One Week Update

We have survived our first week of being home as a new family. We arrived home last Sunday in Chicago to friends and family at the airport. It was wonderful to have all of our children meet each other. We all loaded up into our Suburban and drove home to Valparaiso to a house full of friends and family who greeted us. We enjoyed visiting and introducing our children to everyone.

Our neice Lydia made this "Welcome Home" sign in Ukrainian for us that she brought to the airport.

On Monday we all woke up EARLY! We stayed home, unpacked, began laundry (which took me until Thursday to get through!) and began assimilating together. On Tuesday off we went to get five haircuts. Then, on to Claires where Alina got her ears pierced. She was exicted about her new earrings, and has enjoyed showing them off. We have also been working on the Kumon reading system, which we began in Ukraine before we brought the children home. They have been doing well with it. Ruslan has had English in school, and his reading skills are good. He doesn't always understand the content, but can sound out the words very well. Yuri and Alina are learning the alphablet, and are getting some basic phrases and words down. I took them into the Kumon learning center this week, and they all did very well, and were very excited to find out that we will be going back this week. Alina even asked Zenon if she could go back the same day! This week they will be beginning the Rosetta Stone English on-line program through school. This will be good because they will be able to work on the language at home.

We've enjoyed the beach with friends, picnics, a friend's pool, water-park, new bicycles, and video games! All in all, we've had a good week and haven't had any major problems. Here are some photos that we thought you might enjoy:

Waiting for us to arrive at the airport!
Our friend Florian (who is Ukrainian) welcomed our children with Ukrainian bread and salt atop a beautiful table runner which his mother had stitched.

Addie and Alina in their room!

Ruslan in his new room.






Yuri excited about his new bed!

Alina's haircut

Finished product~~happy smiles!

Ruslan wanted his hair cut like Alex's!

Yuri after his haircut



Alina getting her ears pierced.