Helicopters, Bikes and Golf Carts

When people get home, the adoption blogs go silent and everyone wonders if it’s gone wrong. Not in our case, we’re just busy taking care of the things that need to be done after being gone 9 weeks and having fun with our little son.

Sunday morning Andrew wore his Ukrainian shirt to church and looked really handsome. Several of the Russian speakers in our church welcomed him warmly and that helped him feel right at home. He handled the special attention that he got as our newly adopted son with poise and confidence. I think he liked the air-conditioning, but I guess the basic familiarity of the service, which is the same in all Orthodox churches, must have gone a long way to make him comfortable, too.

Uncle Ray gave him a new red bike and he’s been busy learning how to ride it. He’s very determined and almost over confident so he’s picked up this new skill quickly but over estimated his mastery of it and had a big crash the other evening. He’s all scraped up now, but will be back on it again as soon as the soreness is gone.

Thomas gave Andrew a remote controlled helicopter which he loved. After flying it around the house a little, I kicked them outside. They flew it for a pretty long time before Andrew flew it over the house and it disappeared. Maybe it’s on the roof. Andrew handled that disappointment well and took it in stride. Thomas is getting a replacement for him and so they'll get to try again, maybe in an open field.

On Monday, I had to go to the dentist, so I packed Andrew up and drove up to Atlanta. My friend Leslie invited him to play with her kids during my appointment, so I dropped him off and went on. He had a great time and just simply fit in with everyone. He wasn’t afraid, he just acted normally. I couldn’t get over how easy going he is. He just handles every new situation with cheerful confidence.

Andrew had another adventure on Tuesday when he got to sit in Cindy’s lap and steer her golf cart! He loved that.

He was patient and kept himself busy playing Q-Bert on the ipad while we got our nails done. We went to Partner’s Pizza for lunch, which was a little hard for me because I used to take Mary Evelyn there every Friday when she was I preschool, but it turned out to be fun. We gave him a few quarters and he happily played arcade games before eating a good lunch. When he saw I had ordered coke for him ( he knows I think of it as a special occasion drink) he said thank you, mama!

While we were eating, Mark called. He had something special to tell me about the other two kids we’re thinking of adopting in Ukraine, Nadia and Ruslan, but that’s for another update. This update is just to let you know that Andrew is adjusting well, he’s happy and calm. He told us he loves his new family. He eats a lot, he goes right to sleep when he goes to bed, he remembers to say his prayers ( which he chants- really cute) and he is polite and loving to us. I’m sure there will be challenges ahead, but for now, it’s smooth sailing. He even makes his bed each morning, and tidies up his own room, now that he knows we expect him too. He likes to walk our dog and play with her. Mark’s mother said that Andrew has a special gift- the gift of making the people around him happy and I think she is right. He thinks of others and wants to make them comfortable in subtle ways.

I liked the way he took a moment to give his littlest cousin Chloe a ride on his back in the pool when he saw her playing by herself on the steps while everone was doing chicken fights.

The biggest problem is language. Google translate helps, but sometimes it says crazy things so we just giggle at it. Andrew got his first hard scold over bad behavior when Mark was trying to get him to work on English skills. He straightened up right away and seems to be taking it more seriously now. If he doesn’t pick up the language well now, what will happen when he starts school? He’ll be so far behind and he wasn’t a stellar student in Ukraine, either. We think he met their low expectations and think he will in turn rise to meet our higher expectations. He seems very smart to me.

This morning I’m taking him to the pediatric dentist and I expect to see them a lot. I’m making an appointment to bring him to the International Adoption Clinic at UAB next for a complete check up, but expect that he’s perfectly healthy.

Yes, I will write that other update about Nadia and Ruslan later today.