Halfway point

Today marks the probable halfway point...4 weeks down, 4 weeks to go.

I was composing this blog post in my head over a dinner of pierogi and cold vegetable salads tonight. But it's never as good as I imagine. The post, not the pierogi. In my better post, images of Ms. Frizzle of the Magic School Bus filled my brain. I feel like her, especially the Frizzle part. My hair doesn't like the humidity. Plus, I only brought two short-sleeved shirts (well, three, but one was a bad choice). All I need is one of Ms. Frizzle's crazy outfits to make me really stand out.

We went to an indoor Polish version of Chuck E. Cheese (without the bad pizza) yesterday. The kids loved it. It was fun to watch them run around, though I will bring a book if we go back.

Today we had our final home visit. We discussed court for next week. Everything is ready for that.

Lastly, we've realized that we've missed years of our kids' lives. But I guess I hadn't really thought about it until I saw a scar on Kid #1's chest. "What happened here?" I said, as I tapped the spot. 

Kid #1 explained that it was from a water burn. And then I finally got it. They were hurt without us. They have scars that I don't know. We didn't cause their pain, but we didn't comfort them in their distress, either. We just weren't there. 

I think that's why this will be difficult. We have to convince them that we are here now. And we are committed to them 100%. 

Even if their stories began without us, we'll help them rewrite their future.

Visit to the doctor

Not much happened today. We took Kid #2 to the hospital for a scheduled checkup. It's a good thing a nurse came with us: I had no idea (and still don't) how to navigate that system. When we walked in, the hallway and room were crammed with people. There didn't seem to be a line, so the first person who darted into the exam room got to be seen first. Crazy. Everything is okay with Kid #2.

We went to McDonalds for lunch and got everything we ordered! Wow!

Has anyone else heard of flying mosquitoes? On our long trek to the shop yesterday, Kid #1 got bitten all over. So today I went to the pharmacy and thought it would be fun to see how quickly they could understand what I wanted. I am sure it looked funny, but I went in and said, "Komary (the name for flying mosquitoes)." And then I scratched my arms until the pharmacist got the idea. He got the idea rather quickly if I do say so myself. He gave me this spray that should be used to help the itching after being bitten. Instead, Kid #1 sprayed everything that moved on the way home.

Then, Kid #1 got in trouble today. So Kid #1 was supposed to do something nice for me, anything at all. Soon, grubby hands handed me a piece of paper. The first thing I saw was "Love" written in marker. "How sweet," I thought. And then I looked to the rest of the paper. (This isn't polite conversation, so I am sorry.) There were three...um...squiggles labeled "poop." And Kid #1 laughed hysterically. What can I say? It must get the age and gender. 

Second Home Visit

We had our second home visit today. In addition to the usual parties, a court-appointed lady who is to look out for the kids' best interests was also present. Everything was fine and we have another mini visit on Friday. Then, on Monday, the kids will be taken to court where they will be asked if they want to be adopted. And the next day, we take the stand. We also find out that day if we have to stay 2 or 3 weeks after court. Normally, it's 3 weeks, but we're going to request that our waiting period is only two weeks since we had double the bonding period. Just in case that didn't make sense, if we get the 2 week waiting period, we will be staying at least 3 more weeks after court. (The last week will be our embassy/visa stuff.) If we get the normal 3 week waiting period, then we will have 4 more weeks after the court date. We're really, really hoping for 2 weeks. Obviously.

The kids were introduced to tacos at the American party on Sunday. In the words of Kid #1, they were "Dee LICious." So that's what we're having for dinner tonight.

Food. Chez Aberle serves a limited menu since we don't have a grill or many baking dishes. We usually serve bread and butter, fruit, and something else easy. And ketchup. We usually serve ketchup. (In fact, we just bought our third bottle of ketchup today. We go through a bottle a week.) I confess to serving more frozen pizzas than I would like. We have tried cooking some stuff. Crepes? Big hit. The kids weren't crazy about Yakisoba or homemade Mac N Cheese, however. 

We went to the cheap place for groceries today. It's about a mile away and uphill on the way home. Kid #2 doesn't carry too much, so the rest of us were loaded down with lots of water, 6 liters of milk, and the rest of the groceries. It makes me feel like I deserve that bread we'll be eating along with our tacos tonight :). 

Tourists in Torun

We had such a wonderful weekend.

