Meeting Sergei

In July Kevin read an article in the Draper Journal about a group of Ukrainian orphans coming to Utah for a three week visit. They were looking for host families and I told Kevin if he wanted me to call we were going to have to adopt some Ukrainian orphans (I thought I was joking) - he said he still wanted me to call.

The day came to pick them up and I was sweating bullets because I thought I was getting two young brothers but when I arrived at the airport they told me I was getting a 13 year old boy! I don't know anything about 13 year old boys - all I have is baby girls. When Sergei got off the plane I was really nervous, so I just kept talking louder and more. Which made Sergei nervous which made him almost curl up into a fetal position. I am sure he was wondering why this American lady was screaming at him.

By the end of the first day I had stopped talking loudly and Sergei was opening up. He spoke no English but we were quickly developing a good system of charades. Kevin was learning Russian as fast as possible but I stuck with drawing pictures in the air.

The first full day Sergei was here my mom took him shopping for some clothes. Everything he picked out had a cartoon graphic on it. The next time he saw his group of friends from the orphanage many of them also had new clothes- but none had cartoon charaters on them. Pretty soon he would wear his solid black pants and shirt. I guess peer pressure is universal!