Abundant Blessings

Today was the icing on the cake. Dima took us to see our girl this morning, so we knew that we would be able to visit her by ourselves for the first time! I was extra happy about that. She cried when she saw us, but Dima was in the room videotaping us all together. I think 2 men in the room was overwhelming, because she certainly wasn’t crying at the sight of me ;-)

Trav sat her on his lap and opened this huge bucket of Cheerios and she just started powering through them. This bucket is over an ounce worth of cereal, so I thought “Great, Trav, we’re going to ruin her lunch!” but we couldn’t take them away because she got upset. She was hungry! And she wouldn’t let us feed her because she wanted to grab fistfuls of these Cheerios and stuff them in her mouth as fast as possible. Today was by far her best day with us because she was having so much fun, and we heard her laughing for the first time. Trav blew bubbles so she could catch them and she was having such a good time that when the caretaker came to get her, she didn’t get out of my lap until she was physically picked up. Yay!! We’re making progress!

After we left the orphanage, Dima was driving us back to Tver, and I was telling Travis that I wanted to see if our hotel would take us up on an unusual request for an excursion to the forest to pick mushrooms. Dima told us he had time the rest of the day, so whoopee, we were going mushroom hunting!!! First of all, it seems to me that every European knows how to forage for mushrooms, and they do this for fun while getting out in the fresh air. And secondly, the year I spent in France, no one was able to take me, so this had been a big disappointment. It doesn’t take a lot for me to be entertained. So, Dima takes us to his summer home about 6mi outside Tver, and he has everything we need – rubber boots for Trav and me, 2 buckets, hats, warm coats, the whole thing. It’s like a dream come true. These summer homes are rustic, but they each have about ¼ to ½ acre of land, and each of them has a garden. So in Dima’s garden he has cucumbers, plum trees (best plums I’ve ever had by the way, I’m bringing home the pits to see if I can root them), apple trees, red currants, dahlias, golden rod. The homes are on dirt roads, they have electricity and water, but cold water only (brr). This is typical.

So out we go schlepping through the mud to the forest, and at the end of the dirt road where the forest is, there is a small airport. Into the forest we go looking for mushrooms. The grass was knee-high, white birch trees were everywhere, their golden fall color reminding us of the Colorado aspen trees, and so we begin to find mushrooms. My first mushroom was the size of my pinky fingernail and white, so I show it to Dima and ask him if I’m on the right track. Nyet. Okay, but I treasured it, so I threw it into my bucket anyway. “Hey Dima, how about this mushroom growing out of the tree bark”? Nyet. Strike two. “Dima, I found one! It’s white with a flat top and it even smells edible”! Nyet. This wasn’t going well. Then I see another one with a white stem and a brown top like an umbrella. It’s slimy, but I grab it anyway, and I’m still excited about all these mushrooms, so my hopes were still high. “Dima, how about this one?” Dah, Good! Okay, now we’re in business. Trav, Dima and I were making our way through the forest, picking mushroom after mushroom, and then we hit a lull. I found some reddish mushrooms, and I thought ‘Nyet’, so a minute later we told Dima about them and he said “Oh, those are the best ones”. Great. Where did we find those? Trav found the lost souls, and we hit the jackpot with red mushrooms for the next 20 minutes. Oh, by the way, here’s my disclaimer: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

We were out there about an hour and a half and I was like a kid in a candy store. We had collected a bucket full of mushrooms for Dima’s mom and I wasn’t even sad not to try them. After the mushroom hunt, we went back to Dima’s to warm up and have some hot tea and some bread he had made, which was very good. It was surprisingly made with sour milk. And some other things, but the sour milk really caught my attention. Then, just when the day couldn’t have been better, he invited us to his sister’s wedding on Saturday. Did we just win the lottery? Could someone just pinch me? Well, we have the clothes, so now all we need is a gift. There’s no dismissing the abundance of blessings that have brightened our week and the unforgettable memories created as a result. It’s a feeling we just don’t want to ever go away, and it’s so evident to me because I’m ready to buy that cute little summer home I saw today…