Third stop: Warsaw!

The third stop on our trip is Warsaw - and that's where we are today. Can you guess what the fourth stop is? It starts with "H" and ends with "ome."

It's been a long day, so a short post and no pictures.

Our morning started early. David was so excited that we are one step closer to America. We finished packing, ate breakfast, did last minute cleaning and were ready for our last apartment inspection at 6:45 am. Uneventful! 

We made it to the passport office at 8 am and - viola! - the kids had passport numbers in the system. We had some paperwork to sign and needed to return by 10 am to pick up the kids' temporary passports with their new names. In the meantime, we stopped by the Adoption Center and personally thanked the director who had been so helpful. We made it back to the Passport office and they let us move ahead in line to get our passports.

So we got our passports...and we waited for our translator who had some final documents for us. And we waited. Turns out she caught an error and had to fix it, so we were on the road an hour later than we had planned. Which meant were would get in to Warsaw about 45 minutes after our medical appointments. But once again, they were nice enough to accommodate us. So...here is what our progress looks like now:

Step 1 - get passport/visa pictures taken of kids. DONE!

Step 2 - pick up the official court decree on May 31 May 29. Kids will be entered into the passport system. DONE!

Step 3 - pick up passports on June 3 May 31. Travel to Warsaw. DONE!

Step 4 - Medical appointments (scheduled for 3 pm on May 31). DONE!
Step 5 - Embassy interview (10 am June 3)

Step 6 - pick up Visas (3 pm on June 4)

Step 7 - Fly home! (tickets are for June 7, but if we can go earlier, don't have to pay too much to switch, have a direct flight, and can get seats close together, we might. We'll definitely have to see on that one).

We are so, so, so close. 

We saw our new apartment (not as nice, but who cares) and then met our adoption coordinator's family in Old Town Warsaw. We ate at a great place. The kids and I had bigos (delicious!). We're looking forward to spending a few days here. We're looking even more forward to coming home.

Tying up loose ends

Step 1 - get passport/visa pictures taken of kids. DONE!

Step 2 - pick up the official court decree on May 31 May 29. Kids will be entered into the passport system. DONE!

Step 3 - pick up passports on June 3 May 31. Travel to Warsaw.

Step 4 - Medical appointments (scheduled for 3 pm on May 31)
Step 5 - Embassy interview (June 3?)

Step 6 - pick up Visas (June 4?)

Step 7 - Fly home! (tickets are for June 7, but if we can go earlier, don't have to pay too much to switch, have a direct flight, and can get seats close together, we might. We'll definitely have to see on that one).

Yesterday, we made our final trip to Family Park, the indoor run-around until-you're-sweating place.  And one final trip to Pizza Mario. And one final trip to McDonalds. I hope. Oh, I hope.

This morning, we walked to the institution for the last time. They needed a copy of some paperwork and we needed to sign some things. Then the woman they call Aunt Monika gave them a scrapbook full of pictures of them and a sweet note. David's special friend was there to say goodbye to him and so were many of the other people. I got tears in my eyes as I hugged Monika. You can tell she (and the rest of the people at the orphanage) love the children. I can't say enough good things about how good the orphanage was. It's very well-run and the kids are taken care of by people who love them. Kids belong in families, but I think it's better than most.

Anyway, as we walked away, the doorway was filled with people waving. The kids are so excited to come to America that I don't think they have really thought about the people they will be leaving. It does make me sad for them, the things they have lost.

We came home and started packing. Have I mentioned we're ready to come home? We've been pretend packing for a couple of days, but we really started in earnest today. Since the institution gave the children so many clothes and toys, we will have to buy more suitcases to get everything home. We're testing to see if we can get away with one or two suitcases.

While we were packing, G was taking care of paperwork. She and the head of the Adoption Center had to beg the people to get the paperwork done at 1 pm today. If they didn't, we wouldn't get the passports until Monday. But the lady kindly relented so we can still leave on Friday.

