- 3/23/2007 10:00:00 PMDay 1 - FridayYuri arrived in Chicago on Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 10:45 PM. He and the other members of his traveling group (2 adults and 9 kids - including Yuri) arrived at the Bernhardt's home in Green Bay around 2:45 AM Friday morning.
Peggy was exhausted from preparing the house, getting things in order and waiting. For me, I had not given Yuri's visit as much thought as she had but thinking of him visiting was definitely on my mind a lot. I told nearly everyone at work about his visiting and that we were considering adopting him based on the visit and what we perceived God's will on the matter to be.
Peggy went to bed early on Thursday night. I stayed up with the kids watching Chicken Run until 10 PM. When I went to bed, I couldn't sleep. I laid awake until around mid-night. Then I slipped in and out of sleep until the call came at 1:41 AM and that they were 90 minutes south of Green Bay. Peggy and I sprang out of bed and got ready to go. I took a quick shower. We left home around 2:15 and headed for Green Bay. Peggy commented that the drive seemed very long. Hwy 41 South was dead - no traffic. I kept the car between 65-70 mph so as not to attract any unseen attention. We arrived at the Bernhardt's around 3AM.
There were 2 cars in the driveway and we parked on the road. Peggy said, "I can see kids with backpacks in the house". I believe that she actually was seeing Yuri. We entered the house and one of the first people we saw was Larisa. Mrs. Bernhardt gave Peggy a big hug and then we saw Yuri. He looked smaller than what I expected. It was like seeing someone on television but in person. You think, "you look just like you do on TV". How stupid that sounds, but there he was - looking just like his pictures.
I reached out my hand to shake his and said, "Hello Yuri". He shook my hand and was obviously shy and nervous. Peggy squatted down in front of him to get a good look at him at eye level. She said hello and also shook his hand.
He held his head low while Larisa explained that he was concerned about not being able to speak any English and us not speaking any Russian. She said something to Yuri and he picked up his back pack and headed for the door ahead of us. All together I think we were in the Bernhardt's house a total of 2 or 3 minutes. As I followed Yuri out the door, I noticed Marylin, Mr. Bernhardt and some other adults in the living room. I said "Hello" as I left the house.
As we headed towards the car, we noticed that Yuri had a bad cough. He struggled getting into the car with his back pack. We got him buckled in and headed out. As we got onto the main road, we passed by 5 police cars and a bunch of teens. It appears that they were up to no good at 3AM and the cops put a stop to it. I called to Yuri and pointed to the flashing lights - "Police". Yuri just grunted.
It was then that I really first became self-conscious of how Yuri may perceive what I say, do or act. As a father to my own natural born children, I understand that. But I also know that they understand my sarcasm, humor and personality - they know me. Yuri doesn't.
On the drive home, Yuri was very awake. He didn't say anything and Peggy didn't want to keep looking back and staring at him. It was dark and she couldn't see his face anyway. Finally about 5 minutes from home, he slumped over and fell asleep. We pulled into the drive way and parked. We got out of the car and woke him up. He grabbed his backpack and headed straight for the house ahead of us.
As we walked into the house through the kitchen door, one of the first things he saw was Roy - our golden retriever. Yuri was excited to see him and went right over to pet him. I think was an ice-breaking moment. We quickly showed him around downstairs - the location of the bathroom, the living room. Then Peggy went upstairs and woke up the rest of the kids. As they came down, Yuri hid behind one of the chairs and gave Peggy the "Shhhhhh" sign. He was shy and wanted to hide. We all stood there and looked at him and him at us. We got out our family portrait and introduced ourselves. Then we took him on an extended tour of the house.
Room to room to room he went. Back and forth checking everything out. He seemed especially drawn to Jamie's tool box and cordless drill. About an hour passed and he was still going 100mph. Room to room to room. I had to sleep and so did the kids. Peggy stayed up with him through the night and into the morning. We showed him the cat, and the rat. When he saw the rat in the cage, he pointed to it with a gun shaped hand and made a machine gun sound. We laughed. It seems rats in Russia are for other things besides keeping as pets.
I woke up around 7 or 8 AM. Yuri was outside with the kids. When he saw me watching him from the back deck he said "Good morning" to me in Russian. All through the morning he played and raced around the house. He talks a lot! He looks right at me and talks and talks. At times it is as if he is asking me a question and expects a response. When I don't answer he huffs a little and rolls his eyes.
Around 11 AM I made eggs with ham and toast. He seemed to like it very well. He calls the ham - "kielbasa". Perhaps he considers all processed pork to be the same.
We had to bring our van into the shop for repairs so we took Yuri on a little tour of Oconto Falls. The people at Peterson Ford were extremely friendly and accommodating. They loaded a car onto the lift and let Yuri watch it go up and down. They let him come into the shop and go under the car. I'm not certain he liked that. He pulled Peggy near and whispered something in her ear.
Sometime around mid-day, Mrs. Stingle called to see how things were going. She told Peggy that there were at least 2 other families where the children had not gone to sleep yet. Larissa the translator came on the phone and spoke to Yuri. He took the cordless phone and went out on the deck and laid on his back. He would holler out loud and talked and laughed and smiled. Later when he was done talking, Larissa told Peggy that Yuri said we have a "Super House" and he invited Larissa and Tatiana to come and visit.
Yuri played nearly every game and toy in the house - each for approximately 5 minutes.
He continued his high-energy activity through the afternoon and into the evening. We got him to take a bath. Once we figured out the word for "bath" he said, "neit" and ran upstairs to the bed room. Peggy followed him up there and motioned for him to get down and repeated "bath". "Niet Niet Niet". Peggy called for me to come up. I came up and found him on the top bunk (Jamie's bed) and I said to him, "BATH. NOW". He said, "Ok. Yes" and got down.
Yuri took his bath without incident. He sang in the tub and talked a lot. Finally, we put him to bed around 8 PM Friday night. This was a long day.
