Home life

So since I'm no longer in Ukraine I haven't been posting.  I've been home 5 days now... from experience it'll take me another 7 at least to re-adjust.  It has been great to be back with the kids and they've done well at school.  Sam has been fighting getting sick and ended up in the nurses office once this week.  Amanda is sick... poor girl. I picked her up today from school and she's spent most of the afternoon sleeping.

Looking at what I need to do to prepare for Dennis arrival.  First thing was to get a shampoo/body wash dispenser for the shower.  It's hard for him this summer to hold a bar of soap and even harder to bend over in the boys' shower to get stuff.  This should make it pretty easy for him.  We got sheet sets expecting that we might have 3 boys so we have sheets but I need to get a comforter and will do so tomorrow.  Ashley may get her first chance at "babysitting" as I really need to get some shopping done tomorrow and I can't take Amanda out if she's still sick -- just don't tell my wife.  She's done well puppy sitting and I know she'll be a big girl for this.

Before we left we thought we'd be making two trips and in between I'd be having a short window to get critical stuff ready for up to 4 kids.  So we took care of the bed situation before we left.  This weekend I have the sad task of moving the extra beds into what would have been Snezhana's room.  In what seems so crazy an idea after this emotional soap opera we've gone through, Melissa and I are quite certain we want to adopt again... we have no idea of when or if it means Snezhana changes her mind. some child we've met during the last 5 wks, and/or some child(ren) we've yet to meet.  We've already been talking about where we stand with all the required paperwork.

We are starting writing weekly letters to Snezhana again.  Ashley already did a short private not with her stationary I got her in Germany.  We are now going to be getting them translated by a gracious new friend of my wife's, just in case there is any filtering going on when they are translated at the school.  I spent today going through all the adoption trip photos and picking out which we will send.  We also decided on what small gift will be in the package.  One of Snezhana's friend has offered to take it to her when she returns from hosting... that is much appreciated in not only the personally delivery but we know some of our stuff never made it there and the letter Snezhana sent for Melissa's birthday never made it here.  Once Dennis gets home we will write our first letter to grandma... that will take some planning and preparation.  I'm not sure how we want that delivered too... might ask our facilitator to read it and answer questions before sending it on just so we might gauge grandma's reaction.

December was a quiet month at work so I was able to stay mostly caught up and finished the rest on Monday (holiday).  I got home Sunday evening and, ironically, couldn't sleep so I got all my personal email, bills, and finances caught up that night.  Which if you have a night layover at the Munich airport, the Kempinski hotel at the airport was well worth the extra $100... 500ft walk from the terminal, exchange money, all kinds of shops in the terminal plaza (even a market), and you can get [expensive] room service when it is late and you are exhausted.  The kids had painted a welcome home dad sign which was nice and we went to TGI Friday's on the way home from the airport.  Since there are apparently no real burgers in Ukraine, I made sure to get one.  They aren't great at TGI Friday's but I just had to have one and a lot of ice tea.  Amanda didn't want to leave my side... she is such a cuddler and I'm glad I have at least one.

Melissa is handling being by herself in Ukraine fantastically.  She has a lot to take care of and has been really great with the kids at the school and making sure she gets as much time to be with Dennis as possible... and Snezhana when she's around.  Snezhana seems to have a lot of productions right now and is practicing a lot.  I noticed when I was there in mid-December that this school is like a 24hr pre-school for big kids... the day is all planned out.  We could be leaving at 7p and they are just starting rehearsals.  We've been able to Skype some while she's at the school which the kids and teachers seem to get a kick out of... and Skype most mornings and evenings.

Anyways, if I stay up any longer Melissa might come on line for her early morning to go to the church to watch the kids present... but I'm a bit tired myself and I'm sure I'm getting woken up early by 3 kids tomorrow.  We still have presents under the Christmas tree that are yet to be opened (mostly family gifts) and tomorrow is kind of our Ukrainian Christmas.  With Dennis having a birthday and homecoming, we didn't want to add more confusion to his coming to America by added an extra belated Christmas too.