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This is Ana with six of our seven granchildren, the evening we got home.
It feels so good to be home. When we went outside the airport Heather said, "Oh my fresh air I love it." Ana had her window down the whole drive home from Pittsburgh giggling as the fresh air blew in her face. I didn't realize how different air can be.
Ana loves her new bedroom and she loves to swing and swim. It is so amazingly precious watching her experience new things for the first time. Communication has not really been a problem, lots of body language and gestures to accompany what we say or she says gets the point across. She has no problem communicating with 10 month old Uriah, they speak a universal language he reponds to her the same as he does to everyone else. She really loves him, it is sweet it is the first baby she has ever been around (at least in the past five years her orphanage starts at age 4). We joked that his next words may be Russian.
It will be good for her though when she learns to speak English. We met a gentleman at the US Embassy in Kiev who was adopting three girls ages 9, 12 and 13 who were sisters. They spoke English beautifully. They had received three months of tutoring through their hosting program upon return to the Ukraine after spending last summer here in the US being hosted by another family. He said he was amazed at how much English they knew wheh he came to the Ukraine to adopt them. I hope Ana learns as easily.
Issac has a friend from the Ukraine who came up to talk to Ana yesterday. She is 16 and has lived in the US for less than a year and speaks English very well. Surprisingly Ana was very shy with her and did not want to speak, she gave yes, no answers and would not engage in conversation. She sat on my lap the whole time and even said she was sleepy. As soon as Aleena left she jumped up and ran over to Isaac and started teasing him and playing not a bit tired the rest of the evening. I am not sure why she responed as she did. Aleena was very sweet to her and Isaac thought she would enjoy speaking to someone in her own language. Perhaps she associated visiting with her with her past in the Ukraine and thought she was going back, we are not sure.
Ana is adjusting well to the big family atmosphere, one by one she is developing relationships with them. In a large group with everyone it can be overwelming, but given the opportunity to connect with them in a small group or one on one, she loves them dearly.
She is very content just being here at home, she never wants to leave to go anywhere. We have to tell her yes we are going, then she loves it once we get there. In the Ukraine we spent alot of time waiting on dicuments when we went places so she needs to learn that leaving home here is enjoyable.
She contents herslf easily and asks for little. She is well-behaved I only have to tell her something once and she does what she is asked.
I purchased Russian movies for her and she loves to watch them when she needs a break from all the English surrounding her, I think it really helps her. I know how refreshing it was for us to here English when we were in the Ukraine and she is totally surrounded by a foreign language here. The DVDs were a great purchase for us and are much less expensive than here in the US. She watches them on my laptop since regular DVD players do not support foreign regions.
Her appetite is not yet regulated. At first she ate everything in sight, now she is a picky eater and has not established a regular routine of eating at breakfsat, lunch and dinner times yet. She shys away from trying new foods, especially anything with milk or vegetables. She did not have vegetables in the Ukraine at the orphanage except beets. Milk in the Ukraine does not taste at all like our milk, I think it tatses like a cross between goats milk and the smell of manure. YUK! I can understand why she hesitates to try it here. She loves fruit and of course sweets.
All in all things are going wonderfully, much better than we expected.