...for action, that is. It seems we hardly do anything here, but eat, sleep, and visit Erik. He is doing wonderfully, by the way. And today was the first day that he got mad when we left!! We didn't see him at all yesterday, the first day like that, as we were busy all morning doing very little with the facilitator (and going to lunch - going to lunch takes at least 90 minutes here. Service is SLOW.) In the afternoon, Mark wasn't feeling well and I was tired (from doing nothing, I think) so I didn't go, either. This morning, Mark still wasnt' feeling well, so I went alone and the little bugger was happy to see me! The caregiver said he was looking for Mama, and whether that's true or not, I don't know, but it was sweet of her to say, and it seemed to be true. We had a nice visit and are bonding nicely. This afternoon, Mark went with me, and we had a nice, long visit. We saw Leeza again, and little Alina and the girl from yesterday playing outside, but their caregivers were not very nice and we didn't visit with the girls for long. They also would not allow me to take any pictures, which didn't surprise me.

I love this picture below. Mark was playing with Erik with his hat and Erik was having such a fun time! When he gets excited, he gestures wildly and I caught this adorable picture:

I also put in 3 similar pictures here to show how much he likes to look at books!! For a kid who's never seen a book before, he sure shows good interest. And he TALKS the whole time he's looking!! "Lalalalalala babababa", etc. He is so animated! The top picture shows how he likes to hold your finger when he does something like turn the pages in a book, or push a button on a toy, or whatever. It's like he wants moral support, so he holds your finger while he's doing the job. It's the sweetest thing!

We had a nice visit with Erik this afternoon - what a cute kid!!! He's so funny and really coming out of his shell every time we see him.

THEN - as we were walking with him around the orphanage in the yard, I spotted Leeza. There was no way I could get around. Anyone who knows me knows that I would *LOVE* to adopt Leeza, but she's been spoken for (hopefully her family will get here soon!). Not only was she the cutest thing ever, but before I could turn around to avoid her, she ran STRAIGHT AT ME, with this HUGE smile on her face and said, "MAMA!!!". I heard Mark mutter, "Oh, that'll help...!" LOL I about died. The caregivers didn't know who I was and Erik was dressed in his "I have parents" clothes, so we didn't approach her, so as not to worry them. They called her away just as I wanted to start to cry. A few minutes later, we had no choice but to pass by again, and do you know what that little dickens (my grandmother's word) did? She stood on the top of a play thing platform and with the branch of dead leaves that she was holding, started strumming it like a guitar and singing!! Mark and I laughed so hard we about split a gut!!! THAT didn't help either!! You don't KNOW how badly I wanted to take that precious little girl and RUN! By that time, we had told the caregivers that we knew Alexei's family and Leeza's new family (though we really don't know Leeza's), and they understood why we were there and relaxed quite a bit

BUT! By THAT time, Mark had fallen in love with his OWN little girl!! A PRECIOUS little brunette, just as petite and feminine as could be!! He asked her what her name was, and she said, "Alina". He picked her up and she called him "Papa", and that was all he needed. He could hardly put her down. I kept telling him our taxi was coming and we needed to go, but it was as hard pulling him away from her as it was pulling me away from Leeza!!

We took our taxi home, and Mark called our facilitator asking if she was available. She's checking. Mom? We may need you again next year...!!!!! LOL The probability of her being available is fairly low, however. Just because kids are in orphanages doesn't mean that they are available for international adoption. I will admit, though, this girl was really a special little girl.

(And OF COURSE I didn't bring my camera!!!)

One thing I didn't mention in my last post was that the director offered Leeza (Elisabeta) to us. I can't TELL you how hard it was to say no!!! I knew that she had her family coming for her, and I told them that I thought they were submitting this week, and they were happy to hear that, but it was a really hard thing to turn her down, considering that we had our petition letter written and everything before realizing that her original family was still going for her. Long story. I'm sure we will see her over the course of the next week or so and I'm sure I'll have mixed feelings, but I'm just glad that she has her mom and dad coming for her. She's a special girl, and they will be blessed.