Chuck-E-Cheese and Your Heart

Well, today we decided to take a break from the pool and the 100 degree temperatures and we headed to one of Venya's favorite indoor places...Chuck-E-Cheese! I am quite certain that I had not been there since last summer and for good reason. I mean, even though several of my friends have insisted that "the pizza is actually really good," I'm still one who tends to vote for calling Domino's and hitting the couch. And let's face it, anyone can tire pretty quickly of the dancing mechanical mouse and all of his mechanical friends. The one playing the guitar even has a broken eye, so he gives you this eerie wink as you stand there and watch. It's just not my cup of tea.

Anyway, I have to say that there is some good to be found at this place...I saw it last summer and I saw it again today and well, before I get ahead of myself, let's just say that it's enough to make me go back a few more times this summer. Today, I got a glimpse of Venya's heart at Chuck-E-Cheese of all places...and I'm pretty sure that Sydney did as well.

See, for about an hour, the kids bounced around in the arcade area of the restaurant...going from game to game and collecting as many tickets as they could possibly hold. They even tried that old trick that my sisters and I used to do...pull slowly on the tickets and you might be able to pull an extra one from the roll.

Anyway, after all of our playing time, we were ready to close it out. But before we dashed off to the prize case, we had to hit the ticket counting machine, which in my opinion is one very cool device. All you have to do is put your tickets into the "feeder" and it pulls them through and counts them. At the same time, it makes this very cool chomping sound, as if someone is on the other side of the feeder and is actually EATING the tickets.

Well, Sydney went first with her stack of tickets and gradually loaded each individual strand into the machine, the whole time watching the tally go up. Eventually, her last ticket went through to the "ticket monster" and we all glanced up to see the total number on the display screen. It read 94 and she was more than content with that. I was even content for her...but someone else was not. As I looked over, I saw Venya counting out 6 of his tickets. He handed them to Sydney and said, "Sydney...100" as he pointed back to the ticket counting machine. See, he knew something she didn't. The cooler prizes in the prize case start at...you guessed it, 100 and he quickly, and generously, got her there.

Of course, Venya then ran all of his tickets through and received his final tally...234. I was watching him now as he confidently pulled the slip with his total on it from the machine and carried it over to the clerk at the prize counter. He pointed to 4 different things that he wanted...one of them being a pair of stick-on earrings, which I found odd...until he turned and handed them, along with two other prizes, to Sydney.

And there it was. Again I saw it...Venya has a generous heart and what he can't communicate in English, he communicates pretty clearly through action. Why don't I do that more? I'm even starting think that sometimes it's all the things I say that actually get in the way of simply acting how I genuinely feel. Funny...and I thought we were helping Venya. But this year again, the lessons he is teaching me, and teaching us, are priceless.

Venya did keep one thing for himself...a plastic spinning top which he has placed in her hand with no argument every time Sydney has said, "My turn," and I'm pretty sure, she gets it. I'm pretty sure, she sees what I see because at the end of our Chuck-E-Cheese visit she finally "cashed in" on a toy car, which she slowly turned and handed to Venya with her sweet, six year old smile. So, it's day 5 and I can already say without hesitation, that we will miss him when he returns to Belarus. I know I'm sappy, but I'm also tired...after all, I DID get up at 5:45 this morning.