Biding Our Time

Spent the morning at the Coffee Life (Coffee As Life Style) and went home for lunch. I left at 2:00 to meet Jessica at the bus stop near her apartment. It was a nice day, a little chilly, but sunny. We walked toward the orphanage and talked. She said she decided not to see Sasha again. I was disappointed but saw the wisdom in that. During their conversation, Jessica determined that the Lord has no place in this guy's life, and that the kids were just an excuse to meet her. Since Jessica is all about God and her work at the orphanage, that leaves little in common between the two of them. He came across as self-assured, aggressive, and self-centered. These are not the kind of qualities I think Jessica is attracted to. Oh, well. It was a little bit fun meeting him.

Yesterday I had suggested that, instead of shopping and feeding the boys, that we go to the Horseshoe restaurant and have a meal together. When we found Kai, he was all about that. Jessica was scheduled to teach from 3 to 5, but as things are subject to change around here, we found that she was actually free. Yay! Nonna said she had something for me and would I please wait. We sat upstairs on the couches and Nonna produced a folder. It was a professionally done picture folder consisting of a 5x7 class picture of Kai, a group shot of the entire 9th grade class, Kai's individual class, and small photos of each kid and each teacher, with names printed on the as well. What a treasure! I was excited that Kai would have something so special to take home. I thanked her very much and put it safely in my tote bag.

We got permission from Kai's teacher to go and be back by 7:00. No problem. The 3 of us rode the tram to the restaurant and sat by the window. We all ended up ordering the same thing, crab salad and a pork chop. Kai had spaghetti while we had potatoes. Today the service was poor and the meat was tough. It took a long time to get our food but that left time for conversation.

Kai has expressed a desire, at least 3 times, to be able to take break-dance lessons. He is quite good at it, but I don't know how he learned except from movies or TV. With all the dance classes Kelly has taken her whole life, you'd think I'd know about break-dance. But the closest she'd come to street-type dance was hip-hop. I wonder if a person can even take break-dance lessons. I thought that was something people just learn on the street. He said he is also interested in jazz, too, so perhaps we can try a couple of classes at a studio in Williamsburg and see how it goes. I explained to him that there are not many boys who take dance classes, and that he might be very smart to do this because he will meet a lot of girls.

After Jessica and Kai had their ice cream, I paid the check and we decided to walk back. When we got to the orphanage, I suggested that we walk Jessica back to her apartment (She is scheduled to have worship practice this evening.) in order to spend more time together. So, we walked some more. Kai asked lots of questions about school and if Dylan and Benjamin will come and visit him. He asked if Elliot will help him learn English and how long it will take for him to be able to speak English. I answered as best I could and Jessica translated up a storm.

It was a really long walk to Jessica's and Kai began to complain that it was so far. I knew we had to walk all the way back, and then I had to walk to my bus stop, so we said good-bye across the street from her apartment and headed back. Kai went into his own world as we walked and didn't realize he was leaving me behind. I said, "Don't you like me?" and he slowed his pace to match his old mother's. Without Jessica, our conversation came to a screeching halt, but I tried to talk about a few things that, between his English and my Russian, he could understand.

We parted outside the orphanage so I could head up to the bus stop. I like how he will hug and kiss me in public and in front of his friends. Robbie was like that, too. The boys in his class will tease and make jokes about just about anything. But they never tease or joke about me or about Kai hugging me, holding my hand, or anything. It appears to be somewhat sacred. And now when I arrive at the orphanage, each one approaches me with a hug, and even allows me to kiss his head or cheek. I love being a mom. These kids really value it, too.

I think I had walked a million miles today and I realized that I had suggested to Kevin that we go grocery shopping when I got home this evening (during his lunch break). Oh, great! I got home, put my feet up for 15 minutes or so, and it was 7:00 (12:00 US time). So we headed out to the Amctop (Umstore) and shopped. We got all kinds of food and walked home with it. Kevin carries the heavy stuff in my tote bag. That thing has more than paid for itself. Don't leave home without one of those. At home, I relaxed, had a beer, and we watched a Jordan episode. I was exhausted and was in bed before 11:00. Kevin worked late.