Rough 24 Hours

We are not having a good 24 hours here.

It started yesterday with our landlady barging into the apartment when we got back from shopping for clothes. She snooped through the apartment snitting at things and crabbing at us in Russian. I was ready to toss her out on her ear (note - ear is used in place of the part of the anatomy I actually said), when I finally understood something - she was asking when we'd leave. I explained that it could be a couple of days, but it could be over a month. She through a fit about that and said we'd have to leave before the start of September.

As Tatiana, our facilitator handles our lodging, I told her to call her. She didn't like the idea of a long distance call to Kiev, so I told her that Tatiana would call her. She kept jabbering and complaining and I kept saying, "Tatiana telephone you". She finally got the hint and left.

When we got up to see the boys for our afternoon visit, one of the rough necks that is always causing trouble started running after Riley and ended up knocking him over and ripping up his knee really good. The poor boy was crying and his bag of stuff was scattered all over. Pam had put some extra bandages in her purse earlier that afternoon, so we cleaned him up and bandaged him up while a mamachka dragged the brat away. As of today his knee is looking fine and he's back to normal.

Last night, Tatiana's son, Sasha called and told us that the paperwork was delayed so we couldn't make it to court today. We are probably looking at getting the paperwork on Monday and hopefully getting to court on Tuesday. I can not wait for court at this point and really, really pray we get the 30 days waived.

When we woke up this morning, I was feeling better after a decent night's sleep. I still have a very deep cough and it hurts my ribs when I cough, but at least I don't cough nearly as often. The bad news is that Pam is starting to feel worse now too. She is very worn out today.

At the orphanage this morning, we stayed inside for once and had a room to just ourselves and the two boys. I think Riley was upset that court was delayed, because he'd been looking forward to it - for the car ride if nothing else. Riley told us to wait and left to get something and never returned. I went wondering around the whole school looking for him and over an hour later, we finally found him. He'd joined a class going out for a walk in the neighborhood. It was led by our favorite mamachka, Natasha (who is also Riley's favorite). I explained to her that Riley took off without telling us and we didn't know where he went. She gave him some words - I understood "plahoy" (bad) in there and it got Riley all mopey.

Wow - this note is a long crab session. I'll leave it on a more positive beat. This afternoon we took a nap, feel a bit better and visited the boys without incident. We took a deck of Uno cards with us and I taught Riley how to play. He caught on really quickly and it was about a draw as to who won more games. We then did a bit of rough housing and carrying the boys around, which was fun. Jake is continuing to be a source of constant amusement.

Now we are headed to get more groceries, since it looks like we'll be here for at least four more days. Pam is going to get to visit her precious Target Supermarket again. At least I'll get a good dinner in the cafe before the punishment of a crowded store.