Who remembers that song from the early 90's....."things that make you go hmmm"? We are nearing the 3 week mark of being in our new house and we still don't have internet. Yes..I'm addicted to the internet. I love following other adoption blogs and keeping up with the yahoo groups that I belong to (all adoption related too). When we moved we decided to do a bundle with Verizon...phone, dish TV and internet. Well the phones and TV's all work great but we having major problems with the internet. The biggest problem is that all technical calls go to India...ughhhh. Yesterday, as I was sitting on my front step in small town Ohio, a Verizon service truck went past our house with an advertisement for high speed internet on his door. I thought.....hmmmm...."If this guy driving past my house is advertising Verizon internet, then why do have to call all of the way to India to get any help. The friendly people from India now think that our 2nd modem is also bad, so we are now waiting for modem #3. I promise I will post pictures the minute I am on the computer at home.
Enough complaining. The kids went back to school yesterday....yip, yip, yipee!!!!! I just have to share a defining moment in my life. You all know those moments...the ones that get you right in the heart (sometimes good and sometimes bad). Yesterday was Rita's first day of school. She was so excited. She had went to the open house last week to meet her new teacher. Thankfully she has the same teacher that Natalie had last year, Mrs. Eilerman. Rita was pretty hyper that night. I had sent an email to Mrs. E telling her that I was very happy that Rita was going to have her but I also felt like I should give her a heads-up on some of Rita's behaviors. My best advice to Mrs. E. was to not cut her any slack and when she gets out of line to look her right in the eye and say "Rita you NEED to listen." Last, I told Mrs. E that she would enjoy watching Rita grow over this school year. I look back at the last 3 months with her and can't believe how far she has come in such a short time.
Well, Andrew, Natalie and Rita all woke up excited for school. Everyone was ready plenty early so of course I wanted to get those first day of school pictures. Rita was so happy and then had a sad moment. She was missing her friends from Armenia. I took her aside and told her that I knew that G-mama (her favorite caretaker) would be so proud of her today. She agreed "Yes, G-mama would be so happy for Rita to go to school." We loaded up in the van. I had told her the night before that mom would just drop her off at the sidewalk at school and Natalie would take her to her classroom. I didn't want to take her inside to avoid any separation issues. She hopped out of the van with a "good-bye mom......how many hours until mama picks Rita up?" She always wants to know how many hours when I leave her anywhere, anytime. Audrey, Paul and I drove away, off to enjoy our peaceful day. I thought about Rita all day long wondering how her day was going. Every time the phone rang, I ran to it thinking that it was the school and Rita was having a crisis of some sort. Nope.....I went back to the school just before they let out. I decided to park the car and walk up to the courtyard area. One of the aides was already out waiting for the kids, she said that it looked like Rita was having a good day any of the times that she had saw her. Natalie had been asked to pick Rita up at her room (their rooms are right beside of each other). Both girls came out together but as soon as Rita saw me she started running full speed. She was squealing in total delight "mama, mama, mama, I love you, I love school." Everyone was staring but hey, who cares. I bent down and scooped her up with a HUGE lump in my throat and my heart about to burst. It is an amazing feeling for me to know that this little person from such humble beginnings loves me so much. It is really hard for me to put in words this joyful moment. Once we were done hugging she said "Mom, Rita good girl." Natalie had caught up with us by then and she said "yes, Mrs. E. said to tell mom that Rita was good and had a good day." When we got home she had to get her "home" folder out right away and she told me that she HAD to take it back to school tomorrow (to me this meant that she had been paying attention to the teacher's instructions). There was a note from Mrs. E saying what a great day Rita had. She said that Rita seemed a little confused when she was instructing the entire class but once she told her what to do individually she seemed to understand what Mrs. E. was saying. I can't wait to share pictures from her first day of school...plus our visit with her best friend from the orphanage. I still need to share pictures from Andrew's 10th birthday too. This whole moving thing has thrown me for a loop.
But......Good-bye was not so great!!
Thankfully, we had lots of fun in between "Hello" and "Good-Bye."
Anna's family spoiled all of us with lots of gifts.
Rita and Anna fell right into their old friendship. I wished we lived closer to Anna and her family.
Introducing our newest family member......Mulan (notice Rita's new hair cute....she wanted it cut because it was too hot for her...it is so much easier to take care of at this length...plus I think Rita looks pretty darn cute).
Mulan is "loved" just a little bit too much around here. This picture reminds me of a scene from Of Mice and Men........."George, the rabbits are so soft, I just want to pet them and love them."
The first day of school. Rita was so excited and is still totally loving school.
I can't forget Andrew's 10th birthday. I swear I was just pregnant with this kid....honestly, where does the time go?
