The value of love

There's beauty all around Losovoye, you just have to open
your eyes and your heart.

Bear with me as I fill in some background and explain a lesson that I have learned by going through this adoption.

My oldest son and I have been going through a rite of passage.  I have been deliberately spending time with him each day focusing on three key aspects to his development into a man.  We focus on the spiritual, physical, and mental components to being a man.  The spiritual piece is essentially a daily reading from the bible and we discuss what we’ve read.  The physical is how to take care of one’s self, with a strong emphasis on strength as a man has to be able to protect himself and his family.  The mental piece is the basics.  How to cook, how to iron, how to clean the house, how to change a flat, how to work with tools, etc.  We started, and had to put it on pause for this trip, the process which will take us three months to complete.  Each month we also focus on a different value essential to manhood.  The first month was the value of work.  We completed a bunch of tasks around the house and in his studies.  The idea being nothing is given to you, you have to work for it. The second month was the value of service.  He who is first shall be last.  He who wants to lead shall be a servant…or something like that.  The final month’s value was love.  I honestly struggled with how to illustrate this value to my son.  I love him and certainly tell him daily along with a hug.  But how do you communicate the value of love.  For example, even when we do not know Christ or even when we do not accept him, He loves us.  Well enter the adoption of Sophia.  I have said it and will say it again, I love Sophia.  I know how God must feel when he looks at us, knowing what’s best for us, yet we reject him and He still loves us.  I don’t know how she feels about Lisa or me.  From body language, she is very comfortable around us and we certainly get hugs before and after each visit.  I have accepted this.  My example is in Jesus and I will love Sophia the same way.

Today at the orphanage the children were still eating breakfast so we went inside to see how it works.  Breakfast is a sit down meal, lunch was a grab and eat meal.  I’m curious to know what dinner looks like.  Today’s meal was fish with vegetables and potatoes.  First world observation, we tend to have different meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  To them, it’s food.  Sophia finished eating and we walked back to the dorm and she went to see the doctor to get her medicine to put on her lips.  We brought along the scrapbooking “tools” to add the new pictures we had developed.  Good news is she is feeling better.  I’m not gonna say healthy as I have a very different standard for healthy, but her spirit was up, her eyes were not tired and her complexion was back to normal.

We weren’t sure what to expect today as the crew is somewhere over Europe on their first flight.  Actually, we don’t know what to expect everyday.  We just wing it.  Sophia was happy to add the new pictures.  She quickly went through the pictures we had brought into three groups.  Those that will be added to her scrapbook, those that will go into her little photo album, and those she didn’t want.  Her little photo album has pictures from her trip to Alabama last year.  We are so thankful to the families from Alabama that loved her and spent time with her.  We are planning to make a trip down to see her old friends once we get her settled in NC.  Sophia quickly got to work cutting photos and stickin ‘em in the book.  We had Ala and Marina join us at the table.  It was nice.  I miss the others, but it was good to be able to spend time with Ala and Marina, both are shy in front of the camera and very friendly girls.  It didn’t take Sophia long to finish the cut-n-pastin so we asked if she wanted to go outside and take more photos for her album.  She said yes, with a smile.  So we grabbed Ala and Marina and off we went.  We headed down to the bridge to get some shots down there.  On our way, I wanted to tell Sophia that we would goof around and she could take the pictures.  I think it translated as we would fool around, as in hug and kiss.  The looks on their faces when I said this made me double check the translation.  OMG!  I gotta be more careful.  I’ll file this under the category of funny-strange.

Dima cannonball!

We were joined by Dima, Maxim, and Peter(?).  We got to the bridge and the boys immediately started taking clothes off.  The allure of the water is too much.  Sophia was filming and taking pictures.  She was in a very good mood and we are enjoying watching her learn how to be a kid.  There will be plenty of opportunities around our house.  Oooh, speaking of being a kid, Sophia showed us a picture of her on the back of a motorcycle while in Alabama.  I’m so stoked to take her on a ride!!  We stayed down there until it was time to go and walked back up.  It was a great day and it warms our hearts to see our daughter smile.  As we were leaving, Lisa tells Sophia that she loves her and Sophia smiles.