You Good People--Official Bonding Ends.

The Perry Calender.

The days are beginning to run together and according to my daily vitamin regime it’s 2 down and 1 to go, weeks that is. I mean seriously, using planetary alignment for determining the actual date is so old fashioned! The last two bonding days have been wonderful. One spent here at the hotel (day 13) and yesterday (day 14) back at the Regional boarding school. All in all, we’ve spent a lot of time playing together as a family and walking from place to place, intermixed with snacks on yogurt and ice cream, banana’s and bubble gum. Every Yin deserves a Yang.

Bubbles on the roof.

Yogurt is yummy and that jacket and those pig tails are too cute.

We borrowed an electronic translator for our excursion and slowly have begun to learn how to work the dang thang. Cade and Yulia have been having conversations betwixt themselves which has been very enjoyable to watch. Cade’s initial communication explained what the translator could actually do and how it worked. I watched as she read the Russian version of Cade’s text and when she finished you could she her eyes widen and the light go on. She typed frantically in Russian a very long sentence then pressed the translation button. That moment in time seemed to linger for sometime until Cade finally announced the decoded message. “You good people.” Cade seemed to be a little puzzled by the fact that all those Russian words somehow where magically reduced into a phrase in our language consisting of only three words. But what power those three words had on me. At that moment, my heart was deeply touched, and as her soon-to-be father, I appreciated her vote of confidence. I wanted to be good people. It is a desire of my heart, but as she will come to realize, I’m still a work in progress. Love can indeed be blind. But not to lose the moment, I grabbed the translator and typed “You are a beautiful princess,” to which she looked at me, smiled and blushed. Priceless.

Conversation via the translator.

Our visit yesterday at the RBS was unlike any another. The girls were not expecting us and because we showed up early, were not perched in the waiting position by the gate. That left us to find them. We ventured upstairs to Olia’s family and within a few short moments she was found. She was so excited. I left Debbie to gather Olia and I had Nina, a beautiful 13 year old girl who will be going home to a new family in Alabama next week, lead to me to her friend, Yulia. We caught her completely off guard and she ran towards me, jumped into my arms and gave me the biggest hug yet. Quickly she gathered her stuff, we rejoined Deb and Olia, and headed for the Foyer.

Nina, Yulia's friend. My tour guide.

Our translator met us there with the Head Lady in charge of all the children. She escorted us down a long, dark corridor to a very small room with a couch and table. We posed for a few pictures with the lady from the orphanage (this is required to show the court) while the girls cut out the paper dolls. She asked the girls’ questions about the past two weeks and about going to America, having brothers etc. It was so interesting that I forgot I should have been video taping it for posterity. Eventually, she signed off our newly updated log book and excused herself. For the next 2 hours we sat there as the girls (and Deb) cut, cut and cut more outfits for their dolls. We were lucky enough to have Nina in our company, we chatted about her family. She showed us the pictures from the visits with her new parents and summer camp, a lot of which contained pictures of our girls. I drew a map of the United States showing Utah and Alabama, how close they were, and that she could easily have her parents drive her up for an afternoon visit. She laughed. It was nice to laugh because the process of time our conversations turned more serious as we asked the girls if they had more questions about America.

Visit with RBS personnel.

“Do they really have bears? Do the bears eat people?”

I shared the story about my father who, very recently, had almost hit bear with his big truck. But he lived was far, far away and no bears liked our neighborhood. I failed to tell them about the cougar spotted just before we left in a neighbor’s backyard. But, I did tell them about the cougar food, the cute little deer that make a mess of our attempts at landscaping.

“Do the deer eat people?” Olia asked.

“No, just the expensive trees and shrubs we plant in the yard,” I joked.

Speaking of joking, Yulia quiered. “Do they really cut kids up, can them, and sell them on the shelves?”

Just that morning we had chatted with some other Americans about some of the things the kids are told about what is REALLY going to happen to them when they get to the states. At the top of the list is selling their body parts for money. For reasons I have yet to fully understand, there are some serious misconceptions floating around the minds of these children.

For the first time I realized the “risk” the girls are taking by coming home with us. Due to their age, they are not allowed to make the decision for themselves. Certainly we have asked them to share their feelings, as nobody wants to bring anyone home that doesn't want to be there, but legally they don’t have any rights. They rely on the adults, including us, and everyone at the RBS to decide if this is a good situation for them. “You good people,” flashed through my mind. Only this time it meant , ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE who have been involved in this process with us. More than ever before, I'm was glad there is a God in Heaven who had granted one of his daughters the power of discernment so that she may know that her, and her baby sister, will be safe and loved in their new home.

guy