Sunday, July 12, 2009

Today is Alina’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Baby Girl! She is a whopping six years old! And, only wearing 3T’s. She is a tiny little munchkin but she is MY tiny little munchkin!

SIDE NOTE:
I have been saying and spelling my translators name wrong…it’s Shirin pronounced Shar-in like Sharon Stone she tells me. How embarrassed am I that I’ve known this delightful person for almost a week and I’ve been saying her name wrong. It must be the jetlag!!! That’s what I’m blaming it on anyway =).

I was a little confused as to when we were leaving for the orphanage today. I thought, in my hazy mind, that I had heard Shirin say that we would be leaving at noon instead of 9:30. Well, I wasn’t for sure and I forgot to confirm the time before we parted yesterday. I just got up at my usual time and was ready by 9:30 just in case. I didn’t go downstairs to wait today so Shirin had come upstairs to get me. I felt bad that I had been confused about the time but Shirin was ok with it. No one is confused anymore and so we are off to Umit.
I didn’t bring the usual toys with me because I thought we were going to have Alina’s birthday party right when we got there. Not so! We had to wait until 11:30. So, here I am with no toys for my baby to play with. What the hell are we going to do? I had all the treats and big boxes of juice in the rolling bag I used as a carry on. I had wrapped the stacking toy I had bought Alina up in some fabric that I brought to make sun hats out of for the other children in the orphanage. I tied it together at the top with some yarn that I brought to finish up the gifts for the orphanage staff. So, no juice or tea for my baby and no toys. Well, I got creative. I pulled one of the big juice boxes out of the rolling bag and opened it. Poor baby had to drink out of this large juice box…it was quite funny and Mama helped her do it. We had to open her present so she would have something to occupy her for another two hours. I helped her pull the yarn and we unwrapped her stacking blocks. Ding…Ding…Ding….score big points for MAMA!! She loved them and started taking them out of the package right away. They were in a little plastic back pack that zipped up (see pics). I helped her unzip the back pack and she instantly started taking the blocks out one by one. After all the blocks were laid out on the bench in the gazebo, Alina starts stacking. She is so smart and this proved to me that although she may be behind physically, her brain is working just fine. The blocks come in pieces of a block with one nub, a block with two, three, four, and six nubs which can all be connected together. It’s like on oversized version of Legos. She starts putting these blocks together and concentrating very hard. When she stacks a few together, she realizes she needs a block with just one nub to fill in the end and so and so forth. She does this over and over and makes a tall stack of oversized Legos. We celebrate, take them back apart and do it again. She is in 7th heaven! Mama is having fun too!
Alina had to go to the bathroom during our visit today. She winced once and pulled at the back of her shorts. She looked at me and said, “mamama” and I got it. Shirin asked her if she had to go to the toilet and she said yes. I scoop her up and head into the orphanage. There is a bathroom on the first floor. I had seen it on the Umit video but I wasn’t quite sure where it was. I walked up to one of the orphanage workers and said, “toilet” and they pointed down the hallway where I had just come from. So, I went to the other end of the hall and found it. Alina started fussing right away and I then realized she had never used a real toilet before. She was afraid to sit on it. So now what do I do? I take her upstairs to her room, look around to see if there is a toilet in there. I thought there might be a nanny up there who could tell us where to go. There wasn’t so I walked in and found Alina’s bathroom that she was used to using. On the floor are these red plastic bowls that I can only assume is what she is used to going to the bathroom in. And, mama was right! She saw them, pulled her pants down, and did her business. The only way I can describe these little pee-pots is to liken them to a large dog food bowl. It was interesting to say the least.