Saturday

B, our translator, picked us up around 10 am. After a few stops, we were on our way to Torun. On the way, we passed a giant cross memorial for a priest killed in 1984 by members of the Communist regime. And on the way, we were passed by some "crazy Polish drivers."

"This is ridiculous," fumed B. "I must obey the law and these crazy people, ugh, they drive so poorly. My friend from England said Polish drivers are the worst she has ever seen."

Despite crazy drivers, we arrived safely and started walking the cobbled streets of Torun. Our city, as I think I've mentioned before, has a pretty, but small downtown. The rest of it looks more industrial. The apartment buildings are tall and plain. Its history, I'm told, is that it's made up of several different towns that grew together years ago, which explains its haphazard composition. Torun, on the other hand, is gorgeous, and I can see why tourists flock to this area. Although, as B explained, tourists are more likely to go to south Poland to visit Krakow or ski in the mountains in the south.

Cars weren't allowed in certain parts of the city - which I loved. The kids (who should be on those leash thingies) don't look both ways before crossing the street and don't seem to know "STOP!" or "WAIT!" If we make it home without one of them getting hit by a car or breaking a bone, I will be very happy.

Anyway, so we ate lunch at this place that is famous for their crepes. We've eaten so many crepes that I may turn into a crepe. Mine was stuffed with ham, leeks, camembert, and sweet corn, then covered with a bechamel sauce. The kids chose theirs to be stuffed with...nutella!

If you happen to be in Torun, Manekin is a good place to eat.

While we were eating at the outdoor restaurant we watched traditional Polish singers/dancers celebrating something. We didn't understand what was happening, but it was interesting to watch.

Polish singer-dancers

Really old part of the city

Then we climbed a tower to look over the city. Kid #1 is scared of heights, so it was a short view from the top. It was so much easier than the Eiffel tower.

View from the tower

And after that, we bought some special gingerbread cookies. They're covered in chocolate and have a fig-like filling. I thought they were delicious, but Bryan, not so much.

Delicious cookies, depending on whom you ask

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I need to interrupt this post for a quick minute. Breakfast was one hour ago and Kid #1 just said, "I'm hungry" and opened the fridge. Experienced parents, is this possible? Do your kids eat constantly?

****

After we ate gingerbread cookies, we next went to an ice cream place where I had kiwi ice cream. Scrumptious!

While eating ice cream, we strolled around some 14th century castle ruins. Then we walked to the Wisla riverbank where I proceeded to have several small heart attacks as my children (Kid #2 is especially uncoordinated) had several close brushes with an early shower. They also got dirty.

B said, "I am so sorry. I just don't have kids, you know, and I thought this would be a nice place. But with kids you have to think ahead about everything. And they probably shouldn't be this close to the river."

Thinking ahead about everything? Yeah, that's what we're trying to figure out, too!

Around this time, Kid #1 complained of hunger again. Walking past some yummy-smelling kebab shops probably didn't help. And every five minutes, Kid #2 was saying, "I think we have lost our car."

We found our car easily and headed back home. On the way home, Kid #1 said, "Why does mom take so many pictures of food?"

I explained that I have this blog and can't post pictures of the kids yet, since we're not officially their parents until after court. So, instead, I post pictures of food. (Although I would probably post pictures of food anyway :).)

Kid #1 said, "When is court?" May 14, May 14. One week from Tuesday. I will be glad to be done with that.

We finished off the evening with a quick shopping trip. Kid #1 said, "Cocos!" and pointed to a cantaloupe. Ready to eat more fruits and vegetables, I happily grabbed one for the basket.

After arriving home, I cut up the cantaloupe and handed a slice to Kid #1 who said, "Where is the milk?"

Milk? What? And then I got it...cocos must mean coconut. Kid #1 thought we bought a coconut and couldn't understand why it didn't have milk. But that also means they have probably never eaten coconuts, because they would have known that coconuts aren't orange, right? I wonder why they asked for them.

As I hinted, we have had a lot of struggles with bedtime. We finally came up with an idea that worked semi-well for the first night and very well last night. We gave up our very comfortable bed to Kid #1. Even though sleeping on the couch mattress is not very comfortable, it's worth it.

Sunday

We spent the afternoon with some Americans. And it was wonderful. The Polish people have been generous and friendly, but it's really nice to be able to easily communicate with people. Plus, we met an adoptive American family who gave us some helpful tips and encouraged us. And the kids enjoyed it, too. It was fun to watch them being "kids", if that makes sense with all the other kids there.

