different week

We have had the intermittent presence of our coworker and friend Barry Freed with us the last couple of days. His ministry location is Panevezys. And he had been home for a visit to family over the holidays. Barry is an excellent connector so he also has friends in Klaipeda and many other places in Lithuania.

We hear occasional stories throughout these days of things that happened in the "group"- Erik's orphanage family. Some were associated with being sick, some with play, how the teacher let him mix paint colors (which I was not planning to do) and now about how he broke a door one day at the orphanage. Some of his comments seem to indicate that he still expects to go back there. And once in a while Augenijus slips and calls me tete instead of mama.

We received the official documents from the lawyer regarding the adoption and today we applied for the new birth certificate listing us as parents, and with the new names. (I pick it up tomorrow) And we still need to learn what the process is to get a passport for them.

Then we also need to schedule doctor exams for them at an embassy approved doctor- only one is in Vilnius. And we have things to prepare for the US embassy in Warsaw. But that trip probably won't happen till March during Spring break. Of course we also need to decide finally about going through with the change of citizenship now rather than two years from now. The benefit of waiting would be not needing to go through visa hassles as American citizens on this end for the next two years. And there are certain benefits they would still get as LT citizens. But the down side is that each time we travel we would be going through 2 different procedures and the boys would need visas for some places we don't. And each other circumstance we would go through different procedures needing to figure it out each time how we do for ourselves and how we do for them. We are leaning toward just getting it taken care of in May before our preapproval runs out.

It is suprising how often Erik asks about whether we are going to Silute. It is in such a positive note, even though he is not always the happiest and certainly not the most compliant while being there.

New situations seem to make him nervous if not truly afraid. He usually resists visiting new people and leaving the house for something new. And in public we have to prepared that he will be acting on those emotions. But sometimes it goes rather well.

Last night we visited friends we had not visited before and it went better than Erik expected it would. They have children and toys which helps of course.

We are also talking about getting Erik started in speech therapy. He will need regular skilled stimulation to progress toward the norm for his age group. He is more interested in active things and does only short activities of a more cognitive nature. Augenijus on the other hand has a stronger interest in books and talking. if we get Erik into preschool, then he will be able to get speech therapy there which seems ideal. Probably there will be a waiting list though and we need to find a private alternative for speech.

They do pretty well together for imaginitive play. And playing out the instructions we have given or corrections we give.

So we are glad for two. They are each a joy in their own ways.