry, but I am sure that there will be some jealousy!
Note to adoptive families: go prepared for a lot of down time. It is hard to disconnect from your life for several weeks - but that is what you have to do. Things just move at a different pace and they take on less meaning when you are away. I just got an email the other day that my book won a book award - the First Horizon Award for debut authors. I was over the moon with this news, but it just seems not as important here. Weird, but true. I am looking forward to getting back home to a normal life at some point - but I will always treasure the time when the most important thing in my day was to go visit with you for a few hours!
Love,
Bethany, G3, G4, & Amanda
A note to the other families on the downtime -- Before we left Kiev we picked up a MiFi card at a MTC store so we could have a wireless hot spot where ever we go, allowing all of us to connect our computers, phones and iPads to the internet. This has been invaluable, allowing us to stay connected, call home via Skype (probably not fast enough for video but good for audio), update the blog, keep up with email, get Amanda’s schoolwork done, let me work remote, and even connect to the internet at the orphanage so we could use Google Translate and other English teaching programs. I would highly recommend this. You have to purchase either the USB internet stick (cheaper but only 1 computer at a time and won’t work with iPads or phones) or the MiFi card, and the cost to access the internet is only $1 a day for unlimited usage and there’s no contract or commitment. We’ll have a nearly-new MiFi card available when we get back.
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