Visit with Nicholai

I'll make this quick, as I'm sure that Summer will type about 10 pages on this. We ran all over today.... 1st to the Local inspector in Mariinka. On the way we had some car trouble though. Some parts broke that connected the throttle cable to the carburetor. Sergei had some wire in his trunk, so I did a quick fix and we were on our way. I informed him that in the USA that would be known as a "McGuyver Rig/ Fix"...he laughed and said he had heard of the show. We stopped by the auto parts store on the way and bought a new part. Sergei had trouble getting it to clip on properly...so I gave it a try. I got it on quick and the mechanic was impressed and told Sergei that, "I must have ate a bigger breakfast". All went fine from there and we met with the inspector for about 15 minutes for another referral. We then went to the orphanage and met with the nurse and a head teacher that knew Nicholai well. They gave us a great deal of info on him. We stayed there for about an hour and went to visit Nicholi at the camp.....Summer will tell the rest

JP

Okay, I promise not to write a 10 page description of our car problems...I will have to teach Nicholai to call Dad, "Papa Mc Goober."   Ooops, I mean Papa McGuyver.  Haha!  Anyway, we have definetly found our boy!  It was not a difficult decision.  We were told many things about Nicholai's history and medical description.  He is generally in good health and a good size boy for being in the orphanage.  His history is as I suspected.  His mother was young and her parental rights were terminated because of their poor living conditions and neglect.  He lived in a shelter for a short while before going to the orphanage.  He would have been in the orphanage for a year in August.  Long story short.  We went to the summer camp to meet Nicholai.  It was a two hour drive but it was in the country and was a really nice drive.  The summer camp is pretty cool and the town it is in is considered a resort/vacation town.  When we were first introduced to Nicholai he seemed very shy.  We didn't really know what to say to him because of the language barrier.  We showed him pictures of our family which he really liked.  He also managed to scarf down the huge chocolate bar that I brought him in about 2 seconds flat!  He seems to have a very good vocabulary and is very polite.  The Summer camp director told us that he had some scratches on his face...(Mom & Mary that is what the green stuff is on his face in the pictures, they put some kind of iodine on the scratches.)  Anyway, we asked to take him outside to the play ground and spend some time with him alone.  (Before going to visit Nicholai, I told Jon to make it a point to make physical and affectionate contact with him because I wasn't sure if he had much of that with a Father figure before.  I think most of the orphanage staff are women.)  Jon held hands with Nicholai on the way out to the playground and he seemed very receptive.  They also played on the teeter-totter, gave him a piggy-back ride, ran around and threw pine cones.  They had a good time.  We sat with Nicholai and read a book and went over our photo album again.  He repeated everything we would say to him in English and also rattled off many Russian words, (which we didn't know!)  He is extremely smart!  He should have no problem beginning Kindergarten!  They don't begin the first grade over here until they are 7.  This September would have been his first year.  He also loved our camera.  Jon showed him how to take pictures and he had that figured out really fast.  We are more than thrilled with this little boy.  Sergei explained to him that we wanted to be his "Mama and Papa," and asked if he wanted to live with us in America.  He said, "Da."  (Yes.)  He is super smart, physically and developmentally on target and receptive to our affection.  He would remember specific things in English that we had taught him throughout our conversation.  When we left we explained that we would be back to pick him up and he would go home with us and stay with us forever.  He gave us both hugs and kisses!  He is such a sweet boy!  We could not have been any luckier!!!!  (We will try to post pictures for everyone to see ASAP but "blog-city" is making some changes...wonderful timing, so we are unable to do so tonight.  We will keep everyone posted.)  Sergei says he will do his best to move everything along as quickly as possible.  We are hoping, if our luck continues, that we will have a court date somewhere around the 17th of this month.  We may be home within a week or so after that.  Nicholai's birthday is on the 1st of July and he will be "Syem."  (Seven)  Maybe we will do a big combination birthday party for him and Hadley.  Oh, one more thing, we have been telling him Kailyn and Hadley's names and it is so cute because he sometimes mixes the two names and says "Kaidley."  Just wait until he has to say Kylie too!  He will be so confused!  Love to all the family and especially my girls!  WE MISS YOU!!!!  (Kylie and Jake- I know you especially will love this little guy I just can't get over how cute he is!)