Joy Rolls On

Here's a little bit about what's been going on at the orphanage!!

The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of joy and laughter at the orphanage. We have really been having a good time and enjoying each other! We got a grant to go bowling so Alina invited me to come and help out with the children. We took us bus downtown to the bowling arena. It was really cute and pretty empty which was good because we were very loud. The children had lots of fun bowling. The skill level ranged from managing to get a gutter ball with guardrails to being able to spin to ball and get a strike. It was quite an experience and I found myself somewhere in the middle. We laughed a lot though which was great. When he got back we had a very relaxing rest of the day. We hung out and just chilled which was rather nice.

Friday was movie night! I borrowed Ice Age in Russia and Cars in Lithuanian from one of my friends that lives here. The two older boys figured out how to hook up the DVD player while me and a few girls popped the popcorn. This in itself was quite an experience because many of the children had never had popcorn from a bag before. I’m not sure that the microwave knew how to handle it either because it was struggling to fully pop the bags. Alina brought in the soda and once we had finally popped all the popcorn it was movie time. First we watched Ice Age. Even though some of the children don’t speak Russia they still wanted to watch it. Even though it is a cartoon movie there is a lot of physical comedy and they really enjoyed it. I think we all picked up a little Russian as well. Cars was great as well and it was fun to be able to watch something that they all really understood. It was a very fun and relaxing night.

Over the break I definitely missed the kids and Alina. They are just amazing! I have really grown to love them more and more as time continues. Alina had a birthday over the break and I had talked to Igoris about planning a party for her after I got back. It was so great and definitely an adventure trying to plan a surprise party with our limited language skills. We were able to work together pretty well though. I had prepared a birthday banner for all the children to sign and they were able to stealthily get everyone to sign it without Alina ever seeing it. The cake was interesting because it needed to be in the fridge but we didn’t want Alina to see it so the children told her not to look in the fridge. While she was looking after the other class I was able to set up the kitchen and had Rolandas on door duty. After racing around the house we finally found everyone. They all waited in the kitchen while I ran to ask Alina to come in for a minute. She was shocked and so happy. Sandra handed her the poster and as she opened it she began to cry, tears of joy of course. She was so happy and we sang to her in Lithuanian as well. Then it was time for cake and more fun. Alina was so surprised, but very happy. I think she felt loved and appreciated which is just what she deserves. She does so much for the kids and everyone in the house that she really deserved to be surprised and appreciated. We did some after party clean up and then played a charades type game while Alina did paperwork. It was a great night. I can’t wait to go back on Thursday!

Next post:
Spring Break: Russian Style :)

Sending much love and huge hugs to where ever you may be :)