Thank God for Grand Pizza......

Sleep is hard to come by here in Volgograd.  We went to sleep last night around 7:30 pm (we were tired, don't judge), and I woke up around 1:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  Leah, however, slept like a baby.  I find that my mind is running a million miles an hour these days.  I laid in that bed and thought of Jonah.....wondered how he was sleeping....wondered if he would remember us when we left for the orphanage this morning, things like that.  Finally the alarm went off at 7:10 and we were ready to get up and eat breakfast then start the journey to baby orphanage #4.  We eat breakfast each morning here at the hotel.  It is included in the price of the room which is a really cool thing.  The only draw back is it is not very good.  Yesterday morning I thought I had scored some good ol' American sausage patties, but upon biting into the first one, discovered it was good ol' Russian liver patties!  yum.  I ended up eating some kind of fried bread and fried mystery meat.  This morning was different, when I arrived in the breakfast restaurant my heart stopped!  I looked on the big table and saw a huge bowl of cocoa puffs!  They must've had a meeting and realized that they had to feed the big American before he got angry!  If they have cocoa puffs the rest of this trip, life will be good.  Food has been an issue for both of us.  It's hard to eat when you cannot read menus or communicate with servers.  We had eaten a meal in the airport in Houston on Monday night, and pretty much lived off of cheese crackers until last night we made a monumental discovery!  Right around the corner from Hotel Volgograd (our hotel) is a little cafe called Grand Pizza!  Pizza!  We went in and, somehow, managed to order a chicken pizza and some green tea.  We ate there last night and tonight.  I feel that we will eat there every night until we leave.  You can get a whole pizza and drinks for about 380 Rubles (just a little over $10).  Life is good. 
     The reason we have to ensure that we eat good at night is because it is really the only good meal we get each day.  Breakfast is hit or miss, and the trek to and from the orphanage takes away time for lunch.  We are allowed to see Jonah from 10-12 and from 2-4 each day. He is on a very tight schedule.  When we walked in for our morning meeting, he was just waking up and eating breakfast.  It took him a while to get going, but once he did, he was hard to catch.  We get to go into this toy room and play with him.  He loves it in there.  There are toys everywhere and he loves to try to play with them all!  He can even point his crooked little fingers and tell you which ones he wants.  He is very smart.  This afternoon was a really sweet moment for us and him.  When we walked in, the nurses brought him out and he was smiling and yelling for us!  They had him all bundled up and we were told we could walk outside with him. We went for a walk around the orphanage and talked to him about what life was going to be like when we got back to Texas.  Talked about his room, his toys, his new dogs (romo and sophie), even talked to him about his DeDe and Pops, and his MeMe and Papaw.  He seemed very interested.  Our second visit was cut short due to our translator having to help another American couple to the airport with their newly adopted baby.  They were headed back to Indiana, and we cannot be at the orphanage without a translator.  The day ended watching Jonah ride off standing on the back of a little bike, waving his little hand saying "paca-paca".  (an informal goodbye).  We got almost to the door and the nurses yelled at us to come back and he was standing, staring at the doorway with his hand in the air.  We can tell that he already loves us, and we know we already love him.  We can't wait to see him again tomorrow.