I'm not really homesick, but I sure am people sick. I look forward to seeing you all again in a few weeks!

Sights and smells of a different country

One thing I can't convey to you though a blog post are the sounds, the smells, sights, and tastes of this place.

I've already mentioned the bread, but our favorite bread is a round loaf of whole wheat bread. Sometimes we buy it when it's still slightly warm. Then as we cut it, the knife slices through the delicious, crusty outside to the tender inside. We spread our favorite butter thicker than we should, but wow, so delicious.

There are the trams, the sirens, police vehicles, endless games of soccer, kids shouting on the playgrounds, the small shops lining the streets with open bins of produce, and people walking, always walking.

And one of my favorites: Every evening at 9 pm, the church close to us plays a short melody using bugles (I think). The peaceful strains of the music float through our windows at the time when our bedtime battles are just over.

Here is a picture of the church, taken from our window tonight.

Stir crazy (and I'm not talking about popcorn)

Things are calmer than they have been in days so maybe I will have time to write a longer post today.

Our apartment is smallish. 55 square meters or something. Anyway, after spending days together 24/7 without getting out much, we were all going crazy. So I started making plans like crazy. Today (more on this in a minute), we went to a mall. Saturday, we're going to Torun, another tourist city somewhat close. Then on Sunday, we're hoping to have dinner with some other American families. Next week, we have a lot of appointments so that should help as well. We have almost three weeks down...maybe 5 to go. I will be so happy to arrive on American soil.

Okay, so today we went to the mall. It's really, really nice. Shopping exhausts me - and we only bought a pen! I am not a fan of shopping, actually, but it's a good place to go when we get stir crazy. I tried to order ice cream for the kids and got the flavor correct, but only ordered one (I thought I ordered two). Then when we decided to order more ice cream for the other kid, Kid #2 said, "No, chicken, no ice cream, no chicken." So we just left.

We are still learning more about this whole parenting thing. I want the experienced parents to feel good about themselves, so here are a few stories :).

• We ate lunch at this upscale sushi place that had "really nice coconut milk chicken soup." I love food like that. So we went there. Well, did you know that kids don't really like upscale sushi places and prefer pizza and fast food? I suppose some things should be obvious, but...
• I've started to say "No" whenever they ask for something at the store, especially if I don't know what it is. It's just easier. Anyway, today they handed me these tubes that were labeled "milk." What could be wrong with that? So I said yes. I found out later that the tubes were full of super sweet, sweetened condensed milk tasting stuff. Oops. More sugar. Just what they need.
• One of the kids seems to be gaining weight rapidly, so we're trying to buy healthier food. If we buy yogurt, they eat 4-8 containers of yogurt per day. If we don't buy any, well, they don't eat any. There are worse things than yogurt, but it does have a lot of sugar in it.
• When you need a bathroom, find a bathroom STAT!
• The kids aren't supposed to go on the balcony alone, so imagine my surprise to flip through my iPhone and find a picture that was taken with the iPhone OVER THE BALCONY! 
• We have had lots of struggles with sleeping. I could write a few posts on that. Anyway, so one of the kids complained about sleeping in the kitchen (fridge noises and stuff), so we allowed them (against our much better judgment) to sleep in the same room last night. We didn't want to do this, but we felt we had no other choice based on some other things. Anyway, the fridge noises didn't keep Kid #1 up, but Kid #2's snoring sure did! I will admit that I felt a small measure of satisfaction.

"Good" clothes

Growing up, we had everyday clothes and good clothes. Same thing here.

So when we're ready to leave the apartment, the kids will change their clothes. I should also insert that Kid #2 has a definite opinion on what should be worn when and where.

Okay, so today we were ready to go out for pizza and a walk in the forest. Kid #2 had a kelly green sequin top, black-with-polka-dots pajama bottoms (that were about three inches too short), orange and gray socks, and some shiny black ballet flats. Kid #2 did not understand why Kid #1 insisted that Kid #2 change outfits. And Kid #1 didn't understand why Kid #2 started to cry.

I actually would have let Kid #2 walk around like that (although far behind me - haha!), but Kid #1's influence won. Hot pink sweatpants replaced the pajama bottoms and the shoes were changed, though everything else stayed the same. 

Small wins :).