Surreality

Exactly five years ago, we were in Ukraine, just a week into our five-week adventure for Masha’s adoption.  For the next few weeks, I’m posting excerpts and a photo or two from each day.  Sometimes funny, and sometimes proof of how naive we were, I hope you’ll enjoy our little trip down memory lane…

Wednesday, 23 May 2007 – Surreality

…although we’re settling into a routine, I’m having a little trouble adjusting to not having control over what’s going on. Add to that the anxiety of becoming a new parent, but not really being able to start parenting for real yet…I feel like I have a rent-a-kid for a few hours a day.

We are in a strange state of suspended reality on one side of Masha’s dual lives. I can only imagine how challenging it is for her to balance the familiarity of orphanage life with the combination of hope and fear of her new life with us. Piled onto that the fact that our time together is generally with another family and with our facilitator, and is packed with eating out and playing…not a solid indicator of “real life.”

I wouldn’t give up this time with Masha for all the tea in China (or Ukraine!) but it’s still very surreal. I can’t wait to get back home and settle in, but I also am terrified of it. I know that God will give me the strength and the wisdom that is beyond my experience, just has He has all along…but it’s scary nonetheless.

…After lunch, we took [the girls] to the park in the center of town to play for a little bit before we took them back…the girls migrated over to the little playground, where they climbed around and played on the swings. Mark and Fred spun them around on the little spinning merry-go-round-like-thing (what are those things called anyway??), then Mark and Fred got on and the girls spun them around on it until the self-proclaimed Playground Policewoman, a little old babushka, came over and sternly told them that it was for children only….

Are you the silly parent or the serious parent?  Leave a comment…