Ministry Meeting Checked off our List

Hi All!
So today was the day of our social worker meeting. It didn’t start off as the best day ever. I woke at 5am (not surprising since I went to bed at literally 8pm) and decided to post some photos on the blog. The internet works much much better early in the morning and the connection seems to get slower and slower as the day goes on. I went to post but for the third day in a row, Blogger wouldn’t open in the morning. Weird huh? It’ll open in the afternoon, but the connection is so slow that I can’t do photos. No one said life here was easy. Then I heard Rin crying and he came out saying that he peed in the bed (don’t tell the Kaz landlord) so he was up before the sun too. How we’re going to wash the giant quilt that was under the sheet (and thankfully caught the pee), I have no idea. It certainly won’t fit in the washer. I can fit maybe two pairs of pants, two shirts, and some socks and underwear and that’s about it. And where in the world I am going to hang it to dry I have no idea either. Then I went to take a shower and the hot water is out again. I mean, come on. I was nervous about our big meeting already and now I am going on day 3 without a shower? That bites. And the cold is just a dribble so I can’t even wash dishes. But, as always, I have to just shrug my shoulders and move on. And besides, I had my sweet Sumo to look forward to so how bad can my life be, right?

And he was a sweet little guy as always. For some reason, he forgot how to crawl today. I guess he was focusing more on the talking because he was certainly talking up a big old storm. But the room was quieter overall today without our friends. Rin was calmer and paid more attention to his little brother. He would periodically come over and pat his head, or kiss his belly. It just filled my heart every time. And Sumo is obsessed with Rin. He would walk past and Sumo would reach out to him. His eyes would follow him across the room and when he left the room to go play with Oxana in the anteroom, I could tell he was looking for him. I just know he’s going to follow Rin around wherever he goes as soon as he’s able like a true little brother.

In the afternoon, we actually got to take the kids outside. I know these outside days are numbered so we tried to spend as much time out there as we could. This is when little sweetcakes stopped talking altogether. I am guessing he’s only been outside the times I have taken him and I guess it is just a little bit overwhelming. There are cars whizzing past on the street, trees above, playground equipment, buildings, people, stuff everywhere that he’s never seen before and has no idea about. But if he’s anything like Rin, he’ll come to love the outdoors in time.

And then it was time to head to our meeting. Somehow we ended up being the last people seen so I am really glad that we stopped on the way to get some animal crackers for Rin. He ate about 10 thousand of them while we waited and then he was moderately good for the meeting itself. The four social workers there asked us several questions a piece and there were only two that we had to even think about. The first one was “What has been the hardest thing about raising Rinat?” and the second was about our religious views. In response to the first, we said it was his energy level- he wears us out! And as for the second, I knew what they were really asking- since our son-to-be is Kazakh, they wanted to know if we would be OK with him being Muslim and we were very clear that both of our children are free to choose whatever religion seems right to them. And that was it. We’re done with the scary Ministry meeting. Now I just have to stress about court :)

I hope you all have a wonderful day full of internet and hot water and free of pee-filled sheets and stress. Much love, -m