After the paperwork was properly filed, we took the kids to get passport photos. We'll pick the photos up later today, along with one final trip to our favorite restaurant. Then we will push the kids' bedtime back a little bit so we can have cake at our translator's flat tonight.

Tomorrow is a(nother) holiday. We have no plans other than to finish packing and clean up the apartment. Oh, and do one final load of laundry.

And Friday, we meet with our landlady at 7 am (!). Since Roxy doesn't usually wake up until 6:30, it will be interesting. Obviously, we must be ready to go early. After we meet with the landlady, we will pick up the passports, then head to Warsaw. Hopefully we make it to Warsaw in time to make our 3 pm medical appointments for the kids.

Spending the last few days in this city...

We're trying to survive our last few days here. Since we've done most everything the city has to offer at least once, our days have been filled with grocery-shopping, eating at our three restaurants (I have eaten at McDonald's way, waaaaay too much), playing the same board game over and over, endless games of hide and seek (yes, in this small apartment), and going to the park. Obviously this doesn't fill up an entire day, so the kids have been doing such things as learning to iron and right now they are entertaining themselves by scrubbing the kitchen floor. Six days to go.

Since our landlady smacked us with an increased fee due to our water usage, we have been trying to conserve water. We had been doing one load of laundry a day (small washer, remember?). But since we're on a self-imposed water ban, we've been trying to skip a day. Today is our day to do laundry and it's raining. However, since we don't have a dryer and we're running out of clothes, looks like we have to do what we have to do.

We're also almost out of food, so we had to get lots of groceries. On foot. Almost a mile one way. Two umbrellas. Four people. I haven't missed our car much...until today.

I'm in the middle of writing a letter to each child. We plan to mail them from this city and give them to them when they turn 18 (or at least when they're a little bit older). I thought they might like a personalized letter from the place they were born.

I also heard "HUNGRY, HUNGRY!" again this morning. And I did the same thing I did last time. I pretended to be asleep! (Congratulations to those of you who guessed correctly; I will teach you some Polish when I get back home.)

Subtle progress

Day to day, it's hard to see any progress. Are the kids really attaching to us? Are they learning more English? Are they respecting us as the authority figures? Do they like us?

The other day, we were out with our translator who also happened to be present when we met our kids for the first time. During our recent outing, she said, "I just want to cry when I think about how things have changed since the kids met you for the first time. Now they easily call you mom and dad, they hug you or hold your hands, they clearly feel comfortable."

It makes me curious what our friends and family will see when they observe our family after we get back home.

And just today I realized that I haven't been using Google Translate as much. The kids are learning more English, but I think we have just learned to communicate better without it. Roksana adds in a lot of actions when she talks which I think is quite funny. 

We have a long way to go, but we're trekking along.

Funny story of the day. I mentioned last week or so that Roxy lost her first tooth, so I gave her 2 zloty for it. My parents did the whole Tooth Fairy thing sometimes, so I thought I would give her money also. (Of course, she swallowed her tooth, but anyway.) Well, later I saw David trying to wiggle some of his permanent teeth. "If I lose some of these teeth, I think each one should be worth at least 10 zloty since they aren't baby teeth!"

How can you argue with that logic? He doesn't know we are going to be dumping some serious cash into his mouth without counting dentures. Hopefully he will leave all his teeth intact and try to earn money other ways.

Best news I've heard in awhile

I know I haven't mentioned very often how challenging this has been. But it's been tricky to keep two older children entertained for days on end. It could be worse. We could be stuck in a village somewhere, even though this city doesn't have tons and tons of stuff to do. Challenges, challenges. Let me first say that I am so very grateful that we weren't here in the winter. Being with the kids sooner definitely would have had advantages, but I can't imagine trying to corral the energy when we could not do outdoor activities. So that is great news, even though I didn't realize it until months later.

