Alex's Birthday

January 26, 2008 Alex Duffy's 2nd Birthday

Brad's Blog

We had a slight emergency last night. We were told that we need to get photos of Alex’s finished room. Which tough to do since we are across the planet, so my Dad and Dee Dee’s Mom went over to the house and took some great photos. So thank you both for doing it, they look great.

We woke up around 4:30 this morning after a fair night sleep. There were some Russian and American wrestlers staying here, who were up late partying. But fortunately it did not last to long. We went downstairs for breakfast around 6ish. Not bad today. They had cereal, eggs of some sort of, some mush, that Dee Dee said tasted familiar, beef stew, mashed potatoes and donuts along with breads and tea and coffee. We came back to the room got showered and ran down the street to the grocery store to try and find something good for Alex for his birthday. The weather today is warmer today -8c or 17f. Not to bad for neighborhood walks.

We came back to the room and packed up his toys and candy and went downstairs to meet our translator and driver at 8:30 am. We went over to the orphanage and played with Alex for about 2 hrs. I am not going to go in depth because Dee Dee talks about it below. He did warm up to us after about 10 min and towards the end of the time he would let Dee Dee put him on the slide and I would catch him at the bottom and throw him up in the air. He loved it. It was nice to be able to hold him a little, he is still does not like to be touched. The best part was when he left, the house mom was telling him to wave by to his momma and papa and he started waving and said papa. It was so sweet. I wanted to go grab him. It breaks my heart to leave him for another 10 days or so.

After the orphanage we had to go get the photos printed for court tomorrow. Our translator went with us to help out. We walked in to a Kodak place similar to Wolf Camera. We put or media stick into the machine and that is where it went crazy. First, the machine we used would not work. So after standing in line a couple of minutes she told us to use the other one. So we redid the process and still no pictures. After about another 15 min in line, she tells us they will print shortly. Shortly was 5 min and our translators patience had shortly worn out. A man came over and the machine was out of ink. They changed the ink and the first picture was ours but the next 15 of a naked women, were not. It was a little embarrassing to sit there photo after photo and say “not mine”. The translator thought it was real funny. Anyway after our photos finally came out Dee Dee and I walked down the street to a buffet restaurant and had lunch and now are about to take a nap and prepare for court tomorrow.

I am a little nervous about it. This is the final deal, the yes or the no. And I will have to do most of the talking. I guess I am going to have to pull out those “used car salesman” skills and woo her (the judge). We will update again after court wish us luck and all the prayers are appreciated.

DD’s Part

We just got back from the orphanage where we got to spend about 2.5 hours with Alex. We tried to celebrate his birthday with a little b’day hat and a gift for him, but he didn’t want to have much to do with either one of them. Brad tried to put the hat on him and he didn’t want it near him. Brad then put it on his own head and Alex was curious, but still didn’t want it anywhere near him. We gave him a gift and he seemed scared of the tissue paper in the bag. We took a stuffed bear out of the bag and he thought it was ok until we squeezed the stomach and it started saying things in Russian. The interpreter said it said stuff like, “I miss you” and “hug me”…which I thought was cute considering we do miss him. Alex thought this was very strange and didn’t like it at all.

We got to the orphanage during the time that the kids have playtime. An older class (maybe 3 or 4 year olds) were in the same room with us singing and dancing with the teacher playing the piano. They also got musical instruments and marched around the room playing. It was the cutest thing ever and if I could have, I would have taken them all home. There was one boy that kept coming up by us and you could tell he wanted us to play with him. There was one boy that Brad and I nicknamed “trouble maker” b/c he always wanted to be the center of attention and do everything that he wasn’t supposed to do. He was having a great time showing off for us. He was wearing yellow tights and it was cracking me up. I have a video of their playtime and I will have to show you guys some time. Later on, another class came in and they looked a little younger, but I don’t think they were as young as Alex. They had a good time too.

After we played with Alex for a while, we met with the house doctor and she told us about his schedule and what he ate and stuff like that…(I will list it below for those of you that are interested in what they do over here.)

7am – Wake up and go to toilet
7:30-8am – Breakfast: milk porridge, tea, bread
8-8:30am – hygiene (we guess that means bath and brush teeth)
8:30-10am – games, cheerful activities (this is what they were doing when we got there today.)
10am – 2nd breakfast: banana, fruit puree, or juice
10-12pm – outside activities / walking
12-12:30pm – Lunch: veggie and meat soup, (puree like), juice
12:30 – 3pm – midday nap
3-4pm – waking up snack (milk, cookies, yolk of a egg)
4-5pm – games, pleasure time
5-7pm – being outside/walking
7-7:30pm – dinner, hygiene
7:30-8:30 – games
8:30pm – 2nd dinner (glass of milk)
9pm-7am – sleep