She Likes Us

But I'll get to that in a minute.

Our visit with Vera this afternoon was wonderful. We arrived while her group was having their afternoon snack. When we walked in, Vera saw us

and smiled.

Thank You, Lord.

We waited for her in the little entry way and after a few minutes she came out all smiles. She went to her locker to get a few accessories...hat, purse, sunglasses...and then she led us outside. No tears. No fears.

This morning when we visited with Vera, one of the caregivers had given her a little blue plastic tub and a pink plastic pig to play with. Someone had filled the little tub with water for Vera (which obviously made the other children jealous...Vera was getting special treatment). When we left Vera this morning, Jon had left the little pig on a bench near where we were playing.

As Vera led us out today, she was obviously on a mission. She was walking rather quickly and for her, the walk from her building to the play area is a bit long. Do you know what that smart little thing did? She walked all that way, with us right by her side, around her building and down the path. For a minute, Jon and I thought she was leading us to the path to leave the grounds. But she stopped right where that path begins. She stopped right where Jon had left the little pink pig. We couldn't believe she remembered it was there.

She's a smarty.

We played there for a bit and Jon filled up the little blue tub with water. Vera watered the grass with it and asked Jon to get more water. He obliged. She watered a different area of grass with it and asked Jon for more. He obliged. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Here she is smiling at Jon as he returns yet again

with a tub filled with water.

So she can promptly dump it out.

But who can resist that sweet little face?

Finally Vera grabbed up her accessories and led us to the playground with the sandbox. And we played there for awhile and we all got filthy. But it was fun.

I would fill up the tub with sand and hand it to Vera...

and she would dump it into the sandbox.

I got out some wipes to clean my hands a bit.

Vera asked for one.

I gave it to her and she went over to Jon and started wiping him down.

She cleaned his hands, his arms, his legs and his neck.

She was very thorough.

Shortly after this she told us she had to go to the bathroom. This happened to us about the same time yesterday and I recognized the word. Off we went to find the toilet. When we got to her room yesterday, the door was locked (they were all outside) and Vera began to panic. We told her it was okay and led her to where we knew a restroom was. She shook her head and said nyet. She was really beginning to panic and someone heard us in the hallway. Vera told her she needed to go. They had a little conversation and the woman ran off. She came back with a little pail and Vera was so happy! She plopped down right there in front of us. She didn't 'go' though.

Since this happened at the same today, we knew her group would be outside. Vera insisted that we go upstairs to her room even though we passed a restroom on our way. She wasn't having any of that. Even though she was tired and had to climb many steps to get to her room. We got there and the door was locked, just as Jon and I knew it would be. We were trying to explain the situation to Vera when someone came and unlocked the door. One of Vera's caregivers. Thank goodness! She took Vera in and I could hear them in the restroom. I ventured over just to see if there's anything I should know about Vera using the toilet. Well...against the wall there were several cubbies. Inside each cubbie was a little pail with a number on it. Vera's is #8. They use the pails to do their business. No wonder she's so scared of a real toilet! It should be an interesting trip home, let me tell you. :)

After this, we went back outside. Just outside the door Vera uses, there is a faucet. She saw it and wanted Jon to fill her little tub again. He didn't really want to start all that again and told Vera nyet. She kept saying 'vodye' (water) and Jon would smile and say 'nyet.' Then Vera pulled out her high card.

"Papa, pazhalst." (please)

"Papa...pazhalst, Papa."

Well, what is a daddy to do?

They brought the little tub over and Vera gave it a good cleaning along with another wipe that she asked me for. She got all done and Jon had bent down and kissed her hand. Then she became curious about his whiskers.

And then, it was time for us to leave. We told Vera it was time to back to her group.

And

She started to cry. She didn't want to go back. She wanted to stay with us.

It was a long walk back to her group and by the time we got there she was okay. Then all her friends were calling, "Vera!" and she was happy and smiling again. We said, "Paka," (goodbye) and Vera blew us a kiss. Then one of her caregivers told her something and she came walking back to us. We bent down and she kissed each of us on the cheek. Her caregiver told her to do it, but she didn't argue or cry about it. That's progress.

We walked back to our apartment instead of taking the bus. We talked to Sasha on our way. She asked how the day went and Jon told her this morning was a little rough and that Vera cried. Sasha said, "Yes, I can explain the tears." She had called the orphanage to check on us and Vera. She said Vera cried because she likes us very much, but didn't want to go anywhere with us because we can't understand her. I really can't say that I blame her. But Jon and I are slowly learning. We'll get there!

And this was Day 2.