Sunday April 25 I Don’t Feel 50

Woke up this morning and Diane wished me Happy Birthday but I took some solace in the fact that it’s not after midnight yet where I was born so technically I was still 49. We went to the orphanage at 10:00 and Julianna greeted us and gave me a small angel figurine as a gift. Evidently she’s very perceptive regarding my personality.

This time we went upstairs to a classroom on the sunny side of the building which was a nice warm location for our visit. Julianna and Nadya got busy working on gift cards for me. We brought along a few different treats to share so Diane and I contented ourselves with doing research on the local sweets.

I’ve taken pictures of the cards the girls made and I really hope they get included here. This will be my first attempt to send photos.

From: Julianna A Purvis
To: Ted Purvis

My dear father! Happy Birthday! I love you very much! I wish you to be happy, lucky, healthy. I am so happy that I will be your daughter and can named you “My father”.

With love your daughter Julianna 25.04.10

You can imagine how I felt when I read Julianna’s card. I don’t want to sound too girly but it was pretty painful trying to maintain my usual cool demeanor. I let her have some treats.

They allowed us to take her shopping so Pasha drove us “downtown”. She needs an outfit to wear to Court so we purchased jeans, sweatshirt, shoes, socks, bra and underwear. She had very definite ideas about what she wanted, big surprise (not). Diane suggested one item and she said “Mom!” with the disdain that comes naturally to a teenager - pretty funny.

During our shopping trip a funeral procession walked by followed by a bus decorated with pictures of the deceased and playing appropriate music. They were carrying the open casket of the young man on their shoulders. Of course I didn’t film this out of respect for the family but I wish I could of. Another vivid experience that will stay with us. We found out later that he died of Tuberculosis. So preventable and so sad.

We returned Julianna to the orphanage and said goodbye for the day. We won’t visit her tomorrow until 4:00 PM because she has school. We have some court business to take care of in the morning. Nastya says we just have to stand there and look friendly so we’re going to practice tonight.

One last thing. Olga, the local Inspector (social worker), showed up at the Icebox with a gift for me. Olga has known Julianna since she was a little girl living with her mom and she’s very happy about the adoption. The gift consisted of tulips, champagne, chocolate candy and Axe Dry Dark temptation deodorant. I kid you not. She also kissed me three times on the cheek so she’s three ahead of Diane at this point in the trip.