The Big Brother
Warsaw, Poland - June 13 to June 16, 2004
The good news about the ride to Warsaw was that, since it was a Sunday, heavy trucking is not allowed on Polish roads. So, it took less time than expected. At Cestawowa, Elaine moved to Jozef’s car and I moved to the van. As we approached Warsaw, I was talking about how the Marriott was one of the easiest to spot buildings in the city. It is 40 stories tall, across from the central train station, and right in the middle of the city. Floors 4 through 20 are the headquarters of LOT, the national airline of Poland. As we got on the street that would lead us straight to it, I pointed and showed Joyce where it was. At that exact moment, the driver chose to turn off the road to stop the van and ask people where the Marriott was. This ten-minute detour wasn’t too bad. Finally, another cabbie pointed our driver in the right direction.
On the early part of the drive, I had been riding with Jozef when he had to stop to fuel his car. Frankly, there is very little as boring as sitting in the car while somebody else goes to fuel it. I went to say something to the boys, but could not get their attention. They were transfixed. They had never seen a car fueled before. At that moment, I was having second thoughts about having booked us in to such a large hotel. Kids who thought putting gas in the car was interesting were going to be overwhelmed with life on the 32nd floor.
We quickly discovered that they had never ridden in an elevator before. The elevators in the Marriott are very fast. “M” really did not like riding in these. However, we found that they were not really overwhelmed by the hotel, as I had feared. They loved the view from the room windows and particularly loved the swimming pool.
The pool is beautiful. We also had a great bit of luck. The lifeguard that was working on Monday afternoon is a young man who is going to college to be a physical education teacher. He saw that we had our hands full with three children who cannot swim and he jumped in to give the children swimming lessons. Each day he would spend the better part of an hour working with the kids. They all made astounding progress. “I” can now swim in the deep end with only little arm floats.
While swimming, the kids were constantly shadowed by Ross. Ross was amazing! At one point, I was trying to show “M” that he had to hold on to something to swim. He was fighting me. So, I intentionally let him fall into the water to communicate. Well, the lesson failed. As soon as he fell in, Ross zoomed to the rescue and grabbed him. It was impressive how quickly Ross swam to the rescue. Often, the lifeguard would have one kid in the deep end and Ross and I would have another. Ross swam countless laps protecting the kids.
Ross also has been good about holding their hands, keeping them from the elevator doors, pushing the stroller with “M” in it, buckling little “D” in her car seat (he even helped make the proper adjustments to it), fixing “M’s” sandals, buying them chips, helping them get ready for the pool, and tons of other stuff. This trip would have been much more difficult without the big brother along.
One night, Ross and I went to the pool for an additional swim after the little kids went to sleep. It was fun. It is cool that Ross stays up later than they do. We can still hang out alone sometimes.
Oh, something that I may have forgotten to mention earlier. On Saturday, Ross beat me at chess. The little rascal actually clobbered me. He had never beaten me before, but has been studying. It shows. He wants you all to know that he clobbered me with the queen backed up by the bishop.
On Monday, we took the kids to see the embassy-approved doctor. That all went smoothly. Afterwards, Jozef and Elaine went to the Ministry of the Interior to get the passports. Funny, but it took longer to pick them up than it had to apply for them.
On Tuesday, we went to the American Consulate. This was the big appointment of the whole trip. We had an appointment, but that is not as quick as it sounds. Don’t get me wrong. We walked past very long lines of people because of the appointment, but this was not an in and out deal. Without the visas from the American government, we don’t get to go home.
Jozef picked us up at 9:00 A.M. Before the Consulate, we had to get photos of the children taken for official documents. These have to be in a style that the U.S. accepts. There is a little shop nearby that does it right. The children were cooperative and the woman doing it was cheerful and quick. When the photos were ready, we headed to the Consulate.
At the Consulate, there was a huge line of people to one side of the sidewalk. We went to a different door and went right in. After security, we started by presenting our paperwork and Jozef is allowed to help with this part. Then, off to another window to pay the visa fee. Then, wait. Wait in a very crowded waiting room with three small children. Wait for our interview with a consular official. The official must see the children. So, the children must wait. I expected this to be at the U.S. Embassy and not at the Consulate. I expected this to be in conducted in offices. It was more like the Registry of Motor Vehicles or an extremely busy bank.
We were getting nervous because families that arrived after us were being called before us. Granted, they were only adopting one child each, but Jozef said he could not understand why it was taking so long. Good that Elaine had packed toys for the children.
The consular official was a young American man who was stunned that we had adopted three children. Stunned. Later, Jozef told us that he must be new because sets of three are pretty common. Jozef was not allowed to help with the interview. We had to show the children to the official and then one of us could stay for the interview. “M” would not go without his backpack. So, I wound up carrying him with his half open backpack and the little toy he was playing with. It was funny.
