One Day at a Time

Labas! Last night (our first night together) I told the girls that they could sleep as long as they wanted ... and did they ever! KC actually woke up around 5am and I rolled out at about 9 (KC was making coffee at this point and the pot is so incredibly loud!) So we had coffee, read your comments (thanks!) and waited for the girls to wake up. They got up around 10, but weren't hungry yet, so we had breakfast at 11am!

The girls are very quiet so it's been hard to interact with them. Audruta (I think that's how you spell her nickname) is very smart ... she can understand most English and can speak it very well. Kornita (again, ?) does not know much English and is therefore super quiet. So today's excursion to the water park was the perfect ice-breaker!

The girls have been there before, so they knew exactly what they wanted to do ... Audruta started right off on the first slide we came to ... she seems pretty outgoing and athletic. Kornita was too small to go on the next slide, so KC and Audruta went together. Then she wanted me and KC to go down the same one ... this is the huge slide that we didn't go down last time we were here because it's scary! As we were shooting down this thing, KC was saying that it wasn't too bad, but that there is a pretty good downhill part coming up ... for about 3 seconds I thought I was going to die. This part of the slide is practically vertical, then it whips you up the other side before spitting you out at the bottom. Yikes! At least I can say I did it!

Then all 4 of us went down a slide together ... that was fun until we spun around at the bottom and flipped over! I think KC and I both freaked out a little bit trying to find Kornita! She had a little red mark on her face, but otherwise had a grin from ear to ear. She has the biggest, cutest smile I've ever seen! She may not talk much right now, but did she ever smile and laugh so much today! She especially enjoyed the water playground where everything was just her size ... slides, water cannons ... she had a good time!

We also spent a lot of time in the wave pool. They have this huge clear ball that you climb inside and try to walk on the water. The key word there is "try". I asked Audruta if she wanted to try it and she did ... she did pretty good considering that the grown man we had watched while eating lunch couldn't stay up more than 2 seconds either. She had a good time and we were all glad that she had tried it.

Kornita is not a good swimmer so this gave us the opportunity to hold her and give her piggy-back rides in the pools. We did a lot of splashing and a lot of laughing. She may be small but she's strong ... I think she just about choked both of us out when someone else was splashing her! At one point KC realized that he had lost his wedding ring! Even though it could have been anywhere at this point, we decided to check back at the pool we had just come from. When I told Audruta that KC had lost his ring, she immediately went to help him look for it! She's a cool kid! KC and Audruta got in the pool and I checked from up top. I saw a round object, but had no idea if it was the ring or just a paint mark on the bottom of the pool. KC came over and sure enough, it was his ring! Thank you God!

Audruta is a very good older sister. She takes great care of Kornita and was very helpful in getting inner tubes for all of us. I've seen her a few times prompting Kornita to interact with us. Like KC told me tonight, we just have to move in baby steps. Today was a good day of breaking the ice even if it was just one little chunk.

We had spaghetti for dinner with a choice of hamburger spaghetti sauce or warmed up ketchup. The girls tried our version and both seemed to like it. KC and I tried their version and decided that Lithuanian ketchup tasted more akin to sweet and sour sauce. Not bad, but not great either. Let's just leave it at interesting.

Tonight, Kornita got ready for bed and was looking at her Tinkerbell coloring book on her bed. KC decided to engage her a little and asked about some of her drawings. I think it was a little awkward, but I thought it was so sweet. Then she got under her covers and KC gave her a hug goodnight. Then I came over and sat on the bed and hugged her too. We both told her that we loved her. I kissed her on the forehead and went to let go, but she kept holding on. It was such a sweet moment that it gave me goosebumps. Another baby step. I'm sure tomorrow will be another quiet day, but that's okay. We'll just take this one day at a time.