Hard Time

It’s been a tough couple of days for the Stone fam here in Pavlodar. All of the children from Ryland’s orphanage have been sent to summer camp. The orphanage will shut down for the better part of the summer to give the staff a break. Since we only have about 8 days until we can pick Ry up, sending him to summer camp with all of the other children wasn’t feasible. The Director decided to send him to a new orphanage right outside of Pavlodar that is set up very similarly to Kids Village. (About a 20 minute drive from our apartment.) Yesterday we picked him up from Kids Village to go with him to the new orphanage. He was very nervous and didn’t understand what was happening. As soon as we got in the car, he asked if we were going to America. Poor kid... He was very clingy and had had to either hold our hands or be held. We toured the new place with him and were able to check out the new house and other children. He was very, very upset when we had to leave and cried. It was hard for us, because this is the first time that we’ve seen him cry and be so upset. It doesn’t matter how we try to explain everything to him, he just doesn’t understand. It just breaks my heart to see him so upset. He is so scared and nervous and I can’t do anything to help him understand.


What a hard summer this little guy has in store. So many changes… We wish that he could’ve stayed at his old orphanage for just another week to make things easier on him. It is what it is and I have to keep telling myself this…

Today when we got there he was very glad to see us, but he was a little reserved. He wanted to be right with us and got very nervous if one of us left the room. We played for a while and went over a lot of new words in English. It amazes us at how well he can say things and how happy he is to learn a new word and have Mama & Papa tell him “mol-o-di-yetz” (good job)! He gets so proud of himself! We joined his temp family at the breakfast table and that was a cool experience. He gobbled up his milk porridge, bread & milk. Today they served him tomato juice, which he didn’t really care for, but had a few drinks when I asked him “plllllease”! Let’s hope this sticks and all I have to do to get him to do something is say please with a sweet face! (And to all of those I work with, yes – I am capable of being sweet!!)

Time to go was rough again today. He kept saying that he wasn’t at home and that he wanted to go to his home with mama & papa. Tears came rolling down his cute little face again and it just breaks me. He had a death grip on our hands and didn’t want to let go. There were lots of promises for tomorrow to attempt to help the situation. (Speaking of, we’ve got to walk over to the grocery store to find some kinder eggs!) We went over the calendar again and it’s only 8 more days! Dust & I are so excited and he is so sad because he can’t understand! I just want to grab a sleeping bag and move into his new house with him.

The process is long and hard and I hate that the “system” won’t allow us to take him a little early, if for nothing else than to make things a little easier on the poor kid.

The bright spot, if there is one, on these last few gloomy days is that you can really see that he looks to Dustin & I as his rocks. To him, it’s like we’ve always been his parents. He loves us so much and we see that everyday. He literally wants nothing more in the world than to come be a family with us, all together. Our translator says that when we finally get to bring him back to our apartment that he will follow us everywhere. He will worry every time that we leave a room. Breaks my heart… He really is going to have a tough summer with a lot of change; I just hope that Dustin & I can make each transition as smooth as it possibly can be.



Hoping that tomorrow will be a tear-free day!

Cort & Dust