As you enter the Alina and her playmates room, there is a somewhat small kitchen area to your right. Take a few more steps in and to your right at the end of the wall is the bathroom area. Look to your left and you are in the large, open playing/eating area with one wall full of windows. There are tiny table and chairs all lined up against the wall. In the corner just after the wall of windows, there is a platform made of wood that is about 2 ½’ tall that has a slide coming off of it. It is brightly painted in primary colors and also serves as a storage place for some large balls. There are book shelves along the back wall that also serves as a place to store toys and there is a TV. Along the other wall in the room, are two couches and a chair. There is a doorway that leads into the children’s bedroom on this wall as well. Through those double doors are the tiniest beds you’ve ever seen aligning the walls with two rows done the middle of the room. They all have sheets and pillows and are neatly made up. At the back of the room stands a tall wardrobe where clothes are neatly folded, stacked, and stored. At the other end of the room is an adult size desk and chair that I can only assume the “night watchman” sits at while the babes are sleeping. It is all very neat, tidy, and orderly.
As Alina finishes going to the potty, she grabs me by the hand and leads me into the bedroom area. There is no one around so I just follow her. She takes me down the isle at the foot of the beds that align the wall. She is walking slowly and chattering as we head for the wardrobe. She opens the doors, says something, points at the clothes, and shuts the doors again. I ask her where Alina’s bed is but she doesn’t understand me. She grabs my hand again and we start back toward the double doors and out of the room. It was as if she was showing me where she lived and sharing with me the only life she has every really known. I was very touched by it. We reach the entry way and she reaches for me to carry her down the stairs. I do so gladly and we head back out to our gazebo to play some more with her new stacking toys.
The new toys from Mama keep Alina occupied until 11:30. It is now time for her birthday party. Being an American, I’m thinking all the little ones will surround my girl, sing happy birthday to her in Kazak, and then proceed to devour the goodies I had brought for everyone! Not the case. One of her nanny’s came and got her and took her up to her room while I waited at the gazebo. Janette came out about five minutes later and said we could go up to her room. Her room is on the second floor of the orphanage. I enter the room and there is this tension in the air that is really making feel very uneasy. They have Alina sitting all by herself at her own table in the middle of the room with the treats in front of her. Her roommates, all in their undies, are sitting at their tables eating their soup and bread. I am allowed to come into the room and sit in a chair off to the side as a nanny and Janette finish putting the treats out of dishes. After they are done, I walk over to Alina (whether I’m allowed to or not) and offer her a cookie. She takes it, points at the other cookies on the table and I retrieve one for her. I also pour her some juice in her very own coffee cup (yes, ceramic coffee cup…not a child size plastic cup…a regular adult size coffee cup) and unwrap a sweet for her. She is still sitting all by herself. I get to see her eat her sweet, take two bites on one cookie, a bite of the other cookie, and drink one cup of juice then I am ushered out of the room. It was the strangest thing I have ever encountered. I felt so horrible for my baby. She doesn’t even know what it’s like to have a birthday party! That’s ok…her 7th birthday party will be a big bash! I’m just glad I was able to be there with her and watch her enjoy at least a few bits of the treats. I sincerely hope that ALL of the children in her group got to enjoy the treats. I have no idea if they did or not. I’ve heard that sometimes the orphanage staff will take stuff like this home to their own families. I can only pray this didn’t happen to those little cherubs…they deserve a treat every once in a while.
As I have been ushered out of the room, Janette, Shirin, and I exit the orphanage and get into the waiting taxi. Not much was said on the way back except that the orphanage staff usually will not let parents into the children’s rooms but they made an exception for me today. Uh…thanks?!! They would probably sh** their pants if they knew Alina and I went into the bedroom area. At least I got some good pictures for the Guardianship Council meeting later next week.
Everything at this place is so regimented. It has to be! There are lots of children here and children need structure. Let me tell you, they get it here! They probably don’t take a piss unless they are suppose to!!! But, again, it has to be that way. It seems a little overbearing to me but who am I to say anything…their country…their rules. All I can do is adhere to them until Alina is under my care and not theirs [teeth clamp down on tongue].

Love to all from Alina and Me!!