The good news about the ride to Warsaw was that, since it was a Sunday, heavy trucking is not allowed on Polish roads. So, it took less time than expected. At Cestawowa, Elaine moved to Jozef’s car and I moved to the van. As we approached Warsaw, I was talking about how the Marriott was one of the easiest to spot buildings in the city. It is 40 stories tall, across from the central train station, and right in the middle of the city. Floors 4 through 20 are the headquarters of LOT, the national airline of Poland. As we got on the street that would lead us straight to it, I pointed and showed Joyce where it was. At that exact moment, the driver chose to turn off the road to stop the van and ask people where the Marriott was. This ten-minute detour wasn’t too bad. Finally, another cabbie pointed our driver in the right direction.
On the early part of the drive, I had been riding with Jozef when he had to stop to fuel his car. Frankly, there is very little as boring as sitting in the car while somebody else goes to fuel it. I went to say something to the boys, but could not get their attention. They were transfixed. They had never seen a car fueled before. At that moment, I was having second thoughts about having booked us in to such a large hotel. Kids who thought putting gas in the car was interesting were going to be overwhelmed with life on the 32nd floor.
We quickly discovered that they had never ridden in an elevator before. The elevators in the Marriott are very fast. “M” really did not like riding in these. However, we found that they were not really overwhelmed by the hotel, as I had feared. They loved the view from the room windows and particularly loved the swimming pool.
The pool is beautiful. We also had a great bit of luck. The lifeguard that was working on Monday afternoon is a young man who is going to college to be a physical education teacher. He saw that we had our hands full with three children who cannot swim and he jumped in to give the children swimming lessons. Each day he would spend the better part of an hour working with the kids. They all made astounding progress. “I” can now swim in the deep end with only little arm floats.
While swimming, the kids were constantly shadowed by Ross. Ross was amazing! At one point, I was trying to show “M” that he had to hold on to something to swim. He was fighting me. So, I intentionally let him fall into the water to communicate. Well, the lesson failed. As soon as he fell in, Ross zoomed to the rescue and grabbed him. It was impressive how quickly Ross swam to the rescue. Often, the lifeguard would have one kid in the deep end and Ross and I would have another. Ross swam countless laps protecting the kids.
Ross also has been good about holding their hands, keeping them from the elevator doors, pushing the stroller with “M” in it, buckling little “D” in her car seat (he even helped make the proper adjustments to it), fixing “M’s” sandals, buying them chips, helping them get ready for the pool, and tons of other stuff. This trip would have been much more difficult without the big brother along.
One night, Ross and I went to the pool for an additional swim after the little kids went to sleep. It was fun. It is cool that Ross stays up later than they do. We can still hang out alone sometimes.
Oh, something that I may have forgotten to mention earlier. On Saturday, Ross beat me at chess. The little rascal actually clobbered me. He had never beaten me before, but has been studying. It shows. He wants you all to know that he clobbered me with the queen backed up by the bishop.
On Monday, we took the kids to see the embassy-approved doctor. That all went smoothly. Afterwards, Jozef and Elaine went to the Ministry of the Interior to get the passports. Funny, but it took longer to pick them up than it had to apply for them.
On Tuesday, we went to the American Consulate. This was the big appointment of the whole trip. We had an appointment, but that is not as quick as it sounds. Don’t get me wrong. We walked past very long lines of people because of the appointment, but this was not an in and out deal. Without the visas from the American government, we don’t get to go home.
Jozef picked us up at 9:00 A.M. Before the Consulate, we had to get photos of the children taken for official documents. These have to be in a style that the U.S. accepts. There is a little shop nearby that does it right. The children were cooperative and the woman doing it was cheerful and quick. When the photos were ready, we headed to the Consulate.
At the Consulate, there was a huge line of people to one side of the sidewalk. We went to a different door and went right in. After security, we started by presenting our paperwork and Jozef is allowed to help with this part. Then, off to another window to pay the visa fee. Then, wait. Wait in a very crowded waiting room with three small children. Wait for our interview with a consular official. The official must see the children. So, the children must wait. I expected this to be at the U.S. Embassy and not at the Consulate. I expected this to be in conducted in offices. It was more like the Registry of Motor Vehicles or an extremely busy bank.
We were getting nervous because families that arrived after us were being called before us. Granted, they were only adopting one child each, but Jozef said he could not understand why it was taking so long. Good that Elaine had packed toys for the children.
The consular official was a young American man who was stunned that we had adopted three children. Stunned. Later, Jozef told us that he must be new because sets of three are pretty common. Jozef was not allowed to help with the interview. We had to show the children to the official and then one of us could stay for the interview. “M” would not go without his backpack. So, I wound up carrying him with his half open backpack and the little toy he was playing with. It was funny.