Tears

When writing a blog, sometimes Cindy would ask about a title before writing. I usually said “blog first then we will come up with a title”. Usually I could not think of one either. Today, titles seem to keep coming to mind. I used the first one, but thought I would share a couple of the runner ups.

Ice Cream can’t fix everything!

Oh to have Ovaries!

But, back to the actual story at hand.

The journey picked up again today. Valentin and Tonya picked me up today and we went to the court house to get the court decree. It seems they could not find the electronic file that Valentin worked with them on last week. So they typed up a new one, printed and stamped it then were off to pick up Anastasiya at school. I do not think she knew I was coming today to pick her up. As we walked down a hallway at school, I saw Anastasiya before she saw me. She saw me, smiled really big and came running up and gave me a big hug… Wait, I was dreaming. It’s that alternate reality that parents of teens sometimes live in. Actually, she then saw me and hesitated in her next step. Then she turned around and walked down the hallway to a classroom and went in. One of her friends came up to me and said “Hello” in English. I must have been recognizable. I continued down the hallway and I stood there waiting for permission to go anywhere else. After a few minutes, I asked if I could go into the classroom and went in. She was in the classroom saying goodbye to her friends, hugging them and crying. A few of them were crying as well. She collected her things, put on her coat, headed out of the room, down the hall and to the car. The friend that had said hello to me had held up well until the last and went to a window in the classroom and looked outside while crying. We stopped by the orphanage to get her things. She got a small shopping bag and put a few things in it. She kept opening up cabinets, moving a few things around and going to another one. She went around the cabinets in the room several times almost seeming confused. I tried to help by pointing to her desk to make sure she did not forget anything. She almost smiled and grabbed a stuffed animal. Tonya came in and helped a bit. Valentin made a comment that she needed a women’s help. Anastasiya left most of things for her friends at the orphanage. We came out with just a small shopping bag. She spent most of the ride to Kiev looking out the opposite window and fiddling with her phone. When we arrived at the apartment and got our shoes off, I did get a hug and she snuggled her head into my chest. I looked at her face after awhile and she almost had tears in her eyes. Leaving her friends hit her hard today when she saw me and she is very sad about it. We went to lunch and then unpacked her suitcase that I brought. She was going better and not quite so sad. I made some calls for work and with the idle time for her the sadness set in again. I quite making calls and we used an online tool to communicate a little. I asked her if she wanted to go to McDonald’s and have dinner and Ice Cream. I made a father mistake by trying to be funny and said that Ice Cream helps fix everything. To which I received a polite “no”. She was doing a bit better by bed time and remembers with happiness that we pray at bedtime.

I planned to take some pictures with her friends and maybe some video for her memories. I came away with nothing. When I pulled out the camera, it just did not seem right to take pictures during such sadness. She does not like being on display. So I put the camera back in my pocket.

That’s it for today.