This Reminds Me

Keith and I met 6-yr-old Guanna at Children’s Home #47 in St. Petersburg, Russia today- an amazing encounter with a delightful dark-haired, dark-eyed little girl.   I wish I could show you her picture, however, we’re not allowed to publicly post her photo until the adoption is final.  But I can post a photo of the building where she lives now – a third-floor (walk up) self-contained world of a a playroom, doctor’s office, admin offices, kitchen, dining room and sleeping area.

Children’s Home #47 in St. Pete – Currently Home to Guanna and 40 Other Children

After a bit of initial shyness, she was happy to tell us about herself.  Her best friend is “Catya.”  She used to be good friends with “Viktor,” but he’s been moved to another home.  Her favorite foods are cereal, ice cream and cake (Keith bought a lovely chocolate Valentine’s cake today for all the kids, plus a large bag of apples and bananas.)  She likes all kinds of fruit, especially apples.  Her caregiver, Ludmelia (sp.), said she likes hotdogs, hamburgers and mashed potatoes, too.

She likes to play outside, especially on the slide.  Keith roughhoused with her a bit.  She could hold herself off the ground, holding onto his extended hands.  What I loved was when he would quit playing with her to listen to our translator or the social worker or whatever, and she would lean back and look up, like, “Well, come on – I’m waiting.”

Our jaws dropped when she mentioned dolphins – she really likes dolphins.  Lois, is, of course, an aquatic fiend with her favorite stuffed toy of all time, “Pink Soft,” her self-chosen birthday gift when she was five years old.

We’d brought two 24-piece puzzles, and were fascinated to watch her work them.  She’s right-handed.  If she picked up the puzzle piece, she was much quicker to position it correctly the first time than if a piece was handed to her.  She worked the puzzles quickly and well, and was eager to show them to her friends.

We also brought a small (3.5″) Disney princess doll set, like Polly Pocket.  Omigosh, that was huge, really a bigger hit than a larger doll we also brought.  Keith showed her how to dress and undress the little Cinderella in her rubber clothes; the idea of “more is better” was quickly evident.  Cinderella wore a multitude of rubber gowns, complete with capes, shoes, a “fur” wrap and always her little gold crown.  Guanna counted the shoes for us, and told us the colors of the outfits.  The Cinderella set was never too far out of the line of sight of her quick brown eyes.

We brought clothes to size her, including a size 6 lavender Cinderella furry hoodie, and a size 4/5 pink Princess furry hoody, plus an assortment of pants, shirts, underwear, gloves and socks for all the children.  She’s definitely a size 4/5, and we are thinking that she’s hanging onto one of those hoodies (i.e., it’s not going into the communal clothing bin!)  She recognized the Cinderella emblem on the hoody matched her doll…and (shudder), really liked the Barbie gloves.  We’ve had very little Barbie for 14+ years of parenthood, and I am hoping to keep it that way – what possessed me to buy those gloves?  They must have been on clearance.

When we left her, she was trotting off to nap time, clutching a red flannel blanket that “Babushka” (Keith’s mother) made her her.  The blanket is a thick red flannel, trimmed in a wide blue ribbon with white stars, and an embroidered Texas flag.  If the blanket doesn’t make it out of the orphanage, we’ve got another at home that looks just like it.  We slept with Guanna’s blanket for two weeks before we left so it would smell like us.

We also left her with the scrapbook that Rachel and I made more than a year ago with its photos (house, family, friends, San Antonio postcards, etc.), complete with English and Cyrallic captions.  Ludmelia promised to read it to her at least once a day. Guanna had Rachel’s name nailed; she sometimes confused Lois and Hannah.  With the way Keith and I butcher all their names (we’ve become our parents), we joked she will be “RaLoHanJul,” much as I was “JuBeck.”

Tomorrow we are taking her crayons, markers and an assortment of papers and coloring books.  We want to see what she does with those.  Hannah and Rachel picked out most of them, and I can assure you that Disney Princesses play heavily in the covers and designs.

Yes, purple is her favorite color (imagine that!), followed closely by pink.  We showed her the picture of Hannah’s room with its purple walls – which she will share – and Keith described the glow-in-the-dark stars he stuck to the ceiling.  What is harder to explain – what is difficult to picture – is that it’s not the room that’s important, it’s the sister that’s in it.  It’s not the purple walls that matter so much, it’s the family they protect.  It’s not the blanket Babushka made for you that matters, it’s that she cared enough about a new grandchild to create it.

We will get past the language barrier.  She is bright, and we are determined, so we’ll get past that.  We can attack the (minor) health issues we know she has.  We can (continue to) document, notarize and apostile out our ying-yangs, and I know we’ll have to do so.   What’s going to be tougher is just teaching “family” – God’s first organizational unit.  Before the temple – before the church – before the high priests or the apostles or the government, there was family.

Happy Valentines Day to you – our family and friends.  No cheezy hearts cut out of construction paper here in St. Petersburg, just two beating hearts being held in the hands of a six-year-old girl.