All About Tolia

Our summer with Tolia is almost over. He returns to Ukraine on Friday. In spite of our hope and plan that he will be coming to America permanently, and soon, the thought of his impending absence kind of makes my stomach hurt. 

I want to share about him a bit. So let's get started.

He is fourteen. There are some things that make him similar to most fourteen-year-olds here in America. He likes to stay up late and sleep late (as he is doing now). 

Okay, he's actually sleeping in his queen-sized memory foam-topped bed right now, but this is the only picture I have of him sleeping. I suppose I could sneak in his room and take a picture of him, but he might find that creepy if I woke him up accidentally...

He loves adventure and taking risks.

Yup, he made it to the top.

The super-scary roller coaster he went on with Dave at Hershey Park
(Confession: I was jealous that I wasn't the one who got to take him on.)

He loves to eat. Fruit, red 40-laced frozen treats of all manner, steak, eggs, pierogi, ham, beef jerky, RAW onions- just for a snack. He asks almost every day for a frappucino. Sometimes, I just can't say no. 

Could you say no to this face?

In other ways, he seems so much younger than American 14-year-olds. Sometimes he wants to get to do the same things his younger sisters are doing.

 And that's okay with me. After all, most of these things he missed out on. He has child-like wonder about things that I certainly take for granted. For instance, the daily mail. He loves to run out and see what's inside the mailbox. He brings in the bills, the circulars, and occasional correspondence from people we actually know. He eagerly asks me questions about everything he brings in. "What's this?", he asks, holding up an envelope from Geico. I attempt to explain what auto insurance is. He pores over an advertisement from a local car dealership. He loves cars. He asks if he can scratch off the circle to see if we won $1000 off the car of our choice. He does it with joy. And yes, we won. "Can I have Moostong (Mustang)?"  I smile. "Maybe someday, honey."  And he REALLY loves opening packages that are delivered. He always asks if he may open something before he does. When we give him the go-ahead, he smiles hugely and softly says, "Yayyy." He doesn't seem too disappointed when it's something mundane, like running socks for Dave. 

Sometimes, it makes me feel like I have TWO sweet baby boys. 

He loves his baby brother and is very tender-hearted toward him. He cannot bear for him to cry. If I am trying to finish up some kind of task, and Jude becomes fussy in his jumperoo, or having tummy time, I will of course, say, "Okay, Jude, I'll be right there... just a minute."  Well, if I don't get him in short order, Tolia picks him up, lovingly saying, "Jude", and carries him around. He is immediately pacified. 

Jude's first time in a big pool. 

Sometimes it hits me how lucky Jude is compared to Tolia. He is given everything he needs, and most things he wants. And God-willing, he will have that most of the days of his childhood. 

I'm not sure if Tolia received 100+ kisses a day from his mom and dad. I hope so. I don't know if he was lovingly nursed whenever he was hungry, and received relatively timely diaper changes, as Jude does. I don't know if there were presents under the Christmas tree when he was a young child. I don't know if there WAS a Christmas tree. While Tolia's life now isn't bad compared to other Ukrainian orphans (he is in a "good" orphanage), it's nowhere close to being the life of a child in a family. 

I would sort of expect that that would make him jealous or resentful of a pampered and coddled baby like Jude. It doesn't, though. 

And feeding Jude his first solids. 

More about Tolia:

He loves and enjoys America very much. 

His first time "down the shore". 

Last night, we watched "Seal Team Six" about the mission to take out OBL. He was so relieved when the Seals survived the crash helicopter landing, and cheered when they completed their mission. "That was good movie". 

He loves animals.

He is handsome.

He fits right in with us.

Hibachi. His "best" (favorite) restaurant.

He is VERY smart, and can build or assemble anything. He loves to figure out and fix things. 

The boy is REALLY good at finding things that the rest of the family loses.

The tablet that we've been missing for a year. He spent most of the summer looking for it
and was SO triumphant when he found it last week. (And we were grateful!)

He LOVES his dad and lives for when he has time off. 

                           

                                                I can't remember what the pouting was about. 

Though he says that I'm his favorite, too. (It's okay with me if Dad's really #1, though.)

We love him a whole lot. Pray for all of us but especially him as this time of separation begins on Friday.