Settling Into Everyday Life

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back - a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.
Anais Nin (1903 - 1977)

Lola has been here in America for about 10 weeks now and today I suddenly realized that there are so many amazing moments we experience daily it would be a pity for both of us if I neglected to document at least some of them! In these first several blog entries I hope to cover a fairly accurate snapshot of life with Lola from the moment I first met her on June 27, 2006, my thoughts during the adoption process and the arrival of Lola in America. I wish to play catch-up with some of these incidents on paper so they won’t be forgotten later on. There is a history in the making here and I hope that someday she will be able to look back on these entries as a testimony to her life, her bravery and her huge value in this world.

She has come up with some amusing, but very accurately implemented statements using English, so I am confident her learning curve for the language skills is right on target. With that being said, she does need to spend more time learning to put these phrases and everyday words on paper to reinforce what she is learning. Lola loves to write, and according to her friend Boris (who, coincidentally, is from the same Detsky Dom and was Lola’s good friend in Russia and is now also living in the Atlanta area) she is a very good writer in Russian. Here’s to her having that love not only Pa-Russki but also Pa-Engleeski !!

Her first day of school was February 4th, 2008, and even though we were both prepared well in advance for this moment I did feel slightly as if I was tossing the lamb to the wolves. Apparently she thought so as well, because she insisted I walk her to her classroom every day the first week. But in typical pre-teen fashion, once we reached her classroom, she would turn to me slightly and with clenched teeth said “Okay, bye, Mama! Byyyyyyyyyyye, MAMA!” as if I were the one who wished to accompany her to class against her will (as if !!)…..thus went the first for me experiencing my child saving face amist her peers…….

On Friday of that same week as she got into the car she said “Mama, today school very very very HA-HA!” (Translation = School was FUN!)

Her first science project was due today, with the assignment being construction of a three-dimensional model of the atom using items found in our household.

She and I put our heads together to think about what items we have in the house that might qualify as candidates for “PROJECT ATOM”. She was not initially too enthusiastic about doing this project, but as we thought about what items she could use, she gradually warmed up to the idea that this could be a CREATIVE project. Once the plan was in place and the construction phase began, she turned to me and said (while randomly stabbing a styrofoam ball (aka nucleus) with nails stuck through buttons to represent the neutrons and protons) “Oh, Mama, this is very COOL!” Once the finishing touches were on the model, she was excited to demonstrate how her project was not only 3-D, but also interactive!!! I’m anxious to see how it was received by her classmates and teacher.