Stahlke Adoption

Thank You, Hip Hop

In our life before kids, Jonathan and I loved to spend Sunday afternoons at Borders, sipping coffee and reading. If he wasn't grading papers, Jonathan would tackle the latest volume in the Harry Potter series, while I would browse through a whole batch of books that looked interesting.

When the kids arrived, our leisurely afternoons at Borders came to a grinding halt. In fact, when we managed to get there one time, the cafe had been redecorated. We asked them when the work had been done, and the answer was "six months ago"!

Some of our gift cards have been for Borders, and we first introduced the children to the store by having them buy books there. But we've been angling for months to entice them to sit and read there with us. Finally, last week, we glimpsed our chance!

The younger four children like to read, but Ruslan hasn't yet joined them. He had the most schooling in Ukraine, which makes switching to a new language (especially one as difficult as English) quite a challenge. In his precious free time, he's not about to sit and read--there's enough of that at school!

Ruslan received some gift cash for his birthday, and he was itching to spend it. Luckily for us, the huge CD holdings at Borders sounded promising to him. We helped the children browse for books, bought them some hot chocolate, and let Ruslan loose in the music section. Jonathan and I had to watch carefully that beverages didn't spill and that high-pitched voices didn't disturb other patrsons. We also kept a close eye on the small toys so endemic to children's books. Why don't the book companies just let them read?? Ah, but that's an adult's opinion. The toys really are the best part, right?

An hour later, Ruslan walked out of the store with his new hip hop CD. Jonathan and I glanced at each other with satisfaction. A small piece of our former life had been reclaimed!

posted by Stahlkes @ 12:05 PM