What's Going On

Our plane landed a week ago, almost exactly.  I just posted about the trip, so if you care...you can look at the last post to read about it.  This first week has been rather interesting.  Things have been beyond stressful for reasons that have little to do with Ira.  And no, I'm not going to explain so don't ask. :)  It helps to say something even if I can't explain.  Just keep us in your prayers, please.

Saturday we went to our friend's house to do our taxes.  That was nice.  I've missed them.  It was cute to get big hugs from their littles.  Ashley was sweet and did the girl's fingernails and my toenails. :)  We also went to Build-a-bear that night with Mom and Dad.  They were so sweet to get the three of us bears (well, Little One has lots of bears so they got her a lamb) for the airport so we went to get the "birth certificates" and an outfit each.  For me they'd gotten a black bear since they knew I've been wanting the Darth Vader outfit.  In the end, I got the Obi Wan outfit since it's nicer to cuddle with. :)  It even came with a light saber. LOL  I named my bear Natalya.  I'm kinda in love with Russian names now. :)  Since Ira's favorite color is green they got her the St. Patrick's Day bear.  She picked out a cute little outfit and named her bear Kristina.  Little One got a cute outfit for hers as well, but then put it on her newest bear instead, which is why she has both the bear AND the lamb in the picture.  They each got a purse and sunglasses too.  She named her lamb Pretty.

Us with our bears/lamb

Sunday it was nice to go to church.  I went with Ira to her classes instead of going to nursery where I should have been.  Winter came and interpreted for her, which was SO nice.  I still think I will need a couple more weeks with her before I can turn her over.  She wasn't wanting to go, and who could blame her.  Still, I explained that we go to 3 hours of church every week and she would get used to it.  I think she actually ended up liking Young Woman's. :)

Monday we went to Ashley's again and she did our hair.  Ira wanted some highlights in hers and it turned out AWESOME!  It looks so nice on her!  I didn't want to make Ashley take the time to highlight mine too so she just cut it.  I like it.

I've decided to pick up jogging again.  Ashley had mentioned that I lost some weight and I'd like to keep it off.  I love it when that happens and I don't even notice. LOL  I'm assuming it's because I really didn't eat a lot while I was in Ukraine.  I suppose 2 months of that will make you shed a few pounds.  Turns out it was around 10lbs.  Actually, almost 15 since I checked last night.  Anyway, the weather has been PERFECT for jogging.  Cool, so I don't sweat too much, but not so cold that it's uncomfortable either.  I started on Tuesday and it was the BEST.  It was fun to have no one around so I could sing along to my music (as best you can while running, I suppose) and I was both loving and hating my bangs that are now slightly too short to stay behind my ears. LOL

As far as adjusting, Ira is doing fairly well.  Communication is quite limited, of course, but there haven't been too many times when anyone's been frustrated.  She gets to Skype (when we have a working internet...I'm at my parent's house right now) with people every couple of days so she has someone to talk to. :)  Yesterday she talked to Natasha.  I wish I had been around to say hi as well!  She is liking her own room and a lot less structure.  That won't last once I get the house cleaned up and figure a tutor though so she should enjoy it now.  She teases Little One more than I'd like, but it's what she's used to.  I just need to pay close attention to stop it when I see it and explain that we don't treat each other that way..  I've only heard about it thus far.

Little One has been really struggling though.  This has been a very hard adjustment for her, starting back in Ukraine.  With no one to give her to for a break and no place to have her go I didn't deal with her behavior very well.  That was my fault and I've been working very hard at fixing that.  Still, it's only getting worse and I'm not quite sure what to do.  Right now I don't exactly feel I'm in the best position to be a great mother, but I need to be and so I will figure out how.  There just isn't another option.

All in all though, we're hanging in there. :)  It will take awhile to adjust to all the changes and it's only been a week so far.  I'm still jealous of all my friends still in Ukraine.  I wish I could come hang out with you all!  I love reading about your adventures so keep the blogs going!  Congrats to all that have had court dates this last week!  We're praying for all of you! *hugs*

Day 47 (March 25th) Kiev > Paris > Salt Lake City

Friday morning we decided we needed to leave the apartment at 4 instead of 4:30.  We still got up at 3 though.  Natasha was really cute.  The girls were both in the living room with her so she came to my room shortly after 3 and knocked.  I was already up, but it was very sweet of her.

We were downstairs right at 4 and got all the luggage back in the car.  Little One really wanted to sit by Natasha on the way over there so I was in the front.  It was actually kinda nice to be able to really see Kiev on our way out of town.  I hadn't gotten that when we'd tried a couple days before.  It was still sad to be leaving though.

