Sweet Spot

Do you know what is so pleasant about spring? Well, I can think of many things, but what I love is watching nature come back to life again. Luke has a beautiful cherry tree blooming outside his bedroom window, and every morning I express to him how pretty that tree is when I open his window. It’s in full bloom with many delicate white flowers that gives you the impression of snow on all the branches. Well, this morning I was talking about this gorgeous tree and Luke looked over and said, “Mommy, I’m not really into looking at beautiful trees, but I do like to climb in them. Oh boy, boys will be boys! That’s how God made them.

We have our itinerary for Russia, and we needed to make some sanity changes to make life a little easier for us. Our flight to Moscow from Atlanta is around 10 hours long and we arrive in the morning eight time zones away from here. Well, on our first trip to Russia, we had around eight hours before we had to be on a train for Voronezh that night, so they take you to a hotel to rest and clean up. I remember sitting on the bed and waking up four hours later, but at least my shoes were off, or maybe Scott took them off, I don’t remember. So, we have decided it would be good to stay the night in Moscow the first night, and then catch our 11 hour train ride down to Voronezh. The first day in Voronezh, they are taking us to the orphanage to visit with Hannah and for Luke to meet his sister. This will be a big day for him! The next two days are set aside for our court dates. This is when the judge will ask us numerous questions and make her decision about our adoption. We have a ten day waiting period that is required, so to fill in that time we are going to visit St. Petersburg. Here’s the hard part, we are taking a train for 24 hours to get there, yes, Russia is a very, very big country. We are planning to video the countryside, so one day we can show it to Hannah and let her see more of the country she was born in. Then we will return to Voronezh and they will bring Hannah to us, and she will be our daughter and Luke’s little sister, in adoption terms, “a forever family!” After that we will get on a train (again), and head to Moscow to finish the adoption at the embassy and consulate offices. We plan to take Luke and Hannah to Red Square and many of the fascinating sites in Moscow. Luke has a field trip at his school while we will be in Russia, and he is sad about missing it, but we told him he is going on the ultimate field trip, but for some reason he is still a little sad about missing it. Someday he will see that differently.

I have one more Luke story. He has been very protective about children (not so much adults) going in Hannah’s room since we had it decorated. We have children over our home all the time, and as soon as he knows someone is coming over he will go and shut her bedroom door. So, as a curious mom, I asked Luke why he didn’t want anyone in her room, and his sweet reply was “Mommy, she hasn’t even seen her room yet and I want her to see it first.” That makes up for the tree answer. What a sweet spot!