In the course of living in this apartment, we've broken a few things. Some of them weren't our fault (the pizza cutter and towel bar fell apart with the touch of a finger). Others, like the glasses and lampshade, were. Our poor landlady is ready to have a heart attack.

Along with the list of items to be replaced, she also said that we're using too much water, so we'll be charged for that, too. Suffice it to say, Bryan and I are ready to leave this place. The longer we stay, the greater opportunity for stuff to be broken. And that makes us less patient with the kids. We get uptight when they play like kids. We're anxious because our landlady is.

We're trying to stay outside as much as possible, but still, June 3 (our day to leave this city) couldn't come fast enough. In fact, I was near tears several times yesterday, because of the apartment and 12 loooooong days stretching as far as the eye could see.

And then. Our adoption agency person called this morning. "I have good news! I think you are going to be able to leave for Warsaw on May 31 instead of June 3."

The spring in my step was immediate. Only 9 more days here instead of 12? I never knew three days could make such a difference. I don't know if we will actually get home sooner or not, but all I care about right now is that we get out of this apartment as soon as possible! And Warsaw will have different things to do.

EDIT: We have 16 days left in Poland, unless it works out to leave earlier (which I am not sure if it will). The way I wrote the above paragraph made it sound like we were coming home in 9 days. But we only get to leave this apartment in 9 days.

What this all means is that you may want to kid-proof your house before you invite us over :). We're still friends, aren't we?

Learning English - Part 2

Time for only a short post today...

We went back to the zoo area again today, only we walked in the botanical area. So pretty.

I have heard lots of "I don't like you, Mama" in Polish, but it's slowly being replaced with "I lub you." I much prefer the sweet sound of the latter.

Also, a couple of mornings ago, shortly after 5 am, David began calling out from the next room, "Hungry! Hungry! Hun-GREE!" over and over and over again until everyone in the apartment was awake. 

Your job is to guess correctly how I first responded. If you leave the correct answer in the comments, I will teach you how to say, "I don't like you, Mama" in Polish, but only if you promise never to say it to your Mom.

Back to the scenario above...Did I?:

A. Rejoice that my son learned an English word and used it in the appropriate context.

B. Pretend to stay sleeping and hoped that he would fall back asleep, too.

C. Leap out of bed and whip up breakfast.

D. Say "Nie Rozumiem" (I don't understand in Polish)

Okay, one final story that really cracks me up. Sometimes, as the kids are going to sleep, we finger-draw letters on the kids' backs and they have to guess which letter it is. Anyway, David was in our room for the third time and he wanted me to draw letters. Again. So I drew an O. Then a U. Then a T. OUT. He didn't catch it, but I thought it was really funny. Lame? Probably...

Just two more weekends in Poland

With this weekend officially over, we're down to (we hope!) just two weekends in Poland.

It was a slow weekend. We spent a few hours at a festival to raise money. We don't really know what it was, but we went along with our fantastic translator who is always looking out for us. The kids love her. And we do, too. She is such a kind, generous woman.

I have had a good hair day almost every day since being in Poland - and this day is no exception! (Haha!)

The festival had food, of course. Horseback rides, vintage cars, a firetruck, a kid area with the ubiquitous inflatable slide and a crawling tunnel, and music. The music was so loud and obnoxious when we arrived that it felt like every nerve I had left was screaming for silence (although after the morning we had, I didn't have too many nerves left!). Eventually, the music calmed down to a more pleasant decibel level and style.

David post-firetruck hose

David enjoying the firetruck

Teenagers did some Polish folk dancing/singing. Then the little kids took over. They were so cute, especially this little boy who kept stopping in the middle to hitch up his pants.

Aren't they cute?

Today we went back to the indoor Chuck E. Cheese-like place. This time we remembered to take a book to read while the kids ran around.

On a personal note, my dad would have been 55 today. By observing his brothers interact with their grandchildren, I know he would have loved being a grandpa. While my kids will never know him, I can share many stories with them. And Grandpa Dan will be a good dziadzio. No question about that.