Once we got to the airport I figured things would go much smoother.  There weren't nearly as many people and I had Natasha right there by my side.  She and Irina helped get our luggage checked and went upstairs with us.  They couldn't get through security (though they didn't really try either), but it was just fine.  They stayed right there on the other side of security until we'd gotten through passport control.

That was interesting, by the way.  The line wasn't too long so we didn't wait long, but man, the guy behind me was mad.  When we got up there I had everything out to show the lady.  She took it, but of course it took awhile.  Not only was I trying to leave the country with a Ukrainian girl, but then there was the little issue of our passports already having been stamped that we'd left the country two days before.  Not that it became a big issue, but still.  When the lady handed me back my passport as well as Little One's but not Ira's, the guy with his family waiting for his turn behind me yells, "Hey, Lady!"  I looked at him and yelled back, "What do you want me to do?"  I almost asked him if he'd like to leave HIS son there (who had Downs, by the way) so that he didn't hold up the line.  I was good and didn't though.  It was interesting to see them take a leisurely  stroll though the departure lounge.  Why in the world was he yelling at me when he wasn't even late for his plane?  Jerk.  Ah well.  I'm not bitter. ;)

We really didn't have to wait long before it was time to board the plane.  They took us out to a bus which took us to the airplane.  It didn't take too long and we were on.  The girls had the window and middle seat and I had the isle in the row above them.  I asked the girl that came to sit there if she would switch with me and she was sweet and did.  Then someone asked to switch with her again so she ended up a few rows down, but still on isle.

France

The flight was nice and uneventful.  Europe has lovely tops of their clouds.  I honestly was hoping for a bit more of a view than that, but hey.  It's all good.  I did get to see a bit of France as we landed.  It looked beautiful and I really wish I'd been able to stay a few days and see some things.

The Paris airport was big.  Very big.  We found out as we got off that the girl that switched seats with me (her name is Nichole) was also headed to Salt Lake.  After finding that out, we stuck pretty close to each other. :)  We didn't have too much trouble finding the bus to take us to the correct terminal, but we didn't find where to go to the right gate right away.  Really, if we had been looking a little better it wouldn't have taken as long, but hey.  At least we had each other there.

Once we found the right place we got in line to go through security again.  The sign said it would only take about 10 minutes.  It was a LONG 10 minutes.  Things were moving fairly fast, but then someone pulled the people in front of us as well as us (Nichole tagged along LOL) out of line to go through the handicapped area.  That was all fine and good, but every time someone in a wheelchair or something came up they put them in front of us.  It would have been faster if we'd just stayed in the regular line.

They were already boarding the plane by the time we got through security.  I went up to the desk at the gate to get our seats changed since none of us were together.  Nichole came along with us. :)  The guy at the counter was very nice but the guy next to him felt he needed to tell me how to avoid being apart again next time.  I tried to tell him we'd missed our flight on Wednesday and I had no way to check in online since I'd gotten the tickets late the night before, but he wasn't listening.  I just told him thank you and went on my way.  The hilarious thing was that they put us in the middle all together...right next to the isle seat that Nichole had. :)  When we got up to the place you give the gate person the ticket to scan we got asked a TON of questions.  I've never had that before.  After that though we went down some stairs and out to a bus.  Have these people never heard of a corridor to take you right to the plane??  Ah well.

The flight was VERY long (10hr 15min) but uneventful.  It was nice having the three middle seats to ourselves.  I spilled Little One's sprite once and Ira spilled her coke, but hey.  Not on any iPod's this time at least. :)  Once we landed in Salt Lake we stood in another line (think Disney World without the fun ride at the end or the cute things to look at while you wait) to go through passport control.  I got up and handed the guy my stuff.  He told me to pick up our bags and wait until they'd gotten most people through the line and then he'd look over our documents.  It took a little while, but we finally were able to get the stamp saying Ira is now a legal resident of the US.  They did one fingerprint of her but that was it.

We were all exhausted by the time we walked out the doors to see everyone.  Our family was there as well as Andreas and Ray. :)  Thanks so much guys, for coming!  I'm sure it didn't seem like it at the time, but I very much appreciated it!  People took pictures, but I don't have any except a couple that Andreas took.  I will see about posting them when I get them. :)

The group, minus Andreas who was behind the camera. 

We went to Mom and Dad's house to try and keep ourselves awake, but only made it until about 7 or 8 when we went home to crash.