Our Second Visit to the Orphanage

The orphanage was not in the city of Perm. It was 21/2 hours from the city in a small town called Bereznicki. Our driver, Artur would drive us there- It was an arduous trip on a bumpy two way highway. The russians drive very fast and jut their cars out when they want to pass a car in front of them  to make sure there are no cars coming the other way. It is terrifying. 

 Our 21/2 hour drive was broken up by a stop at a petrol station about halfway there -  We would go inside where there was a  rumpled but cozy little restaurant/bar where we were served hot tea and pastries.  After a few days, the proprietors let us use their special bathroom, which I think was a privilige. 

Our translator on our first trip was named Olga. She was a very large and friendly white Russian who was a trained linquist. Since there are very few jobs, she was happy to pick up cash being a translator. She was a warm and funny woman who definitely towed the soviet  party line. She was disparaging of the russians who had immigrated to the United States, and seemed to think that struggling in life made you strong. She reminded me of a character in a Checkhov play. She seemed to be in a marriage of convenince with a kindly man who provided well for her. They had a house and her evenings were taken up fixing up her garden which seemed to be her pride and joy. Each day when we met her, she would tell us about her plants and vegetables and how well they were doing. Since  the sun set late, there was a lot of time to work in the gardens in the spring and summer.

I enjoyed those drives to the orphanage. It was a pensive time in which to contemplate our future and our new lives as parents.  I was anxious to get to the orphanage, and yet scared of the experience as well.  

When we returned to the orphanage that second day, the same caretaker brought Sonya to us. She was still holding onto the "woozit" we had given her the day before.  We always visited and played with her in a room with a wall of french  windows. It was the music room,  I believe. On the stairway up to this room, there were cute paintings of unfamiliar cartoon characters and some framed children's art. The walls were a  medicinal blue color. 

The interior of the orphanage was far cleaner than the outside. There were also some very cute children's chairs in the music room - They were painted red with  black designs on them -  There were a few old looking toys and a big cabinet with a selection of american toys, apparently given by other adopted parents.  There was the distinct feeling that the toys were rarely played with.

Sonya seemed happy to see us the second day. She moved easily into my arms, and she never cried when being given over to us. I believe the caretaker allowed me to feed her formula out of a bottle that ressembled something you would feed a baby calf. 

 On this day, we read her books, put her  in a exersaucer  that they had and we put her into a pool where there were those plastic balls. It was on the second day that  I  put her in the cute hat from Baby Bird that made her look like a million bucks.  

When the baby nurse came, Sonya  smiled at her and seemed happy to return to her arms. Who could blame her, I suppose.