This morning is the first day of sports camp at the church. He seems to know whats going on and told me what he wanted for lunch and watched me pack it while he ate breakfast. I have to never forget this.... but he waiting until I served Giuliana (2.5 years) and then folded his hands to say grace. Melt me! So precious!
He kept confirming we would get them at 3 from camp. I kept saying yes and then we would go swimming. This always makes him happy.
I took them over to the gym and introduced him to the director who knew all about him through our emails. Vadym looked in and saw all the boys playing basketball and seemed just fine with it. The director went over everything with me and then told me that he would not be in Grego's class because of the age difference but that he found another 8 year old boy to team him up with that spoke Russian. WHAT????? Are you kidding me? How awesome? God is watching over this boy.
Gary checked in during the afternoon and Vadym was doing great. He picked them up at 3 and when Vadym got home asked to "eat". He always does this by pointing to himself and that huge smile and say eat shaking his head yes. He was starving even though he ate most of his lunch and gobbled up a lot more than I expected him to. He again asked to swim and again I told him 5....big smiles. For the next couple hours he would either tell me or Gary how much time left to go swimming. He is so intelligent.
Swimming of course is his favorite part of the day. Gary would toss him in the water and Vadym would say "again, again". This went on for quite a while. After swimming we do our routine of going up to Noni's back patio and sitting with her while they eat the snack she gave them. Today he was sitting quiet during this time looking as if he would fall asleep. It has been a huge day for him.
We got home and while I cooked dinner he hung out with me in the kitchen and talked away (in Russian) about his day. All I could get from it was how he scored a goal in soccor as he demonstrated it over and over and put his hands up yelling something. I would clap and praise him and he was so happy. I had told him to take a bath and just went in and started his water so I would not get resistance. He seemed to be happy about the bubbles and the temperature of the water and went right in. SCORE! This has always been my biggest challenge...the bath. Again, I think it's a trust issue on top of the fact I don't think he experiences great bathing experiences and many at all. I let him shut the door and have his privacy and he seems to really appreciate that.
We had sausage (kielbasa) and Alfredo pasta. He asked for more pasta and cleared his plate. He explained to me that the pasta was good but the pasta on the airplane was horrible :). "Thank you Vadym". He does like my cooking. He loves for us to say grace. We also finally got him to wait until we were all sitting at dinner and say grace before he starts eating. He just didn't understand until now. He also helped me set the table. He just always wants to help and be told he is a good boy.
One thing worried me today. When I was making his lunch he confirmed we would be getting his sister a necklace. He then told me happily he had a mother and father in Ukraine. I stopped and looked at him and he shook his head yes with a big smile. I repeated what he said and he shook his head yes again and pointed to himself and said "i have moder, fader, seester, broder in Ukraine". I felt so bad. I didn't know what to say or if I should pursue the conversation. I changed the subject to focus on his sister again and he rambled in Russian about how when he was leaving that is all she wanted was a necklace. I need to talk to the host director about this or people from Ukraine but I know he lives in an orphanage so not sure if he is trying to make me think his life is perfect back home or if he really thinks he is going home to his parents. I will have him talk to them and see what I can find out so I know how to handle this. :0(
Again, we have been blessed with the perfect host child. Grego stopped speaking his own Russian to him finally but seems to translate a lot of what Vadym is trying to tell me when he rambles in Russian. Grego really likes Vadym and does not ever show any jealousy at all. Even when Gary plays with him and they laugh and giggle. I am very proud of my kids. They love him and have completely excepted him living with us this summer.
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